It came to pass, when the days were near that he should be taken up, he intently set his face to go to Jerusalem and sent messengers before his face. They went and entered into a village of the Samaritans, so as to prepare for him. They didn’t receive him, because he was traveling with his face set toward Jerusalem. When his disciples, James and John, saw this, they said, “Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from the sky, and destroy them, just as Elijah did?”
But he turned and rebuked them, “You don’t know of what kind of spirit you are. For the Son of Man didn’t come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.” They went to another village.
As they went on the way, a certain man said to him, “I want to follow you wherever you go, Lord.”
Jesus said to him, “The foxes have holes, and the birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”
He said to another, “Follow me!” But he said, “Lord, allow me first to go and bury my father.”
But Jesus said to him, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead, but you go and announce God’s Kingdom.”
Another also said, “I want to follow you, Lord, but first allow me to say good-bye to those who are at my house.”
But Jesus said to him, “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for God’s Kingdom.”
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv51, 54, 55, 57, 59, 60, 61 Christ goeth willingly to death.
Christ goeth willingly to death.
Word for word: he hardened his face, that is, he resolved with himself to die, and therefore ventured upon his journey, and cast away all fear of death, and went on.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv51, 53, 54, 55, 57, 58, 59, 62 50 And Jesus said unto him, Forbid him not:…
50 And Jesus said unto him, Forbid him not: for he that is not against us is for us.
51 And it came to pass, when the time was come that he should be received up, he stedfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem,
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Ver. 51. That he should be received up] The word αναληψεως (Poly. Lyser.) implies a metaphor from fathers owning and acknowledging their children after long absence.
He set his face] He steeled his forehead against all discouragements, εστηριξε.
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 vv51, 52, 54, 55, 57, 59, 61 From this to Luk 9:56 we have a piece…
From this to Luk 9:56 we have a piece of history recorded by no other evangelist but Luke; but is of great use to us, both to let us know, that our Saviour laid down his life, no man took it from him, and to let us see to what height differences about religion ordinarily arise, and what intemperateness is often found, as to them, in the spirits of the best of people, as also what is the will of our great Master as to the government of our spirits in such cases. The going up of our Saviour to Jerusalem at this time was his last journey thither.
When the time was come that he should be received up; ’ Eν τω συμπληρουσθαι τας ημερας της αναληψεως αυτου; that is, when the time was drawing nigh when Christ should ascend up into heaven; so the word is used, Mar 16:19; Act 1:11; 1Ti 3:16. But why doth the evangelist express it thus? Why doth he not say, when he was to suffer; but skips over his death, and only mentions his ascension?
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1. That is included; Christ was first to suffer, and then to enter into his glory.
2. Christ’s death is called a lifting up from the earth, Joh 12:32.
3. What if we should say that Christ’s death is thus expressed, to let us know that the death of Christ was to him a thing that his eye was not so much upon, as the glory which he immediately was to enter into after;
so as he calls his very death a taking up, as that which immediately preceded it, thereby teaching us to overlook sufferings and death, as not worthy to be named or mentioned, and to look only to that taking up into our Father’s glory, which is the portion of all believers; when they die, they are but taken up from the earth: and though our bodies still stay behind a while, death having a power over us, yet of them also there shall be a taking up. Upon both which takings up our eyes should be so fixed, as to overlook all the sufferings of this life, as not worthy to be named.
He stedfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem. Some think this was not our Saviour’s last motion thither before his passion, but then it would not have been said προσωπον εστηριξε, he set his face, or, he confirmed his face. He was now in Galilee, Jerusalem (that killed the prophets) was the place designed for his suffering; betwixt Galilee and Jerusalem lay Samaria, through which he was to pass.
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 vv51, 52, 54, 55, 57, 59, 61 The time now drew on, wherein our Saviour was…
The time now drew on, wherein our Saviour was to be received up into heaven, and accordingly he sets his face to go to Jerusalem, that he might there suffer, and from thence ascend.
Now here we have observable, 1. That although Jerusalem was the nest of his enemies, the stage upon which his bloody sufferings were to be acted, the fatal place of his death, yet nothing terrified with danger, he sets his face for Jerusalem, that is, come what will, he will go with an invincible courage and resolution.
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Learn thence, that although Christ had a perfect and exact knowledge of all the bitter sufferings he was to undergo, for and on the behalf of his members, yet did it not in the least dishearten him in, or discourage him from, that great and glorious undertaking.
Observe, 2. That although Christ was first to suffer before he did ascend, and to be lifted up upon the cross, before received up into heaven, yet is there no mention of his death here, but of his ascension only; as if all thoughts of death were swallowed up in his victory over death; teaching us, by his example, to overlook our sufferings and death, as not worthy to be named or mentioned with that glory which we are received into after death. The evangelist does not say the time was come when he should suffer, but when he should be received up.
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 vv51, 57 This passage of story we have not in any…
This passage of story we have not in any other of the evangelists, and it seems to come in here for the sake of its affinity with that next before, for in this also Christ rebuked his disciples, because they envied for his sake. There, under colour of zeal for Christ, they were for silencing and restraining separatists: here, under the same colour, they were for putting infidels to death; and, as for that, so for this also, Christ reprimanded them, for a spirit of bigotry and persecution is directly contrary to the spirit of Christ and Christianity. Observe here,
I. The readiness and resolution of our Lord Jesus, in prosecuting his great undertaking for our redemption and salvation. Of this we have an instance, Luk 9:51 : When the time was come that he should be received up, he stedfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem. Observe 1. There was a time fixed for the sufferings and death of our Lord Jesus, and he knew well enough when it was, and had a clear and certain foresight of it, and yet was so far from keeping out of the way that then he appeared most publicly of all, and was most busy, knowing that his time was short. 2. When he saw his death and sufferings approaching, he looked through them and beyond them, to the glory that should follow; he looked upon it as the time when he should be received up into glory (Ti1 3:16), received up into the highest heavens, to be enthroned there. Moses and Elias spoke of his death as his departure out of this world, which made it not formidable; but he went further, and looked upon it as his translation to a better world, which made it very desirable. All good Christians may frame to themselves the same notion of death, and may call it their being received up, to be with Christ where he is; and, when the time of their being received up is at hand, let them lift up their heads, knowing that their redemption draws nigh. 3. On this prospect of the joy set before him, he stedfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem the place where he was to suffer and die. He was fully determined to go, and would not be dissuaded; he went directly to Jerusalem, because there now his business lay, and he did not go about to other towns, or fetch a compass, which if he had done, as commonly he did, he might have avoided going through Samaria. He went cheerfully and courageously thither, though he knew the things that should befall him there. He did not fail nor was discouraged, but set his face as a flint, knowing that he should be not only justified, but glorified (Isa 50:7), not only not run down, but received up. How should this shame us for, and shame us out of, our backwardness to do and suffer for Christ! We draw back, and turn our faces another way from his service who stedfastly set his face against all opposition, to go through with the work of our salvation.
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II. The rudeness of the Samaritans in a certain village (not named, nor deserving to be so) who would not receive him, nor suffer him to bait in their town, though his way lay through it. Observe here, 1. How civil he was to them: He sent messengers before his face, some of his disciples, that went to take up lodgings, and to know whether he might have leave to accommodate himself and his company among them; for he would not come to give offence, or if they took any umbrage at the number of his followers. He sent some to make ready for him, not for state, but convenience, and that his coming might be no surprise. 2. How uncivil they were to him, Luk 9:53. They did not receive him, would not suffer him to come into their village, but ordered their watch to keep him out. He would have paid for all he bespoke, and been a generous guest among them, would have done them good, and preached the gospel to them, as he had done some time ago to another city of the Samaritans, Joh 4:41. He would have been, if they pleased, the greatest blessing that ever came to their village, and yet they forbid him entrance. Such treatment his gospel and ministers have often met with. Now the reason was because his face was as though he would go to Jerusalem; they observed, by his motions, that he was steering his course that way. The great controversy between the Jews and the Samaritans was about the place of worship - whether Jerusalem or mount Gerizim near Sychar; see Joh 4:20. And so hot was the controversy between them that the Jews would have no dealings with the Samaritans, nor they with them, Joh 4:9. Yet we may suppose that they did not deny other Jews lodgings among them, no, not when they went up to the feast; for if that had been their constant practice Christ would not have attempted it, and it would have been a great way about for some of the Galileans to go to Jerusalem any other way than through Samaria. But they were particularly incensed against Christ, who was a celebrated teacher, for owning and adhering to the temple at Jerusalem, when the priests of that temple were such bitter enemies to him, which, they hoped, would have driven him to come and worship at their temple, and bring that into reputation; but when they saw that he would go forward to Jerusalem, notwithstanding this, they would not show him the common civility which probably they used formerly to show him in his journey thither.
III. The resentment which James and John expressed of this affront, Luk 9:54. When these two heard this message brought, they were all in a flame presently, and nothing will serve them but Sodom's doom upon this village: "Lord," say they, "give us leave to command fire to come down from heaven, not to frighten them only, but to consume them."
1. Here indeed was something commendable, for they showed, (1.) A great confidence in the power they had received from Jesus Christ; though this had not been particularly mentioned in their commission, yet they could with a word's speaking fetch fire from heaven. Theleis eipōmen - Wilt thou that we speak the word, and the thing will be done. (2.) A great zeal for the honour of their Master. They took it very ill that he who did good wherever he came and found a hearty welcome should be denied the liberty of the road by a parcel of paltry Samaritans; they could not think of it without indignation that their Master should be thus slighted. (3.) A submission, notwithstanding, to their Master's good will and pleasure. They will not offer to do such a thing, unless Christ give leave: Wilt thou that we do it? (4.) A regard to the examples of the prophets that were before them. It is doing as Elias did? they would not have thought of such a thing if Elijah had not done it upon the soldiers that came to take him, once and again, Kg2 1:10, Kg2 1:12. They thought that this precedent would be their warrant; so apt are we to misapply the examples of good men, and to think to justify ourselves by them in the irregular liberties we give ourselves, when the case is not parallel.
2. But though there was something right in what they said, yet there was much more amiss, for (1.) This was not the first time, by a great many, that our Lord Jesus had been thus affronted, witness the Nazarenes thrusting him out of their city, and the Gadarenes desiring him to depart out of their coast; and yet he never called for any judgment upon them, but patiently put up with the injury. (2.) These were Samaritans, from whom better was not to be expected, and perhaps they had heard that Christ had forbidden his disciples to enter into any of the cities of the Samaritans (Mat 10:5), and therefore it was not so bad in them as in others who knew more of Christ, and had received so many favours from him. (3.) Perhaps it was only some few of the town that knew any thing of the matter, or that sent that rude message to him, while, for aught they knew, there were many in the town who, if they had heard of Christ's being so near them, would have gone to meet him and welcomed him; and must the whole town be laid in ashes for the wickedness of a few? Will they have the righteous destroyed with the wicked? (4.) Their Master had never yet upon any occasion called for fire from heaven, nay, he had refused to give the Pharisees any sign from heaven when they demanded it (Mat 16:1, Mat 16:2); and why should they think to introduce it? James and John were the two disciples whom Christ had called Boanerges - sons of thunder (Mar 3:17); and will not that serve them, but they must be sons of lightning too? (5.) The example of Elias did not reach the case. Elijah was sent to display the terrors of the law, and to give proof of that, and to witness as a bold reprover against the idolatries and wickednesses of the court of Ahab, and it was agreeable enough to him to have his commission thus proved; but it is a dispensation of grace that is now to be introduced, to which such a terrible display of divine justice will not be at all agreeable. Archbishop Tillotson suggests that their being now near Samaria, where Elijah called for fire from heaven, might help to put it in their heads; perhaps at the very place; but, though the place was the same, the times were altered.
IV. The reproof he gave to James and John for their fiery, furious zeal (Luk 9:55): He turned with a just displeasure, and rebuked them; for as many as he loves he rebukes and chastens, particularly for what they do, that is irregular and unbecoming them, under colour of zeal for him.
1. He shows them in particular their mistake: Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of; that is, (1.) "You are not aware what an evil spirit and disposition you are of; how much there is of pride, and passion, and personal revenge, covered under this pretence of zeal for your Master." Note, There may be much corruption lurking, nay, and stirring too, in the hearts of good people, and they themselves not be sensible of it. (2.) "You do not consider what a good spirit, directly contrary to this, you should be of. Surely you have yet to learn, though you have been so long learning, what the spirit of Christ and Christianity is. Have you not been taught to love your enemies, and to bless them that curse you, and to call for grace from heaven, not fire from heaven, upon them? You know not how contrary your disposition herein is to that which it was the design of the gospel you should be delivered into. You are not now under the dispensation of bondage, and terror, and death, but under the dispensation of love, and liberty, and grace, which was ushered in with a proclamation of peace on earth and good will toward men, to which you ought to accommodate yourselves, and not by such imprecations as these oppose yourselves."
2. He shows them the general design and tendency of his religion (Luk 9:56): The Son of man is not himself come, and therefore does not send you abroad to destroy men's lives, but to save them. He designed to propagate his holy religion by love and sweetness, and every thing that is inviting and endearing, not by fire and sword, and blood and slaughter; by miracles of healing, not by plagues and miracles of destruction, as Israel was brought out of Egypt. Christ came to slay all enmities, not to foster them. Those are certainly destitute of the spirit of the gospel that are for anathematizing and rooting out by violence and persecution all that are not of their mind and way, that cannot in conscience say as they say, and do as they do. Christ came, not only to save men's souls, but to save their lives too - witness the many miracles he wrought for the healing of diseases that would otherwise have been mortal, by which, and a thousand other instances of beneficence, it appears that Christ would have his disciples do good to all, to the utmost of their power, but hurt to none, to draw men into his church with the cords of a man and the bands of love, but not think to drive men into it with a rod of violence or the scourge of the tongue.
V. His retreat from this village. Christ would not only not punish them for their rudeness, but would not insist upon his right of travelling the road (which was as free to him as to his neighbours), would not attempt to force his way, but quietly and peaceably went to another village, where they were not so stingy and bigoted, and there refreshed himself, and went on his way. Note, When a stream of opposition is strong, it is wisdom to get out of the way of it, rather than to contend with it. If some be very rude, instead of revenging it, we should try whether others will not be more civil.
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 vv51–58 And when his disciples, James and John, saw this,....…
And when his disciples, James and John, saw this,.... The Persic version reads thus; when "James and John, and the disciples saw this"; that is, the other disciples besides them, so making all the disciples say what follows; whereas only those two are intended, who having been the messengers, were the more provoked at this indignity to their Lord and master:
they said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them; being enraged at this conduct of the Samaritans towards, Christ, and burning with love to him, and zeal for his honour; being "Boanerges's", sons of thunder, they were for punishing of them in a most terrible manner, even with, fire from heaven; by which Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities of the plain, were destroyed: this they doubted not of doing, knowing what miraculous power was conferred upon them; but did not think proper to attempt to exert it, until they had asked leave of Christ to do it:
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even as Elias did; upon the two captains of fifties, with their fifties, as recorded in Kg2 1:9 This clause was wanting in a certain copy of Beza's, and is not in the Vulgate Latin version; but is in other copies and versions, and by all means to be retained.
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 vv51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 57, 58, 61, 62 The days are fulfilled that he should be received…
The days are fulfilled that he should be received up - That is, the time of his passion was now at hand. St. Luke looks through this, to the glory which was to follow. He steadfastly set his face - Without fear of his enemies, or shame of the cross, Heb. xii, 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 vv51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 61, 62 Verse 51. That he should be received up] Bishop…
Verse 51. That he should be received up] Bishop PEARCE says: "I think the word αναληψεως must signify, of Jesus's retiring or withdrawing himself, and not of his being received up: because the word συμπληρουσθαι, here used before it, denotes a time completed, which that of his ascension was not then. The sense is, that the time was come, when Jesus was no longer to retire from Judea and the parts about Jerusalem as he had hitherto done; for he had lived altogether in Galilee, lest the Jews should have laid hold on him, before the work of his ministry was ended, and full proofs of his Divine mission given, and some of the prophecies concerning him accomplished. John says, Joh 7:1: Jesus walked in Galilee; for he would not walk in Jewry, because the Jews sought to kill him. Let it be observed, that all which follows here in Luke, to Lu 19:45, is represented by him as done by Jesus in his last journey from Galilee to Jerusalem."
