The disciples of John told him about all these things. John, calling to himself two of his disciples, sent them to Jesus, saying, “Are you the one who is coming, or should we look for another?” When the men had come to him, they said, “John the Baptizer has sent us to you, saying, ‘Are you he who comes, or should we look for another?’ ”
In that hour he cured many of diseases and plagues and evil spirits; and to many who were blind he gave sight. Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John the things which you have seen and heard: that the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them. Blessed is he who finds no occasion for stumbling in me.”
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv18, 21 John sendeth from the prison his unbelieving disciples, to…
John sendeth from the prison his unbelieving disciples, to Christ himself, to be confirmed.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv18–23 18 And the disciples of John shewed him of…
18 And the disciples of John shewed him of all these things.
Ver. 18. And the disciples of John] Having a zeal for their master, but not according to knowledge, see Mat 11:2.
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 On v18 See Poole on "Mat 11:2", and following verses to…
See Poole on "Mat 11:2", and following verses to Mat 11:6.
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 On vv18, 22, 23 About the time of our Saviour’s appearing in the…
About the time of our Saviour’s appearing in the world there was a general expectation of a great prince that should come out of Judea, and govern all nations: this prince the Jews called the Messiah, or the Anointed, and waited for his appearance.
Accordingly, when John the Baptist appeared in the quality of an extraordinary prophet, the Jews went to know of him, whether he was the Messiah or not, Joh 1:19 He answered that he was not, but only the harbinger and forerunner of the Messiah; so that it was very evident that it was not for John’s own information that he sent two of his disciples to Christ, to know whether he was the Messiah or not; for John was assured of it himself by a voice from heaven at our Saviour’s baptism, Mat 3:13-17.
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But it was for his disciples’ satisfaction that he sent them to Jesus; because John’s disciples were unwilling to acknowledge Christ to be the Messiah, out of a great zeal for the honor of him their master; they were not willing to own any person greater than John their master, lest such an acknowledgment should eclipse and cloud him.
From whence we may note, how the judgments of the best of men are very apt to be biassed and perverted by faction or interest. No doubt John’s disciples were good men, and no doubt their master had often told them, as he did others, that he was not the Messiah; yet they will not believe their own master, when they apprehend him to speak against their own interest; for they knew that they must rise and fall in their reputation and esteem, as their master did: therefore that John’s disciples might receive full satisfaction from Christ, he sends two of his disciples to him to hear his doctrine, and see his miracles; for John perceiving his disciples to be ill-affected towards our Saviour, and hearing them speak with some envy of his miracles, he sent them to him, that being eye-witnesses of what he did, they might be convinced who he was.
Observe next, the way and means which our Saviour takes to convince and satisfy John’s disciples that he was the true Messiah: he appeals to the miracles wrought by himself, and submits those miracles to the judgment and examination of their senses: Go and show John the miracles which you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the deaf hear.
Christ was all this in a literal and spiritual sense also: he was an eye of understanding to the ignorant, a foot of power to the weak, he opened an ear in deaf hearts to receive the word of life, and the poor receive and embrace the gospel.
Miracles are the highest attestation, and the greatest external confirmation and evidence, that can be given to the truth and divinity of any doctrine. Now our Saviour’s miracles, for their nature, were divine and Godlike; they were healing and beneficial to mankind, freeing men from the greater calamities of human life; for their number, they were many; for the manner of their operation, they were publicly wrought in the sight and view of multitudes of people. To free them from all suspicion of fraud and imposture, he wrought them before his enemies, as well as in the presence of his friend and followers. And this was not done once or twice, or in one place, but at several times, and in several places, wherever he came, and this for a long time, even for three years and a half; so that our blessed Saviour had all the attestation that miracles can give, to evidence himself the true and promised Messiah.
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 On v19 All this discourse concerning John Baptist, occasioned by his…
All this discourse concerning John Baptist, occasioned by his sending to ask whether he was the Messiah or no, we had, much as it is here related, Mt. 11:2-19.
I. We have here the message John Baptist sent to Christ, and the return he made to it. Observe,
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1. The great thing we are to enquire concerning Christ is whether he be he that should come to redeem and save sinners, or whether we are to look for another, Luk 7:19, Luk 7:20. We are sure that God has promised that a Saviour shall come, an anointed Saviour; we are as sure that what he has promised he will perform in its season. If this Jesus be that promised Messiah, we will receive him, and will look for no other; but, if not, we will continue our expectations, and, though he tarry, will wait for him.
2. The faith of John Baptist himself, or at least of his disciples, wanted to be confirmed in this matter; for Christ had not yet publicly declared himself to be indeed the Christ, nay, he would not have his disciples, who knew him to be so, to speak of it, till the proofs of his being so were completed in his resurrection. The great men of the Jewish church had not owned him, nor had he gained any interest that was likely to set him upon the throne of his father David. Nothing of that power and grandeur was to be seen about him in which it was expected that the Messiah would appear; and therefore it is not strange that they should ask, Art thou the Messiah? not doubting but that, if he was not, he would direct them what other to look for.
3. Christ left it to his own works to praise him in the gates, to tell what he was and to prove it. While John's messengers were with him, he wrought many miraculous cures, in that same hour, which perhaps intimates that they staid but an hour with him; and what a deal of work did Christ do in a little time! Luk 7:21. He cured many of their infirmities and plagues in body, and of evil spirits that affected the mind either with frenzy or melancholy, and unto many that were blind he gave sight. He multiplied the cures, that there might be no ground left to suspect a fraud; and then (Luk 7:22) he bade them go and tell John what they had seen. And he and they might easily argue, as even the common people did (Joh 7:31), When Christ cometh, will he do more miracles than these which this man hath done? These cures, which they saw him work, were not only confirmations of his commission, but explications of it. The Messiah must come to cure a diseased world, to give light and sight to them that sit in darkness, and to restrain and conquer evil spirits. You see that Jesus does this to the bodies of people, and therefore must conclude this is he that should come to do it to the souls of people, and you are to look for no other. To his miracles in the kingdom of nature he adds this in the kingdom of grace (Luk 7:22), To the poor the gospel is preached, which they knew was to be done by the Messiah; for he was anointed to preach the gospel to the meek (Isa 61:1), and to save the souls of the poor and needy, Psa 72:13. Judge, therefore, whether you can look for any other that will more fully answer the characters of the Messiah and the great intentions of his coming.
4. He gave them an intimation of the danger people were in of being prejudiced against him, notwithstanding these evident proofs of his being the Messiah (Luk 7:23): Blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in me, or scandalized at me. We are here in a state of trial and probation; and it is agreeable to such a state that, as there are sufficient arguments to confirm the truth to those that are honest and impartial in searching after it, and have their minds prepared to receive it, so there should be also objections, to cloud the truth to those that are careless, worldly, and sensual. Christ's education at Nazareth, his residence at Galilee, the meanness of his family and relations, his poverty, and the despicableness of his followers - these and the like were stumbling-blocks to many, which all the miracles he wrought could not help them over. He is blessed, for he is wise, humble, and well disposed, that is not overcome by these prejudices. It is a sign that God has blessed him, for it is by his grace that he is helped over these stumbling-stones; and he shall be blessed indeed, blessed in Christ.
II. We have here the high encomium which Christ gave of John Baptist; not while his messengers were present (lest he should seem to flatter him), but when they were departed (Luk 7:24), to make the people sensible of the advantages they had enjoyed in John's ministry, and were deprived of by his imprisonment. Let them now consider what they went out into the wilderness to see, who that was about whom there had been so much talk and such a great and general amazement. "Come," saith Christ, "I will tell you."
1. He was a man of unshaken self-consistence, a man of steadiness and constancy. He was not a reed shaken with the wind, first in one direction and then in another, shifting with every wind; he was firm as a rock, not fickle as a reed. If he could have bowed like a reed to Herod, and have complied with the court, he might have been a favourite there; but none of these things moved him.
2. He was a man of unparalleled self-denial, a great example of mortification and contempt of the world. He was not a man clothed in soft raiment, nor did he live delicately (Luk 7:25); but, on the contrary, he lived in a wilderness and was clad and fed accordingly. Instead of adorning and pampering the body, he brought it under, and kept it in subjection.
3. He was a prophet, had his commission and instructions immediately from God, and not of man or by man. He was by birth a priest, but that is never taken notice of; for his glory, as a prophet, eclipsed the honour of his priesthood. Nay, he was more, he was much more than a prophet (Luk 7:26), than any of the prophets of the Old Testament; for they spoke of Christ as at a distance, he spoke of him as at the door.
4. He was the harbinger and forerunner of the Messiah, and was himself prophesied of in the Old Testament (Luk 7:27): This is he of whom it is written (Mal 3:1), Behold, I send my messenger before thy face. Before he sent the Master himself, he sent a messenger, to give notice of his coming, and prepare people to receive him. Had the Messiah been to appear as a temporal prince, under which character the carnal Jews expected him, his messenger would have appeared either in the pomp of a general or the gaiety of a herald at arms; but it was a previous indication, plain enough, of the spiritual nature of Christ's kingdom, that the messenger he sent before him to prepare his way did it by preaching repentance and reformation of men's hearts and lives. Certainly that kingdom was not of this world which was thus ushered in.
5. He was, upon this account, so great, that really there was not a greater prophet than he. Prophets were the greatest that were born of women, more honourable than kings and princes, and John was the greatest of all the prophets. The country was not sensible what a valuable, what an invaluable, man it had in it, when John Baptist went about preaching and baptizing. And yet he that is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he. The least gospel minister, that has obtained mercy of the Lord to be skilful and faithful in his work, or the meanest of the apostles and first preachers of the gospel, being employed under a more excellent dispensation, are in a more honourable office than John Baptist. The meanest of those that follow the Lamb far excel the greatest of those that went before him. Those therefore who live under the gospel dispensation have so much the more to answer for.
III. We have here the just censure of the men of that generation, who were not wrought upon by the ministry either of John Baptist or of Jesus Christ himself.
1. Christ here shows what contempt was put upon John Baptist, while he was preaching and baptizing. (1.) Those who did show him any respect were but the common ordinary sort of people, who, in the eye of the gay part of mankind, were rather a disgrace to him than a credit, Luk 7:29. The people indeed, the vulgar herd, of whom it was said, This people, who know not the law, are cursed (Joh 7:49), and the publicans, men of ill fame, as being generally men of bad morals, or taken to be so, these were baptized with his baptism, and became his disciples; and these, though glorious monuments of divine grace, yet did not magnify John in the eye of the world; but by their repentance and reformation they justified God, justified his conduct and the wisdom of it in appointing such a one as John Baptist to be the forerunner of the Messiah: they hereby made it to appear that it was the best method that could be taken, for it was not in vain to them whatever it was to others. (2.) The great men of their church and nation, the polite and the politicians, that would have done him some credit in the eye of the world, did him all the dishonour they could; they heard him indeed, but they were not baptized of him, Luk 7:30. The Pharisees, who were most in reputation for religion and devotion, and the lawyers, who were celebrated for their learning, especially their knowledge of the scriptures, rejected the counsel of God against themselves; they frustrated it, they received the grace of God, by the baptism of John, in vain. God in sending that messenger among them had a kind purpose of good to them, designed their salvation by it, and, if they had closed with the counsel of God, it had been for themselves, they had been made for ever; but they rejected it, would not comply with it, and it was against themselves, it was to their own ruin; they came short of the benefit intended them, and not only so, but forfeited the grace of God, put a bar in their own door, and, by refusing that discipline which was to fit them for the kingdom of the Messiah, shut themselves out of it, and they not only excluded themselves, but hindered others, and stood in their way.
2. He here shows the strange perverseness of the men of that generation, in their cavils both against John and Christ, and the prejudices they conceived against them.
(1.) They made but a jesting matter of the methods God took to do them good (Luk 7:31): "Whereunto shall I liken the men of this generation? What can I think of absurd enough to represent them by? They are, then, like children sitting in the market-place, that mind nothing that is serious, but are as full of play as they can hold. As if God were but in jest with them, in all the methods he takes to do them good, as children are with one another in the market-place (Luk 7:32), they turn it all off with a banter, and are not more affected with it than with a piece of pageantry." This is the ruin of multitudes, they can never persuade themselves to be serious in the concerns of their souls. Old men, sitting in the sanhedrim, were but as children sitting in the market-place, and no more affected with the things that belonged to their everlasting peace than people are with children's play. O the amazing stupidity and vanity of the blind and ungodly world! The Lord awaken them out of their security.
(2.) They still found something or other to carp at. [1.] John Baptist was a reserved austere man, lived much in solitude, and ought to have been admired for being such a humble, sober, self-denying man, and hearkened to as a man of thought and contemplation; but this, which was his praise, was turned to his reproach. Because he came neither eating nor drinking, so freely, plentifully, and cheerfully, as others did, you say, "He has a devil; he is a melancholy man, he is possessed, as the demoniac whose dwelling was among the tombs, though he be not quite so wild." [2.] Our Lord Jesus was of a more free and open conversation; he came eating and drinking, Luk 7:34. He would go and dine with Pharisees, though he knew they did not care for him; and with publicans, though he knew they were no credit to him; yet, in hopes of doing good both to the one and the other, he conversed familiarly with them. By this it appears that the ministers of Christ may be of very different tempers and dispositions, very different ways of preaching and living, and yet all good and useful; diversity of gifts, but each given to profit withal. Therefore none must make themselves a standard to all others, nor judge hardly of those that do not do just as they do. John Baptist bore witness to Christ, and Christ applauded John Baptist, though they were the reverse of each other in their way of living. But the common enemies of them both reproached them both. The very same men that had represented John as crazed in his intellects, because he came neither eating nor drinking, represented our Lord Jesus as corrupt in his morals, because he came eating and drinking; he is a gluttonous man, and a wine-bibber. Ill-will never speaks well. See the malice of wicked people, and how they put the worst construction upon every thing they meet with in the gospel, and in the preachers and professors of it; and hereby they think to depreciate them, but really destroy themselves.
3. He shows that, notwithstanding this, God will be glorified in the salvation of a chosen remnant (Luk 7:35): Wisdom is justified of all her children. There are those who are given to wisdom as her children, and they shall be brought by the grace of God to submit to wisdom's conduct and government, and thereby to justify wisdom in the ways she takes for bringing them to that submission; for to them they are effectual, and thereby appear well chosen. Wisdom's children are herein unanimous, one and all, they have all a complacency in the methods of grace which divine wisdom takes, and think never the worse of them for their being ridiculed by some.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv18–23 And the disciples of John showed him of all…
And the disciples of John showed him of all these things. The miracles that were wrought by Christ; particularly the healing of the centurion's servant, and the raising from the dead the widow of Naim's son, and what fame and reputation Christ got every where by his doctrine, and mighty works. John was now in prison, when these his disciples came and related these things to him; see Mat 11:2 and they spoke of them, not as commending Christ for them; but as envying, grieving, and complaining, that he carried away all the honour and glory from John their master, for whom they had the greatest regard.
and they spoke of them, not as commending Christ for them; but as envying, grieving, and complaining, that he carried away all the honour and glory from John their master, for whom they had the greatest regard.
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Luke 7:19
luk 7:19
luk 7:19
luk 7:19And John calling unto him two of his disciples,.... Which were a sufficient number to be sent on an errand, to ask a question, and report the answer, or bear witness to any fact they should see, or hear done.
Sent them unto Jesus, saying, art thou he that should come, or look we for another? not that he doubted that Jesus was the Messiah; nor was it for his own satisfaction so much that he sent these disciples of his with this question, but for theirs; and to remove all doubt and hesitation from them about Christ.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv18, 22 Matt. xi, 2.
Matt. xi, 2.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv18, 19, 21, 22 Verse 18. The disciples of John showed him, c.]…
Verse 18. The disciples of John showed him, c.] It is very likely that John's disciples attended the ministry of our Lord at particular times and this, we may suppose, was a common case among the disciples of different Jewish teachers. Though bigotry existed in its most formidable shape between the Jews and Samaritans, yet we do not find that it had any place between Jews and Jews, though they were of different sects, and attached to different teachers.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv18–19 Luk 7:18. And the disciples of John showed him…
Luk 7:18. And the disciples of John showed him these things — All this while John the Baptist was in prison; Herod having confined him for the freedom which he took in reproving his adulterous commerce with Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife. But his confinement was not of the closest kind, for his disciples had access to him frequently. In one of those visits they gave him an account of the election of the twelve apostles to preach the gospel, and of Christ’s miracles, particularly that he had lately raised from the dead Jairus’s daughter and the widow of Nain’s son; as is plain from what Luke says in the following verses, who brings in the history of John’s message immediately after these miracles.