He steadfastly set his face] That is, after proper and mature deliberation, he chose now to go up to Jerusalem, and firmly determined to accomplish his design.
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 vv51, 54, 57 Luk 9:51-53. When the time was come, &c. —…
Luk 9:51-53. When the time was come, &c. — Εν τω συμπληρουσθαι, when the time was fulfilled — That is, according to the Hebrew idiom, drew on, that he should be received up — The Greek word αναληψις, in this passage, signifies Christ’s being taken up into heaven; for we find αναλαμβανομαι, from whence it is derived, applied expressly to his ascension, Mar 16:19; Act 1:2; Act 1:11; Act 1:22; 1Ti 3:16. He had now continued on earth very near the whole period determined, and was soon to be taken up to heaven, from whence he had come down; he therefore resolved from this time forth to appear as openly as possible, and to embrace every opportunity of fulfilling the duties of his ministry. He steadfastly set his face — Without fear of his enemies, or shame of the cross; to go to Jerusalem — He did not travel thither privately, as he had often done before, but he declared his intention, and entered on the journey with great courage. And sent messengers before his face, &c. — The road to Jerusalem from Galilee lay through Samaria; wherefore, as the inhabitants of this country bare the greatest ill-will to all who worshipped in Jerusalem, Jesus thought it necessary to send messengers before him, with orders to find out quarters for him in one of the villages; but they did not receive him — The inhabitants of the village refused him entertainment, because his intention, in this journey, was publicly known. The Samaritans could not refuse lodging to all travellers that went to Jerusalem, for the high-road lay through their country; such travellers only as went thither professedly to worship, were the objects of their indignation; hence the expression, because his face was as though he would go to Jerusalem — It plainly appeared that he was going to worship at the temple, and thereby, in effect, to condemn the Samaritan worship at mount Gerizim.
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 vv51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 61, 62 Should be received up - The word here translated…
Should be received up - The word here translated “received up” means literally a removal from a lower to a higher place, and here it refers evidently to the solemn ascension of Jesus to heaven. It is often used to describe that great event. See Act 1:11, Act 1:22; Mar 16:19; 1Ti 3:16. The time appointed for him to remain on the earth was about expiring, and he resolved to go to Jerusalem and die. And from this we learn that Jesus made a voluntary sacrifice; that he “chose” to give his life for the sins of people. Humanly speaking, had he remained in Galilee he would have been safe; but that it might appear that he did not shun danger, and that he was really a voluntary sacrifice that no man had power over his life except as he was permitted (Joh 19:11 - he chose to put himself in the way of danger, and even to go into scenes which he knew would end in his death.
He stedfastly set his face - He determined to go to Jerusalem, or he set out resolutely. When a man goes toward an object, he may be said to set his face toward it. The expression here means only that he “resolved” to go, and it implies that he was not appalled by the dangers - that he was determined to brave all, and go up into the midst of his enemies - to die.
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 vv51, 52, 54, 55, 56, 57, 60, 62 The days of his assumption, i.e. of his ascension…
The days of his assumption, i.e. of his ascension into heaven. See the same Greek word in Mark xvi. 19. and Acts i. 11. --- He steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem, or literally, he fixed[3] his countenance to go up to Jerusalem. --- And (ver. 53.) because his face was of one going to Jerusalem. These expressions come from the style of the Hebrews. See 4 Kings xii. 17; Jeremias xlii. 15; Ezechiel iv. 3. The sense is, that the Samaritans perceived that he and his company were going up to adore in Jerusalem, at which they were displeased, having an antipathy against the Jews and their temple. (Witham) --- It is not here said, as some interpreters have believed, that his journey to Jerusalem was the last of his life, in which he was crucified. It appears from the context, that there were still many months before the death of Christ, and that this journey was probably for the feast of Pentecost. But that year was the last of the life of Jesus Christ and he already knew the dispositions of the Jews, and what was to befall him shortly. These words, he set his face, are often used in Scripture for obstinacy and hardness in evil. (Proverbs vii. 13. 12. 29; Jeremias xlii. 15. &c.) But we may likewise take them to signify a strong resolution, and intrepid and inflexible firmness, to perform what you have resolved. Jesus Christ shewed by his air, by his conduct and discourse, that notwithstanding the malice of his enemies, he was determined to go to Jerusalem. (Calmet)
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[BIBLIOGRAPHY]
Faciem suam firmavit, ut iret in Jerusalem, Greek: to prosopon autou esterixe tou poreuesthai. --- Facies ejus erat euntis in Jerusalem, Greek: to prosopon autou en poreuomenon.
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 v51 Luk_9:51 to Luk_19:27
THIRD SECTION
THE JOURNEY TOWARDS DEATH
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Luk_9:51 to Luk_19:27
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A. The Divine Harmony in the Son of Man and the Four Temperaments of the Children of Men
Luk_9:51-62
(Parallel to Luk_9:57-60. Mat_8:19-22.)
51And it came to pass, when the time was come [when the days were fulfilling] that he should be received up, he steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem, 52And sent messengers before his face: and they went, and entered into a village of the Samaritans, to make ready for him. 53And they did not receive him, because his face was as though 54he would go to Jerusalem. And [But] when his disciples James and John saw this, they said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias [Elijah] did? 55But he turned, and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of [Know ye not of what spirit ye are children V. O.11]. 56For the Son of man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them [om. this sentence]. And they went to another village. 57And it came to pass, that, as they went in the way, a certain man said unto him, Lord, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest. 58And Jesus said unto him, [The] Foxes have holes, and [the] birds of the air have nests [habitations, κατασκηνώσεις]; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head. 59And he said unto another, Follow me. But he said, Lord, 60suffer me first to go and bury my father. Jesus said unto him, Let the dead bury their 61dead: but go thou and preach the kingdom of God. And, another also said, Lord, I will follow thee; but let me first go bid them farewell, which are at home at my house. 62And Jesus said unto him [om., unto him, V. O.12], No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Chronological.—We believe that the here-mentioned journey must be coördinated with Joh_7:1 (Friedlieb, Krafft, Hug, Lücke, Wieseler, a. o.). The grammatical expression of Luk_9:51 admits of this, and the remark, Joh_7:10, that the Saviour went up secretly, agrees admirably with Luke’s account that He travelled through Samaria. The arrangement of the events in Stier, who places Joh_7:1 immediately after Mat_16:12, and makes the Saviour remain three whole months at Jerusalem, appears to us supported by no sufficient reasons, and to offer internal difficulties. We consider it, on the other hand, entirely probable that the Saviour, between the feast of Tabernacles, John 7, and the feast of the Dedication, John 10, spent yet some time in Galilee.
Luk_9:51. When the days were fulfilling that He should be received up.—With these words Luke begins a new particular narrative of travel, and for Harmonistics the question is naturally of great importance what we are to understand by the expression ἡμ. τῆς ἀναλ. We should be relieved of great difficulties if we found ourselves allowed to understand by it the coming to an end of the days in which the Saviour found a favorable reception in Galilee (Wieseler, Lange), but even if the grammatical possibility of this interpretation was sufficiently proved, yet the whole way of conceiving the first period of the public life of the Saviour, as a time of favorable reception in contrast with the conflict afterwards arising, appears to be hardly in the spirit of Luke. The translation of συμπληροῦσθαι in the sense of: “To come to an end,” is at least not favored by Act_2:1, and moreover the whole Pauline usage of our Evangelist is decidedly in favor of interpreting the ἀνάληψις in the ecclesiastical sense of Assumtio. Comp. Act_1:2; Act_11:22; 1Ti_3:16. We believe, therefore, that this is here indicated as the final term of the earthly manifestation of the Saviour, to which even His death was only a natural transition. But we are not obliged, therefore, as yet to assume that here the journey to the last Passover is meant; on the other hand, the opposite seems to be deducible from Luk_13:22; Luk_17:11. Quite as little can we assume that here two journeys to feasts have been confounded (Schleiermacher), and least of all that it is not even an account of any particular journey which begins here (Ritzschl). It appears, on the other hand, that here one of the last journeys is designated which the Saviour, on the approach of the end of His life, had entered upon with His view directed to His exaltation, and at the same time that in this whole narrative of journeying, Luk_9:51 to Luk_18:14, different details do not appear in their strict historical sequence. This was fully permitted to the Evangelist, since on his pragmatical position the whole public life of the Lord might properly be called a journey to death, as Bengel strikingly explains it: “Instabat adhuc passio, crux, mors, sepulcrum, sed per hœc omnia ad metam prospexit Jesus, cujus sensum imitatur stilus Evangelistœ.” Moreover, it clearly appears that this whole account of this journey in Luke is drawn from one or several distinct written sources (διηγήσεις); yet respecting their nature and origin it is impossible to determine anything certain, and for the credibility of this part also we must be contented with the declaration which Luke has made respecting his whole Gospel in the introduction, Luk_1:1-4.
He steadfastly set His face, ἐστήριξε τὸπρόσωπον.—We cannot agree with the opinion (Von Baur) that nothing is here meant to be intimated than that Jesus, in all of the journeys which He was now making, never lost the final goal out of His mind, but made them with the continual, unshaken consciousness that they, wherever they led, were properly a πορεύεσθαι εἰς ̔Ιερουσ. True, there lies in the word ἐστήριξε the conception of a steadfast undaunted beholding of the final goal of the journey but that nevertheless an immediate commencement and continuance of the journey itself was connected therewith is sufficiently apparent from Luk_9:53-56.
Luk_9:53. And they did not receive Him.—It is true that the caravans for Jerusalem often journeyed this way (see Josephus, Ant. Jud. xx. 6. 1; and Lightfoot, on Joh_4:4), but for all that, hospitality might very well have been refused to a company travelling separately, and, above all, to the Saviour; if the report of the increasing hatred against Him had already made its way even to Samaria, and obtained there some influence. [The fact that the company were Jews is quite sufficient to account for the refusal, without the wholly superfluous and ungrounded supposition that they were influenced by any condition of parties among the Jews. If Jewish hatred against the Saviour had had any influence among the Samaritans, it would have been in His favor.—C. C. S.] Respecting the hatred between Samaritans and Jews, comp. Lange, on the Gospel of John.
Luk_9:54. James and John.—There is just as little ground for assuming (Euth. Zigab.) as for denying (Meyer) that the sons of Zebedee themselves were the messengers. The exasperation that filled them is as easily comprehensible as the entreaty for vengeance which they uttered. 1. They had seen the Lord upon Tabor, where Moses and Elijah did Him homage: shortly after, a conversation of high moment had directed their attention to Elijah and his relation to the kingdom of God. Is it a wonder that an image from the history of this prophet came up before their souls, and a spark of his fiery zeal set their hearts into a flaming glow? Comp. 2Ki_19:12. That the name Boanerges was given them for a humiliating reminder of what here took place, is, as already remarked, without any ground.
As Elijah did, ὡς καὶ Ἠ. ἐποίησεν.—Upon the authority of B., L., and some cursives and variations, these words have been often suspected (Mill, Griesbach), and finally omitted by Tischendorf. We believe, however, that their early omission must be explained on the ground that “in the answer of Jesus an indirect censure of this example was discovered” (De Wette). On the other hand, it is probable that the words proceeded from the disciples themselves, since such an apparently unreasonable inquiry could be best justified by an express appeal to the man who had also performed such a miracle of punishment.
Luk_9:55. Know ye not of what Spirit ye are?—The Saviour does not disapprove this Elijah-like zeal unconditionally. Ηe knows that this, on the plane of the old Theocracy, was not seldom necessary; but this does He seriously censure: that His disciples so entirely overlooked the distinction between the Old and the New Testament, that they, in the service of the mildest Master, still continued to believe that they could act as was permitted the stern reformer of Israel on his rigoristic position. They ought far rather to have considered that they, in His society, had, from the very beginning, become partakers of another Spirit, which knew no pleasure in vengeance. Not only of this does the Master powerfully admonish them, that they should be the bearers of this Spirit, but also that they in His society were already the dwelling-places of this Spirit. We find no ground for removing these words as spurious from the text, notwithstanding that they had been quite early suspected and expunged by many. (See Tischendorf, ad loc.) Their rejection, however, is sufficiently explained by the fact that they seemed to contain an indirect censure of Elijah’s way of dealing, and therefore gave offence to the copyists, although from a mistaken understanding of them. Perhaps it was feared also that by retaining these words the ancient Christian zeal in the persecution of heretics would be seen to be condemned, and they were therefore discreetly left out. In both cases the omission is at least fully intelligible, but not in what way they had come into the other manuscripts if the Saviour had not uttered them. And would Luke have written only ἐπετίμησεν αύτοῖς without adding anything more; precisely as he had previously, Luk_9:42, said in reference to an evil spirit? On the contrary, as respects the last words in the Recepta: “The Son of Man is not come,” &c., the number as well as the weight of the authorities for their spuriousness is in our eyes decisive. They are in all probability, as a fitting conclusion of an ecclesiastical lesson, transferred either from Mat_18:18, or Luk_19:10. The grounds, at least, on which, for example, Stier, iii. p. 95, will still vindicate them, appear to us rather subjective and unsatisfactory.
Luk_9:57. And it came to pass.—The correct historical sequence of this occurrence appears to have been observed by Matthew, Luk_8:19-20. The second may have taken place almost contemporaneously with it, the third probably on another occasion; but it is related by Luke here, on account of the similarity of the case, in one connection with the others. Our Evangelist apparently gives them at the beginning of this last narrative of travel, for the reason that they have all relation to one most momentous subject, the following of the Saviour in the way of self-denial, of toil, and of conflict.
A certain man.—According to Matthew, a scribe. If we proceed upon the presupposition that the Evangelist, in the case of very special callings of disciples, had in mind only the calling of apostles, and that therefore the here-mentioned person must necessarily have been one of the Twelve, the conjecture of Lange is then in the highest degree happy, that we here in the two following accounts have the history of the calling of Judas Iscariot, Thomas, and Matthew. On the other hand, we do not know whether the first was a scribe: we believe, moreover, that we must assume, on chronological grounds, that the calling of Matthew had already taken place. The first of these three men is moreover not called by Jesus, but, unrequested, offers himself to Him as companion of His journey. He utters the language of excited enthusiasm, follows the impression of the moment, and is the type of a sanguine nature.
Luk_9:58. The foxes.—The answer of the Saviour does not of itself entitle us to accuse the scribe who offers himself as a disciple, of an interested end; but it only presupposes that his resolution had been taken too hastily to be well matured and well considered. The Saviour therefore desires that he should first consider how little rest and comfort he had to expect in this journey. He Himself had less than even the wildest beasts possess, and can therefore call His followers also only to daily self-denial. The Saviour here does not primarily refer to the humbleness and poverty of His life, but to His restless and wandering life, although the first of these thoughts need not be wholly excluded. Does, perchance, the presentiment also express itself in these words that even dying He should lay His head to rest in a place which was not even His own property? At all events, we have to admire the deep wisdom of the Saviour in this, that on this occasion He calls himself the Son of Man, as if He would intimate that He who requires so much self-denial, also fully deserves it. As far as we from other passages are acquainted with even the better-minded scribes, we shall be very well able to assume that this one, at such a word, went from thence with a disturbed mind. The interpretation, moreover, that the Saviour with this pregnant answer only meant to say, “But I know not as yet for the coming night where I shall sleep” (Herder), or, that “The Divine Spirit which restlessly worked in Him, suffered itself to be hemmed in under no roof, within no four walls” (Weisse), belongs fitly in a collection of exegetical curiosities. The view of Schleiermacher, that the scribe wished to follow the Saviour to Jerusalem on whichever of the many roads to Jerusalem He might travel, we cannot approve, since it rests upon an improbability, in presupposing that not Matthew but Luke has given this occurrence in the right historical connection. To better purpose may we, in order to understand this man’s meaning, compare the language which Ittai used towards David, 2Sa_15:21.
Luk_9:59. And He said unto another, Follow Me.—According to Matthew’s intimation also: πρῶτον, Jesus first called this man to follow Him, and encouraged him, therefore, while He rather deterred the former. The melancholy temperament is treated by the Lord very differently from the sanguine. According to Matthew, he is one of the μαθηταί, belonging to the wider circle which is alluded to also in Joh_6:66. If the scribe was too inconsiderate, this man is too melancholy, and even in the most immediate neighborhood of the Prince of life, he sees himself pursued by gloomy images of death. The Lord knows that this man must choose at once or without doubt he will never choose, and deals with him, therefore, with all the strictness, but at the same time with all the wisdom, of love.
First to go and bury my father.—The sense is not that the father was already old, and that he wished to wait for his death (so, among others, Hase, Leben Jesu, second edition), for then he would have demanded an indefinite, perhaps a long postponement, and would have deserved a sharper answer. No, without doubt his father had died, and he had perhaps only quite lately received the intelligence of his death. It is not, however, probable that he would have mingled among the people and approached the Saviour, immediately from the house of death, after he had become Levitically unclean. He wishes, on the other hand, to go to his dead father, and cherishes the hope that the Saviour, for his sake, will postpone His departure or else permit him to follow afterwards.
Luk_9:60. Let the dead.—See Lange, ad loc. in Matthew. With a man of such a character the Saviour considers it absolutely necessary to insist on the exact fulfilment of the high principle, that for His sake, one must unconditionally leave all. If even the Nazarites were not permitted to defile themselves by touching the mortal remains of their kindred (Num_6:6-7), without this prohibition having been viewed as too strict, the Saviour also does not require too much when He here demanded the leaving of the dead father; the more so since He made good a thousandfold that which was given up for His sake, by the joyful calling to preach the Gospel of the kingdom of God. Duty to a handful of dust must now give way before duty towards mankind. It is of course understood, that the Saviour here by the first mentioned νεκροί means the spiritually dead, and it at once appears how much, by the double sense in which the word νεκροί is here used, the expression gains in beauty and power. Here also, in the use of language by the Synoptic and the Johannean Christ, there is discernible an admirable agreement. Comp. Joh_5:24-25.
Luk_9:61. Lord, I will follow Thee.—Luke does not state definitely whether the initiative proceeded from the Saviour or the disciple. It may be that Jesus had first called him, yet it is also possible that he here offers himself. This history has a remarkable concurrence with the prophetical calling of Elisha, 1Ki_19:19; 1Ki_19:21, and the form of the Saviour’s answer also appears borrowed from what took place with Elisha, who was called when ploughing. Here the Saviour insisted upon undivided devotion, as He in the first case insisted upon ripe consideration, in the second upon courageous decision. The inquirer is either not to follow, or to follow wholly and perfectly.
Luk_9:62. No man.—Before all things the Saviour will give the man to feel that in the kingdom of God a severe labor must be accomplished,—a labor which will be doubly severe and certainly unfruitful, if the whole man does not take part in it. He portrays to us from life the plougher whose hand is on the plough, whose eye is turned back, and whose work roust thereby become toilsome, ill regulated and insignificant. [The light, easily overturned plough of the East lends force to the image.—C. C. S.] What should He have to do with such laborers in His kingdom? To be compared with this, although not to be identified with it, is the example of Lot’s wife, Luk_17:32, and the apostolic saying, 2Pe_2:22.
Remarks on the whole Section.—It has often been remarked that Luke, without observing a strict chronological sequence, brings together here four different characters: Luk_9:51-56 the Choleric, Luk_9:57-58 the Sanguine, Luk_9:59-60 the Melancholic, Luk_9:61-62 the Phlegmatic. Without precisely asserting that the Evangelist had the definite purpose to portray the Saviour’s manner of dealing with men of the most different temperaments, we yet cannot deny that he is much more concerned for the union of similar facts than for strict chronological arrangement. It is not probable that in the last period of the public life of the Saviour, when enmity against Him had already so considerably increased, a scribe would have followed Him even then; on the contrary, it is much more credible that this, as Matthew relates, took place at an earlier period of time. That this last case occurred twice (Stier), appears to us on internal grounds hardly admissible.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. It has more than once been inquired what temperament is to be ascribed to the Son of Man, and the decision has been made in favor of some one of the four, e.g. the choleric (Winkler). But the comparison of our Saviour’s temper of soul and manner of dealing with that of the four different men coming here into view, gives us plainly to perceive that every strongly pronounced temperament necessarily represents something one-sided, while it is precisely in the perfect harmony of His predispositions, powers, and movements of soul, that the characteristics of the entirely unique personality of Jesus must be sought.
2. The insult which the Saviour received from the Samaritans must have been the greater, the more widely the fame of His Messianic dignity had penetrated even among them. To a Messiah who was going up to Jerusalem instead of restoring the temple-service on Gerizim, they could not possibly extend hospitality. But at the same time, this hatred is also a striking symbol of the reception which is now as ever prepared for the Christian in the midst of an unbelieving world, as soon as this becomes aware, or conjectures, that his countenance also is directed towards the heavenly Jerusalem.
3. The heavenly mildness of the Saviour over against religious hatred on the one hand and the desire of vengeance on the other, only becomes rightly apparent, if we not only compare Him with Elijah, but above all consider who He was, and what reception He was entitled to demand. His vengeance on Samaria for the refusal of recognition here, we read in Act_8:14-17.
4. It is quite as incorrect to overlook the special necessity of the requirements, Luk_9:60-62, for those times, as to suppose that they were exclusively suitable for those times. On the contrary, there is here expressed in a peculiar form the high principle which binds all His disciples immutably, without respect to time or place, and with which we have already become acquainted, Luk_9:23-25.
5. The very strictness of the requirements which the Saviour imposes on His followers, is an incontrovertible proof of the exalted self-consciousness which He continually bore within Himself. Who has ever demanded more, but who also has promised more and rendered a greater reward than He? And in that which He here demands of others, He Himself has gone before in accomplishing the will of His Father at every time without rebuke.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
Luk_9:51-56. The steady step with which the Saviour goes towards His
Passion and His Glory.—The distinction between this village of the Samaritans and Sychar, Joh_4:40.—The power of deep-rooted religious hatred.—The strife between exaggerated religiosity and genuine humanity.—The hatred in Samaria the presage of the conflict in Jerusalem.—The fiery zeal of the sons of Zebedee: 1. Flaming out, 2. rebuked, 3. purified.—The Saviour over against: 1. Bigoted enemies, 2. unintelligent friends.—Jesus the meek Servant of the Father.—True and false religious zeal. Comp. Rom_10:2.—Religious hatred, false zeal, and meekness.—The distinction between the spirit of the Old and that of the New Covenant.
Luk_9:57-62. The following of Jesus; a threefold precept: 1. No very hasty step; the Master requires earnest consideration; 2. no melancholy resolution; the Master requires a courageous walk; 3. no unresolved wavering; the Master requires entire devotion.—Well-meaning but ill-considered steps, Jesus dissuades from.—The restless life of the Lord.—Whoever will follow the Son of Man, must count on self-denial.—What is heaviest, must weigh heaviest.—The dead father and the living Gospel.—To the spiritually dead commit the care of the lifeless dust.—Forgetting what is behind, reaching on to what is before.—The love of the Saviour in an apparently arbitrary refusal.—The undecided man between the Saviour and them of his house.—The useless plougher on the field of the kingdom of God: 1. His type; 2. his work; 3. his sentence.—Three stones of stumbling on the way of following Jesus: 1. Overhastiness, 2. heavy-heartedness, 3. indecision.
The whole Section. The Divine harmony in the Son of Man, and the different temperaments of the children of men.—The wisdom of the Saviour in converse with and in guiding men of the most different kinds.—How: 1. Different temperaments are related to the Saviour; 2. how the Saviour is related to different temperaments.—Severity and love, holiness and grace, in the Son of Man united in noblest wise.—Comp. especially the admirable sermons of Fr. Arndt on Luk_9:52-62.
Starke:—The consideration of death must not depress us, since we know that we are travelling towards the heavenly Jerusalem.—J. Hall:—Oh, deep humiliation, that He whose is the heaven and all the habitations therein, entreats for a lodging, and does not even find it.—Quesnel:—When one has once begun in good earnest the journey to heaven, he has little credit thereafter in the world.—Not to be hospitable, especially towards those who follow Christ, is unrighteous. Heb_13:2.—Zeisius:—How thirsty for vengeance after all is flesh and blood!—Against sin we must be zealous, but not against the persons of the sinners.—Although one may indeed follow the saints, yet herein considerateness is to be used.—Canstein:—To the church of Christ there has no might and power for the destruction of men been given.—Nova Bibl. Tub.:—Whoever with Christ seeks only easy days, let him stay away from Him.—Brentius:—A Divine call must be accepted without conferring with flesh and blood, let it cost what it may. Gal_1:16.—Parents one must honor, but for the sake of the kingdom of heaven let them also go. Mat_19:29.—The ministry demands the whole man.—Zeisius:—It is easy and hard to be a Christian.
Heubner:—How many profitless and superfluous drones there are in the ministry. Such workers are corpses that will all yet be buried.—Jesus commonly comes even to us not unannounced.—Augustine:—Opus est mitescere pietate.—Palmer:—Earthly desire, earthly love, earthly sorrow—these are the three powers that scare men away from Christ.—Beck (on Luk_9:51-56):—Know ye not what Spirit ye are children of? 1. What Spirit we are children of; 2. what Spirit we ought to be children of.—Gerok:—The four temperaments under training of Jesus Christ, the Searcher of hearts.—Schaufler (on Luk_9:61-62):—Anything but a conditional following of Jesus!
Footnotes:
[11]Luk_9:55.—Tischendorf omits all between ἐπετίμησεν αὐτοῖς and καὶ ἐπορ. according to A., B., C., Ξ., Cod. Sin. As to this, Alford says, “It is hardly conceivable that the shorter text, as edited by Tischendorf, should have been the original, and all the rest insertion.” “The words have such a weight of authority against them, that they would be worthy of rejection, if it were explicable how they came into the text. How easily, on the other hand, out of regard to Elijah, could an intentional omission take place! Moreover, the brief, simple, and pregnant word of rebuke is so unlike a copyist’s interpolation, and as worthy of Jesus Himself, as it is, on the other hand, hard to conceive that Luke, on an occasion so unique, limited himself to the bare ἐπετίμησεν αὐτοῖς.” Meyer, “It is in itself something very improbable, that the original narrative should have been expressed with such boldness as according to this text: ‘He turned and rebuked them,’ without the communication of the Redeemer’s own expressions, and, on the other hand, it is not less improbable, that if the text had originally read barely [as proposed], it should have been already in the ancient church supplemented as it now appears in the Received Text. For it is already so found in the Vulgate, four manuscripts of the Itala, and in most of the other ancient versions, as well as in Marcion, Clemens Alexandrinus, Cyprian, Augustine, Ambrosius, and others. The early omission of the words was perhaps originally occasioned by an accidental error in copying, the eye of the copyist being misled from καὶ εῖ̓πεν to καὶ ἐπορ., as Meyer supposes, and then this shorter text being retained in the church from dogmatical considerations also, namely, because the words of Christ were used by Marcion, who already read them, as we see from Tertull. adv. Marc. Luk_4:23, and other anti-Jewish Gnostics, to justify their rejection of the Old Testament and the Jewish economy.” Bleek. The spuriousness of the words: “For the Son of Man is not come,” &c., is not much contested. It appears to be “the interpolation of a sentence customary” with our Lord, from Mat_18:11, or Luk_19:10.—C. C. S.]
[12][Luk_9:62.—Om., πρὸς αὐτόν. The variations show this to be an interpolated supplement to the verb: some insert it before, some after ὁ Ἰησ., some giving αὐτῷ. Alford. Cod. Sin. has it.—C. C. S.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 61, 62 THE PERIOD OF HIS ASSUMPTION APPROACHING CHRIST TAKES HIS…
THE PERIOD OF HIS ASSUMPTION APPROACHING CHRIST TAKES HIS LAST LEAVE OF GALILEE--THE SAMARITANS REFUSE TO RECEIVE HIM. (Luk 9:51-56)
the time was come--rather, "the days were being fulfilled," or approaching their fulfilment.
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that he should be received up--"of His assumption," meaning His exaltation to the Father; a sublime expression, taking the sweep of His whole career, as if at one bound He was about to vault into glory. The work of Christ in the flesh is here divided into two great stages; all that preceded this belonging to the one, and all that follows it to the other. During the one, He formally "came to His own," and "would have gathered them"; during the other, the awful consequences of "His own receiving Him not" rapidly revealed themselves.
he steadfastly set his face--the "He" here is emphatic--"He Himself then." See His own prophetic language, "I have set my face like a flint" (Isa 50:7).
go to Jerusalem--as His goal, but including His preparatory visits to it at the feasts of tabernacles and of dedication (Joh 7:2, Joh 7:10; Joh 10:22-23), and all the intermediate movements and events.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 62 § 95.—THE SAMARITANS WILL NOT RECEIVE JESUS—JAMES AND JOHN…
§ 95.—THE SAMARITANS WILL NOT RECEIVE JESUS—JAMES AND JOHN REPROVED, Luk_9:51-56.
51. Time… that he should be received up—The being received up signifies his being received or ASSUMPTION into heaven at his ascension. The phrase by implication takes in all his sufferings, death, and resurrection. The clause, time was come that he should be received up, is very erroneously translated. Owen well renders it, When the days were being fulfilled. That is, during the period or stage of our Lord’s earthly ministry, which was closed by his death. This was at the beginning of the last six months of his life. At this time he left Galilee for the last time. Mat_19:1. His mission hereafter was in Peraea and Judea. And during this period Jerusalem was the centre towards which, how often soever he diverged, he must ever gravitate until his final hour there. His adjacent ministries should be temporary, for duty, like destiny, should be perpetually pointing toward the scene of his final suffering. Hence the different passages in Luke, with the corresponding ones in the other evangelists, which allude to Jerusalemite journeys, designate not one, but several. Set his face—With a firmness unshaken by foreseen suffering.
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To Jerusalem—For some time, as we learn from John, (Joh_7:1-14,) Jesus had been driven by the rage of his enemies into Galilee, where he now had finished his mission, as the Feast of Tabernacles was at hand. To that feast his half-skeptical brothers advised him to go and display his miraculous powers before the world. He declines their advice, feeling bound to a different course. While they go to the feast by the caravan route, he prepares to pass to Judea secretly, and by a route and for special purposes of his own.
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 vv51–62 Luk_9:51-56. Rejected by the Samaritans. A lesson of Tolerance.
Luk_9:51-56. Rejected by the Samaritans. A lesson of Tolerance.
51. when the time was come that he should be received up] Rather, when the days of His Assumption were drawing to a close (literally, were being fulfilled). St Luke thus clearly marks the arrival of a final stage of our Lord’s ministry. “His passion, cross, death, and grave were coming on, but through them all Jesus looked to the goal, and the style of the Evangelist imitates His feelings,” Bengel. The word analysis means the Ascension (in Eccl. Latin Assumptio). So ἀνελήφθη of Elijah, 2Ki_2:11; Mar_16:19.
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he] Rather, He Himself also.
set his face] Jer_21:10; 2Ki_12:17 (LXX.), and especially Isa_1:7.
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 vv51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 61, 62 (51) When the time was come that he should…
(51) When the time was come that he should be received up.—Literally, When the days of His assumption were being fulfilled. The noun is peculiar to St. Luke, and is derived from the verb used of the Ascension, in Mar_16:19, 1Ti_3:16. It can here refer to nothing else, and the passage, as occurring in the midst of a narrative, is remarkable. It is as though St. Luke looked on all that follows as seen in the light of the Ascension. Every word and act was consciously a step forward to that great consummation.
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 vv51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 59, 61 Vers. 51-56. The Samaritan insult to the Lord. The…
Vers. 51-56. The Samaritan insult to the Lord. The Master"s reception of it.