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 On v19 See this passage explained in Mat. 11:2-19.
See this passage explained in Mat. 11:2-19.
Luk 7:29
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The people - The common people.
That heard him - That heard “John.”
The publicans - The tax-gatherers, the worst kind of people, who had, however, been converted.
Justified God - Considered God as “just” or “right” in the counsel which he gave by John - to wit, in calling people to repentance, and in denouncing future wrath on the impenitent. Compare Mat 11:19.
Being baptized ... - They “showed” that they approved of the message of God by submitting to the ordinance which he commanded - the ordinance of baptism. This verse and the following are not to be considered as the words of “Luke,” but the continuation of the discourse of our Lord. He is saying what took place in regard to John. Among the common people he was approved and obeyed among the rich and learned he was despised.
Luk 7:30
But the Pharisees and lawyers rejected ... - It appears from Mat 3:7 that some of the Pharisees came to John to be baptized; but still this is entirely consistent with the supposition that the great mass of Pharisees and lawyers rejected him.
The counsel of God - The counsel of God toward them was the solemn admonition by John to “repent” and be baptized, and be prepared to receive the Messiah. This was the command or revealed will of God in relation to them. When it is said that they “rejected” the counsel of God, it does not mean that they could frustrate his purposes, but merely that they violated his commands. Men cannot frustrate the “real” purposes of God, but they can contemn his messages, they can violate his commands, and thus they can reject the counsel which he gives them, and treat with contempt the desire which he manifests for their welfare.
Against themselves - To their own hurt or detriment. God is wise and good. He knows what is best for us. He, therefore, that rejects what God commands, rejects it to his own injury. It “cannot” be well for any mortal to despise what God commands him to do.
Luk 7:31-35
See this passage explained in the notes at Mat 11:16-19. “And the Lord said.” This clause is wanting in almost all the manuscripts, and is omitted by the best critics.
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 On vv20, 22 The men; (Greek: oi andres) viz. the two disciples…
The men; (Greek: oi andres) viz. the two disciples sent by John the Baptist, who delivered their master’s message; but, before Jesus Christ undertook to reply to their question, he performed on the spot various kinds of miracles.
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).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v18 b. The Embassy Of The Baptist (Luk_7:18-35)
b. The Embassy Of The Baptist (Luk_7:18-35)
(Comp. Mat_11:2-19 in part, Gospel for the 3d Sunday in Advent.)
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18And the disciples of John shewed him of all these things. 19And John calling unto him two of his disciples sent them to Jesus [the Lord, V. O.2], saying, Art thou he that should come? or look we for another [are we to look, προζδοκῶμεν, prob. subj.]? 20When the men were come unto him, they said, John [the] Baptist hath sent us unto thee, saying, Art thou he that should come? or look we for another? 21And in that same hour [or, In that hour3] he cured many of their infirmities and plagues, and 22of evil spirits; and unto many that were blind he gave sight. Then Jesus [And He, V. O.4] answering said unto them, Go your way, and tell John what things ye have seen and heard; how that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, to the poor the gospel is preached. 23And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me [or, take offence at me]. 24And when the messengers of John were departed, he began to speak unto the people concerning John, What went ye out into the wilderness for to see? A reed shaken with the wind? 25But what went ye out for to see? A man clothed in soft raiment? Behold, they which are gorgeously apparelled, and live delicately [sumptuously], are in kings’ courts. 26But what went ye out for to see? A prophet? Yea, I say unto you, and much more 27than a prophet. This is he, of whom it is written, Behold, I send my messenger [angel, 28V. O.] before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee [Mal_3:1]. For [om., For, V. O.5] I say unto you, Among those that are born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist: but he that is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he. 29And all the people that heard him, and the publicans, justified God, being baptized [or, having been baptized] with the baptism of John. 30But the Pharisees and [the] lawyers rejected [set at nought] the counsel of God against themselves, being not baptized of [by] him. 31And the Lord said [om., And the Lord said, V. O.6], Whereunto then shall I liken the men of this generation? and to what [whom] are they like? 32They are like unto children sitting in the marketplace, and calling one to another, and saying. We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced; we havemourned to you, and ye have not wept. 33For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine; and ye say, He hath a devil. 34The Son of man is come eating and drinking; and ye say, Behold a gluttonous man, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners! 35But wisdom is justified of [by] all her children.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Luk_7:18. Of all these things.—The miracles which the Saviour had performed of late, especially moreover the raising of the young man at Nain, the report of which, Luk_7:17, had resounded so far. Respecting the place in which John lay in prison, see Lange on Mat_11:2. Matthew brings this embassy into another historical connection, but to us it appears that the order of the occurrences in Luke deserves the preference. From both accounts, however, it appears that although the Baptist was deprived of his freedom, yet the intercourse between him and his disciples still continued in some measure.
Luk_7:19. Art Thou.—We also cannot possibly assume that John doubted respecting the person of the Lord. With reason has the interpretation as well of the ancient Christian Church as of the reformers, controverted this view as untenable.—But as little conceivable is it that he asked this question for the sake of his disciples alone, or that he would in this way even from his prison offer yet a last public homage to the Lord. (Osiander.) It is rather a question not of secret unbelief, but of increasing impatience. Not the Saviour’s person but His mode of action is to John a riddle. Matters move too slowly for him, especially as he himself is now condemned to involuntary inactivity. In vain does he wait for a speedy and public declaration of the Lord in respect to His Messianic dignity. It annoys him that the Saviour speaks more by deeds than by words, since these deeds, moreover, are not miracles of punishment, like those of the old prophets, but benefits, which perhaps did not so well correspond with the expectation which he had formed to himself of the Lord of the threshing-floor with His fan in His hands (Mat_3:11-12). Perhaps, moreover (Ebrard), it was not pleasing to him that the Saviour hitherto had as yet made no sharply-marked separation among the people, as he himself had begun to do, but let this building fall, while, working formlessly, He journeyed here and there. We do not need, therefore, to assume “that it had become doubtful to him, how the revelation of God, made to himself, was to be understood.” (Hofman.) But certainly it must, from his point of view, have surprised him, that the Saviour as yet appeared more in a prophetical than in a properly kingly character. So far, but only so far, can we speak of a doubt, a temptation of the faith of the imprisoned Baptist, which will surprise us the less if we consider how completely as yet he stood within the limits of the Old Covenant, whose heroes distinguished themselves more in conflict than in endurance, and whose great reformer, Elijah the Tishbite, whose image he bore, had also known hours of abandonment and anguish of soul in his own experience. (1Ki_19:2-4.) Why should a soul like that of the Baptist have only had its Tabor heights, and not also its Gethsemane depths? And this all becomes the plainer, if we consider that John perhaps in spirit foresaw his end, and, therefore, must have desired the more intensely to see yet before his death the revelation of the kingdom of God, to which his whole life had been devoted. Whoever condemns him, has certainly become acquainted with a life of faith more by description than from personal experience. At the same time he is no less an example worthy of our imitation, that he does not turn himself with his difficulty away from the Lord, but directly to the only one who can solve the riddle for him. As respects the objection, moreover, that he could not in his imprisonment have heard such remarkable reports, comp. Winer on the article Gefängniss, and Act_24:23.
Luk_7:21. In that hour.—The disciples of John, according to this, find the Saviour in the midst of His miraculous activity; and this account of Luke, which is far from being “a merely explicative addition from his own hand” (Ewald), on the contrary explains to us why the Saviour gives to them just this answer taken from His employment at the time. In the account of the sick here healed, it must not be overlooked that Luke also, the physician, distinguishes the demoniacs from naturally sick persons (Meyer), and with peculiar emphasis designates the recovery of the blind as a gracious gift of the Lord (ἐχαρίσατο).
Blind.—While the Lord points to these tokens of His Messianic dignity (comp. Isa_35:5-6; Isa_61:1), He shows, on the one hand, that the greater publicity wished for by John was already sufficiently attained; on the other, that He was not yet minded to speak otherwise than through these. The Baptist’s question itself was, moreover, affirmatively answered, for he received in this form the assurance: Jesus is truly the Christ. And so far as he himself, in a spiritual sense, had become poor, the gospel was also announced to him. The question whether here by the πτωχοί is to be understood outwardly or spiritually poor, is to be answered thus, that, as a rule, the latter were mostly to be found among the former, and that, therefore, both meanings are to be here united.
Luk_7:23. And blessed is he.—An intimation which was by no means superfluous, either for John, or still less for his disciples, and least of all for later times.—Whosoever shall not be offended in Me:—“rara felicitas,” Bengel, comp. 1Pe_2:8.
Luk_7:24. And when—were departed.—In Matthew, τούτων δὲ πορευομένων ἤρξατο. It is as if the Saviour could scarcely wait for the departure of the messengers to remove immediately the unfavorable impression which the question of the Baptist had, perhaps, made upon the people. Not alone to vindicate the honor of John, but also to anticipate further difficulties conceived as to His person and His work, does He direct an explicit address to the people, in which He extols the character of John, but rebukes the wavering disposition of the people. If any one, perchance, thought that John had not remained consistent with himself, the Saviour lets this reproach so far as this fall upon the nation itself, that neither John, nor Himself, had as yet been able to please them. He makes no scruple of recalling to their memory the image of the Baptist in his most brilliant period.
A reed shaken with the wind?—The Saviour begins with intimating what John had not been; no reed, no weakling, and the like. The assurance that John had not been by nature a wavering and inconstant man, was at the same time a sure implication that the Baptist, therefore, did not doubt respecting the person of the Saviour, as Chrysostom has already justly remarked in his thirty-seventh homily. This first question is followed by no answer, since each one could give this for himself. Observe further the fine climax in the arrangement of the interrogations, κάλαμον, ἄνθρωπον, προφήτην.
Luk_7:25. A man.—The question is intended to contradict the conjecture, that John had sent to Christ because his imprisonment was burdensome, and he hoped to be free therefrom. An antithesis between his camel’s-hair garment in the wilderness on the one hand, and the sumptuous clothing of his enemies at the court on the other. In order to seek a weakling, one had to go not to the prison, but to the palace.
Luk_7:26. A prophet?—Instead of allowing that John had in any respect lost his claim to this name, the Saviour shows how far he was even exalted above ordinary prophets. He is something greater (Neuter) than all his predecessors, since he could claim to be the herald of the Messiah.
Luk_7:27. This is he.—Comp. Mal_3:1. “He is, if ye will hear, Elijah who is to come, as Malachi prophesied; and before whom is Elijah to go to prepare the way? Malachi says: ‘Before God the Lord Himself.’ What does Jesus, therefore, testify of Himself, when He says, John has gone as Elijah before Him? Who hath ears to hear, let him hear!” J. Riggenbach.
Luk_7:28. Among those that are born of women.—Comp. Mat_11:11. Luke has correctly adjoined the word προφήτης, which was already presupposed in the ἐγήγερται of Matthew. Among all the prophets John deserves to be called the greatest, because he was the messenger of whom Malachi has spoken. Respecting the ethical worth of his character, the Saviour does not here speak directly, but yet He would not have bestowed this praise upon His Forerunner, if the latter had only possessed prophetical dignity without high excellence of character. The second part of the declaration is by no means to be explained as a testimony of our Lord in reference to Himself (Fritzsche, a. o.). How can the King of the kingdom of heaven place Himself on an equality with those who are in His kingdom? No, He speaks of the least of His disciples, and this not only so far as they appear as apostles or evangelists, but without any distinction. He thinks of their preëminence above the most distinguished men of the Old Covenant, the array of whom closed with John. They had, through the light of the experience of His redeeming power, deeper insight into the nature, the course of development, and the blessings of the kingdom of heaven, than had been the portion of John. If this was true even of those who then believed in Jesus, how much more of us to whom, by the history of the centuries, His greatness has been so much more gloriously revealed.
Luk_7:29. And all the people.—It is a question, whether we have here a remark of Luke, meant to give, Luk_7:29-30, his hearers who dwelt out of Palestine a more particular account of the various reception which the baptism of John had found (Bengel, Paulus, Lachmann, Bornemann, Stier), or whether it constitutes a continuation of the discourse of the Saviour. The latter appears to deserve the preference, as the words εῖ̓πε δὲ ὁ κύρ., Luk_7:31, are on internal and external grounds suspicious, while, moreover, Luk_7:29-30 contain nothing additional which the Saviour Himself might not have said; and besides, there is no second example of so extended an interpolation of Luke without any indication of it. It is a statement of how differently the preaching and baptism of John had been judged, by which, therefore, the reproach, Luk_7:31; Luk_7:34, is prepared.—[“Luk_7:29 f. does not contain an intervening comment of Luke, which is opposed by his usage elsewhere, and is disproved by the spuriousness of εῖ̓πε δὲ ὁ κύριος, Luk_7:31 (b. Elz.), but is the language of Jesus, who states the different results which the appearance of this greatest prophet had had with the people and with the hierarchs. It must, however, be admitted that the words, in comparison with the force, freshness, and oratorical liveliness of the preceding, bear a more historical stamp, and therefore may with reason be regarded as a later intercalation of tradition.” Meyer.—C. C. S.]
Ἐδικαίωσαν τὸν Θεόν, i.e., not only: “They declared in act that His will, that they should receive the baptism of John, was right” (Meyer): but they approved the judgment of God, which called them sinners, that needed such a baptism unto repentance.
Luk_7:30. Ἠθέτησαν. It was God’s counsel (βουλή) that the Jews through the baptism of John should be prepared for the Salvation of the Messianic age. Since now the Pharisees and Scribes held themselves back from this baptism, they frustrated this counsel in relation to themselves (εἰς ἑαυτούς), and exhibited themselves, indeed, the bitterest enemies of themselves, as has been in all times the case with the rejectors of the Gospel. The Saviour in this whole remark, just as in Joh_5:33-35, looks back upon the period of John’s activity as one already concluded, and since He is conscious that the opposition against Him, at bottom, springs from no other source than that against John the Baptist, he finds the way prepared of itself for the following parable.
Luk_7:31. Whereunto then shall I.—Here the inquiry of perplexity, as in Mar_4:30 that of intimacy with His disciples. The answer is an irrefragable proof with how attentive and tranquil a look He observed daily life even in the plays of the childish world. In children He sees miniature men, in men grown-up children.
Luk_7:32. Like unto children.—We must declare against the common explanation, as if the children (the Jews) had so played and spoken among one another, for who should then have been the ones who would not dance when others played, nor weep when others lamented? Yet as little do we believe with Fritzsche, that Jesus and John are here reckoned in with their contemporaries, that the former were to be the speakers, and the latter the addressed. We reverse it rather, and consider Jesus and John indicated (according to Matthew) as ἑταῖροι, over against whom the people are introduced speaking, and complaining that these friends had always wanted something different from what themselves wanted and did. They had demanded of John cheerfulness, and he had come μήτε ἐσθίων μήτε πίνων; from Jesus they had expected strictness and sadness, and He manifested a mild and joyous spirit. In this view no feature of the comparison is lost, and yet the application is not forced or stiff. Comp. Lange, Life of Christ, ii. p. 761, with whose objections against the explanation of R. Stier we fully agree.
Luk_7:33. Neither eating bread, nor drinking wine.—Comp. Luk_1:15. John’s austere mode of life was wholly agreeable to the spirit of his teaching, but displeasing not only to the small court-party, but to all who, pervaded by the leaven of the Sadducees, held unrighteousness dear. They accused him not only of lunacy, but also of actual possession (the Scripture distinguishes the two, Joh_10:20). No wonder, for he would not dance when they piped before him.