And it came to pass, when the time was come that he should be received up, he steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem. This is a very solemn introduction to this great section of St. Luke"s writing. It at once marks off all that now follows as a winding-up of the earthly ministry. The expression, "that he should be received up," is simply the rendering of one Greek word, which signifies "ascension." The Passion, the cross, and the grave are passed over here, and the glorious goal alone is spoken of. What a lesson of comfort is here suggested! The words in the Greek original, "he steadfastly set his face," are evidently literally translated from a well-known Aramaic (Hebrew) expression.
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Vers. 51-62. The face steadfastly set.
Very pathetic and sublime is the announcement of the fifty-first verse. The bright, joyous spring-time has gone. The cornfields and gardens, the hill and dale, the "lake"s still face sleeping sweetly in the embrace of mountains terraced high with mossy stone all the scenery which the Son of man so dearly loved, must now be left behind. No more for him the crowds of simple fisher-folk hanging on his words; no more for him the circuits from village to village, returning to the quiet Capernaum home; no more for him the happy work which marked the earlier years of the Prophet of Nazareth. Now there are only the deepening opposition of scribe and Pharisee, and the lengthening shadow of the cross. He is the Man of men. Not without pain must he have left Nazareth in the distance, and taken his way through the Plain of Esdraelon, past Nain and Shunem, bound for Jerusalem. But this is sublime: "He steadfastly set his tree." It implies that there were solicitations, temptations in another direction. The Christ of God needed to gird up all his energies. Flesh and blood cried, "Stay a little longer at least." The mind of the Son made answer, "Nay, how am I straitened until the baptism be accomplished!" It is of an hour in this journey that Mark speaks, when he says that "Jesus went before the disciples: and they were amazed; and, as they followed, they were afraid." Why they were afraid, we are not told; but we may well conceive that there was the print of a secret agony on his brow, that there was something in his aspect, as he walked a little way ahead of them, which awed and silenced. His face was "steadfastly set." And would that we better knew the secret of this steadfast face! How we shrink from the duty which our Father lays on us! How we withdraw our gaze from the cups of suffering, from the cross-bearing, which our Father assigns us! How we run away from what is irksome! or, when we must do it, how often we meet it with a countenance awry! Lord, we cannot penetrate the mystery of thy way. At times even thy presence seems dreadful. But lead us in the truth of thy steadfastness, and keep us following thee, even although amazed and afraid! Two features of the beginning of the journey are set before us in the passage under review.
I THE ONE, THE REJECTION OF THE LORD BY A VILLAGE OF THE SAMARITANS. And this for a reason which suggests to us many similar mistakes and misjudgments. Bigotry dethrones reason, and stirs up what is worst against what is best in the heart. To these rude villagers, the one condemning circumstance is that his face is towards Jerusalem. If he had been only going in the other direction, they would have been forward with welcomes, and in return would have received unspeakable blessings. Let us not be too ready to cast the stone. We are all apt to be carried away by the appearance of a person or thing, and, in advance of rational considerations, to judge, sentence, or condemn. Thus many a time the messengers of the Lord, with blessings in their hand, seeking to make ready for him a place in human charities and kindnesses, are repelled. "What wonder," says an old Latin Father, "that the sons of thunder wished to flash lightning!" (ver. 54). There have been many such Boanerges since the days of James and John. They are the exponents of a tendency too frequently illustrated in the ecclesiastical world, to meet Samaritan disdain and rebuke by the terrors of the Lord, by the mere force of authority, in mistaken zeal to denounce and excommunicate. Ah! how often has the voice of the Gentlest repeated the rebuke in the ears of his followers, "Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of; for the Son of man is not come to destroy men"s lives, but to save them.
II THE OTHER FEATURE (though it does not seem clear when it occurred) is, THE WORD BEARING ON DISCIPLESHIP GIVEN IN REPLY TO THE THREE MEN WHO ARE INTRODUCED TO US AT THE CLOSE OF THE CHAPTER. These three men are types of classes whose representatives we need not go far to seek.
1. There is the hasty disciple. (Ver. 57) "Lord, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest." There is no discernment of what is implied in the "whithersoever." There is no counting of the cost. He is the man of impulse and fresh warm feeling, who has "received some word of Jesus with joy, yet has no root in himself." The" "I will" stands forth in its own strength, which is but weakness. Observe how the Lord deals with him. He does not reject the offer made; only he sends the man to prayer and self-review, giving him, in one far-reaching sentence, to see what in his rashness he had been undertaking. "Follow me whither soever I go? Knowest thou not that I am the poorest of all; that, in my Father"s world, I am the One despised and rejected. No throne, no royalties, no kingdom as thou conceivest of a kingdom? The fox has its hole, the bird has its nest, the Son of man hath not where to lay his head. Think, then, on that to which thou wouldst pledge thyself." A word still called for! The will which is eager to follow is sometimes slow to receive the Law of the spirit of the life which is in Christ Jesus.
2. As the hasty disciple passes out of sight, lo! I another appears, he who may be called the dilatory. Notice the difference between the two. In the former, the initiative is taken by the man; in the latter, the initiative is taken by Jesus, with the short, peremptory "Follow me." The one has no misgivings; the other desires to follow but has not courage enough to express his convictions. And the mind is not decided. Secretly there is the attraction to the Lord, but there is also the home, the aged father, the circle in the quiet village. No; he is nearly, but not quite, ready. It is on him that the Lord looks. He sees him trembling at the word that is working in his soul, and forth comes the calling, empowering, "Follow!" Was it not so natural (ver. 59), "Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father"? And will not he whose commandment is, "Honour thy father and mother," at once consent? No; the Lord"s need, the Lord"s call, sets the private and domestic claims aside. Hence the enigmatical reply of ver. 60. "Thou hast neighbours, brethren, who have not received the life that is pulsing in thee; to them may be left such a charge as that which thou hast named. But thou, with that life in thee, hast something else to do. Life must live; go thou, the living, and fulfil the living man"s charge preach the kingdom of God.
3. Finally, there comes into view the tender-hearted disciple. (Ver. 61) "I will follow thee only first let me say farewell at home; a last look, a last adieu is all. Ah! this may not be. The rejoinder is somewhat stern (ver. 62). Now, what is the lesson? It is this. On the rocks and reef of the seashore we find creatures rooted to them. Scarcely can we separate the anemone from its reef. How terrible it would be for a human being, with a human soul, to be doomed, like that zoophyte, to cleave to that rock, with no variety except what is caused by the ebb and flow of the sea! Yet, is the life actually lived by many much better? Day following day, and always the monotone of a mere worldly life; no higher end, no higher reference; all of the earth, earthy! O piteous sight a soul cleaving to the dust! Have we not seen a nobler truth? Looking into the face of Christ, is there not a voice bidding us higher? What but death and darkness could be if this earth of ours moved only in its own little diameter, around its own axis? Is it not the recipient of life and light because of its higher orbit as a member of the great solar system? And have we not spiritual life and light because the centre of our being is God? Then, disciple of Jesus, as he who has put his hand to the plough is intent on guiding it to the end of the furrow, ploughing on though the clod be hard and the work severe, be thou steadfast, thy face set with thy Lord toward his Jerusalem; no looking back, precursor of going back; this the prayer of all thy praying, "Lord, unite my heart, that I may love and fear thy Name.
Vers. 51-55. Wisdom, duty, danger.
Among the various difficulties in this passage that have been the subject of exegetical debate, we may clearly discern three important lessons.
I OUR WISDOM IN FRONT OF APPARENT EVIL. At this time our Lord had before him the dark days which would bring his ministry to a close. The contemplation of them had evidently gone down deep into his own mind, but he found none to share the thought or to sympathize with him in the prospect. He asked his disciples to let these things "sink down into their ears" (ver. 44), but they understood him not. He was the sole possessor of the great secret of his coming sorrow, struggle, and death. How did he face it? With an immovable resoluteness of soul. "He steadfastly set his face to go up to Jerusalem." What reason have we to be thankful for that holy and noble tenacity of spirit! Could anything less strong than that have carried him, unscathed, through all that followed? And if there had been any, even the slightest failure, what would have been the consequences to our race? When we have to face a future of pain, or of separation and attendant loneliness and single-handedness of struggle, or of strong and sustained temptation, in what spirit shall we face that? In the temper of calm and devout resoluteness; with a full and fixed determination to go bravely and unfalteringly through, shrinking from no suffering, enduring the worst that man can inflict, yielding nothing to the enemy of our soul. An unflinching resoluteness will do great things for us.
1. It will save us from much suffering; for cowardice and apprehension do not simply add to human wretchedness; they multiply it.
2. It will save us from the chief peril and go far to secure us the victory. The greatest of all perils before us is that of recreancy, unfaithfulness to our own convictions. An unstable mind is only too likely to be guilty of it. A resolute spirit is almost certain to escape it.
3. It will place us by the side of our Divine Leader and of the noblest of his followers. We shall be treading in the footsteps of him who "steadfastly set his face," etc., and who went up to that city of martyrs and gloriously triumphed there.
II OUR DUTY IN THE PRESENCE OF A PROFESSED PROPHET. "They did not receive him; ... They went to another village." How much is contained, in these simple words, of human folly and privation! These villagers were profoundly prejudiced against Christ, and declined absolutely to see what he could do, to hear what he would say. They would not "judge for themselves" on the evidence ready to be furnished. Anti consequently they suffered a great privation. The great Healer and Teacher of mankind went another way; their sick went unhealed, their souls went unenlightened, while Divine tenderness and truth found other hearts and homes. Often since then has Christ gone, in the person of some one of his prophets or spokesmen, to the city, to the village, to the home, to the individual heart, and offered his truth, his grace, his salvation. But deep-seated prejudice, or strong material interests, or keen love of pleasure, has barred the way. He has not been received. And as he does not force an entrance anywhere, he has gone elsewhere; he has passed by, and all the treasure of his truth has been unpossessed, all the blessedness of his salvation unknown. Of what unimaginable good, of what highest heritage, does human folly deprive itself!
III OUR DANGER OF MISTAKING THE LOWER FOR THE HIGHER FEELING. The apostles, James and John, gave vent to a burst of strong resentment, and proposed to have a severe punishment inflicted. They supposed themselves to be actuated by an honourable and acceptable indignation. But Jesus "turned, and rebuked them;" they were entirely mistaken; their feeling was not that of pure indignation, it was tainted by an unholy irritation against men who would not receive them and their Master; moreover, the desire for immediate punishment was to give place, under Christian teaching, to a determination to win to a better way. Not extinction but reformation, not the infliction of the death which is due but the conferring of the life which is undeserved, not rigorous exaction but patient pity, not the folded fist of law but the open and extended hand of helpfulness, is the Christian thing. When we find ourselves giving way to wrath and proposing punishment, we do well to ask ourselves whether we are sure we know the "spirit we are of," and whether there is not a more excellent way" for Christian feet to tread. C.
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 vv51, 57, 59, 61 He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem--
Luk_9:51-56
He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem--
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Christ hastening to the cross
I.
THE PERFECT CLEARNESS WITH WHICH ALL THROUGH CHRISTS LIFE HE SAW THE INEVITABLE END.
II. OUR LORDS PERFECT WILLINGNESS FOR THE SACRIFICE WHICH HE SAW BEFORE HIM.
III. THERE WAS IN CHRIST A NATURAL HUMAN SHRINKING FROM. THE CROSS. That steadfast and resolved will held its own, overcoming the natural human reluctance. He set His face. All along that consecrated road He walked, and each step represents a separate act of will, and each separate act of will represents a triumph over the reluctance of flesh and blood. We are far too much accustomed to think of our Saviour as presenting only the gentler graces of human nature. He presents those that belong to the stony side just as much. In Him is all power, manly energy, resolved consecration; everything that men call heroism. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
Why did Christ go up to Jerusalem?
He went there to precipitate the collision and to make His crucifixion certain. He was under the ban of the Sanhedrim, but perfectly safe as long as He stopped down among the hills of Galilee. He was as unsafe when He went up to Jerusalem as John Huss when he went to the Council of Constance with the Emperors safe-conduct in his belt; or as a condemned heretic would have been in the old days if he had gone and stood in that little dingy square outside the palace of the Inquisition at Rome, and there, below the obelisk, preached his heresies. Christ had been condemned in the council of the nation; but there were plenty of hiding-places among the Galilean hills, and the frontier was close at hand, and it needed a long arm to reach from Jerusalem all the way across Samaria to the far north. Knowing that, He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem, and, if I might use the expression, went straight into the lions mouth. Why? Because He chose to die. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
The face toward Jerusalem
Every step of the Lord Jesus Christ left a footprint for His followers to study. This incident, too often overlooked as unimportant, has some suggestive lessons for the Christian.
1. It teaches that we should never shrink from a path of duty, however many may be the obstacles we encounter.
2. Such an uncompromising religion must not expect any help or hospitality from the world. Jesus found Himself on hostile soil as soon as He set foot in Samaria.
3. It was probably about the time of His repulse by the Samaritans that Jesus delivered those solemn injunctions to His followers about taking up their cross daily if they would be His disciples. He drew a sharp line, and made a clean issue. It is a religion of this fibre that the times demand. Such living brings happy dying. Dean Alford asked that it might be inscribed on his tombstone:
This is the inn of a traveller on his way to Jerusalem.
Let us determine so to live that, when Death calls our names on his roll, we may be found with our faces steadfastly set toward Jerusalem the Golden. (T. L. Cuyler, D. D.)
Steadfastnes in the path of duty
The Masters example teaches us to march unflinchingly forward in the path of duty, with our faces steadfastly set toward God. This is not an age of heroic Christianity. There is more pulp than pluck in the average Christian professor when self-denial is required. The men and women who not only rejoice in doing their duty for Christ, but even rejoice in overcoming uncomfortable obstacles in doing it, are quite too scarce. The piety that is most needed is a piety that will stand a pinch; a piety that would rather eat an honest crust than fare sumptuously on fraud; a piety that can work up stream against currents; a piety that sets its face like a flint in the straight, narrow road of righteousness. (T. L.Cuyler, D. D.)
Boldness of the decided man
The decisive man walks by the light of his own judgment: he has made up his mind; and, having done so, henceforth action is before him. He cannot bear to sit amidst unrealized speculations: to him speculation is only valuable that it may be resolved into living and doing. There is no indifference, no delay. The spirit is in arms: all is in earnest. Thus Pompey, when hazarding his life on a tempestuous sea in order to be at Rome on an important occasion, said, It is necessary for me to go: it is not necessary for me to live. Thus Caesar, when he crossed the Rubicon, burned the ships upon the shore which brought his soldiers to land, that there might be no return. (Paxton Hood.)
The battle-face
Oliver Cromwells men just before the battle used to look at their general, and whisper to each other, See, he has on his battle-face. When they saw that set, iron face they felt that defeat was impossible. Determined striving towards one point is the best way of gaining that point. Try to walk in a straight line over a field of snow, keeping your eyes fixed on the ground as you walk. When you look back on the track, you find it far from straight. Walk over the field again, this time keeping your eye fixed on some definite point ahead. That will keep you in the straight line, and will save you from fruitless wandering on this side or that. Jesus, keeping the end of His work in view, set His face towards it. So should we do with our work. (Sunday School Times.)
Wilt Thou that we command fire?--
Our Lord and the Samaritans
The conduct of these Samaritans in refusing to receive Christ and His disciples, was, indeed, very sinful; but the transport of rage into which that conduct threw His disciples, or at least some of His disciples, and the proposal which it provoked them to make, were most lamentable and most unchristian. That John, especially, whose usual temper was so gentle and so affectionate, should have been so forward in this affair, is very strange, and ought to be considered as an instructive warning of the necessity for the most charitable and meek to be constantly on their guard against the first risings of prejudice, passion, and false zeal, lest the fierce spirit obtain the mastery over them. They imagined that they were influenced by a purely religious spirit--by a hatred of sin, and a regard to the honour of Christ: whereas, they were really led to make such a proposal by the original prejudice which, as Jews, they indulged against the Samaritans, and, still more, by their now irritated pride, party feeling, blind zeal, personal resentment, violence, and passion.
I. LET US ADMIRE, AND IN OUR SPHERE AND MEASURE IMITATE, THE NOBLE FIRMNESS DISPLAYED BY OUR LORD AND MASTER ON THIS OCCASION.
II. LET US BEWARE OF RESEMBLING THESE SAMARITANS IN NOT RECEIVING THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. Though they were not immediately destroyed, yet their sin was great; nay, the very circumstance of the merciful forbearance shown towards them, manifests, with peculiar clearness, the heaviness of the guilt they incurred by rejecting such goodness.
III. Let us observe how plainly EVERY KIND AND EVERY DEGREE OF PERSECUTION ARE HERE FORBIDDEN. Fire from heaven might prove a doctrine to be true; but fire kindled under any such pretence, by men, or any other species of persecution, could prove nothing but their own bigotry and cruelty. Indeed, such is the constitution of the human mind, that it is ready to call in question, or to suspect, even the truth itself, when any attempt is made to support it by such means.
IV. In all we do, and especially in what we do under the name of religion, LET US CAREFULLY CONSIDER WHAT MANNER OF SPIRIT WE ARE OF. The servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle unto all men.
V. LET US BE VERY THANKFUL WHEN WE THINK OF THE GRACIOUS PURPOSE FOR WHICH THE SON OF GOD IS HERE SAID TO HAVE COME INTO THE WORLD. (J. Foote, M. A.)
A visit from Christ
We are not told the name of the village, and it is well the Scriptures are silent on the matter, for the name deserves to be buried in oblivion; and all those who perpetrate such inhumanity should have an opportunity of blotting out such disgrace. Nor do we know who were the messengers whom Christ sent to make ready for Him. Perhaps they were disciples, or followers, or adherents--anyhow, they were doubtless in sympathy with Him. The Saviour, then, desires to become the Guest of men in this world. He is ever sending messengers before His face to prepare His way. Here, then, we have--
I. PIONEERS--He sent messengers before His face. Pioneers in every sphere are those who go in advance and prepare the way, or act as heralds and announce the coming of those who are to follow. His coming is anticipated by the many and varied mercies and blessings of life, even as the glory of day is heralded by the early dawn. The loving Saviour we may be sure is close to the bounties of Providence and the privileges of the gospel. Education, too, is always in advance of Him. He sends it forth on its beneficent mission to give men right ideas, and to awaken in them a sense of need and longing. Education, too, like the sappers and miners, goes forward to remove obstructions, to cut down wild, luxuriant growth, to make a way through the wilderness, and to bridge over the ugly, dangerous chasms. The mercy of grace, religious instruction, the service of the sanctuary, the preaching of the Word--these are like the predictions which went before the Saviour, like the stars of the morning, true harbingers of the coming day. Yes, Jesus Christ is near the Temple and the teaching there--near the institutions and ordinances of worship. He is not far from pain and sorrow, from affliction, bereavement, and death. Now all these pioneers have come to you, my friends; have come to you with a mission in the interests of Christ, and for your eternal good. The question, therefore, arises: How have they been received? What has been the result of their visits?
II. PREPARATION--TO make ready for Him. The pioneers in all time have gone before Christ to prepare His way, and the things of which I have spoken, and which come into our every life, are sent not only to herald the approach of the Saviour, but to help men to realize His nearness with their deep and present need of Him. When the light of the morning comes peeping in at the window, it tells the world that the sun has arisen and will soon flood the earth with brightness and glory. The dawn ever predicts the day, and prepares for it, and it ever seems to say to men, Give it welcome; up with the blinds; open the windows, and let the light of the day come in. When the blade, the leaf, the blossom appear, they speak of the coming summer and harvest, and suggest that every barn and granary be got ready. And so when Christ sends His messengers in advance of Him, He desires that they should prepare for Him. There are three things which the pioneers of Christ seek to do--inform, awaken, and command, and all are intended to prepare for a full and hearty reception of Christ. They inform--tell men that Christ, that infinite goodness and love are in the events, in the experiences of life, and that Christ is coming near through them--is thus visiting to bless. They say, He is coming, and the soul asks, Who is He? Zaccheus, hearing that Christ was to pass that way, had his curiosity aroused, and was thus moved towards the sycamore tree, that He might see Jesus, who He was. They command--coming from Christ and for Him, they declare His will, His requirements; they tell men to make ready for Him, and to give Him welcome and entertainment, to put away prejudice and indifference, to turn out all intruders, and to let the rightful owner of their spirits in; and that they would rightly regard these visitations, and the voices which speak--for they are in truth the voice of Christ--and their message may be summed up in one verse, Behold! stand at the door and knock.
III. PREJUDICE--They did not receive Him. The Samaritans did not because of their antipathy to the Jews; they allowed prejudice to overcome discretion, and even reason itself; but they did not know Christ, or they would not have acted thus, nor were they conscious of what they lost by rejecting Him.
IV. PASSING--They went to another village. Jesus went from those who were unwilling, to others who were disposed to entertain Him, and this He is doing to-day. Anxious to enter every heart, He passes by the indifferent and obstinate. He does not force Himself upon man. (John James.)
Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of
Intolerance rebuked
1. We may notice here, in the first place, the power and evil of prejudice. The Samaritans seem in general to have been very favourably disposed towards our Lord, as was seen on various occasions. Why, then, did they now refuse to receive Him? It was because He was going up to Jerusalem to the Passover. They claimed that Mount Gerizim was the place where men ought to worship; but our Lord was on His way to worship at the Temple, on Mount Zion, and thus showed that He favoured their old enemies the Jews, and declared His preference far their religion. When Christ came from Judaea to Jacobs well they kindly received Him. If He would renounce the Jews, become a Samaritan prophet, and teach in their synagogues, they would have welcomed Him most cordially; but forasmuch as He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem, they would have nothing to do with Him. Thus they lost their last opportunity of hearing Jesus, for He was now on His way to be crucified. Nor were the disciples much better in the spirit they displayed than the Samaritans.
2. We may notice, secondly, the mischiefs of a wrong interpretation of Scripture. Wilt Thou that we command fire to come down from heaven and consume them, as Elias did? Now Elias conduct was very different from theirs, and his example gave no sanction to their proposed vengeance. Upon a perversion of Scripture, the supreme divinity of Jesus has been denied, the atonement rejected, good works pronounced unnecessary, a future punishment discarded; yea, all the thousand forms of error, and all the monstrous sects of Christendom have been based upon just such a mistake as these disciples made, in pleading the seeming sanction of Elijahs example, for that which it did not warrant.
3. We have, in the third place, in our Lords conduct on this occasion, a beautiful lesson of tolerance towards those who are in error.
4. We may also learn from our Lords treatment of these Samaritans, how to estimate the comparative evil of error.
5. We have in the conclusion of this history, the glorious end of the Saviours mission. He came not to destroy mens lives, but to save them. His whole work was one of salvation. His miracles were those of healing. His teaching was for the saving of the soul. (W. H. Lewis, D. D.)
Our Lords treatment of erroneous zeal
I. NOTICE WHAT IS IMPLIED IN THE PROPOSAL OF THE TWO DISCIPLES.
1. This proposal discovers at least some acquaintance with the writings of the Old Testament, for it refers to an event which happened many centuries before, and which is remarkable in the history of Elijah.
2. It appears that the disciples had some distrust of their own judgment, and were willing to submit to Christs direction. Their language is, Lord, wilt Thou that we should do this? They would do nothing rashly, nothing but what He approved; and in this they furnish an example worthy of imitation.
3. The language implies strong faith: Wilt Thou that we command fire from heaven? The disciples felt persuaded that if the Lord gave authority, the miracle would be performed. They had commanded unclean spirits out of persons, and were obeyed; and why might they not expect the same, if they called for fire from heaven?
4. They had a zeal for God, though not according to knowledge; it was sufficiently fervid, but not well directed. It was promised to the disciples that they should be baptized with the Holy Ghost and with fire; that they should be endowed with extraordinary gifts and extraordinary zeal, yet not for the purpose of destroying mens lives, but to save them.
5. Their zeal expressed great indignation against sin, and in this it was commendable.
6. It was a zeal which expressed great affection for their Lord and Master. To see Him slighted and insulted, shut out of doors, and denied the common necessities and civilities of life, was more than they could bear; they therefore wished to resent such churlish behaviour.
7. There was, however, too much asperity in their zeal, and a want of Christian meekness and charity.
II. OBSERVE THE TREATMENT THEY MET WITH FROM THEIR LORD: He turned and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. There is a mixture of mildness and severity in this reproof. He upbraids them with ignorance, and especially ignorance of themselves, and of the motives by which they were influenced.
1. They were unacquainted with the infirmities of their own spirit, the temper they derived from constitutional causes, and which had been insensibly confirmed by habit.
2. They were not aware of the principles and motives by which their present conduct was influenced. The springs of action ought at all times to be severely inspected, because if an action be materially good, it is not morally and intrinsically so, unless it, principle be good also. A corrupt motive depraves and renders unacceptable to God the most laudable actions.
Conclusion:
1. From the instance before us we see what a mixture of good and evil there may be in the same persons.
2. If Christs immediate disciples, who had the advantage of such instructions and such an example, did not know what manner of spirit they were of, no wonder that so many misapprehensions and mistakes are found amongst us. Who can understand his errors?
3. We see that particular actings of the mind may be wrong, even where the general frame and temper of it is right.
4. Though the disciples did not well know the motives by which they were influenced, yet Christ did, for He searcheth the reins and the heart. He knoweth what is in man, and needeth not that any one should testify. All the Churches shall know this, and He will give to every man according to his works (Mat_9:4; Mar_2:8; Rev_2:23). (B. Beddome, M. A.)
The vindictive spirit rebuked
You cant make Eliases. You may do just the very thing Elias did, and so make the greater fools of yourselves. Elias is sent when the world needs him--son of thunder, son of consolation, each will be sent from heaven at the right time, and be furnished with the right credentials. But how delightful it is to set fire to somebody else! The dynamitard is a character in ancient history. Would it not be convenient for the Church always to have in its pocket just one little torpedo that it could throw in the way of somebody who differed in not what manner of spirit ye are of. The spirit of Christianity is a spirit of love, a spirit of sympathy, a spirit of felicity, a spirit that can weep over cities that have rejected the Son of Man. Then said He, or said the historian--the words might be His, for they are part of His very soul--For the opinion from somebody else! The Lord Jesus will not have this; He said, Ye know Son of Man is not come to destroy mens lives, but to save them (Luk_9:56). Tell this everywhere. Go ye into all the world and say to every creature, The Son of Man is not come to destroy mens lives, but to save them. The strongest man amongst us might devote his life to that sweet, high task. The brightest genius that ever revelled in poem or picture might devote all its energies to the revelation of that sacred truth. There are destroyers enough. Nature itself is often a vehement and unsparing destroyer. We are our own destroyers. There needs to be somewhere a saviour, a loving heart, a redeeming spirit, a yearning soul, a mother-father that will not let us die. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Ungodly nature of revenge
A young man who had great cause of complaint against another, told an old hermit that he was resolved to be avenged. The good old hermit did all that he could to dissuade him; but, seeing that it was impossible, and the young man persisted in seeking vengeance, he said to him, At least, my young friend, let us pray together before you execute your design. Then he began to pray in this way: It is no longer necessary, O God! that Thou shouldst defend this young man, and declare Thyself his protector, since he has taken upon himself the right of seeking his own revenge. The young man fell on his knees before the old hermit, and prayed for pardon for his wicked thought, and declared that he would no longer seek revenge of those who had injured him.
False zeal
Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of; that is, ye own yourselves to be My disciples, but do you consider what spirit now acts and governs you?
I. THE OPPOSITION OF THIS SPIRIT TO THE TRUE SPIRIT AND DESIGN OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION.
1. This spirit which our Saviour here reproves in His disciples, is directly opposite to the main and fundamental precepts of the gospel, which command us to love one another, and to love all men, even our very enemies; and are so far from permitting us to persecute those who hate us, that they forbid us to hate those who persecute us. They require us to be merciful, as our Father which is in heaven is merciful; and to follow peace with all men, and to show all meekness to all men.
2. This spirit is likewise directly opposite to the great patterns and examples of our religion, our blessed Saviour and the primitive Christians.
II. THE UNJUSTIFIABLENESS OF THIS SPIRIT UPON ANY PRETENCE WHATSOEVER OF ZEAL FOR GOD AND RELIGION. (Archbishop Tillotson.)
Religious repulsions
This little exquisite bit of human nature and Divine nature stands recorded in the Bible among a hundred other dramas, brief but significant. The Samaritans and the Jews were two very religious, very conscientious peoples. That they were religious was evident from the fact that they hated each other so thoroughly that they would have no dealings one with another. Of all hatred there is none like religious hatred. The Samaritan was a bastard Jew. When you come to look at the conduct of the Samaritans you naturally feel a good deal of surprise; for it is other peoples inhospitality that surprises us, not our own. But when you turn round and look at the disciples what do you think of them? You have genuine Jewish orthodoxy against the orthodoxy of the Samaritans, and both of them were hatred. I do not wonder that the old Oriental nations sacrificed men to their gods, and that human offerings were burned on their altars. The whole religious world has been burning victims to their gods, their creeds, and their consciences ever since. Of the two here the Jews show to the least advantage. The Samaritans only wanted not to have anything to do with Jesus. The disciples on the other hand, wanted to burn up the Samaritans, to pulverise them to ashes. On the whole, I think the Samaritans were a little more religious than the Jews. What did the Saviour do? He quietly went to another village, but not until He had rebuked these disciples. And see how the rebuke was administered. Not as most of us would have done it. Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of, &c. (H. W.Beecher.)
Misdirected enthusiasm
The next worst thing to being destitute of enthusiasm altogether is to expend it on the wrong objects. As the poet says--
What is enthusiasm? What can it be
But thought enkindled to a high degree,
That may, whatever be its ruling turn,
Right or not right, with equal ardour burn
That which concerns us, therefore, is to see
What species of enthusiasts we be.
Here was enthusiasm, and enthusiasm for Christ; but it was expending itself in unchristian, and even anti-Christian channels. We are constantly meeting, in our every-day experience, with instances of misdirected enthusiasm. The important thing to do is to discover Christs idea of Christianity, and to let our enthusiasm go forth into the same channels in which His was wont to flow. If this be our earnest and constant endeavour, then, although we may sometimes make mistakes, although we may, like the Boanerges, incur the rebuke, Ye know not what spirit ye are of, it will be a gentle rebuke--one of pity rather than of condemnation. (Prof. Momerie, M. A. , D. Sc.)
The story of the Sons of Thunder
The Samaritans believed that their copy of the Law was the only authentic one; that God had forsaken Zion and chosen Gerizim, and placed His Name there; that it was in their country that the Messiah was destined to appear, and not in Judaea. It was in connection with this latter article of their belief that the conversation arose which is related in the text. It is the common assumption that what the Samaritan villagers were guilty of was merely a breach of hospitality. I believe there was something far worse. Jesus had been there before, and they had treated Him hospitably then. It is said that before setting out on this journey Jesus sent messengers before His face. It cannot be that these were only couriers, to provide food and shelter. They were heralds, specially sent to tell the Samaritans that the Messiah was coming. It was this that urged them to refuse Him food and shelter. John and James, fresh from the Transfiguration scene, and knowing that He was certainly the Son of God, were indignant at the rejection of His claims, and wanted to call down fire upon the Samaritans. They recalled a passage from Elijahs history, which seemed to them to furnish a precedent for their conduct. Christ in effect says to them: Elijah acted according to his lights; you must act up to yours. Christ did not censure the conduct of Elijah, but He told them that they were forgetting the influence of the spirit of Christianity: I came not to destroy mens lives, but to save them. (Canon Luckock.)