Luk_7:34. The Son of Man.—Here is this appellation very especially fitting, as it comes at the beginning of a declaration which refers us to the Lord’s ideal Humanity. He was come eating and drinking, in no way despising the comforts of social life, but temperately enjoying them, even in company with publicans and sinners. But herein had legal self-righteousness found a heavy stone of stumbling. What they had not been able to endure in John, they appeared now to demand in Christ: austere, unbending sternness. And when He did not give ear to this demand, they had ready at once the names of glutton and wine-bibber, friend of publicans and sinners, in which, however, they did not consider that these latter words indicated His highest titles of honor (comp. Luk_15:2). Not only had the disciples of John taken offence at Him (comp. Luk_5:33), but also the Pharisees and all that were accustomed to see through their eyes. The greater part did not receive Him because He had not chosen to weep when they began a gloomy lay of mourning. It would have been a hopeless attempt to labor at the conversion of such a nation, if no exceptions to this sad rule had been found. To these the Saviour refers in the following words. [Notwithstanding that the author’s application of the similitude of the complaining children to the Jews is supported by the names of Bleek, De Wette, and Meyer, I cannot see sufficient reason for abandoning the usual interpretation, which reverses the application. It is confessedly the unreasonableness of the Jews in being satisfied neither with John’s mode of life, nor with our Lord’s, which is the point of comparison. Exactly parallel to this is the unreasonableness charged by the children in the parallel upon their fellows. To say that the complaining children were the unreasonable ones, in expecting their fellows to accommodate themselves to every whim of theirs, appears rather an afterthought, than one suggested naturally by the parable. It is true, the words are, “This generation is like unto children,” &c.; but, as Bleek admits, passages like Mat_13:24 show that these words do not necessarily mean that the generation itself is like the complainers, but that the relation between this generation and our Lord and John, was like that set forth in the parable. There is certainly weight in Bleek’s objection, that this indefiniteness can hardly go so far as to liken the generation addressed to one class of the children, when it was meant to be represented as like the exactly opposite class. But this, it appears to me, does not turn the scale against the evident correspondence between the generation complained of by Christ and the children complained of in the parable.—C. C. S.]
Luk_7:35. But wisdom.—See different views in Lange ad loc. Perhaps we meet here with a proverb not unknown to the contemporaries of our Lord; at least this declaration has a gnome-like character. Wisdom can here be no other than the Divine Wisdom which had been revealed by John and Jesus, and in Jesus was personally manifested: her children are those who are not only born of her, but also related to her, in that they possess a wise heart; and the justification of wisdom takes place where she is acquitted of accusations of this kind, and acknowledged in her true character. Such a justification was to be expected from her children alone, but also from all her children. We are not to understand this saving as a complaint, but as an antithesis of the preceding; an encouragement at the same time for the disciples of Jesus, when they should afterwards experience something similar to that which He and John had experienced.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. It is a striking argument for the great difference between the Old and the New Testament, that even the greatest of the prophets can, at the beginning, accommodate himself only with difficulty to the Saviour’s way of working. Among all those lofty and brilliant expectations which had been excited by the prophetic word, the meek, still spirit of the Gospel could only gradually break a way for itself. John must continually take secret offence against Jesus, before he had become in spirit a disciple of the best Master. Thus this whole history is a continuous proof of the truth of the saying, Mat_18:1 : “It must needs be that offences come,” and as here, the σκάνδαλα have served the purpose of hastening the revelation of the glory of the Lord, and the coming of His kingdom.
2. Here also, as in Joh_5:36, the Saviour adduces His ἔργα as arguments for the certainty of His heavenly mission,—a new proof of the agreement between the Synoptical and the Johannean Christ, but at the same time also a troublesome sign for every one who still with the apostles of unbelief demands: “ôtez-moi ces miracles de votre Evangile.” The Saviour did not perform the miracles that they might become stones of stumbling; on the other hand, they are intended to be means of advancement on the way of faith, and now as ever His answer to every one who secretly takes offence, but turns himself with his doubts to Him that they may be solved, and has remained receptive for rational persuasion, is: “The blind see,” &c. But whoever cannot, by the spiritual workings of Christianity in man and in mankind, be convinced of the fact that something superhuman is working concealed therein, for such an one all abstract grounds of proof are fruitless. From this follows, moreover, that only those who in person belong to the τυφλοῖς and κωφοῖς spiritually healed by Jesus, will possess a persuasion of faith which can be shaken by nothing subsequent. This is the true demonstration of the Spirit and of power, which constitutes the crown of all Apologetics. But precisely because the Saviour knows this, and foresees how much it costs flesh and blood to remove out of the way all offences taken at Him and His work, He pronounces all blessed who raise themselves to such a height. Another Macarism faith may perhaps subjoin: “Blessed he who, when he might take offence, turns himself to Jesus for healing!”
3. In an exalted tone and, moreover, with perfect justice, does the Saviour praise His imprisoned Forerunner. The whole life of John is a continuous commentary on that which is here said in a few words; and it impresses, therefore, its seal on the correctness of this description of his character. Not less, moreover, does a praise bestowed on such an occasion redound to the honor of the Saviour Himself. In the first place, we admire here His deep wisdom, which takes pains to obliterate in the best manner a perverted impression; and then quite as much the holy severity with which He, without respect of persons, censures the faults of His contemporaries. While the Saviour avoids making a direct declaration of His Messianic dignity, He places it indirectly in a clear light, inasmuch as He points as well to His distinction from, as also to His exaltation above, the position and spirit of the Baptist. And as the people, after what had just taken place, were, perhaps, already disposed to look down upon the prophet of the wilderness with contempt, He constrains them rather to throw a searching and shaming look into their own hearts.
4. “The least in the kingdom of heaven is greater.” One of the most admirable testimonies respecting the inestimable preëminence of the sincere disciples of the Saviour; but at the same time also a witness of Christ to Himself that may not be slightly esteemed. What a consciousness must He bear within Him who exalts His least disciple above the greatest of the prophets, and yet can declare: “I am meek and lowly of heart” (Mat_11:29).
5. The diverse behavior of the publicans and Pharisees, in relation to the baptism of John, gives a convincing proof that self-righteousness sets a far greater obstacle to the coming of the kingdom of God in the heart, than the unrighteousness of the most deeply-sunken sinners. Comp. Mat_21:31-32.
6. The reception on the part of their changeable contemporaries which fell to the lot of John and Jesus, recurs in all manner of forms as well in the history of the Theocracy under Israel, as in that of the Christian Church. This manifestation repeats itself continually where men judge after the flesh, where men judge the truth according to a previously settled system, instead of unconditionally subjecting themselves with their system to the wisdom of God; where, in a word, the natural man bears dominion. Only of the spiritual man does the apostle’s word hold good, 1Co_2:15. Each time the man wills otherwise than God, or he wills that willed by God at another time, in another way, and in another measure. The only infallible touch-stone, therefore, as to whether we already belong to the τέκνα τῆς σοφίας or not, lies simply in the relation in which we stand to God’s word and testimony. The truth of God is recognized with such assurance by the children of wisdom, because, even when it is in conflict with their natural feelings, it finds the deepest echo in the sanctuary of the heart and conscience. The children of wisdom are essentially identical with the νήπιοι (Luk_10:21), to whom the things of God have been revealed.
7. The crown of all the σημεῖα of the Lord, and at the same time the means whereby these are continually propagated in the spiritual sphere, is the preaching of the Gospel to the poor, which is, moreover, the highest signature for the divinity of the Gospel. Comp. 1Co_1:26; 1Co_1:31.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
The fame of the Saviour finds its way to a solitary prison: 1. How John stands here with reference to Jesus: a. with a secret displeasure, b. with a question implying desire; 2. Jesus with reference to John: a. with a satisfying answer, b. an earnest warning, c. an emphatic commendation.—Doubts must bring us the quicker to Christ.—Doubt dies only in the immediate neighborhood of Him through whom it was raised.—“Art thou He that should come?” This question is answered, a. with the “No” of unbelief, b. the “Yea” of faith, c. the Hallelujah of thankfulness.—The great Advent question: a. its high significance, b. its satisfactory answer.—The miracles of the Saviour in the natural and moral world, His best credentials.—Christ yet continues to perform what He did in this hour.—Christ’s healings of the blind.—Christ’s raisings of the dead.—The preaching of the Gospel to the poor: 1. A clear credential for the Saviour, 2. an inestimable benefit for the world, 3. an infinitely exalted, yet holy commission for the Christian.—How poverty is related to Christ, and Christ to poverty.—The blessedness of those who are not offended in Christ: 1. An unusual, 2. a rich, 3. an obtainable blessedness.—The holy love and the holy earnestness of the Saviour over against honest doubters.—The flexible reed and the inflexible character of John.—One needs not go to the shore of Jordan to see shaken reeds.—The prophets in camel’s hair, the courtiers in sumptuous clothing.—The morally free man in bonds, and the slave of the world in freedom.—John a. equal to, b. exalted above, the prophets of the Old Testament.—The herald’s function of John the Baptist: 1. In its origin, 2. its significance, 3. its abiding value.—The greatness and the littleness of John the Baptist: 1. His higher position above other prophets. No prophet was a. enlightened with clearer light, b. privileged with a more excellent commission, c. crowned with a higher honor, d. adorned with a purer virtue than John 2. his littleness, as compared with the genuine disciple of the Saviour. The true Christian is, on his part, a. enlightened with clearer light, b. privileged with a more exalted commission, c. crowned with a higher honor (Joh_15:15), d. called to purer virtue than John.—The word of the Saviour concerning the greatness or littleness of John the Baptist: a. humbling for those that stand below him, b. encouraging for those that stand beside him, c. cheering for those who really stand above him.—The reception of the Baptist with Pharisees and publicans: 1. Very diverse, 2. fully explicable, 3. now as then of important consequences.—John and Jesus found and find the same friends and the same foes.—Knowledge that God is in the right is the beginning of conversion.—Enmity against the truth is at the same time enmity against one’s own soul.—The world of children the image of the world of men.—The alternation of frolicsome joy and complaints is after the manner of children, great and small.—The servant of the Truth never called to dispose himself according to the changing humors of his contemporaries.—How far is it permitted, or not permitted, the preacher of the Word to take account of the demands which others make of him?—Now, as ever, strict seriousness is condemned by the world as lunacy.—The Son of Man is come eating and drinking.—The temperate enjoyment of life approved and consecrated by the word and the Spirit of the Lord.—Christ the Friend of publicans and sinners: 1. A vile calumny, 2. a holy truth, 3. an exalted eulogy, 4. a joyful message, 5. an example worthy of imitation.—The Lord Himself a proof of the truth of His word, Luk_6:26.—The justification of Wisdom by her children: 1. Necessary, 2. certain, 3. satisfactory.—As long as there are children of Wisdom, that which is foolish has nothing to fear before God, 1Co_1:25.
Starke:—It is something beautiful and pleasant when teachers and hearers stand in good accord, and diligently edify one another.—Quesnel:—A Christian can draw profit even from novel tidings, if he applies them to his own edification and that of others.—Majus:—Learn to answer rightly the most weighty inquiry of all, who the true Saviour of the world is, and thou shalt be well enlightened.—According to Christ’s example we should rather prove with deeds that we are Christians, than with words.—Canstein:—It is something great when one can fearlessly appeal to truth and deed. 2Co_1:12.—Majus:—Those that walk after Christ find many hindrances and offences in their way, but these must be taken out of the way and overcome, Isa_57:14.—Osiander:—Steadfastness in all good is the most excellent ornament of a servant and child of God.—Brentius:—Careless and rough people are oftentimes easier to be persuaded by the word of truth, than presumptuous hypocrites and reputed wise men.—Whoever despises the counsel of God which is meant for his soul’s health, will experience God’s counsel against him with harm and pain.—Hedinger:—God can manage it so as to please no one: to say nothing then of a frail man with censorious fault-finders.—God’s former servants have been ever calumniated, how then should His present ones fare better?—The world cleaves to its wonted way, and calls evil good and good evil (Isa_5:20); wonder not thereat.—Osiander:—The teacher is not to be born that can please all men.—Majus:—Independent wisdom calls all fools to herself, and will make all wise, but few hear her and follow her.—Heubner:—Whoever does not find in Christ his salvation may wait therefor in vain.—Only one coming will overpass all our expectations, the coming of Christ.—Christianity is founded upon history, upon facts.—Christianity a religion of the poor.—Guyon (on Luk_7:28):—John is the type of the condition of penitence. Whoever has truly pressed into the sanctuary, into the kingdom of grace, whoever has arrived at the full enjoyment of grace, is greater, more blessed than he that remains still in penitence.—Luther (Luk_7:32-34):—“If one preaches the Gospel, it amounts to nothing; if he preaches the Law, it amounts to nothing again: he can neither make the people really joyous, nor really sorry.”
The Pericope (Luk_7:18-27, comp. Mat_11:2-10). The double testimony which Jesus renders before the people: 1. The testimony concerning Himself, Luk_7:18-23; Luke 2. respecting John the Baptist, Luk_7:24-27.—Couard:—John , 1. As to his faith; 2. as to his walk; 3. as to his works.—Ph. D. Burk:—When Jesus will hold up before a soul its wretchedness out of Him. He tells it of the blessedness of those that abide in Him. Contraria contrariis curantur.—Thym:—The question of the Baptist. We take: 1. The question for testing: a. from whom it proceeds, b. how it arose, c. what it aims at. 2. The answer from experience: a. who gives it, b. to what it refers, c. what prize it proposes to us. 3. The testimony in truth: a. by whom it is given, b. what it sets forth, c. what aim it has.—Höpfner:—The glory of Jesus who came into the world in a servant’s form.—Florey:—What the Saviour requires of those who will prepare His way in the hearts of men.
Footnotes:
[2]Luk_7:19.—Rec.: πρὸς τὸν Ἰησοῦν. [With A., Sin., 13 other uncials; π. τ. κύριον, with B., L., R., Ξ.—C. C. S.]
[3]Luk_7:21.—For Rec.: ἐν αὐτῇ δὲ τῇ ὥρᾳ, Tischendorf, Tregelles, and Alford read: ἐν ἐκείνῃ τῇ ὥρᾳ, as Meyer says, “on insufficient authority and insufficient internal evidence.” They are supported by B., L. Cod. Sin. has ἐν ἐκείνῃ τῇ ἡμέρᾳ.—C. C. S.]
[4]Luk_7:22.—Rec.: ὁ Ἱησοῦς. [Om., ὁ Ἰησοῦς, Tischendorf, Tregelles, Alford; in Lachmann, bracketed; om., B., D., Ξ., Cod. Sin.—C. C. S.]
[5]Luk_7:28.—Rec.: ∆έγω γὰρ ν̔μῖν. [Om. γαρ, B. Cod. Sin., L., X., Ξ. read αμην λεγω. Tischendorf reads γάρ, and remarks: “nisi conjunctio adscripta fuisset, vix tam varie legeretur.”—C. C. S.]
[6]Luk_7:31.—The words at the beginning of the 31st verse: Εἶπε δὲ ὸ κύριος, are in all probability spurious, and have been introduced from some evangelistarium, which might the more easily make a new address begin here, as Luk_7:29-30 did not appear to contain a saying of the Lord Himself, but an interposed observation of the evangelist, which, however, is not to be assumed. See below. [Om., Cod. Sin.]
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 On v18 § 39.—JESUS’S ANSWER TO THE MESSAGE FROM JOHN THE…
§ 39.—JESUS’S ANSWER TO THE MESSAGE FROM JOHN THE BAPTIST, Luk_7:18-23.
(See notes on Mat_11:2-19.)
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 On vv19–23 18-35. The Message from the Baptist.
18-35. The Message from the Baptist.
19. John calling unto him two of his disciples] The Baptist was now in prison (Mat_11:2-6), but was not precluded from intercourse with his friends.
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to Jesus] The reading of B and some other Uncials is “to the Lord.”
Art thou he that should come? or look we for another?] Rather, Art thou the coming [Messiah], or are we to expect another? “The Coming (One)” is a technical Hebrew term for the Messiah (Habba). This brief remarkable message is identical with that in St Matthew, except that St Luke uses allon (‘another’) and St Matthew heteron (‘a second,’ or
‘different one’). Probably however there is no significance in this variation, since the accurate classical meaning of heteros was partly obliterated. Probably too the messengers spoke in Aramaic. “The coming” is clearer in St Matthew, because he has just told us that John heard in prison the works of “the Christ” i.e. of the Messiah. Those who are shocked with the notion that the faith of the Baptist should even for a moment have wavered, suppose that (1) St John merely meant to suggest that surely the time had now come for the Messiah to reveal himself as the Messiah, and that his question was one rather of ‘increasing impatience’ than of ‘secret unbelief;’ or (2) that the message was sent solely to reassure John’s own disciples; or (3) that, as St Matthew here uses the phrase “the works of the Messiah” and not “of Jesus,” the Baptist only meant to ask ‘Art thou the same person as the Jesus to whom I bore testimony?’ These suppositions are excluded, not only by the tenor of the narrative but directly by Luk_7:23; (Mat_11:6). Scripture never presents the saints as ideally faultless, and therefore with holy truthfulness never conceals any sign of their imperfection or weakness. Nothing is more natural than that the Great Baptist—to whom had been granted but a partial revelation—should have felt deep anguish at the calm and noiseless advance of a Kingdom for which, in his theocratic and Messianic hopes, he had imagined a very different proclamation. Doubtless too his faith like that of Elijah (1Ki_19:4), of Job in his trials (Job_3:1), and of Jeremiah in prison (Jer_20:7), might be for a moment drowned by the tragic briefness, and disastrous eclipse of his own career; and he might hope to alleviate by this message the anguish which he felt when he contrasted the joyous brightness of our Lord’s Galilean ministry with the unalleviated gloom of his own fortress-prison among the black rocks at Makor. ‘If Jesus be indeed the promised Messiah,’ he may have thought, ‘why am I, His Forerunner, suffered to languish undelivered,—the victim of a wicked tyrant?’ The Baptist was but one of those many glorious saints whose careers God, in His mysterious Providence, has suffered to end in disaster and eclipse that He may shew us how small is the importance which we must attach to the judgment of men, or the rewards of earth. “We fools accounted his life madness, and his end to be without honour: how is he numbered among the children of God, and his lot is among the saints!” Wis_5:20. We may be quite sure that “in the fiery furnace God walked with His servant so that his spirit was not harmed, and having thus annealed his nature to the utmost that this earth can do, He took him hastily away and placed him among the glorified in Heaven.” Irving.
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 On vv18–22 (18-23) And the disciples of John shewed him.—See Notes…
(18-23) And the disciples of John shewed him.—See Notes on Mat_11:2-6. The fact, mentioned by St. Luke only, that the “disciples of John” reported these things, suggests some interesting coincidences: (1) It implies that they had been present at our Lord’s miracles, and had heard His teaching, and we have seen them as present in Mat_9:14, Mar_2:18. (2) It shows that though John was in prison, his disciples were allowed free access to him. (3) The fulness of St. Luke’s narrative in Luk_7:21 suggests the thought that St. Luke may have heard what he records from one of those disciples, possibly from Manaen (see Introduction, and Note on Luk_6:1) the foster-brother of the Tetrarch.
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 On vv18, 19, 21, 22, 23 Vers. 18-35. John the Baptist sends messengers to ask…
Vers. 18-35. John the Baptist sends messengers to ask a question of Jesus. The reply of the Master.
And the disciples of John showed him of all these things. St. Luke, unlike St. Matthew, in the corresponding passage in his Gospel, does not specially mention that John was in prison; he evidently took it for granted that this would be known to his readers from the account of the Baptist"s arrest and imprisonment by Herod Antipas given in Luk_3:19, Luk_3:20. In the course of John"s imprisonment, it is probable that very many of his disciples became hearers of Jesus. During the early period, at all events, of the Baptist"s captivity it is clear that his friends and disciples had free access to his prison. There is no doubt but that, in reply to the anxious inquiries of John, his disciples told him of all the miracles they had witnessed, and the words they had heard, especially, no doubt, recounting to him much of the sermon on the mount which Jesus had lately delivered as the exposition of his doctrine. We can well imagine these faithful but impatient disciples, after detailing these marvels which they had seen, and the strange new words of winning power which they had heard, saying to their imprisoned master, "We have seen and heard these wondrous things, but the great Teacher gets no further; we hear nothing of the standard of King Messiah being raised, nothing of the high hope of the people being encouraged; he seems to pay no attention to the imperious rule of the foreigner, or the degrading tyranny of men like Antipas, the Herod who has wrongfully shut you up. He rather withdraws himself, and when the people, fired by his winning words and mighty acts, begin to grow enthusiastic, then this strange Man hides himself away. Can he be Messiah, as you once said?
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Vers. 18-35. The message of John Baptist, and the discourse occasioned by it.
Various answers, not now to be discussed, have been given to the question Why did John send the two followers with the message recorded? The message does seem to imply that the confidence of the Baptist had become overcast by the sorrow of the passing hour. Would it have been strange if, hearing of Jesus in the flood-tide of popular enthusiasm, working and speaking in the power of the Lord, a moment"s feeling of weariness stole over the ardent spirit? "He there, and I here, within the dismal walls of the prison! He, thinking of all else, and no thought apparently of me! He increasing more and more, like the sun advancing to the perfect day; I decreasing more and more, my sun setting in the thick darkness! Can it be all a reality? Has my witness been wholly true? What if ? what if ? Jesus of Nazareth, say, "Art thou really he? Tell me, so soon to pass from this earthly scene, that I have followed no illusion that verily there is none else to be looked for. Other thoughts may have filled the mind, other motives for the mission may have influenced; but it brings the passage very near to us when we trace in it the faltering of faith. For there are moments of faltering in the history of faith. The sky of our spiritual life is not always cloudless. All the while the soul may be thirsting for the living God, but it cannot see him; from within there come voices demanding, "Where is thy God?" If a tormenting scepticism visited the honest heart of John, we can understand it, and feel the more our kinship with him. The wonderful thing would have been if misgiving had never ruffled the face of his heart; if no such film had gathered over his eye as that signified in the question, "Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another?
I THE QUESTION HAS NOT YET RUN ITS COURSE. It expresses the attitude of the piety of the people, in the roll of whose greatest stands the Baptist"s name. It is sad that so much of the culture of Israel has separated from Israel"s hope, has declared its contentment with a mere barren pantheism; that so much of its piety is busied with the effort to explain away the obvious meaning of the old prophecies, or to deny their reference to the Anointed One. But the Jew still lives, and the land of the Jew still waits. Pray for the conversion and restoration of Israel, when the people that sit in darkness shall see the problem solved which has for so long been the stumbling-stone and rock of offence, "Jesus of Nazareth, art thou he who was promised to come, or must we continue to look for another?
II NOW, OBSERVE THE LORD"S ANSWER. It is:
1. A word to John. The reply to the inquiry is given in that hour." The messengers are charged to return and tell (vers. 22, 23) what things they saw and heard. The works of Christ are the credentials of his mission, not because they are miraculous, but because they are the kind of works appropriate to the Sent of God. Recognizing the supernatural efficacy of Christ"s kingdom, the witness for him is chiefly what he does, what Christianity effects wherever it is truly received. We see it breathing a new life, inspiring with a new hope, awaking new powers, putting to flight the armies of the aliens a power of God to salvation. E.g. Lady Barker, in her charming letters from South Africa, says, "I feel it incumbent on me to bear testimony, not only in this instance and in this colony, to the enormous amount of real, tangible, common-sense good accomplished among the black races all over the world by Wesleyan, Methodist, and Baptist missionaries." So, universally, it is the kind of life which Christ"s teaching produces; it is the wondrous changes in man himself, and therefore in man"s world, which the spirit of his life accomplishes, which, to all earnest inquirers, settles the issue, "Art thou he that should come?" "Blessed with gentle authority the Master adds is he whosoever shall find none occasion of stumbling in me.
2. A word concerning John after the messengers have departed. "A word," says Farrar, "of rhythmic and perfect loveliness" (vers. 24-28). Mark the conclusion, however Greater prophet than he now immured in Herod"s gloomy prison never was born of woman. Yet this must be added, he who is real]y within the kingdom, who has really received the kingdom in receiving Jesus as the King, however inferior to him in gifts and force, is a partaker of fuller blessing and privilege than he. "With all my imperfections," said Bunsen, on his dying bed, "I have ever striven after the best. But the best and noblest is to have known Jesus Christ.
3. A word to the unsympathetic and opposing Pharisees and lawyers. The people endorse the eulogy passed on John; but the Pharisees and lawyers frown. It is with reference to their unreasonable petulance that the sentences vers. 31-35 are spoken. What could satisfy such carpers? Verily, their successors are to be found in our day. The mind that is enmity against God will make faults, will twist any evidence, will imitate the children who will not be pleased, no matter what is done to evoke their response. Poor pedants! "they must stay in the dark until they are tired of it." Very different from such are the children of the true wisdom. They recognize and honour her under different types and forms. Wherever they see the prints of her shoes, there they love to put their feet also. "Wisdom is justified of all her children."
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 On vv19, 23 Art Thou He that should come, or look we…
Luk_7:19-22
Art Thou He that should come, or look we for another?
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Johns doubting message to Jesus
1. Much discussion has taken place concerning Johns doubt, whether it was real or affected; and if real, what was its cause? We believe there was doubt in the mind of the Baptist--serious doubt--arising out of no personal or petty source, but caused by the way in which the Messianic career of Jesus was developing itself.
2. This doubt was not in regard to the identity of the worker of the works reported to John with Jesus, but in regard to the nature of the works viewed as Messianic. But why should John stumble at those works, so full of the spirit of love and mercy? Just because they were works of mercy. These were not the sort of works he had expected Messiah to busy Himself with; at all events, so exclusively. Cf. Jonahs zeal for righteousness.
3. The reply sent back by Jesus to John amounted to this, that the sure marks that He was the coming One, the Christ, were just the very works which had awakened Johns surprise.
4. Having recounted rapidly His mighty works, Jesus appended the reflection, And blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in Me. We are not to find in the words traces either of harshness towards John or of wounded feeling in the speaker. The tone of compassion rather than of severity is audible in the utterance. Jesus felt keenly how much John missed by being in such a state of mind that that in His own work which was most godlike was a stumbling-block to him. Translated into positive form the reflection means, Blessed are they to whom the mercy and the grace of which I am full, and whereof My ministry is the manifestation and outflow, are no stumbling-block, but rather worthy of all acceptation. (A. B. Bruce, D. D.)
The test of Christianity
1. Jesus deliberately declined to rest His claims upon any other grounds than the testimony of His Father, a testimony which shone in the truth of His words, and in the heavenly character of His mission.
2. If the Master Himself is willing, nay demands, to be judged by results, manifestly organizations and churches that claim to be called by His name must not shrink from the same test.
3. The only proof of your being in contact with the living Saviour, the only proof that you rightly apprehend and sincerely embrace Him, is the result in your own hearts and conduct. No religion is worth anything that is not a power. (E. W. Shalders, BA.)
Looking for another Christ
There are times when, through the disappointments and failures of our personal religious lives, it may be necessary to look for another Christ than the Christ we have already known.
1. There are some who have been restless for months, perhaps for years, about their sin. They have appealed to Christ again and again, and the peace of Christ has not come to them. They are tempted to put this question. Christ may reply by pointing them to the great triumphs of His mercy by which they are surrounded. Go to Christ with all your trouble, and with a clear and vivid remembrance of His death, and you cannot put this question.
2. There are some who feel that their Christian life has not had the power and brightness they hoped for. This, also, often arises from a defective knowledge of Christ. Perhaps you have forgotten that He is not only a Saviour, but a Prince, and that you must accept His law as the rule of your life, and strive to get His will done on earth as the will of God is done in heaven.
3. This question may be suggested by the general condition and history of the world, a large part of the world is still unsaved: the misery Jesus came to console still largely unconsoled. Do you look for another Christ? Can the contents of His revelation be anyhow enriched? Can there be more careful warnings, more glorious promises, more compassion, more gentleness and beauty, than there are in Him and His gospel?
4. We do not look for the coming of another Christ, but the Christ whom we know will come in another form, to complete in power and majesty the work which He began in weakness and in shame. (R. W. Dale, D. D.)
The answer of Jesus to John
It seems to me that here the Lord prescribes to His Church the answer she should give in all days when men rise up and question whether He comes from God, when men rise up to say to His Church, Are you the kingdom of God? are you the Divine society established upon earth to be the home of the new life, and the source of a wide-spreading influence? Are you the city set upon a hill that cannot be hid? When such questions are asked, the Church must be ready, not merely to give proofs of her ancient origin, her orthodox title-deeds drawn from the dusty safes of her theology, but she must be able to say, Look at my life, my work. See what I am doing for the poor, the destitute, the oppressed, and judge me as you find me. Can the Church of God, in these days, bear such an appeal as that? Can she say, Look at the asylums I nave founded and support for the poor, the lame, the halt, and the blind! Look at my children giving devoted labour in the lowest dens of your cities; at my sons faithfully striving for the truth in the halls of your legislature; and see in juster laws and a purer life, and a more brotherly relation between man and man, proofs of the power of my spirit, and of the truth of my labours? She must answer so, and so must you and I, when challenged to prove that we are of God. We hear a great deal in these days about answers to the infidel, about arguments philosophical, historical, and scientific, which shall have the power, in the hands of skilful men, of silencing the antagonist. But a better argument and a mightier that any of these, an argument that never fails, is that derived from the fruits and results of religion in the life. The man who reads your history with criticism, and meets your argument with argument, will bare his head and bow his neck before the spectacle of a holy and devoted life. That he sees is true, whatever else be false; that is of God, whatever becomes of books and institutions. (Bishop Moorhouse.)
The message of John the Baptist
I. THE MESSAGE. What did it mean?
1. To convince his disciples? Not suited to do it; suggesting doubtfulness in their master; impairing previous witness.
2. To reassure himself? At variance with
(1) his character, testimony, Divine assurance.
(2) Words of the Lord (Luk_7:24), aimed to prevent the supposition.
(3) The occasion. When he had heard the works of Christ--the last work being the raising of the dead.
3. Message not of uncertainty, but of impatience. Things do not go as the Baptist expected. The world left in doubt. Opinion taking wrong turn for want of distinct assertion. Works of Christ, but no proclamation of Christ. It ought to be made. The time is come. He the proper person to obtain it. He will demand it in the interests of all.
II. THE REPLY.
1. Answer.
(1) To what was said. The facts are sufficient answer.
(2) To what was meant. The method will not be changed. The Lord must choose His own course. Men must see and judge. Facts first, then assertions.
2. Warning. There is danger in this disposition--danger of questioning Gods methods; restlessness, dissatisfaction, diminution of attachment, failure of faith. (Canon T. D. Bernard.)
Moral evidence of Christianity superior to miracles
1. It is evident John did not clearly apprehend the spirituality of the kingdom Christ was to introduce. Like the apostles, he expected the kingdom of God would come with observation, instead of its being of a slow, quiet, spiritual growth. He looked for something more visible. There were the remains of the old dispensation mixed up with his ideas of its nature; too much of the Old Testament theocracy.
2. The remarkable manner in which the idea of the coming of Christ had taken possession of the minds of men at the time John sent his disciples to inquire respecting it. The familiar designation of the Messiah was the Comer. Him that is to come is but the common version of the worlds designation of the Messiah. The Comer, as if with Him came everything else desirable. The coming of all future good depended upon His coming.
3. I might notice the worlds slowness in recognizing Christ as the Messiah, and the circumstances which occasioned that slowness to admit His claim.
4. He proceeded to enforce His claim by evidence corresponding with His character, and their necessities, and by evidence alone, the result of which
He is prepared to wait (Luk_7:21-23). As if He had said, Go and tell John My kingdom is a spiritual kingdom, and the employment of other than spiritual means would be uncongenial and obstructive.
5. That our Lord not only employed evidence in contradistinction from worldly display and physical force, but that He presented to these inquirers and the multitude moral evidence as superior to miraculous.
I. CHRISTS PREACHING CONSISTED, IN A REMARKABLE DEGREE, OF DEEDS.
1. Thus on this occasion, the God-like reply to the inquiry, Art Thou He that should come? His deeds spoke. He entered into no argumentative defence of His claims--Actions speak louder than words. In the same hour He cured many of their infirmities and plagues, and of evil spirits; and unto many that were blind He gave sight. He left the stupendous miracles He had performed to speak for themselves (Psa_19:1-14.l-3). The heavens had done much, and now He is in the world to develop what the heavens could not declare. It was not to be expected that His more full manifestation would be verbal merely, or chiefly, for how can speech, which is but the symbol of thought, convey ideas of what thought cannot grasp respecting God, who is a spirit, immaterial, infinite, invisible, incomprehensible. Speech fails to do justice to the finite, the visible, the material, and comprehensible; to convey the greatest and best conceptions of our own minds.
2. Christs verbal teaching related especially to Himself. Each portion of it was either the vindication of acts He had performed, or an intimation of some purpose he was about to accomplish, or a development of the kingdom He was then establishing--relating to its nature, origin, character, or growth.
3. This distinctive and important fact supplies a reply to the following objections.
(1) The first objection we refer to, more frequently felt than expressed, relates to the greater fulness of evangelical doctrines in the Epistles than in the Gospels. Although the latter comprise the discourses and teaching of Christ Himself, we reply to this by saying, Christ came not so much to preach the gospel as to procure it, to establish and confirm it, to perform the deeds, the record of which constitutes the gospel.