The Spirit of Christ and of Elijah
Renan tells us that in the pictures of the Greek Church Elijah is usually represented as surrounded by the decapitated heads of the Churchs enemies. And Prescott tells us that in the sixteenth century the brutal inquisitors of Spain tried to justify their fiendish deeds by appealing to Elijahs act of calling down fire from heaven. They did not understand, or would not, that that act of Elijahs was for ever condemned by One who was at once Elijahs Master and Elijahs God. Elijah, and the old heroes, doubtless, had not learnt to distinguish between the sinner and the sin. It was reserved for after times--it required the teaching of the Son of God Himself to teach men that.The spirit of Elijah was a spirit of justice, of righteous retribution, of terrible vengeance; the spirit of Christ was a spirit of tenderness, of compassion, of love. But, because the religion of Christ is a religion of love, do not fancy that it is therefore a religion of sentimentalism, fit only for weak women and effeminate men. The spirit of Elijah is passed away, replaced by the spirit of Christ, which is a spirit of meekness, but of justice too, and a spirit of hatred against intolerable wrong. (J. Vaughan, B. A.)
Peace and war--from a Christian standpoint
I. THE SPIRIT OF WAR IS CONDEMNED BY THE GENIUS OF CHRISTIANITY,
1. It very often springs from vainglory.
2. Or revenge.
3. Or sordid ambition.
II. THE SPIRIT OF PEACE IS INCULCATED BY OUR RELIGION, AND IN PROPORTION AS CHRISTIANITY PREVAILS WILL THAT SPIRIT OF PEACE RE DIFFUSED AMONG MANKIND.
1. It tends to the preservation of human life, and happiness, and property, and social order.
2. It allows of the development of all good and great principles, and the progress of mankind in virtue, morality, and piety.
3. Christianity must be on the side of peace, because of its Divine Author and Exemplar.
III. PRACTICAL CONCLUSIONS.
1. Let us cherish the spirit of peace. The great thing is to have the right temper.
2. Let us pray that our national councils may at all times be controlled and permeated by the spirit of peace.
3. We should labour for Christianity for this amongst other reasons, that it is only through Christianity, and the spread of it, that we shall ever attain to an era of universal peace. (Dawson Burns, M. A.)
On persecution
I. Persecution for conscience sake--that is, inflicting penalties on men merely for their religious principles or worship--is plainly founded on an absurd supposition, that one man has a right to judge for another, in matters of religion.
II. Persecution is also evidently inconsistent with that obvious and fundamental principle of morality, that we should do to others as we might reasonably desire they should do to us.
III. Persecution is likewise in its own nature absurd, as it is by no means calculated to answer the ends which its patrons profess to intend by it.
IV. Persecution evidently tends to produce a great deal of mischief and confusion in the world.
V. The Christian religion, which we here suppose to be the cause of truth, must, humanly speaking, be not only obstructed but destroyed, should persecuting principles universally prevail.
VI. Persecution is so far from being required or encouraged by the gospel, that it is directly contrary to many of its precepts and indeed to the whole genius of it. (P. Doddridge, D. D.)
To save
Christ, the Saviour of human life
We may regard the text in the light of a prophecy. Whatever Christ announced as the purpose of His coming, was to be accomplished upon earth throughout successive ages. The Saviour of human life--this is the character which Christ here assumes to Himself, or of which He predicts, that it will be proved to belong to Him, as the religion He was about to establish makes way among men. Now there is nothing more interesting than the tracing the temporal effects which have followed the introduction of Christianity. We shall not now enter upon this wide field of inquiry; but our text requires us to consider Christianity as beneficial under one special point of view--as making provision for the saving of human life.
1. It has done this by overthrowing the tenets and destructive rites of heathenism.
2. By contributing to the civilization of society, it has, in many ways, spread a shield over human life.
3. Add to this the mighty advances which have been made under the fostering sway of Christianity, in every department of science.
4. There is, however, a far higher sense, in which our Lord might affirm that He had come to save human life. You are to bear in mind that death, bodily death, had entered the world, as the direct and immediate consequence of Adams transgression, and that the counteracting this consequence, was one chief object of the mission of our Redeemer.
5. Now we have treated our text as though the word life were to be Literally taken, or interpreted with reference exclusively to the body; but it is often very difficult to say whether the original word denotes what we mean by the immortal principle and spiritual part of man, which never dies, or merely the vital principle--that, through the suspension of which the body becomes lifeless. And if the words before us may be applied to the destruction and the salvation of the soul, as well as of life in the more ordinary sense, it is indispensable that we say something of them in this their less obvious meaning. I live, said the great apostle, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me; and life indeed it is, when a man is made wise unto salvation--when, having been brought to a consciousness of his state, as a rebel against God, he has committed his cause unto Christ, who was delivered for our offences, and raised again for our justification. It is not life--it deserves not the name, merely to have power of moving to and fro on this earth, beholding the light and drinking in the air. It may be life to the brute, but not to man--man who is deathless, man who belongs to two worlds--the citizen of immensity, the heir of eternity. But it is life, to spend the few years of earthly pilgrimage in the full hope and certain expectation of everlasting blessedness--to be able to regard sin as a forgiven thing, and death as an abolished--to anticipate the future with its glories, and the judgment with its terrors, and to know assuredly, that He who shall sit upon the throne, and gather all nations before Him, reserves for us a place in those many mansions which He reared and opened through His great work of mediation. It is life to live for eternity; it is life to live for God; it is life to have fellowship with what the eye hath not seen, and the ear hath not heard. And this life Christ came to impart; He came to give life to the soul. (H. Melvill, B. D.)
Christs mission
I. THE NATURE OF CHRISTS MISSION.
1. TO open up a new era under a dispensation of unbounded mercy.
2. This mission of our Lords did not interfere with the course of nature, or natural law. It refers to our spiritual life.
II. THE DUTIES WHICH THESE WORDS LEAD US TO INFER.
1. The first is that of not being satisfied with any other life than that which Christ came to give or to save.
2. Another duty is that of encouraging feelings of charity towards others.
3. That the object of our Saviours mission has been fulfilled, is being fulfilled, and will be so hereafter, is indisputable. (W. D. Horwood.)
The Son of Man the Saviour of life
Christ came into the world both as Destroyer and Saviour. He came to destroy the works of the devil. He came not to destroy the law, but to fulfil it. He came not to destroy mens lives, but to save them. The preservation of human life was characteristic of our Lords public ministry. And Christianity in its very nature is a lifesaving religion. Consider three or four of the great destructive agencies at work in the world, and the way in which Christianity opposes itself to them in principle, and practically proves itself victorious over them.
I. WAR. The late Dr. Dick calculated, in 1847, that from the earliest period down to that year 14,000,000,000 of human beings had fallen in battle. Christianity condemns war and inculcates peace.
II. SLAVERY. Here we have another great scourge of human life. Christianity sets its face against this monstrous iniquity. True that Christ and His apostles did not in a direct manner attempt to abolish it.
Nevertheless, I affirm that Christianity is opposed to slavery, and will prove its death. Jesus Christ came to liberate the captive.
III. HEATHEN IDOLATRY and its human sacrifices.
IV. INTEMPERANCE. Sixty thousand deaths annually result from the use of intoxicating liquors. Christianity condemns intemperance. Sobriety is enjoined as a Christian virtue. (W. Walters.)
Christ a Saviour
The design of Christs coming into our world is here expressed--
I. NEGATIVELY. Life is exposed to destruction. By sin it was forfeited. By law it is condemned. By justice it is demanded. By death it is claimed.
II. POSITIVELY. The Son of Man is a Saviour. He came to reveal salvation. He came to procure salvation. He came to bestow salvation. He is coming to perfect salvation.
III. THE ASSURANCE THE SINNER HAS OF CHRISTS INTEREST IN HIS SALVATION. Of Gods readiness to give salvation. Of the Spirits power to apply salvation. Of the joy a personal salvation secures. Now is the accepted time; now is the day of salvation. (A. Macfarlane.)
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 vv51, 53, 55, 57 51, 52. When the days were well-nigh come. The…
51, 52. When the days were well-nigh come. The time of his suffering was not far away. He was about to leave Galilee. He stedfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem. Knowing what he should suffer there. Just when this was we are not told. Sent messengers. To secure a stopping place for himself and disciples on their journey. Went into a village of the Samaritans. To go from Galilee to Jerusalem “he must needs go through Samaria,” unless he went down on the east of the Jordan. The Samaritans were hereditary enemies of the Jews, and the two peoples had no intercourse.
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 vv51, 57 Luk_9:51. When the time was come.—Rather, “when the days…
CRITICAL NOTES
Luk_9:51. When the time was come.—Rather, “when the days were well-nigh come” (R.V.). That He should be received up.—The word translated “received up” means His assumption or ascension into heaven. He stedfastly set His face.—A Hebraism, with reference probably to Isa_50:7. Sent messengers.—The action, which contrasts with His former avoidance of publicity, is to be explained by His now formally avowing Himself to be the Christ.
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Luk_9:52. Village of the Samaritans.—Samaria lay in the direct route from Galilee to Jerusalem.
Luk_9:53. Did not receive Him, etc.—The question as to the comparative claims of the Samaritan temple at Gerizim and the Jewish Temple at Jerusalem was distinctly involved: Christ’s preference of the latter led to the Samaritans’ rejection of Him.
Luk_9:54. James and John.—Whom He had surnamed “Sons of Thunder” (Boanerges, Mar_3:17):this ebullition of fiery zeal highly characteristic of them. Even as Elias did.—See 2Ki_1:10-12. This phrase is omitted from R.V., as it is not found in some of the earliest MSS. It may be a gloss, but if so it is of great antiquity, as the words are found in nearly all other MSS., versions, and writings of the Fathers. They may have been omitted accidentally, or on dogmatic grounds—to avoid apparent disparagement of the Old Testament. The recent vision on the mountain (Luk_9:30), when Christ received honour from Moses and Elijah and from God, may have suggested the proposal to chastise the inhospitable Samaritans.
Luk_9:55. He turned.—Christ was evidently walking at the head of the company of disciples when the messengers returned with the tidings that the Samaritans refused to receive Him. And said, Ye know not … save them (Luk_9:56).—These two sentences also are omitted in the R.V., on the ground that the most important MSS. do not contain them. They do not, however, read like interpolations: they breathe too Divine a tone of thought, and are too characteristic of the Saviour, to have originated in any such way. So far as MS. evidence goes there is less authority for the doubtful sentence in Luk_9:56, “For the Son of man,” etc., than for the other in Luk_9:55. Ye know not.—I.e. “Ye think ye are animated by the Spirit that moved Elijah, but ye are mistaken: it is personal irritation, and not zeal for God, that underlies your suggestion.” Some prefer to take the sentence as a question, “Know ye not,” etc., i.e. that the Spirit of Christ is different from that of Elijah? It is doubtful, however, whether this rendering is grammatically possible.
Luk_9:56. Another village.—Probably a Galilæan and not a Samaritan village—as, if it had been the latter, we should have expected some remark upon the more noble character of its inhabitants. It would appear that when this incident occurred Christ and disciples were on the border between Galilee and Samaria.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Luk_9:51-56
The Spirit of the Old Testament and of the New.—We have here one of the memorable incidents of our Lord’s last journey to Jerusalem. Very solemnly and very sweetly does the Evangelist introduce the reference to His passion—“when the time was come that He should be received up.” It mitigates the bitterness of His Lord’s sufferings and death, looking on as it thus does to the issue and the end, to the taking up of Christ into heaven, to His reception in His heavenly home and into His Father’s glory.
I. The insult.—“He sent messengers before His face” as harbingers, to use that word in its most proper sense. “And they went, and entered into a village of the Samaritans, to make ready for Him. And they did not receive Him, because His face was as though He would go to Jerusalem.” This refusal of theirs was no piece of ordinary inhospitality such as the Samaritans were wont to show to Galilæan pilgrims on their way to the feasts at Jerusalem. It was not merely as such a pilgrim that they shut their doors against Him; for this we must remember was Christ’s solemn progress from Galilee to Judæa as Messiah, with these messengers everywhere announcing Him as such. But, as the Samaritans esteemed it, a Messiah going to Jerusalem to observe the feasts there did by His very act proclaim that He was no Messiah; for on Gerizim, as they believed, the old patriarchs had worshipped, consecrating it to be the holy mountain of God—which, therefore, and not Jerusalem, the Christ, when He came, would recognise and honour as the central point of all true religion.
II. The anger of the apostles.—The sons of Zebedee were probably with the Lord when the tidings were brought back of the village which, refusing to receive Him, had missed the opportunity of entertaining, not angels, but the Lord of angels, unawares. Upon this provocation all their suppressed and smouldering indignation against the schismatics, through whose territory they were journeying, breaks forth. At this instance of contempt shown to their Lord and to themselves (for no doubt a feeling of personal slight mingled with their indignation, however little they may have been aware of it themselves), the “sons of thunder” would fain play Old Testament parts. They feel that a greater than Elias is here; for they are fresh from the Mount of Transfiguration, where they had seen how the glory of Moses and Elias paled before the brighter glory of Him whom they served. An outrage against Him, and a rejecting of Him, should therefore not be less terribly avenged. With all of carnal and sinful which mingled with this proposal of theirs, yet what insight into the dignity of their Lord, and the greatness of the outrage directed against Him, does it reveal—what faith in the mighty powers with which He was able to equip His servants! And yet it might almost seem as though, with all this confidence of theirs, there was a latent and lurking sense upon their part of a certain unfitness in this their proposal; and thus out of no desire to intrude into their Lord’s office, but only out of a feeling that this avenging act might not exactly become Him, they proffer themselves as the executors of the judgment. It will become the servants, though it might not perfectly become the Lord.
III. The disciples rebuked.—“He turned, and rebuked them: Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of.” “You are missing,” Christ would say, “your true position, which is, having been born of the spirit of forgiving love, to be ruled by that spirit, and not by the spirit of avenging righteousness. You are losing sight of the distinction between the old covenant and the new, missing the greater glory of the latter, and that it is the higher blessedness to belong to it.” It behoves us to see clearly that there is no slight cast here on the spirit of Elias. Both spirits, that which breathed through and informed the prophets and saints of the old covenant, as well as that which should inform the disciples of the new, are Divine. The difference between them is not of opposition, but only of time and degree. The spirit of the old testament was a spirit of avenging righteousness; God was teaching men His holiness by terrible things in righteousness. But the spirit of the new covenant, not contrary, but brighter, is that of forgiving love; in it He is overcoming man’s evil with His good. Each economy has one predominating tone from which it takes its character. The two apostles were for the moment failing to recognise this. In a confusion of old and new, and not knowing of “what manner of spirit” they were, they had fallen back on the rudiments of God’s education of His people, when it was their privilege to go on unto perfection, and to teach the world the far greater might of meekness and of love. In their missing of all this there was a fault and matter of blame, yet blame by no means so severe as some are disposed to find. They were rebuked for choosing that which, perfectly good in its own time, was only not good now because a better had come in, for returning to the lower level of the old covenant when Christ had lifted them up, if only they had understood this, to the higher level of the new.—Trench.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON Luk_9:51-56
Luk_9:51-56. The courage and meekness of Christ.
I. The Divine courage and firmness of Christ in despising death.
II. The deadly enmities produced by differences about religion.
III. With what headlong ardour the nature of man is hurried on to impatience!
IV. How ready we are to fall into mistakes in imitating the saints!
V. By the example of Christ we are called to the exercise of meekness.—Calvin.
Luk_9:51. “Received up.”—Our Lord’s agony, cross, and passion were at hand; but He looked through them all to His glorious ascension.
Luk_9:52. “To make ready for Him.”—An indication of the dignity which was mingled with the humility of the Saviour. He required some preparation to be made for His coming, attended as He was by disciples, and did not choose to subject Himself to the inconveniences of haphazard arrangements made after His arrival, when a little foresight and management might prevent confusion and discomfort.
Luk_9:53. “Did not receive Him.”—Note the disastrous effects of religious prejudice.
I. It leads to a rejection of the Saviour.
II. It prompts a rudeness and discourtesy of which worldly people would be ashamed to be guilty.
III. It robs those who are blinded by it of those rich blessings which would result from communion with the Saviour and with His true disciples.