(2) The second objection urged from the time of Celsus downwards is, that parallels to some of our Lords sayings are to be found in the writings of
Plato, Isocrates, and others. Hence it has been inferred, absurdly enough, that the gospel had been anticipated--that Christianity was not original. To which we reply, admitting the supposed resemblances, the wonder is that they are so extremely few--two or three mere maxims of morality, and these but the distant reverberations of Sinais echoes of the ancient and moral law. What is Christianity? Nothing but a few maxims of morality? We triumphantly point inquirers for Christianity to her spirit and her works--her resemblance to her Lord.
II. His WORKS WERE WONDERFUL. It is a frequent description given of God in the Old Testament, He only doeth wonderful things. To achieve wonders is the prerogative of God. He alone doeth wonders; and this called forth the grateful praises of His people. Not only is God the wonderworker, but strictly speaking, all that God does are wonders, only wonders. The atom is as an atom not less wonderful than a world. Both owe their origin to His creative power, and are impressed with the Divine signature. Was it strange then that when God was manifested in the flesh, that when He appeared amongst us, who was predicted as the wonderful, His works and deeds should be mighty signs and wonders. There was a sense in which He could do nothing which was not wonderful; His constitution made it impossible that anything ordinary could emanate from Him.
III. HIS WONDERS WERE MERCIES.
1. All His miracles were miracles of mercy. Nor was it necessary to alter His laws, imposed at the first on nature, they suffered no violence from His mercy; on the contrary, they harmonized with it. In giving sight to the blind, He was but restoring the eye to the use and exercise of its proper function. His power He used as a trust to be administered for mans good alone.
2. Besides the present happiness, His mercies conveyed in the physical and mental benefits, miraculously bestowed, they had a higher value, a symbolical meaning, pointing to spiritual necessities and supplies, to the things relating to our redemption.
3. His miracles demonstrated His power, and our interest in turning the elements of earth to account of spiritual uses, relating them to heaven. In opening the blind eye He denoted that He came to be the Light of the world, and that we need that the eye of the understanding should be open to receive that light. The greatest wonder was that of His incarnation. In comparison with this wonder, all mere acts of His power were less splendid. This was the long desired and promised wonder. The ancient tabernacle foreshadowed His tabernacling among men. The temple with its indwelling Shekinah symbolically predicted this. Every instance of union between God and man, and the union of soul and body, prefigured this infinitely more mysterious union of the Divine and human natures in His person.
IV. HIS MERCIES, like His acts, by which He replied to Johns disciples, WERE ANSWERS TO MANS NECESSITIES. This is only another mode of saying that the blessings of His redemption are fully adapted to mans exigencies. It might have been otherwise. His words might have been works; His works might have been wonders; His wonders might have been mercies; and yet, after all, there might have been a want of strict suitableness between our necessities and the mode of meeting them, but the text reminds us that His mercies and deeds are exactly suitable and fully answerable to the exigencies.
1. This correspondence admits of universal application. He comprehended the entire scheme of nature and Providence. No legitimate question on any natural subject can ever arise in the mind of man, which his Creator and Redeemer has not foreseen; to which He has not inserted an answer in the things which He has made. Ten thousand answers are silently awaiting the future questions which shall call them forth. At this moment, while we are assembled here, the Creator may be elsewhere exhibiting similar demonstrations of His perfections in reply to inquirers. In the amplitude of space, hosts of intelligent beings may be collected around the chaos of a world, wondering whether it will ever be restored to harmony and order; whether all creative acts are at an end, and while they are inquiring the fiat may go forth from the Creator again, as in the beginning, Let there be light, and the light of Divine power may kindle around them.
2. The lessons of the Old Testament are represented as replies. God was graciously pleased to allow Himself to be inquired of. His replies were called responses or oracles.
3. But now Christ had come as the living oracle; from Him the questions which human guilt and misery had never ceased to agitate, were to receive a full practical satisfactory reply.
V. A PRACTICAL CHRISTIANITY ALONE, A CHRISTIANITY EMBODIED IN DEEDS OF MERCY, ADEQUATELY ILLUSTRATES THE WORKS OF REDEMPTION BY CHRIST. Blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in Me. Our
Lord meant not that His wondrous works should end with Himself. All power was given to Him as Mediator and Head of the Church, as a centre of an ever-enlarging circle. From Him as the Head of all things to the Church all emanates. (J. Harris, D. D.)
The soul dependent on physical conditions
However good and great you may be in the Christian life, your soul will never be independent of physical conditions. I feel I am uttering a most practical, useful truth here, one that may give relief to a great many Christians who are worried and despondent at times. Doctor Rush, a monarch in medicine, after curing hundreds of cases of mental depression, himself fell sick and lost his religious hope, and he would not believe his pastor when the pastor told him that his spiritual depression was only a consequence of physical depression. Andrew Fuller, Themes Scott, William Cowper, Thomas Boston, David Brainard, Philip Melancthon, were mighty men for God, but all of them illustrations of the fact that a mans soul is not independent of his physical health. An eminent physician gave as his opinion that no man ever died a greatly triumphant death whose disease was below the diaphragm. Stackhouse, the learned Christian writer, says he does not think Saul was insane when David played the harp before him, but it was a hypochondria coming from inflammation of the liver. The Dean of Carlisle, one of the best men that ever lived, and one of the most useful, sat down and wrote: Though I have endeavoured to discharge my duty as well as I could, yet sadness and melancholy of heart stick close by and increase upon me. I tell nobody, but I am very much sunk indeed, and I wish I could have the relief of weeping as I used to. My days are exceedingly dark and distressing. In a word, Almighty God seems to hide His face, and I intrust the secret to hardly any earthly being. I know not what will become of me. There is, doubtless, a good deal of bodily affliction mingled with this, but it is not all so. I bless God, however, that I never lose sight of the Cross, and, though I should die without seeing any personal interest in the Redeemers merits, I hope that I shall be found at His feet. I will thank you for a word at your leisure. My door is bolted at the time I am writing this, for I am full of tears. (Dr. Talmage.)
Inactivity a cause of doubt
Doubt often comes from inactivity. We cannot give the philosophy of it, but this is the fact, that Christians who have nothing to do but to sit thinking of themselves, meditating, sentimentalising, are almost sure to become the prey to dark, blank misgivings. John the Baptist, struggling in the desert, needs no proof that Jesus is the Christ. John shut up became morbid and doubtful immediately.
We are mysteries, but here is the practical lesson of it all: for sadness, for suffering, for misgivings, there is no remedy but stirring and doing. (F. W. Robertson, M. A.)
Christ is the dispeller of doubt
During his earlier life Dr. Merle DAubigne, the Swiss historian of the Reformation, was grievously vexed with depressing doubts. He went to his old teacher for help. The shrewd old man refused to answer the young mans perplexities, saying, Were I to get you rid of these doubts, others would come. There is a shorter way of destroying them. Let Christ be really to you the Son of God the Saviour. Do His will. His light will dispel the clouds, and His Spirit will lead you into all truth. The old man was right, and the young DAubigne was wise enough to adopt his counsel. He hoisted anchor, and moved out of the region of fogs, and quietly anchored himself under the sunshine of Christs countenance. (Dr. Cuyler.)
Devotion to Christ a cure for despondency
Active devotion to Christs service is another cure for spiritual despondency. The faith-faculty gets numb by long inaction, just as a limb becomes numb and useless if it is not exercised. The love-power grows cold if it is not kept fired up. When faith and love both run low, the soul easily falls into an ague-fit. What you need is to get out of yourself into a sympathy with, and downright efforts for, the good of others. When a desponding Christian came to old Dr. Alexander for relief, the Doctor urged him to prayer. I do pray continually. What do you pray for? The young student said, I pray that the Lord would lift upon me the light of His countenance. Then, replied the sagacious veteran, go now and pray that He will use you for the conversion of souls. (Dr. Cuyler.)
To the poor the gospel is preached
The gospel preached to the poor
I. THE EXCELLENCY OF THIS LAW. A new development of a heaven-laid plan to enlighten the poor; to raise them in the scale of being; to sweeten and adorn their lot by the honours of intellectual culture, the comforts of social life, and the hopes of immortality. The wisdom of our text, as a poors law, excels all the contrivances of men. It does not so much provide for the poor as it prevents men from being poor. It cuts off the causes of poverty.
II. THE OBLIGATION IT LAYS UPON US. The way to the most effective sense of duty is by discovering the need and the worth of the thing that is enjoined; and is this a thing to be countermanded or opposed?: But if the argument from the goodness of precept seem too weak, let us view its peremptory demand. It is the will of our Saviour that none live in a Christian land without hearing the glad sound, that so all may walk in the light of His countenance.
III. How is THIS GOOD LAW OF OUR LAND TO BE FULFILLED.? (N. Paterson.)
Christs works
1. Our Saviours works were words.
2. His works were wonders.
3. His wonders were wonders of mercy.
4. His wonders of mercy were suited to the necessities of man.
5. The suitableness of His wonders of mercy to the necessities of man is a satisfactory proof of His Messiahship. (G. Brooks.)
The suitability of the gospel to the poor
The gospel is especially adapted to the poor, in respect of--
1. Their education.
2. Their resources.
3. Their opportunities.
4. Their prospects. (G. Brooks.)
A preacher to the poor
John Wesley always preferred the middling and lower classes to the wealthy. He said If I might choose I should still, as I have done hitherto, preach the gospel to the poor.
Trophies of the work of Christ
Before many a Popish shrine on the Continent one sees exhibited a great variety of crutches, together with wax models of arms, legs, and other limbs. These are supposed to represent the cures wrought by devotion at that altar--the memorials of the healing power of the saint. Poor, miserable superstition, all of it, and yet what a reminder to the believer in Jesus as to his duty and his privilege? Having pleaded at the feet of Jesus, we have found salvation; have we remembered to record this wonder of His hand? If we hung up memorials of all His matchless grace, what crutches and bandages and trophies of every sort should we pile together! Temper subdued, pride humbled, unbelief slain, sin cast down, sloth ashamed, carelessness rebuked. The cross has healed all manner of diseases, and its honours should be proclaimed with every rising and setting sun. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Christianity and the poor
A celebrated doctor of divinity in London, who is now in heaven I have no doubt--a very excellent and godly man--gave notice one Sunday that he intended to visit all his people, and said,that in order to be able to get round and visit them and their families once in the year, he should take all the seatholders in order, A person well known to me, who was then a poor man, was delighted with the idea that the minister was coming to his house to see him, and about a week or two before he conceived it would be his turn his wife was very careful to sweep the hearth and keep the house tidy, and the man ran home early from work, hoping each night to find the Doctor there. This went on for a considerable time. He either forgot his promise, or grew weary in performing it, or for some other reason never went to this poor mans house; and the result was this, the man lost confidence in all preachers, and said, They care for the rich, but they do not care for us who are poor. That man never settled down to any one place of worship for many years, till at last he dropped into Exeter Hall and remained my hearer for years till Providence removed him. It was no small task to make him believe that any minister could be an honest man, and could impartially love both rich and poor. (C. H.Spurgeon.)
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 On v18 18–33. The disciples of John. For notes on John's…
18–33. The disciples of John. For notes on John's message, Christ's reply, and discourses about John, see Matt. 11:2–19.
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 On v18 Luk_7:19.—The message sent by John the Baptist to Jesus…
CRITICAL NOTES
Luk_7:19.—The message sent by John the Baptist to Jesus has been the subject of much discussion. Though in form questions, his words are virtually an appeal to Christ to declare Himself and to hasten His kingdom. The fact that John was dissatisfied with the character of the work in which Jesus was engaged and wished to suggest a new departure indicates a defective faith. In view of the words in Luk_7:23 we can scarcely doubt that some measure of blame attached to the Baptist for failing to appreciate the work of Christ at its true value. Still, this was but a temporary lapse from faith. John’s was not a fickle and wavering character, as Christ Himself here declares (Luk_7:24). The depression of spirits caused by his imprisonment must be taken into account in extenuation of his doubts and fears. He that should come.—I.e. the expected Messiah, a kind of title (cf. Heb_10:37).
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Luk_7:21.—Omit “same,” which should have been in italics, as there is no word in the original corresponding to it. Plagues.—Lit. scourges.
Luk_7:22.—The description given of the works done by Christ is taken from Isa_61:1; Isa_35:5-6, with the exception of the detail, “the dead are raised.” This last had special significance in view of the raising of the widow’s son from the dead, and was perhaps suggested by that miracle. Christ’s reply is virtually that He is the Messiah, and is engaged in the work which it had been foretold that the Messiah would do.
Luk_7:23. Offended.—I.e. caused to stumble (see R.V.).
Luk_7:24.—Depreciatory thoughts of the Baptist might have been excited in the minds of those present by the words of Christ, and therefore our Lord proceeds to set the character and work of His forerunner in their true light and to lay stress upon that in them which was great and unique. The question in this verse might be taken to mean, “It was not to see some trifling thing, such as the reeds, that you went out into the wilderness.” The expression “shaken by the wind,” however, seems to indicate that the words are metaphorical—that the stern, unbending character of the Baptist is suggested by contrast with the reeds.
Luk_7:25. Soft raiment.—Contrast with this the Baptist’s actual dress (Mat_3:4).
Luk_7:26. More than a prophet.—Namely, an actual, personal herald and forerunner; the angel or messenger of Mal_3:1, and so the only prophet who had himself been announced by prophecy.
Luk_7:27. Before Thy face.—In Mal_3:1 it is Jehovah who speaks, and His words are, “Behold, I will send My messenger, and he shall prepare the way before Me.” Here, as well as in Mat_11:10 and Mar_1:2, we have the quotation given us, “before Thee, before Thy face.” In other words, that which is said by Jehovah of Himself is applied by Christ to Himself—a very striking indication of Christ’s eternal and co-equal Godhead.
Luk_7:28. A greater prophet.—The best MSS. omit “prophet”; omitted in R.V. It is probably a gloss explaining and limiting the use of “greater,” i.e. as a prophet. He that is least.—“Rather, ‘he that is less,’ i.e. inferior to John, in gifts and power, yet being ‘in the kingdom’ is in a higher state. He that holds but a small place in the Christian Church is greater as regards his office than he who prepared the way for its founding. This is said not of the personal merits but of the official position of the two” (Speaker’s Commentary).
Luk_7:29-30 are evidently a parenthetical description of the impression produced by our Lord’s words upon those who heard them, and not a continuation of His discourse. This seems to have been understood at a very early time, as we can see from the insertion of the gloss in Luk_7:31, “And the Lord said,” which was intended to indicate our Lord’s resumption of His discourse.
Luk_7:29. Justified God.—I.e. declared their belief in the wisdom of God’s procedure, or acknowledged and commended the purpose of God in calling them to repentance by John.
Luk_7:30. Rejected.—Rather, “frustrated,” or “made of none effect.” Against themselves.—Rather, “for themselves” (R.V.), or, “with reference to themselves.”
Luk_7:31. And the Lord said.—These words are absent from all the best MSS., and are rejected by modern editors. See above. It is possible that they may have got into the text from a Lectionary; but even if this were so, the historical character of Luk_7:29-30 is sufficiently marked to distinguish them from Christ’s own words.
Luk_7:31-35.—The general meaning of this passage may be given as follows: “Those who pipe are the Jews condemning the asceticism of John, and complaining that he will not respond to their demand of a more lax mode of life. Those who mourn are the same Jews complaining of our Lord as not exhibiting the severity of life befitting a prophet. But in both cases alike wisdom is justified of her children; the foolish children are discontented with both; the children of wisdom acknowledge the Divine wisdom manifest in both, their different modes of life befitting their different missions. The simile is taken from children imitating in games a marriage or a funeral, with the accompaniments of merry or mournful music” (Speaker’s Commentary).
Luk_7:34. Eating and drinking.—A reference to our Lord’s practice of attending entertainments and feasts, e.g. the marriage at Cana, the feast in the house of Levi, etc. This incident is not identical with that recorded in Mat_26:6-7; Mar_14:3, and Joh_12:3—the anointing at Bethany in the house of Simon the Leper. “The two occurrences have little in common but the name of the host (Simon) and the anointing. In this case the woman was ‘a sinner,’ showing her penitence, in the other a pious, loving disciple, preparing Him for burial; here the feet are anointed, there the head; here the objection arose from the woman’s character, there from the waste; here the host objects, there Judas, while the lessons our Lord deduces are altogether different” (Popular Commentary).
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Luk_7:18-35
John’s Doubt of Jesus, and Jesus’ Praise of John.—In the first part of this paragraph we have an account of the faltering faith of the great witness, and of Christ’s gentle treatment of the waverer; in the second, the witness of Christ to John, exuberant in recognition, notwithstanding his momentary hesitation.
I. John’s doubts.—It is quite improbable that this message was sent for the sake of strengthening his disciples’ faith in Jesus as Messiah, or as a hint to Jesus to declare Himself. The question is John’s. The answer is sent to him; it is he who is to ponder the things which the messenger saw, and to answer his own question thereby. It would have been wiser if commentators, instead of trying to save John’s credit at the cost of straining the narrative, had recognised the psychological truth of the plain story of his wavering conviction, and had learned its lessons of self-distrust. There is only one Man with whom it was always high-water; all others have ebbs and flows in their religious life and in their grasp of truth. John seems to have wondered if after all he had been premature in his recognition of Jesus as Messiah. Perhaps this Jesus was but a precursor, as he himself was, of the Messiah. Evidently he continues firm in the conviction of Christ’s being sent from God; but he is puzzled by the contrariety between Jesus’ deeds and his own expectations. He asks, “Art Thou He that cometh,”—a well-known name for the Messiah,—“or are we to expect another?” and it should be noted that the word for “another” means not merely a second, but a different kind of person, who should present the aspects of the Messiah as revealed in prophecy, and as embodied in John’s own preaching, which Jesus had left unfulfilled. We may well take to heart the lesson of the fluctuations possible to the firmest faith, and pray to be enabled to hold fast that we have. We may learn, too, the danger to right conceptions of Christ, of separating the two elements of mercy and judgment in His character and work. John was wrong in stumbling at the gentleness, just as many to-day, who go to the opposite extreme, are wrong in stumbling at the judicial side of His work. Both halves are needed to make the full-orbed character. Our Lord does not answer Yes or No. To do so might have stilled, but would not have removed, John’s misconception. A more thorough cure is needed. So Christ attacks it in its roots by referring him back for answer to the very deeds which had excited his doubt. He points to prophetic writings which foretell the character of His work. It is as if He had said, “Have you forgotten that the very prophets whose words have fed your hopes, and now seem to minister to your doubts, have said this and this about the Messiah?” It is not Christ’s work which is wanting in conformity to the Divine idea; it is John’s conceptions of that idea that need enlarging. A wide principle is taught us here. The very points in Christ’s work which may occasion difficulty will, when we stand at the right point of view, become evidences of His claims. What were stumbling-blocks become stepping-stones. Further, we are taught here that what Christ does is the best answer to the question who He is. Still He is doing these works among us. We look for no second Christ, but we look for that same Jesus to come the second time to be the Judge of the world of which He is the Saviour. The benediction on him who finds none occasion of stumbling in Christ is at once a beatitude and a warning. It rebukes in the gentlest fashion John’s temper, which found difficulty in even the perfect personality of Jesus, and made that which should have been the “sure foundation” of his spirit a stone of stumbling. Our Lord knows that “there is none occasion of stumbling in Him,” and that whoever finds any brings it or makes it. He knows and warns us that all blessedness lies for us in recognising Him for what He is—God’s sure foundation of our hopes, our peace, our thoughts, our lives.
II. The witness of Christ to John.—Such a eulogium at such a time is a wonderful instance of loving forbearance with a true-hearted follower’s weakness, and of a desire, which, in a man, we should call magnanimous, to shield John’s character from depreciation on account of his message. The world praises a man to his face, and speaks of his faults behind his back. Christ does the opposite. “When the messengers were departed,” He begins to speak of John
1. He praises John’s great personal character. He recalls the scenes of popular enthusiasm when all Israel streamed out to see and hear him. A small man could not have made such an upheaval. What had given him such attractive power? His heroic firmness, and his manifest indifference to material ease. John was the same man then as they had known him to be.
2. Our Lord next speaks of John’s great office. He was a prophet. The dim recognition that God spoke in his fiery words had drawn the crowds, weary of teachers in whose endless jangle and jargon of casuistry was no inspiration. The voice of a man who gets his message at first hand from God has a ring in it which even dull ears detect as something genuine.
3. Jesus goes on to declare that John is more than a prophet, because He is His messenger before His face—that is, immediately preceding Himself. Nearness to Jesus makes greatness. The closer the relation to Him, the higher the honour.
4. Next we have the limitations of the forerunner and his relative inferiority to the least in the kingdom of heaven. Another standard of greatness is here from that of the world. In Christ’s eyes greatness is nearness to Him and understanding of Him and His work. Neither natural faculty nor worth is in question, but simply relation to the kingdom and the King. He who had only to preach of Him who should come after him, and had but a partial apprehension of Christ and His work, stood on a lower level than the least who has to look to a Christ who has come and has opened the gates of the kingdom to the humblest believer. The truths which were hid from ages, and but visible as in morning twilight to John are clear as day to us. What a place, then, does Christ claim! Our relation to Him determines greatness. To recognise Him is to be in the kingdom of heaven, Union with Him brings the fulfilment of the ideal of human nature; and this is life, to know and trust Him, the King.—Maclaren.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON Luk_7:18-35
Luk_7:18-35. The Messengers of John.—The King’s forerunner was in perplexity, because Christ did not set up an earthly kingdom.
I. The message of the servant to the King.—
1. When, and why sent?
2. How answered.
II. The testimony of the King to the servant.—
1. His character strong, self-denying.
2. His office.
3. His position.
4. His work. These words were a sort of funeral sermon for the Baptist.—Spence.
Luk_7:19. Christ the Great Counsellor.—John was in perplexity, and sent to Christ to ask about his doubts. So should we carry our perplexities straight to Jesus. Jesus understands all, and understands us all. Tell Jesus then. Leave all in His hands, that He may manage, unravel, clear it up for us. It is not easy. The taking it to Jesus is easy. Leaving it is the hardest part. But faith not only takes to Jesus, but leaves with Him. Thus only do we find peace.—Miller.
John’s Misconception of Christ’s Work.—The Baptist had heard in his prison of the works of Christ, and was perplexed by them, since they were not of the kind he had expected them to be. He had spoken of the Coming One as having a fan in His hand with which to purge His threshing-floor, and of the axe being laid at the root of the tree. Nothing Christ had yet done corresponded with these anticipations and prophecies. His preconceived ideas hindered him from understanding Christ’s procedure. This is still a most fruitful cause of spiritual ignorance and misconception. Those whose minds are under the influence of prejudice fail to understand the truth, since they seek not so much to be instructed as to justify the beliefs and opinions which they at present hold. John for the time occupied the position of those scribes and Pharisees who approached Christ as critics and not as learners. The question revealed a measure of impatience. “It seemed, no doubt, hard to him that his Master should let him lie so long in prison for his fidelity—useless to his Master’s cause, and a comparative stranger to His proceedings—after having been honoured to announce and introduce Him to His work to the people. And since the wonders He wrought seemed only to increase in glory as He advanced, and it could not but be easy for Him who preached deliverance to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that were bound, to put it into the heart of Herod to set him at liberty, or to effect his liberty in spite of Herod, he at length determines to see if, through a message from the prison by his disciples, he cannot get Jesus to speak out His mind, and at least set his own at rest” (Brown).
“He that should come,” etc.—The Jews expected more than one Divine messenger—Elijah, “that prophet” (Deu_18:15), and the Messiah.
Alternations of Mood.—These alternations of moods of wonderful elevation and of sudden and deep depression are to be traced in all the men of the Old Testament—raised for a moment above themselves, but not being transformed in spirit, they quickly fall back to their natural level.—Godet.
Loss of Faith.—The temporary loss of a bright faith. It was natural, but unnecessary. Do not many Christian people get more despairing over the loss of a few pounds, or over a little pain, than John did in his great trials? And yet how unnecessary was John’s doubt. Jesus was indeed the Messiah. John’s active work was now done. So needless, too, is all anxiety of Christian people in their times of darkness. The true way is never to doubt Jesus. Though there are clouds, the sun shines behind them undimmed.—Miller.
Luk_7:21. “He cured many of their infirmities.”—The mistake into which John had fallen was in not seeing that the beneficent works done by Christ were precisely those ascribed to Him by the prophets who foresaw His coming. Cf. Isa_35:4-6; Isa_61:1 ff.
Luk_7:22. “Tell John what things ye have seen.”—The reply to John was a significant narrative of what Jesus had been heard and seen to say and do, and not a bare “Yes” or “No.” The legend of Tarquinius Superbus and the messenger from Sextus supplies us with a similar mode of reply. “Sextus sent a messenger to his father for further instructions. On his arrival it happened that the king was walking in his garden. To the inquiries of the envoy the king made no reply, but continued striking off the heads of the tallest poppies with his stick, and then bade the messenger relate to his son what he had seen him do. Sextus comprehended his father’s meaning. On false charges he either banished or put to death all the principal men of the city,” etc.
Christ’s Miracles Emblematical.—The works of bodily healing, beneficent as they were in themselves, were also emblematical of Christ’s power to heal the souls of men—to give spiritual sight, vigour, cleansing, etc., to those blinded, weakened, and defiled by error and sin. It is therefore appropriate for the spiritual side of His work to be mentioned in connection with these miracles: “to the poor the gospel [or good tidings] is preached.” There can scarcely be said to be a climax in the works enumerated; but the last of them is that which is specially characteristic of the Messiah (according to Isa_61:1). “That which made this feature in our Lord’s ministry so remarkable was the contemptuous manner in which the Jewish doctors had been wont to treat the humbler sort of people (cf. Joh_7:49; Joh_9:34). By ‘poverty,’ however, doubtless the same thing is intended in this as in other places in the Gospel—namely, that condition of heart which is usually found to belong to persons endued with a very slender portion of this world’s goods” (Burgon).
Luk_7:23. “Blessed is he,” etc.—Rara felicitas.—Bengel.
Christ an Occasion of Stumbling—The same prophet to whose predictions Christ had just referred had foretold that some would find occasion of stumbling in Him. “And He shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem” (Isa_8:14). Jesus warns both John and those who now hear Him of this danger.
The Difference between the Spirit of the Old Testament and of the New.—It is a striking argument for the great difference between the Old and the New Testament that even the greatest of the prophets can, at the beginning, accommodate himself only with difficulty to the Saviour’s way of working. Among all those lofty and brilliant expectations which had been excited by the prophetic word, the meek, still spirit of the gospel could only gradually break a way for itself. John must continually take secret offence against Jesus before he had become in spirit a disciple of the best Master.—Lange.
Luk_7:24-27. “Began to speak unto the people.”—Jesus replies to the thoughts of the crowd. They might imagine from St. John’s message and the words in which it was delivered that the Baptist wavered in his faith, and that his imprisonment had shaken his constancy. Our Lord, therefore, reminds them of what John was, how he had acted, and how they themselves had behaved to him. “What went ye out for to see? Not an inconstant and vacillating man; not a reed shaken by the wind; but a man of inflexible resolution and invincible courage. What went ye out into the wilderness to see? Not a man of effeminate temper; not a sycophant who would flatter any for hope of gain. No; his rigorous fare, his simple garb, the very place in which you found him, refute this notion. If he had been such, he would have been in the court, and not in the desert. But what went ye out for to see? A prophet; yea, I say unto you, and more than a prophet: and He then refers to their own Scripture for the true character and office of John.—Wordsworth.
“What went ye out … to see?”—There is a climax in the words
(1) a reed,
(2) a man,
(3) a prophet. It was something great and wonderful in the person and mission of John the Baptist that drew the multitudes to him; but it was a spiritual and not a worldly greatness. Worldly greatness does not come into conflict with the opinions of the world, but bows before them: it seeks to dazzle the eye, and to impress the imagination of spectators.
Luk_7:26. “Much more than a prophet.”—John’s superiority consists in the facts,
(1) that he was himself the subject of prophecy (Mal_3:1);
(2) that he both saw and pointed out the fulfilment of his predictions;
(3) that he was “the porter” who opened the door for the Shepherd of the sheep (Joh_10:3).
Luk_7:27. “I send My messenger.”—The exceptional greatness of John arose from his connection with Christ, the true source of all spiritual greatness.
Luk_7:28. “Born of women.”—As distinguished from those who are born of God—born again of water and of the Spirit (Joh_1:12-13; Joh_3:5; Tit_3:5).
The Old Order and the New.—“The old order of things and the new are divided from each other by such a deep gulf that he who is least in the latter occupies a higher place than John himself. The most feeble disciple has a more spiritual insight into Divine things than had the forerunner. He enjoys in Jesus the privilege of sonship, while John is still only a servant. The humblest believer is one with that Son whom John announced” (Godet). This reflection is not given to depreciate the Baptist, but to explain and excuse his lapse from faith or his being offended in Christ.
Luk_7:30. “Rejected the counsel of God.”—I.e. rejected for themselves the counsel of God. Men cannot overthrow God’s purpose, but they can defeat it or make it of none effect in their own case.
Unbelief, a Thwarting God’s Purpose.
I. I remark, first, that the sole purpose which God has in view in speaking to us men is our blessing.—I need not point out to you that “counsel” here does not mean advice, but intention. In regard of the manner immediately in hand, God’s purpose or counsel in sending the forerunner was, first of all, to produce in the minds of the people a true consciousness of their own sinfulness and need of cleansing, and so to prepare the way for the coming of the Messiah, who should bring the inward gift which they needed, and so secure their salvation. The intention was, first, to bring to repentance, but that is a preparation for bringing to them full forgiveness and cleansing. Now, by the gospel, which, as I say, thus has one single design in the Divine mind, I mean, what I think the New Testament means, the whole body of truths which underlie and flow from the fact of Christ’s death, resurrection, and ascension, which are these in brief: man’s sin, man’s helplessness, the incarnation of the Son of God, the death of Christ as the sacrifice for the world’s sin; faith, as the hand by which we grasp the blessing, and the gift of a Divine Spirit which follows upon our faith, and bestows upon us sonship and likeness to God, purity of life and character, and heaven at last. That, as I take it, is in the barest outline what is meant by the gospel of Jesus Christ. God meant His word to save your soul. Has it done so? It is a question that any man can answer if he will be honest with himself. We shall never understand the universality of Christianity until we have appreciated the individuality of its message to each of us. God does not lose thee in the crowd: do not thou lose thyself in it, nor fail to apprehend that thou art personally meant by its broadest declarations. Then, further, God is verily seeking to accomplish this purpose even now, by my lips, in so far as I am true to my Master and my message.
II. Secondly, this single Divine purpose, or “counsel,” may be thwarted.—“They frustrated the counsel of God.” Of all the mysteries of this inexplicable world, the deepest of all is, that, given an infinite will and a creature, the creature can thwart the Infinite. Now I said that there was only one thought in the Divine heart when God sent His Son, and that was to save you and me and all of us. But that thought cannot but be frustrated, and made of none effect, as far as the individual is concerned, by unbelief. For there is no way by which any human being can become participant of the spiritual blessings which are included in that great word “salvation,” except by simple trust in Jesus Christ. How can any man get any good out of a medicine if he locks his teeth and will not take it? How can any truth that I refuse to believe produce any effect upon me? And so I remind you that the thwarting of God’s counsel is the awful prerogative of unbelief. Then note that, in accordance with the context, you do not need to put yourselves to much effort in order to bring to naught God’s gracious intention about you. “They thwarted the counsel of God, being not baptized of him.” They did not do anything. They simply did nothing. And that was enough. There is no need for violent antagonism to the counsel. Fold your hands in your lap, and the gift will not come into them. Further, the people that are in most danger of frustrating God’s gracious purpose are not men and women steeped to the eyebrows in the stagnant pool of sensuous sin, but the clean, respectable, church-and-chapel-going, sermon-hearing, doctrine-criticising Pharisees.
III. Lastly, this thwarting brings self-inflicted harm.—A little skiff of a boat comes athwart the bows of a powerful steamer. What will become of the skiff, do you think? You can thwart God’s purpose about yourself, but the great purpose goes on and on. And “who hath hardened himself against Him and prospered”? You can thwart the purpose, but it is kicking against the pricks. Consider what you lose when you will have nothing to do with that Divine counsel of salvation! Consider not only what you lose, but what you bring upon yourself, how you bind your sin upon your hearts.—Maclaren.