Luk_9:54. “James and John.”—Christ had surnamed them Boanerges, or “Sons of Thunder” (Mar_3:17), and their present proposal strikingly harmonises with some aspects of the character that gained for them the name. We should do them wrong if we imagined that their proposal was a mere outburst of personal annoyance. It sprang from sincere jealousy for the honour of their Lord, though with it there may have mingled party passion—some remains of old-standing dislike of Jews to Samaritans.
Luk_9:55. “Ye know not.”—James showed, when he suffered in patience death by the sword, that he had learned the meek spirit of Christ.
“What manner of spirit.”—
1. They thought they were actuated simply by zeal for Christ, but pride and anger vitiated their zeal.
2. The spirit they manifested was not such as became the apostles of the gospel, who were sent to proclaim mercy even to the chief of sinners.
Elias’ Spirit.—Elias’ spirit, I hope, was no evil spirit. No; but every good spirit, as good as Elias’, is not for every person, place, or time. Spirits are given by God, and men inspired with them, after several manners, upon several occasions, as the several times require. The times sometimes require one spirit, sometimes another. Elias’ time, Elias’ spirit. As his act good, done by his spirit, so his spirit good in his own time. The time changed; the spirit, then good, now not good. But why is it out of time? For the Son of man is come. As if He should say, Indeed, there is a time to destroy (Ecc_3:3); that was under the law, the fiery law, as Moses calls it; then a fiery spirit would not be amiss. The spirit of Elias was good till the Son of man came; but now He is come, the date of that spirit is expired. When the Son of man is come, the spirit of Elias must be gone; now specially, for Moses and he resigned lately in the mount. Now no lawgiver, no prophet, but Christ.—Andrewes.
Luk_9:56. Give People Time.—“They went to another village.”
I. Christ’s action here illustrates the importance of giving people time to accept His claims.—This need not involve any surrender of the truth. No good is done by speaking as if the truth were less certain, less supremely important, than in our hearts we believe it to be. But who are we, that we should dare to foreclose the time of others’ growth? The impenetrable reserves of truth, its distances of unapproachable light, make us incapable of judging how God may lead men on to it. Who can tell how he may help others by his own reverent and hopeful patience!
II. This example of Christ ought to help us in the ordinary affairs of life.—How much unsuspected beauty might be disclosed around us if we gave people time! Remember that they who would foreclose the case for others would themselves be without light and hope if God had not borne with them. They are depending moment by moment on His long-suffering. And think how much forbearance we have received from others! So much, that we have been often unconscious that we needed any. If we considered these things, we would gladly give others time to amend.—Paget.
Salvation.—The love of God can pursue and convict the most lost and erring. It goes after lost sheep. But how? By our accepting the yoke of Christ we come in touch with this store of vitality. The prime aim of the new creation is to take the will of God as the motive of life. “Thy will be done” is the acceptable prayer for salvation. Salvation from what? From the crushing or subtle power of temptation—from all that harms us. Do not associate salvation merely with deliverance from a future hell: salvation is deliverance from evil habit, from disappointment, from worry. This incoming saving power of God is for daily use.—Jones.
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 vv51, 57 Luk 9:51-56. “And it came to pass, while the…
RETALIATORY SPIRIT OF JAMES & JOHN
Luk 9:51-56. “And it came to pass, while the days of His taking up [i.e., His crucifixion] were being fulfilled, and He turned His face to go to Jerusalem. And He sent messengers before His face, and they, going, entered into a village of the Samaritans, so as to prepare for Him. And they did not receive Him, because His face was going toward Jerusalem. And His disciples, James and John, seeing, said, Lord, do you wish that we may command fire to descend from heaven and consume them, as Elijah did? And turning, Me rebuked them, and said, Do you not know of what spirit you are? for the Son of man came not to destroy the lives of men, but to save them; and they went on into another village.” He is now journeying to Jerusalem, accompanied by His apostles, having declined to go in time for the opening of the festival, when the road would be thronged with multitudes. Samaria, the old kingdom of Israel under Jeroboam, stretches across Canaan in the middle, from the Jordan on the east, to the Mediterranean Sea on the west, so that the direct route from Galilee to Jerusalem led through Samaria. As He goes along, preaching on His way, and sends out some of His disciples to notify the people, so they might be on hand to hear the Living Word, and profit by the opportunity, entering a Samaritan village and notifying them about Jesus coming, they refuse to receive Him, because He was going to Jerusalem; as there was long an inveterate prejudice on the part of the Samaritans toward the Jews, as they, after Nehemiah rejected Sanballat from a participation in building the temple, had rallied all their forces, and built a magnificent rival temple on Mt. Gerizim, thus becoming the uncompromising rivals of the Jews for the holy mount, the Christhood, and all the blessings of the Abrahamic Covenant; as they were not pure-blooded Jews, but a mixture of the Jews with the heathens, who had been transported thither from the Babylonian Empire by Esarhaddon, the king of Babylon. If His face had not been toward Jerusalem, doubtless they would have received Him, as they were looking for Christ, but wanted Him to be a Samaritan. In all probability, they were near the spot where Elijah had called down fire from heaven, as that was in Samaria, and on the convenient route to Jerusalem. I passed over it, making the same journey. Thus, in all probability, being reminded of that notable event, they thought it an auspicious time to exercise their power. Jesus rebukes them, “Do you not know of what spirit you are?” As the apostles of Christ, they properly belong to the spirit of love, kindness, mercy, sympathy, and forgiveness; whereas Elijah lived under the law dispensation and the theocracy, when Divine retribution was the normal economy. This, however, incontestably illustrates their imperative need of a second work of grace, as James and John were among the most spiritual of the apostles, and still actuated by this retaliatory spirit. If our Savior’s apostles needed the sanctifying fire to burn out of them unholy tempers, we certainly all need it too.
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 v51
Luke
CHRIST HASTENING TO THE CROSS
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Luk 9:51.
There are some difficulties, with which I need not trouble you here, as to bringing the section of this Gospel to which these words are the introduction, into its proper chronological place in relation to the narratives; but, putting these on one side for the present, there seems no doubt that the Evangelist’s intention here is to represent the beginning of our Lord’s last journey from Galilee to Jerusalem-a journey which was protracted and devious, and the narrative of which in this Gospel, as you will perceive, occupies a very large portion of its whole contents.
The picture that is given in my text is that of a clear knowledge of what waited Him, of a steadfast resolve to accomplish the purpose of the divine love, and that resolve not without such a shrinking of some part of His nature that He had ‘to set His face to go to Jerusalem.’
The words come into parallelism very strikingly with a great prophecy of the Messiah in the Book of the Prophet Isaiah, where we read, ‘The Lord God will help me, therefore shall I not be confounded’-or, as the words have been rendered, ‘shall not suffer myself to be overcome by mockery’-’therefore have I set my face like a flint.’ In the words both of the Prophet and of the Evangelist there is the same idea of a resolved will, as the result of a conscious effort directed to prevent circumstances which tended to draw Him back, from producing their effect. The graphic narrative of the Evangelist Mark adds one more striking point to that picture of high resolve. He tells us, speaking of what appears to be the final epoch in this long journey to the Cross, ‘They were in the way, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus went before them; and they were amazed: and as they followed, they were afraid.’ What a picture that is, Christ striding along the steep mountain path far in advance-impelled by that same longing which sighs so wonderfully in His words, ‘How am I straitened till it be accomplished,’-with solemn determination in the gentle face, and His feet making haste to run in the way of the Father’s commandments! And lagging behind, the little group, awed into almost stupor, and shrinking in uncomprehending terror from that light of unconquerable resolve and more than mortal heroism that blazed in His eyes!
If we fix, then, on this picture, and as we are warranted in doing, regard it as giving us a glimpse of the very heart of Christ, I think it may well suggest to us considerations that may tend to make more real to us that sacrifice that He made, more deep to us that love by which He was impelled, and may perhaps tend to make our love more true and our resolve more fixed. ‘He set His face to go to Jerusalem.’
I. First, then, we may take, I think, from these words, the thought of the perfect clearness with which all through Christ’s life He foresaw the inevitable and purposed end.
Here, indeed, the Evangelist leaps over the suffering of the Cross, and thinks only of the time when He shall be lifted up upon the throne; but in that calm and certain prevision which, in His manhood, the Divine Son of God did exercise concerning His own earthly life, between Him and the glory there ever stood the black shadow thrown by Calvary. When He spoke of being ‘lifted up,’ He ever meant by that pregnant and comprehensive word, at once man’s elevation of Him on the accursed tree, and the Father’s elevation of Him upon the throne at His right hand! The future was, if I may so say, in His eye so foreshortened that the two things ran into one, and the ambiguous expression did truly connote the one undivided act of prescient consciousness in which He at once recognised the Cross and the throne. And so, when the time was come that He should be received up, He ‘steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem.’
Now, there is another thing to be noticed. That vision of the certain end which here fills His mind and impels His conduct, was by no means new with Him. Modern unbelieving commentators and critics upon the Gospels have tried their best to represent Christ’s life as, at a certain point in it, being modified by His recognition of the fact that His mission was a failure, and that there was nothing left for Him but martyrdom! I believe that that is as untrue to the facts of the Gospel story upon any interpretation of them, as it is repulsive to the instincts of devout hearts; and without troubling you with thoughts about it I need only refer to two words of His. When was it that He said, ‘Destroy this temple, and in three days I will build it up’? When was it that He said, ‘As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up’? The one saying was uttered at the very beginning of His public work, and the other in His conversation with Nicodemus. On the testimony of these two sayings, if there were none else, I think there is no option but to believe that from the first there stood clear before Him the necessity and the certainty of the Cross, and that it was no discovery made at a certain point of His course.
And then, remember that we are not to think of Him as, like many an earthly hero and martyr, regarding a violent and bloody death as being the very probable result of faithful boldness, but to believe that He, looking on from the beginning to that end, regarded it always as being laid upon Him by a certain divine necessity, into which necessity He entered with the full submission and acquiescence of His own will, and from the beginning knew that Calvary was the work for which He had come, and that His love would fail of its expression, and the divine purpose would fail of its realisation, and His whole mission would fail of all its meaning, unless He died for men. The martyr looks to the scaffold and says, ‘It stands in my way, and I must either be untrue to conscience or I must go there, and so I will go.’ Christ said, ‘The Cross is in My path, and on it and from it I shall exercise the influence, to exercise which I have come into the world, and there I shall do the thing which I came forth from the Father to do.’ He thought of His death not as the end of His work, but as the centre-point of it; not as the termination of His activity, but as its climax, to which all the rest was subordinated, and without which all the rest was nought. He does not die, and so seal a faithful life by an heroic death,-but dies, so bearing and bearing away man’s sin. He regarded from the beginning ‘the glory that should follow,’ and the suffering through which He had to wade to reach it, in one and the same act of prescience, and said, ‘Lo, I come, in the volume of the book it is written of Me.’
And I think, dear friends, if we carried with us more distinctly than we do that one simple thought, that in all the human joys, in all the apparently self-forgetting tenderness, of that Lord who had a heart for every sorrow and an ear for every complaint, and a hand open as day and full of melting charity for every need-that in every moment of that life, in the boyhood, in the dawning manhood, in the maturity of His growing human powers-there was always present one black shadow, towards which He ever went straight with the consent of His will and with the clearest eye, we should understand something more of how His life as well as His death was a sacrifice for us sinful men!
We honour and love men who crush down their own sorrows in order to help their fellows. We wonder with almost reverence when we see some martyr, in sight of the faggots, pause to do a kindness to some weeping heart in the crowd, or to speak a cheering word. We admire the leisure and calm of spirit which he displays. But all these pale, and the very comparison may become an insult, before that heart which ever discerned Calvary, and never let the sight hinder one deed of kindness, nor silence one gracious word, nor check one throb of sympathy.
II. Still further, the words before us lead to a second consideration, which I have just suggested in my last sentence-Our Lord’s perfect willingness for the sacrifice which He saw before Him.
We have here brought into the narrowest compass, and most clearly set forth, the great standing puzzle of all thought, which can only be solved by action. On the one side there is the distinctest knowledge of a divine purpose that will be executed; on the other side there is the distinctest consciousness that at each step towards the execution of it He is constrained by no foreign and imposed necessity, but is going to the Cross by His own will. ‘The Son of Man must be lifted up.’ ‘It became Him to make the Captain of salvation perfect through sufferings.’ ‘It behoved Him to be made in all points like His brethren.’ The Eternal Will of the Father, the purpose purposed before the foundation of the world, the solemn prophecies from the beginning of time, constituted the necessity, and involved the certainty, of His death on the Cross. But are we, therefore, to think that Jesus Christ was led along the path that ended there, by a force which overbore and paralysed His human will? Was not His life, and especially His death, obedience? Was there not, therefore, in Him, as in us all, the human will that could cheerfully submit; and must there not, then, have been, at each step towards the certain end, a fresh act of submission and acceptance of the will of the Father that had sent Him?
‘Clear knowledge of the end as divinely appointed and certain’; yes, one might say, and if so, there could have been no voluntariness in treading the path that leads to it. ‘Voluntariness in treading the path that leads to it, and if so, there could have been no divine ordination of the end.’ Not so! When human thought comes, if I may so say, full butt against a stark, staring contradiction like that, it is no proof that either of the propositions is false. It is only like the sign-boards that the iceman puts upon the thin ice, ‘dangerous!’ a warning that that is not a place for us to tread. We have to keep a firm hold of what is certified to us, on either side, by its appropriate evidence, and leave the reconciliation, if it can ever be given to finite beings, to a higher wisdom, and, perchance, to another world!
But that is a digression from my more immediate purpose, which is simply to bring before our minds, as clearly as I can, that perfect, continuous, ever-repeated willingness, expressing itself in a chain of constant acts that touch one upon the other, which Christ manifested to embrace the Cross, and to accomplish what was at once the purpose of the Father’s will and the purpose of His own.
And it may be worth while, just for a moment, to touch lightly upon some of the many points which bring out so clearly in these Gospel narratives the wholly and purely voluntary character of Christ’s death.
Take, for instance, the very journey which I am speaking of now. Christ went up to Jerusalem, says my text. What did He go there for? He went, as you will see, if you look at the previous circumstance,-He went in order, if I might use such a word, to precipitate the collision, and to make His Crucifixion certain. He was under the ban of the Sanhedrim; but perfectly safe as long as He had stopped up among the hills of Galilee. He was as unsafe when He went up to Jerusalem as John Huss when he went to the Council of Constance with the Emperor’s safe-conduct in his belt; or as a condemned heretic would have been in the old days, if he had gone and stood in that little dingy square outside the palace of the Inquisition at Rome, and there, below the obelisk, preached his heresies! Christ had been condemned in the council of the nation; but there were plenty of hiding-places among the Galilean hills, and the frontier was close at hand, and it needed a long arm to reach from Jerusalem all the way across Samaria to the far north. Knowing that, He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem, and, if I might use the expression, went straight into the lion’s mouth. Why? Because He chose to die.
And, then, take another circumstance. If you will look carefully at the Scripture narrative, you will find that from about this point in His life onwards there comes a distinct change in one very important respect. Before this He shunned publicity; after this He courted it. Before this, when He spoke in veiled words of His sufferings, He said to His disciples, ‘Tell no man till the Son of man be risen from the dead.’ Hereafter though there are frequent prophecies of His sufferings, there is no repetition of that prohibition. He goes up to Jerusalem, and His triumphal entry adds fuel to the fire. His language at the last moment appeals to the publicity of His final visit to that city-’Was I not daily with you in the Temple and ye laid no hands upon Me?’ Everything that He could do He does to draw attention to Himself-everything, that is to say, within the limits of the divine decorum, which was ever observed in His life, of whom it was written long, long ago, ‘He shall not strive, nor cry, nor cause His voice to be heard in the streets.’ There is, then, a most unmistakable change to be felt by any who will carefully read the narratives in their bearing upon this one point-a resolve to draw the eyes of the enemy upon Himself.