Luk_7:31-34. Children at Play.—The bearing of their contemporaries towards the Baptist and Christ had been childish and petulant. The ascetic life of the first had offended them; the gracious social deportment of Jesus was equally unwelcome. The illustration employed gives point to Christ’s comparison. The generation which surrounded our Saviour were like ill-humoured children who would neither play at marriage nor funeral. Nothing pleased them. Though a pleasant comparison, it was a sharp rebuke. To be childlike is good: it is evil to be childish. This childish unreason often repeats itself. Put the matter as you will, many will find fault with Christ and Christianity. The gospel is too hard or too easy. Prejudice can always find some objection. Christians also are complained of. They are too unsocial or too social, too gloomy or too happy, too cautious or too bold. Be not disconcerted or discouraged by such criticisms. Bear yourselves as becomes disciples of the criticised Christ.—Fraser.
The Humour of the Illustration.—As we scrutinise these words the humour of our Lord breaks out like rippling light over the page. Broadly regarded, how delicious is the taking down of the Rabbis and other dignitaries of the synagogue by the likening them to a parcel of little children! It could not fail to be infra dig. to these super-exalted representatives of official Judaism to have their conduct illustrated and reprimanded by the capricious changeableness of children.—Grosart.
Luk_7:31. “Whereunto then shall I liken?”—The double question seems to imply a difficulty in finding an appropriate figure to represent the unbelief and waywardness which found excuses for rejecting two messengers from God whose modes of procedure differed so widely from each other as did those of Jesus and John the Baptist. Conduct so unreasonable and perverse can scarcely find any parallel in the ordinary actions of men: only the folly and peevishness of children can supply an adequate simile for it. “You were angry with John because he would not dance to your piping, and with me because I will not weep to your dirge. Yet the children of wisdom, the truly wise, approve all the various methods of Divine wisdom, and profit by them, and press into the kingdom of heaven.”
Severity and Graciousness.—John the Baptist is regarded as a type of the law, which brought men to Christ, and prepared His way accordingly. There were natures which neither the severity of the law nor the graciousness of the gospel could win over. Yet had Christ (Wisdom) His faithful children—His true disciples—under either dispensation.—Burgon.
Remarkable Circumstances in connection with John.—A number of very remarkable facts concerning John the Baptist are given in the Gospels, which no inventor of legendary matter would have thought of fabricating.
1. One would have expected the ministry of the Baptist to come to an end when Christ began His; but as a matter of fact both continued for some time the same work of preaching and baptizing.
2. After the declaration of John (Joh_3:25-36) one would have thought that all his disciples would have immediately attached themselves to Christ; but they kept separate for some time, and only after the death of John seem, as a body, to have joined Christ.
3. It is remarkable that Jesus sent no message to John during His imprisonment, and that this reply to the question put by the Baptist should have contained no personal matter.
4. And even when tidings are brought to Jesus of John’s violent death He utters not a word upon the subject.—Brown.
Luk_7:35. “Wisdom is justified of all her children.”—Our Lord’s saying grows naturally out of the comparison which He has just made. The children sitting in the world’s market-place suggest to Him another sort of children, the children of Wisdom. Wisdom is represented as a parent; a certain number of human beings are children of Wisdom; and children, as a rule, may be expected to understand their parents, and to do them justice, when the world at large finds fault with them. A child, it may be presumed, is more or less like his parent. He has a sympathy with him, arising out of common character and mental constitution, which enables him to understand what his parent means. He is familiar, from long association and habit, with his parent’s ways of looking at things. He is in the secret of his parent’s mind. He can anticipate with confidence where to others all is dark or meaningless. Then, our Lord says, if Wisdom is misunderstood by men at large, there is no such misunderstanding in Wisdom’s family circle; there, at least, the dull and ill-natured world is shut out, while bright and loving faces gaze upon the parent’s countenance with a certainty that all is well. The true children of the eternal Wisdom were not even in those days shocked because John the Baptist came as an ascetic, or because the Son of man came “eating and drinking.”—Liddon.
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 On v18 Mat 11:2-6; Luk 7:18-23. We answer the above question…
DID JOHN THE BAPTIST OR HIS DISCIPLES DOUBT THE CHRISTHOOD OF JESUS?
Mat 11:2-6; Luk 7:18-23. We answer the above question unhesitatingly in the negative. Neither John nor his disciples had any doubt about the Christhood of Jesus. Already twenty months have rolled away since he had introduced Him to the people and inaugurated Him into His official Messiahship by baptizing Him at the Jordan, and he had seen the Holy Ghost descend on Him, not only indubitably demonstrating His Christhood, but gloriously qualifying Him to preach the gospel of the kingdom. As the disciples of Jesus had begun with John, and Joanna, the wife of Chuza, the steward of King Herod, lived at Machaerus, where John was in prison, and coming home kept the faithful Baptist well posted in reference to the mighty works of Jesus, the fact of the matter was, that Jesus had not yet openly to the Jews proclaimed His Messiahship, as this was brought out at a later date, up at Caesarea-Philippi, through the confession of Peter; John wanted to draw Him out into an open confession of His Christhood to the multitude, feeling that this would expedite the work.
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Luke: “His disciples proclaimed to John concerning all these things. And calling certain two of his disciples, John sent them to Jesus, saying, Art Thou He who is to come, or look we for another? And the men, coming to Him, said, John the Baptist sent us to you, saying, Art Thou He who is to come or do we look for another? And at that hour He was healing many of diseases, chronic ailments, and unclean spirits, and was conferring on many blind people the power to see. Jesus responding, said to them, Going, tell John those things which you have seen and heard; that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached unto them, and blessed is he whosoever may not he offended in Me.” So you see that Jesus just sent them back to John to tell him what they had seen, aiming this to be the answer to his question. During all these twenty months He has been performing all these mighty works, and at the same time constantly preaching the gospel of the kingdom. You see the solution of the whole problem: He desires the people to be convinced of His Christhood by His mighty works, which none but God can do, preferring that their faith may supervene as a normal result of witnessing His miracles and hearing His profound and glorious truth, rather than it should be founded on His simple affirmations. The time had not yet arrived for the open and public declaration of His Christhood. Another reason consisted in the fact that the Jews all believed that Christ was to be their King, ascending the throne of David; would break the yoke of oppression, and reign over them; thirty years of military despotism, since the Roman proconsulate had superseded the Jewish kingdom, had galled their necks with the yoke of military despotism till they longed to throw it off and again be free. This was evidently a great reason why He did not openly declare His Messiahship; but at the same time filled the whole country with His mighty works, which none but God could do. You must remember that He did, in the beginning, declare His Christhood while preaching in Samaria, as there was no probability of their crowning Him King.
William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On v18 Luk 7:18 - Luk 7:28.
Luke
JOHN’S DOUBTS AND CHRIST’S PRAISE
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Luk 7:18 - Luk 7:28.
We take three stages in this passage-the pathetic message from the prisoner, Christ’s double answer to it, and His grand eulogium on John.
I. The message from the prisoner.
Had mists of doubt crept over John’s clear conviction that Jesus was the Messiah? Some have thought it incredible that the man who had seen the descending dove, and heard the voice proclaiming ‘This is My beloved Son,’ should ever have wavered. But surely our own experience of the effect of circumstances and moods on our firmest beliefs gives us parallels to John’s doubts. A prison would be especially depressing to the desert-loving Baptist; compelled inaction would fret his spirit; he would be tempted to think that, if Jesus were indeed the Bridegroom, he might have spared a thought for the friend of the Bridegroom languishing in Machaerus. Above all, the kind of works that Jesus was doing did not fill the rôle of the Messiah as he had conceived it. Where were the winnowing fan, the axe laid to the roots of the trees, the consuming fire? This gentle friend of publicans and sinners was not what he had expected the One mightier than himself to be.
Probably his disciples went farther in doubting than he did, but his message was the expression of his own hesitations, as is suggested by the answer being directed to him, not to the disciples. It may have also been meant to stir Jesus, if He were indeed Messiah, to ‘take to Himself His great power.’ But the most natural explanation of it is that John’s faith was wavering. The tempest made the good ship stagger. But reeling faith stretched out a hand to Jesus, and sought to steady itself thereby. We shall not come to much harm if we carry our doubts as to Him to be cleared by Himself. John’s gloomy prison thoughts may teach us how much our faith may be affected by externals and by changing tempers of mind, and how lenient, therefore, should be our judgments of many whose trust may falter when a strain comes. It may also teach us not to write bitter things against ourselves because of the ups and downs of our religious experience, but yet to seek to resist the impression that circumstances make on it, and to aim at keeping up an equable temperature, both in the summer of prosperity and the winter of sorrow.
II. The twofold answer.
Its first part was a repetition of the same kind of miracles, the news of which had evoked John’s message; and its second part was simply the command to report these, with one additional fact-that good tidings were preached to the poor. That seemed an unsatisfactory reply, but it meant just this-to send John back to think over these deeds of gracious pity and love as well as of power, and to ask himself whether they were not the fit signs of the Messiah. It is to be noted that the words which Christ bids the disciples speak to their master would recall the prophecies in Isa 35:5 and Isa 61:1, and so would set John to revise his ideas of what prophecy had painted Messiah as being. The deepest meaning of the answer is that love, pity, healing, are the true signs, not judicial, retributive, destructive energy. John wanted the lightning; Christ told him that the silent sunshine exerts energy, to which the fiercest flash is weak. We need the lesson, for we are tempted to exalt force above love, if not in our thoughts of God, yet in looking at and dealing with men; and we are slow to apprehend the teaching of Bethlehem and Calvary, that the divinest thing in God, and the strongest power among men, is gentle, pitying, self-sacrificing love. Rebuke could not be softer than that which was sent to John in the form of a benediction. To take offence at Jesus, either because He is not what we expect Him to be, or for any other reason, is to shut oneself out from the sum of blessings which to accept Him brings with it.
III. Christ’s eulogium on John.
How lovingly it was timed! The people had heard John’s message and its answer, and might expect some disparaging remarks about his vacillation. But Jesus chooses that very time to lavish unstinted praise on him. That is praise indeed. The remembrance of the Jordan banks, where John had baptized, shapes the first question. The streams of people would not have poured out there to look at the tall reeds swaying in the breeze, nor to listen to a man who was like them. He who would rouse and guide others must have a firm will, and not be moved by any blast that blows. Men will rally round one who has a mind of his own and bravely speaks it, and who has a will of his own, and will not be warped out of his path. The undaunted boldness of John, of whom, as of John Knox, it might be said that ‘he never feared the face of man,’ was part of the secret of his power. His imprisonment witnessed to it. He was no reed shaken by the wind, but like another prophet, was made ‘an iron pillar, and brazen walls’ to the whole house of Israel. But he had more than strength of character, he had noble disregard for worldly ease. Not silken robes, like courtiers’, but a girdle of camels’ hair, not delicate food, but locusts and wild honey, were his. And that was another part of his power, as it must be, in one shape or other, of all who rouse men’s consciences, and wake up generations rotting away in self-indulgence. John’s fiery words would have had no effect if they had not poured hot from a life that despised luxury and soft ease. If a man is once suspected of having his heart set on material good, his usefulness as a Christian teacher is weakened, if not destroyed. But even these are not all, for Jesus goes on to attest that John was a prophet, and something even more; namely, the forerunner of the Messiah. As, in a royal progress, the nearer the king’s chariot the higher the rank, and they who ride just in front of him are the chiefest, so John’s proximity in order of time to Jesus distinguished him above those who had heralded him long ages ago. It is always true that, the closer we are to Him, the more truly great we are. The highest dignity is to be His messenger. We must not lose sight of the exalted place which Jesus by implication claims for Himself by such a thought, as well as by the quotation from Malachi, and by the alteration in it of the original ‘My’ and ‘Me’ to ‘Thy’ and ‘Thee.’ He does not mean that John was the greatest man that ever lived, as the world counts greatness, but that in the one respect of relation to Him, and consequent nearness to the kingdom, he surpassed all.
The scale employed to determine greatness in this saying is position in regard to the kingdom, and while John is highest of those who {historically} were without it, because {historically} he was nearest to it, the least in it is greater than the greatest without. The spiritual standing of John and the devout men before him is not in question; it is their position towards the manifestation of the kingdom in time that is in view. We rejoice to believe that John and many a saint from early days were subjects of the King, and have been ‘saved into His everlasting kingdom.’ But Jesus would have us think greatly of the privilege of living in the light of His coming, and of being permitted by faith to enter His kingdom. The lowliest believer knows more, and possesses a fuller life born of the Spirit, than the greatest born of woman, who has not received that new birth from above.
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. W. McGarvey 1914 · Public Domain On v18 J. W. McGarvey's The Fourfold Gospel [XLV. The Baptist's…
J. W. McGarvey's The Fourfold Gospel [XLV. The Baptist's Inquiry].
XLV. THE BAPTIST'S INQUIRY AND JESUS' DISCOURSE SUGGESTED THEREBY. (Galilee.) aMATT. XI. 2-30; cLUKE VII. 18-35.
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c18 And the disciples of John told him of all these things. a2 Now when John had heard in the prison the works of Christ, he sent by his disciples c19 And John calling unto him two of his disciples sent them unto the Lord [John had been cast into prison about December, A. D. 27, and it was now after the Passover, possibly in May or June, A. D. 28. Herod Antipas had cast John into prison because John had reproved him for taking his brother's wife. According to Josephus, the place of John's imprisonment and death was the castle of Machærus (or Makor), east of the Dead Sea (Ant. xviii.; v. 1, 2). It was built by Herod the Great, and was not very far from that part of the Jordan in which John had baptized, so that it is probable that Herod resided in this castle when he went to hear John preach. We learn elsewhere that Herod felt kindly towards John, and this fact, coupled with the statement that John called two of his disciples to him, suggests that John must have been held as an honored prisoner with liberties like those accorded Paul at Cæsarea-- Act_24:23], a3 and said unto him, csaying, Art thou he that cometh, or look we for another? [The prophets spoke of the Messiah as the coming one, and John himself had done likewise-- Mat_3:11.] 20 And when the men were come unto him, they said, John the Baptist hath sent us unto thee, saying, Art thou he that cometh, or look we for another? [This passage has been a puzzle to expositors from the very earliest times. Being unable to understand how the Baptist, being an inspired prophet and favored with visions of the supernatural, [278] could give way to skeptical doubts, they have exhausted their inventive genius to explain what John meant by his question. Among these many explanations the best is that given by Alford, viz.: that John wished to get Jesus to publicly declare himself for the sake of quieting all rumors concerning him, his fault being kindred to that of Jesus' mother when she tried to hasten Jesus' hour at the wedding of Cana ( Joh_2:4). But the plain, unmistakable inference of the text is that John's faith wavered. The Bible does not represent the saints as free from imperfection. It does not say that inspiration is omniscience, or that visions and miracles remove doubts. It took two miracles to persuade Gideon; Moses harbored distrust ( Exo_3:11-13, Exo_4:1-17.), and was guilty of unbelief ( Num_20:12); Elijah despaired of God's power ( 1Ki_19:4-10); Jeremiah was slow of belief, and in his despondency cursed the day of his birth ( Jer_20:7, Jer_20:14-18). But the most instructive parallel is that of Simon Peter. He witnessed the transfiguration of Jesus, beheld the glory of God, and heard the voice of the Father ( Mat_17:1-6); yet he sank below the Baptist, and denied the Lord with cursing; and no man has ever thought it at all incredible that he should do so. The trial of John's faith, though not so clearly depicted as that of Peter, was perhaps equally searching. His wild, free life was now curbed by the irksome tedium of confinement. His expectations were not fulfilled. The unfruitful trees had not been cut down, the grain had not been winnowed, nor the chaff burned, nor should he see any visible tendency toward these results. Moreover, he held no communion with the private life of Jesus, and entered not into the sanctuary of his Lord's thought. We must remember also that his inspiration passed away with the ministry, on account of which it was bestowed, and it was only the man John, and not the prophet, who made the inquiry. The inquiry itself, too, should be noted. It is not, Are you what I declared you to be? but, Being all of that, are you the one who should come, or must we look for another? John no doubt shared with all Jews the idea that Messiah was to set up an earthly kingdom, and seeing in Jesus [279] none of the spirit of such a king, he seems to have questioned whether Jesus was to be the finality, or whether he was to be, like himself, a forerunner, preparing the way for the ultimate Messiah. He did not grasp the thought that Jesus was both Alpha and Omega; that Jesus, the lowly servant of humanity, by service and sacrifice is evermore preparing the way for Jesus the King.] 21 In that hour he cured many of diseases and plagues and evil spirits, and on many that were blind he bestowed sight. 22 And he aJesus answered and said unto them, Go and tell John the things which ye hear and see: chave seen and heard; a5 the blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good tidings to them. [John himself, when thus questioned, had answered plainly, saying, "No" ( Joh_1:20, Joh_1:21), and he probably expected a like categorical answer from Jesus. The indirect answer of Jesus, ending with a beatitude, was well calculated to waken in John beneficial thoughtfulness, for it threw his mind back upon the prophecies of God, such as Isa_30:5, Isa_30:6, Isa_42:7, Isa_41:1-3, etc. It may be inferred that Jesus withheld answering the messengers and went on with his works of grace, that these might testify to John more potently than mere words of assertion. Jesus did not work miracles to gratify skeptical curiosity, but he did use them, as here, to strengthen wavering faith ( Mar_9:24, Joh_11:15, Joh_14:11); Jesus sums up his work in the form of a climax, wherein preaching the gospel to the poor stands superior even to the raising of the dead. Attention to the poor has always been a distinctive feature of Christianity. To care for the poor is above miracles. Modern Orientals are not impressed by the miracles of the New Testament as such. The sacred literature of India and China abounds in wonders, and with the people of these lands a miracle is little more than a commonplace. With them Christ's love for the lowly is above the miracles. "Wonders and miracles might be counterfeited, but a sympathy with the suffering and helpless, so tender, so [280] laborious, so long continued, was not likely to be simulated. Such humanity was unworldly and divine"--Beecher.] 6 And blessed is he, whosoever shall find no occasion of stumbling in me. [The scribes had stumbled and failed to believe in Jesus because he did not fulfill their ideal, or come up to their expectations. Jesus seeks to woo John from a like fate by the sweet persuasion of a beatitude. John must realize that it is better for the subject to fall in with the plans of the all-wise King, as he fulfills the predictions of God the Father, than for the King to turn aside and frustrate the plan of the ages to humor the passing whim of a despondent and finite mind.] c24 And when the messengers of John were departed, a7 And as these went their way, che aJesus began to say unto the multitudes concerning John [The commendation of Jesus which follows was not spoken in the presence of John's messengers. It was best that John should not hear it. We also do our work under the silent heavens and wait for the future plaudit, "Well done, good and faithful servant"], What went ye out into the wilderness to behold? a reed shaken with the wind? 8 But what went ye out to see? ca man clothed in soft raiment? aBehold, they that wear soft raiment cthey that are gorgeously apparelled, and live delicately, are in kings' courts. ahouses. [After the departure of John's messengers Jesus immediately clears the character of John of unjust suspicion. John, who had testified with such confidence as to the office and character of Jesus, now comes with a question betraying a doubtful mind and wavering faith. Was John then a vacillating man? Was he guilty of that lack of steadfastness which the world looks upon as intolerable in all who it esteems great? Was he blown about by every wind of public opinion like the tall reed (the Arunda donax) which skirts the Jordan, and which stands, bearing its beautiful blossoming top twelve feet high one moment, only to bow it to earth the next, the slender stem yielding submissively to the passing breeze? Was he a voluptuary about to condescend to flatter Herod and retract [281] his reproof, that he might exchange his prison for a palace? Those who had gone to the wilderness to see John had found no such man, and John was still the John of old. One act does not make a character, one doubt does not unmake it. John was no reed, but was rather, as Lange says, "a cedar half uprooted by the storm."] 9 But wherefore went ye out? { c26 But what went ye out to see? ato see a prophet? Yea, I say unto you, and much more than a prophet. [The Mat_11:10 shows us that John was a messenger as well as a prophet. Prophets foretold the Messiah, but John was the herald who announce him. John was miraculously born, and was himself the subject of prophecy. Great as was John in popular estimation, that estimation was insufficient.] 10 This is he, of whom it is written, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, Who shall prepare thy way before thee. [This quotation is taken from Mal_3:1, where it reads "my messenger... before me." But Mark ( Mar_1:2) concurs with Matthew and Luke in the reading given here. From the change in the words it appears "that Christ is one with God the Father, and that the coming of Christ is the coming of God"--Hammond.] 11 Verily I say unto you, Among them that are born of women there hath not arisen a greater { cthere is none greater athan John the Baptist: yet he that is but little in the kingdom of heaven cof God is greater than he. [We find from this passage that all true greatness arises from association, relation and contact with Jesus Christ. To be Christ's forerunner is to be above teacher and prophet, Levite and priest, lawgiver and king, and all else that the world estimates as great. If all greatness be thus measured by contact of Christ, how great must Christ be! But the least in the kingdom is greater then John. "This shows: 1. That John was not in the kingdom of God. 2. That, as none greater than John has been born of women, no one had yet entered the kingdom. 3. That, therefore, it had not yet been set up; but as John himself, Jesus, and the Twelve under the first commission, preached, was 'at hand'. [282] 4. All in the kingdom, even the humble, have a station superior to John's" (Johnson). Farrar reminds us of the old legal maxim which says, "The least of the greatest is greater than the greatest of the least," which is as much as to say that the smallest diamond is of more precious substance than the largest flint. The least born of the Holy Spirit ( Joh_1:12, Joh_1:13, Joh_3:5) is greater than the greatest born of women. They are greater in station, privilege and knowledge. The dispensations rise like lofty steps, and the lowest that stand upon the New Testament dispensation are lifted above the tallest who rest upon the dispensation of Moses. This is perhaps prophetically suggested by Zechariah-- Zec_12:8.] c29 And all the people [the common peopple, and not the rulers] when they heard, and the publicans, justified God, being baptized with the baptism of John. [They justified or approved the wisdom of God in sending such a prophet as John and establishing such an ordinance as baptism.] 30 But the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected for themselves the counsel of God, being not baptized of him. [The counsel of God was that the nation should be brought to repentance by John, that it might be saved by Jesus; but the Pharisees frustrated this plan so far as they were concerned, by their proud refusal to repent. All who followed their example shared their unhappy success. It is noteworthy that Jesus emphasizes baptism as the test as to whether men justify or reject God's counsel.] a12 From the days of John the Baptist until now [a period of about three years] the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and men of violence take it by force. [Jesus here pictures the kingdom of heaven as a besieged city. The city is shut up, but the enemies which surround it storm its walls and try to force an entrance--an apt illustration which many fail to comprehend. The gates of Christ's kingdom were not opened until the day of Pentecost ( Act_2:22-36.), but men hearing it was about to be opened sought to enter prematurely, not by the gates which God would open when Simon Peter used the keys ( Mat_16:19), but by such breaches as they themselves sought to make [283] in the walls. Examples of this violence will be seen in the following instances ( Joh_6:15, Mat_20:21, Luk_19:11, Luk_19:36-38, Luk_22:24-30, Act_1:6.) The people were full of preconceived ideas with regard to the kingdom, and each one sought to hasten and enjoy its pleasures as one who impatiently seizes upon a bud and seeks with his fingers to force it to bloom. The context shows that John the Baptist was even then seeking to force the kingdom.] 13 For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John. 14 And if ye are willing receive i it, this is Elijah, that is to come. 15 He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. [The Old Testament was the work of a long series of prophets, and this series was closed by John the Baptist. But John differed from all the others in the series; for they prophesied concerning the kingdom, while John turned from their course to preach that the kingdom was at hand, and thereby incidentally brought upon it the assaults of violence. As to John the Baptist being the prophetic Elijah, see Mat_13:24-43. In the Mat_13:24 Jesus says, "The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man who sowed good seed," but in the Mat_13:37 he says "He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man," thus making the kingdom of heaven like the entire parabolic picture, and not the mere subject of its leading verb. Others say that John came mourning and Jesus came piping, and that the Jews were satisfied with neither. This was the older view, and had not expositors been confused by the grammatical difficulties above mentioned, it would never have been questioned. For the context favors it, and the whole trend of Scripture demands it. It was God in his messengers--his prophets and his Son--who came to set the world right. It was these messengers who took the initiative and who demanded the changes. It was the people who sulked and refused to comply with the divine overtures. The whole tenor of Christ's teaching--the parables of the supper, etc.--represents the Jews as being invited and refusing the invitation. It was John and Jesus who preached repentance, but there was no instance where any called on them to repent. Jerusalem never wept over an intractable Jesus, but Jesus wept over the people of Jerusalem because they "would not." Jesus and John each besought the people to prepare for the kingdom of God, but the people sneered at one [285] as too strict and at the other as too lenient, and would be won by neither. To justify them in rejecting God's counsel, they asserted that John's conduct was demoniacal and that of Jesus was criminal, thus slandering each. But the lives or works of Jesus and John were both directed by the wisdom of God, and all those who were truly wise towards God--children of wisdom (see Act_21:3, Act_27:3), and Tyre became a Christian city, while Tiberias, just south of Capernaum, became the seat of Jewish Talmudism. Sackcloth was a coarse fabric woven of goat's or camel's hair, and was worn by those who mourned. It was called sackcloth because, being strong and durable, it was used for making the large sacks in which rough articles were carried on the backs of camels. Such sacks are still so used. Ashes were put upon the head and face as additional symbols of grief. Jesus here uses these symbolic words to indicate that these cities would have repented thoroughly.] 22 But I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgment, than for you. 23 And thou, Capernaum, shalt thou be exalted unto heaven? thou shalt go down unto Hades: for if the mighty works had been done in Sodom which were done in thee, it would have remained until this day. 24 But I say unto you that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for thee. [Several great truths are taught in this paragraph. We note the following: 1. Every hearer of the gospel is left either much more blessed or much more wretched. 2. That the miracles which Jesus wrought were calculated to lead men to repentance, for they demonstrated his authority to demand that man should repent. 3. That even among those who stand condemned at the judgment there is a difference, and that it shall be more tolerable for some than for others. 4. That God takes account of our opportunities when he comes to measure our guiltiness ( Mat_5:21, Mat_5:22, Mat_10:15, Luk_11:47, Luk_11:48, Joh_9:41, Joh_15:22-24, Rom_2:12). Capernaum was the most favored spot on earth, for Jesus made it his home. He therefore speaks of it figuratively as being exalted to heaven. Hades means the abode of the dead. It stands in figurative contrast to heaven and indicates that Capernaum shall be brought to utter ruin. Though Jesus was not displeased with the walls and houses, but with those who dwelt in them, yet the uncertain sites of these cities are marked only by ruins, and present to the traveler who searches among [287] rank weeds for their weather-worn stones the tokens of God's displeasure against the people who once dwelt there. In less than thirty years these three cities were destroyed. Sin destroys cities and nations, and permanent temporal prosperity depends upon righteousness. The history of the destruction of Sodom in the time of Abraham is well known. As it was one of ( Num_13:22) the oldest cities of any great importance in Palestine, this reference to its remaining is the more striking, showing that its destruction did not come from the mere operation of natural law, but as a divine punishment meted upon it for its sins--a punishment which might have been avoided by repentance ( Jon_3:10). There is hope for the greatest sinner if Sodom might thus escape.] 25 At that season [while these thoughts of judgment were in his mind] Jesus answered [replying to the thoughts raised by this discouraging situation--this rejection] and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou didst hide these things from the wise and understanding [the selfish and shrewd; the scribes and Pharisees, wise in their own conceit-- Joh_9:40, Joh_9:41], and didst reveal them unto babes [the pure and childlike; the apostles and their fellows who were free from prejudice and bigoted prepossession. God hid and revealed solely by his method of presenting the truth in Christ Jesus. The proud despised him, but the humble received him]: 26 yea, Father, for so it was well-pleasing in thy sight. [This is a reiteration of the sentiment just uttered. It means "I thank thee that it pleases thee to do thus." The Son expresses holy acquiescence and adoring satisfaction in the doings of Him who, as Lord of heaven and earth, had right to dispose of all things as it pleased him.] 27 All things have been delivered unto me of my Father [ Joh_3:35. All things necessary to the full execution of his office as Lord of the kingdom were entrusted to Jesus, but for the present only potentially. The actual investiture of authority did not take place until the glorification of Jesus ( Mat_28:18, Col_1:16-19, Heb_1:8). The authority thus delivered shall be eventually returned [288] again-- 1Co_15:28]: and no one knoweth the Son, save the Father; neither doth any know the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son willeth to reveal i him. [Here again are many important truths taught: 1. While we may have personal knowledge of Jesus, we can not know him completely. His nature is inscrutable. And yet, in direct opposition to our Lord's explicit assertion, creeds have been formed, defining the metaphysical nature of Christ, and enforcing their distinctions on the subject which Jesus expressly declares that no man understands, as necessary conditions of church membership in this world, and of salvation in the world to come. "It would be difficult to find a more audacious and presumptuous violation of the words of Jesus than the Athanasian Creed, with its thrice repeated curses against those who did not receive its doctrines" (Morison). 2. We can have no correct knowledge of God except through revelation. 3. Jesus begins the revelation of the Father in this world, and completes it in the world to come. 4. By this exclusive claim as to the knowledge of the Father, Jesus asserts his own divinity. 5. Christ's exalted power comes by reason of his exalted being.] 28 Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. [The preceding remarks are prefatory to this invitation. The dominion which Jesus exercises, the nature which he possess, and the knowledge which he can impart justify him in inviting men to come to him. The labor and the rest here spoken of are primarily those which affect souls. That is, the labor and the heavy burden which sin imposes, and the rest which follows the forgiveness of that sin. Incidentally, however, physical burdens are also made lighter by coming to Jesus, because the soul is made stronger to bear them. The meekness and lowliness of Jesus lend confidence to those whom he invites that no grievous exactions will be made of them. "Taking the yoke" is a symbolic expression. [289] It means, "Submit to me and become my disciple," for the yoke is symbolic of the condition of servitude--see Jer_27:11, Jer_27:12, Isa_9:4, Act_15:10, Gal_5:1, 1Ti_6:1.]
[FFG 278-290]
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.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On vv18, 21 The Embassy of John the Baptist. Luk 7:18-35
The Embassy of John the Baptist. Luk 7:18-35
The question of the Baptist:
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v. 18. And the disciples of John showed him all these things.
v. 19. And John, calling unto him two of his disciples, sent them to Jesus, saying, Art Thou He that should come, or look we for another?
v. 20. When the men were come unto Him, they said, John Baptist hath sent us unto Thee, saying, Art Thou He that should come, or look we for another?
After John the Baptist had been sure of the identity of Christ, Joh 1:29-34, he had made an earnest effort to get his disciples to follow Jesus. A few left and joined the ranks of the disciples of the Lord. But some refused to give up their allegiance to John. They could not distinguish between essentials and nonessentials; they felt that the austere life of John the Baptist belonged to the substance of a moral life. But many of them hovered about Christ and reported to John what they thought worthwhile. The great miracle of the raising of the young man at Nain made a deep impression upon some of them, and they hastened to the prison of John and gave him a report concerning this last miraculous deed. John now thought the time ripe for a last effort to lead his disciples to Jesus. For that reason he delegated two of them to go to Jesus with the question: Art Thou He that is coming, that should come, the promised Messiah, or must we expect, and prepare for, another? The disciples of John carried out his order very faithfully, repeating the very words of their master.
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 On vv18, 21 Connecting Statement:
Connecting Statement:
John sends two of his disciples to question Jesus.
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John's disciples told him about all these things
This introduces a new event in the story. (See: Introduction of a New Event)
told him
"told John"
all these things
"all the things Jesus was doing"
the men said, "John the Baptist has sent us to you to say, 'Are you ... or should we look for another?'"
This sentence can be rewritten so that it only has one direct quote. AT: "the men said that John the Baptist had sent them to him to ask, 'Are you the one who is coming, or should we look for another?'" or "the men said, 'John the Baptist has sent us to you to ask if you are the one who is coming, or if we should look for another.'" (See: Direct and Indirect Quotations)
should we look for another
"should we wait for another" or "should we expect someone else"
translationWords
John (the Baptist)
disciple
lord
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 On vv18, 22, 23 7:18-23 The disciples of John the Baptist: See study…
7:18-23 The disciples of John the Baptist: See study note on 5:33. John was now in prison (3:19-20), wondering whether Jesus was truly the Messiah, since he did not act like a powerful warrior–king who would overthrow the Romans. In response, Jesus defined his messianic role.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.