And to the same purpose, did you ever notice how calmly, with full self-consciousness, distinctly understanding what He is doing, distinctly knowing to what it will lead, He makes His words ever heavier and heavier, and more and more sharply pointed with denunciations, as the last loving wrestle between Himself and the scribes and Pharisees draws near to its bloody close? Instead of softening He hardens His tones-if I dare use the word, where all is the result of love-at any rate He keeps no terms; but as the danger increases His words become plainer and sterner, and approach as near as ever His words could do to bitterness and rebuke. It was then, whilst passionate hate was raging round Him, and eager eyes were gleaming revenge, that He poured out His sevenfold woes upon the ‘hypocrites,’ the ‘blind guides,’ the ‘fools,’ the ‘whited sepulchres,’ the ‘serpents,’ the ‘generation of vipers,’ whom He sees filling up the measure of their fathers in shedding His righteous blood.
And again, the question recurs-Why? And again, besides other reasons, which I have not time to touch upon here, the answer, as it seems to me, must unmistakably be, Because He willed to die, and He willed to die because He loved us.
The same lesson is taught, too, by that remarkable incident preserved for us by the Gospel of John, of the strange power which accompanied His avowal of Himself to the rude soldiers who had come to seize Him, and which struck them to the ground in terror and impotence. One flash comes forth to tell of the sleeping lightning that He will not use, and then having revealed the might that could have delivered Him from their puny arms, He returns to His attitude of self-surrender for our sakes, with those wonderful words which tell how He gave up Himself that we might be free, ‘If ye seek Me, let these go their way.’ The scene is a parable of the whole work of Jesus; it reveals His power to have shaken off every hand laid upon Him, His voluntary submission to His else impotent murderers, and the love which moved Him to the surrender.
Other illustrations of the same sort I must leave untouched at present, and only remind you of the remarkable peculiarity of the language in which all the Evangelists describe the supreme moment when Christ passed from His sufferings. ‘When He had cried with a loud voice, He yielded up the ghost,’-He sent away the spirit-’He breathed out’ {His spirit}, ‘He gave up the ghost.’ In simple truth, He ‘committed His spirit’ into the Father’s hand. And I believe that it is an accurate and fair comment to say, that that is no mere euphemism for death, but carries with it the thought that He was active in that moment; that the nails and the spear and the Cross did not kill Christ, but that Christ willed to die! And though it is true on the one side, as far as men’s hatred and purpose are concerned. ‘Whom with wicked hands ye have crucified and slain’; on the other side, as far as the deepest verity of the fact is concerned, it is still more true, ‘I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again.’
But at all events, whatever you may think of such an exposition as that, the great principle which my text illustrates for us at an earlier stage is, at least, irrefragably established-that our dear Lord, when He died, died, because He willed to do so. He was man and therefore He could die; but He was not man in such fashion as that He must die. In His bodily frame was the possibility, not the necessity, of death. And that being so, the very fact of His death is the most signal proof that He is Lord of death as well as of life. He dies not because He must, He dies not because of faintness and pain and wounds. These and they who inflicted them had no power at all over Him. He chooses to die; and He wills it because He wills to fulfil the eternal purpose of divine love, which is His purpose, and to bring life to the world. His hour of weakness was His hour of strength. They lifted Him on a cross, and it became a throne. In the moment when death seemed to conquer Him, He was really using it that He might abolish it. When He gave tip the ghost, He showed Himself Lord of death as marvellously and as gloriously as when He burst its bands and rose from the grave; for this grisly shadow, too, was His servant, and He says to him, ‘Come, and he cometh; do this, and he doeth it.’ ‘Thou didst overcome the sharpness of death’ when Thou didst willingly bow Thy head to it, and didst die not because Thou must, but because Thou wouldest.
III. Still further, let me remind you how, in the language of this verse, there is also taught us that there was in Christ a natural human shrinking from the Cross.
The steadfast and resolved will held its own, overcoming the natural human reluctance. ‘He set His face.’ People are afraid to talk-and the instinct, the reverent instinct, is right, however we may differ from the application of it-people are afraid to talk, as if there was any shrinking in Christ from the Cross. I believe there was. Was the agony in Gethsemane a reality or a shadow, when He said, ‘O My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass?’ What did that prayer mean, if there was not something in His nature that recoiled from the agony and mysterious horror of these awful hours? Let us take heed lest in our reverence we destroy the very notion on which our hope rests-that of Christ as suffering. For that one word involves all that I say-Did Christ suffer or did He not? If He suffered, then human nature shrank from it. The two ideas are correlative, you cannot part them-suffering and reluctance, a perfectly innocent, natural, inevitable, human instinct, inseparable from corporeity, that makes men recoil from pain. ‘He endured the Cross,’ says the Book-if there was not reluctance what was there to ‘endure’? ‘Despising the shame’-if there was not something from which He shrank, what was there to ‘despise’? ‘He set His face’-if there was not something in Him that hung back, what need was there for the hardening of the countenance? If Christ has suffered, then His flesh and blood quivered beforehand with the pangs and shrank from these, and He would have been spared the cup. Such instinctive recoil is not evil, it is not rebellion, it is not unwillingness to submit to the Father’s will. His whole being clave to that, and never swerved from it for one moment. But still, because the path was darkened by mysterious blackness, and led to a Cross, therefore He, even He, who did always the things that pleased the Father, and ever delighted to do His will, needed to ‘set His face’ to go up to the mountain of sacrifice.
And now, if you will take along with that the other thought that I suggested at the beginning of these remarks, and remember that this shrinking must have been as continuous as the vision, and that this overcoming of it must have been as persistent and permanent as the resolve, I think we get a point of view from which to regard that life of Christ’s-full of pathos, full of tender appeals to our hearts and to our thankfulness.
All along that consecrated road He walked, and each step represented a separate act of will, and each separate act of will represented a triumph over the reluctance of flesh and blood. As we may say, every time that He planted His foot on the flinty path the blood flowed. Every step was a pain like that of a man enduring the ordeal and walking on burning iron or sharp steel.
The old taunt of His enemies, as they stood beneath His Cross, might have been yielded to-’If Thou be the Son of God, come down and we will believe.’ I ask why did not He? I know that, to those who think less loftily of Christ than we who believe Him to be the Son of God, the words sound absurd-but I for one believe that the only thing that kept Him there, the only answer to that question is-Because He loved me with an everlasting love, and died to redeem me. Because of that love, He came to earth; because of that love, He tabernacled among us; because of that love, He gazed all His life long on the Cross of shame; because of that love, He trod unfaltering, with eager haste and solemn resolve, the rough and painful road; because of that love, He listened not to the voice that at the beginning tempted Him to win the world for Himself by an easier path; because of that love, He listened not-though He could have done so-to the voices that at the end taunted Him with their proffered allegiance if He would come down from the Cross; because of that love, He gave up His spirit. And through all the weariness and contumely and pain, that love held His will fixed to its purpose, and bore Him over every hindrance that barred His path. Many waters quench it not. That love is stronger than death; mightier than all opposing powers; deep and great beyond all thought or thankfulness. It silences all praise. It beggars all recompense. To believe it is life. To feel it is heaven.
But one more remark I would make on this whole subject. We are far too much accustomed to think of our Saviour as presenting only the gentle graces of human nature. He presents those that belong to the strong side of our nature just as much. In Him are all power, manly energy, resolved consecration; everything which men call heroism is there. ‘He steadfastly set His face.’ And everything which men call tenderest love, most dewy pity, most marvellous and transcendent patience, is all there too. The type of manhood and the type of womanhood are both and equally in Jesus Christ; and He is the Man, whole, entire, perfect, with all power breathed forth in all gentleness, with all gentleness made steadfast and mighty by His strength. ‘And he said unto me, Behold the lion of the tribe of Judah. And I beheld, and lo, a lamb!’-the blended symbols of kingly might, and lowly meekness, power in love, and love in power. The supremest act of resolved consecration and heroic self-immolation that ever was done upon earth-an act which we degrade by paralleling it with any other-was done at the bidding of love that pitied us. As we look up at that Cross we know not whether is more wonderfully set forth the pitying love of Christ’s most tender heart, or the majestic energy of Christ’s resolved will. The blended rays pour out, dear brethren, and reach to each of us. Do not look to that great sacrifice with idle wonder. Bend upon it no eye of mere curiosity. Beware of theorising merely about what it reveals and what it does. Turn not away from it carelessly as a twice-told tale. But look, believing that all that divine and human love pours out its treasure upon you, that all that firmness of resolved consecration and willing surrender to the death of the Cross was for you. Look, believing that you had then, and have now, a place in His heart, and in His sacrifice. Look, remembering that it was because He would save you, that Himself He could not save.
And as, from afar, we look on that great sight, let His love melt our hearts to an answering fervour, and His fixed will give us, too, strength to delight in obedience, to set our faces like a flint. Let the power of His sacrifice, and the influence of His example which that sacrifice commends to our loving copy, and the grace of His Spirit whom He, since that sacrifice, pours upon men, so mould us that we, too, like Him, may ‘quit us like men, be strong,’ and all our strength and ‘all our deeds’ be wielded and ‘done in charity.’
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. W. McGarvey 1914 · Public Domain On vv51, 57 J. W. McGarvey's The Fourfold Gospel [LXXVI. Private Journey…
J. W. McGarvey's The Fourfold Gospel [LXXVI. Private Journey to Jerusalem].
LXXVI. THE PRIVATE JOURNEY TO JERUSALEM. (Through Samaria. Probably September, A. D. 29.) cLUKE IX. 51-56; dJOHN VII. 10.
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d10 But when his brethren were gone up unto the feasts, then went he also up, not publicly, but as it were in secret. [This section follows immediately after the preceding. The secrecy of this journey consists in the fact that Jesus did not join the caravans or pilgrim bands, and that he did not follow the usual Peræan route, but went directly through Samaria.] c51 And it came to pass, when the days were well-nigh come that he should be received up, he steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem, 52 and sent messengers before his face: and they went, and entered into a village of the Samaritans, to make ready for him. [Taken in its strictest sense, the expression "taken up" refers to our Lord's ascension, but it is here used to embrace his entire passion. Though our Lord's death was still six months distant, his going to Jerusalem is described as attended with a special effort, because from that time forth Jerusalem was to occupy the position of headquarters, as Capernaum had done, and his [441] withdrawals and returns would be with regard to it. The presence of the twelve alone is sufficient to account for the messengers. He did not wish to overtax the fickle hospitality of the Samaritans by coming unannounced.] 53 And they did not receive him, because his face was i as though he were going to Jerusalem. [Had Jesus come among them on a missionary tour he would doubtless have been received. But when he came as a Jew passing through to Jerusalem, and using their highway as a convenience, they rejected him.] 54 And when his disciples James and John saw i this, they said, Lord, wilt thou that we bid fire to come down from heaven, and consume them? 55 But he turned, and rebuked them, 56 And they went to another village. [Refusing to receive a religious teacher was considered a rejection of his claim. This rejection roused the ire of the two sons of thunder and prompted them to suggest that the example of Elijah be followed ( 2Ki_1:9-12), but Jesus was a Saviour and not a destroyer, so he passed on to another village. The conduct of John in after years contrasts sharply with the wish which he here expressed-- Act_8:14-25.]
[FFG 441-442]
J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v51 IV. The journey to Jerusalem -- Chapter 9:51-19:27
IV. The journey to Jerusalem -- Chapter 9:51-19:27
CHAPTER 9:51-62
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1. His Face Set Toward Jerusalem. (Luk 9:51-52)
2. The Rejected Messengers and His Rebuke. (Luk 9:53-56)
3. Tests of Discipleship. (Luk 9:57-62.)
The fifty-first verse marks a new part in this Gospel. The time was come; His hour was approaching. As the perfect Man we have seen Him. As babe, as child, as man in all His loveliness we have seen Him and now the compassionate, loving One, He, who always pleased God in a perfect obedience “steadfastly set His face to go up to Jerusalem.” Coming from Galilee the messengers entered into a village of the Samaritans, who would not receive Him because His face was set toward Jerusalem, the city the Samaritans hated. James and John asked the Lord to command fire to come down from heaven to consume them as Elias did. They believed the Lord had the power to do this. They had been with Him and had seen His deeds of love and kindness and yet they could make so strange a request. He then rebuked them. Later John went again into Samaria, but manifested a far different spirit (Act 8:1-40).
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On vv51, 57 Rejection by the Samaritans
Rejection by the Samaritans
v. 51. And it came to pass, when the time was come that He should be received up, He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem,
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v. 52. and sent messengers before His face; and they went, and entered into a village of the Samaritans to make ready for Him.
v. 53. And they did not receive Him because His face was as though He would go to Jerusalem.
v. 54. And when His disciples James and John saw this, they said, Lord, wilt Thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did?
v. 55. But He turned, and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of.
v. 56. For the Son of Man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them. And they went to another village.
John and James, the "sons of thunder," had not yet learned the full lesson of humility, as this incident shows. When the days of His being received up were altogether fulfilled, when the days of His assumption were in course of accomplishment, "implying the approach of the closing scenes of Christ’s earthly experience," then He firmly set His face to journey up to Jerusalem. It was not the last journey which the Lord was here undertaking, but one which would settle His fate, so far as the leaders of the Jews were concerned. From this time forth He might expect a falling away of popular favor. He made this journey through Samaria. But when, in one case, He sent messengers ahead to provide lodging, He met with a flat refusal. The Samaritans, a mixed people, had fallen away from the Jewish Church, accepted only the Pentateuch as God’s revealed Word, and did not worship at Jerusalem. There was, on that account, little love lost between the Jews and the Samaritans, Joh 4:9. In this case the people of the Samaritan village would not give Jesus lodging, because, literally, His face was journeying to Jerusalem; He was headed in that direction, that was His destination. But this treatment of their Master filled John and James with the greatest indignation. Referring to the act of Elijah, 2Ki 1:10, they wanted to follow his example and have the village destroyed by fire from heaven. But Jesus turned to them and very earnestly upbraided them for their suggestion. The spirit of Christ and the New Testament is not bent upon destroying the souls of people, but upon saving them. Rather than show any resentment, Jesus chose a different village to lodge in. This lesson is in place even today. The Christian Church, the Christian congregation, uses no force in bringing Christ and His Gospel to people, for His kingdom is not of this world. "Here Christ says: Remember of what spirit ye are children, namely, of the Holy Spirit, who is a Spirit of peace, not of division. This Peter also forgot in the garden, when Christ said to him: Put the sword into the sheath. It requires not fighting, but suffering. The Holy Spirit permits it now, and maintains His silence that Christ is thus crucified and abominably dealt with. Thus, because we have the pure doctrine, it happens also to us that everything that is great in the world uses power and might against this doctrine. But God alone upholds it, else it would have been destroyed long ago. But since they vilify the doctrine and defend their godless estate, we cannot hold silence, but must speak against them. But we are here like John and James; our heart has this feeling, that we desire revenge upon the godless tyrants. Here every one should repent thoroughly and pray God that He would keep us from such murderous thoughts. revenge we should not desire, hut have compassion, and remember why the Son of Man is come, namely, that we should not desire judgment and revenge upon the sinners."
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 vv51, 54, 57, 59, 61 General Information:
General Information:
It is now obvious that Jesus has decided to go to Jerusalem.
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When the days drew near for him to be taken up
"When the time was coming for him to go up" or "When it was almost time for him to go up"
set his face
This idiom means he "firmly decided." AT: "made up his mind" or "decided" (See: Idiom)
to prepare everything for him
This means to make arrangements for his arrival there, possibly including a place to speak, a place to stay, and food.
did not welcome him
"did not want him to stay"
because he had set his face to go to Jerusalem
The Samaritans and the Jews hated each other. Therefore the Samaritans would not help Jesus on his journey to Jerusalem, the Jewish capital. (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
translationWords
heaven
face
Jerusalem
messenger
Samaria
receive
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 vv51, 52, 54, 57, 58, 59, 61 9:51–19:44 Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem was a new phase…
9:51–19:44 Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem was a new phase in the suffering mission of the Messiah. In this section, Jesus prepared his disciples for what was to come, while the opposition from the Jewish leaders increased.
9:51 Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem: Though the route was indirect, Jerusalem was Jesus’ ultimate destination.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.