Gambar halaman
PDF
ePub

m John xi. 1: xii. 2, 3.

Acts xxii. 3.

38 Now it came to pass, as they went, that he entered into a certain village and : a certain woman named m Martha received him into her house. 39 And she had a n Luke viii. 35. sister called Mary, "which also sat at j Jesus' feet, and heard his word. 40 But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me. 41 And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: 42 but one thing is needful: İ read, with many ancient authorities, the Lord's.

[ocr errors]

and clothe us: Gal. iii. 21 (Trench remarks that the Church, by joining the passage Gal. iii. 16-23 as Epistle, with this Parable as Gospel for the 13th Sunday after Trinity, has stamped this interpretation with her approval):-in the good Samaritan, Him of whom it was lately said, 'Say we not well that thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil?" (John viii. 48)— who came to bind up the broken-hearted, to give them the oil of joy for mourning (Isa. lxi. 1 ff.);-who for our sakes became poor, that we through His poverty might become rich: who, though now gone from us, has left with us precious gifts, and charged His ministers to feed His lambs, promising them, when the chief Shepherd shall appear, a crown of glory that fadeth not away (1 Pet. v. 2, 4). Further perhaps it is well not to go;-or, if we do, only in our own private meditations, where, if we have the great clue to such interpretations, knowledge of Christ for ourselves, and a sound mind under the guidance of His Spirit, we shall not go far wrong. But minutely to allegorize, is to bring the sound spiritual interpretation into disrepute, and throw stumbling-blocks in the way of many, who might otherwise arrive at it.

38-42.] ENTERTAINMENT OF OUR

LORD AT THE HOUSE OF MARTHA AND
MARY. It surely never could be doubted
who this Martha and Mary were, nor
where this took place,-but that the har-
monizing spirit has so beclouded the sight
of our critics. Bengel believes them not
to be the sisters of Lazarus, but another
Martha and Mary somewhere else ;-and
this in spite of the deep psychological
identity of characters which meets us in
John xi. xii.
Greswell, still more
strangely, believes the persons to be the
same, but that they had another residence
in Galilee. I shall, as elsewhere, take the
text in its most obvious and simple inter-
pretation, and where nothing definite is

inserted in it, throw light on it from what we know from other sources. And I believe most readers will agree with me in taking these for the sisters of Lazarus, and the village for Bethany. 38.] as they went need make no difficulty-the whole of the events related in this section of the Gospel are allotted, as in the widest sense they belonged, to the last journey of our Lord from Galilee, which ended in the triumphal entry into Jerusalem;-see note on ch. ix. 51 ff. Jesus, as we know that He afterwards did, so now probably, when at Jerusalem (at the feast of Dedication), abode at Bethany. He loved'-(only used in this sense by John with regard to this family and to himself)-Martha and Mary and Lazarus-and this word implies surely hospitality and intercourse.

a certain woman] It does not follow that Martha was a widow; the incident brings out the two sisters, and therefore no others are mentioned. She may have had a husband or a father living. At all events, it is a consistency belonging to real life, that we find the same person prominent in the family in John, as here.

39.] It does not appear that the meal had begun; far rather is it likely that Martha was busy about preparing it. Mary sat at the Lord's feet, as His disciple, while He was discoursing.

41, 42.]

one

The repetition of her name indicates re-
proof. thou art careful (it is the same
word as that in Matt. vi. 25, &c., and there
rendered "to take anxious thought ")
expresses the inner anxiety :- troubled,
the outer bustle and confusion.
thing] Perhaps we should not express the
two words more definitely, for fear of
narrowing the wide sense in which they
are spoken. I can hardly doubt that our
Lord, in the first and most obvious mean-
ing indicated that simpler preparation
would have been all that was needful, but
the many leads to the one, and that to the

and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.

XI. 1 And it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples. 2 And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father [which art in heaven], Hallowed be thy a Matt. vi. 9. name. Thy kingdom come. [Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth.] 3 Give us day by day our daily ́ bread. 4 And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive

komit: see note.

good part, the "one" being the middle term of comparison between the natural "many" and the spiritual "good part." So that the whole will imply-only within the circle of Christ's disciples, those who act from love (mistaken or otherwise) to Him-much as John vi. 27,-and will set before us the bread which perisheth on one hand, and that which endureth to everlasting life on the other. The good portion is the one thing which is needful -see John vi. 53,-the feeding on the bread of life by faith; which faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ, which Mary was now receiving into her soul, and which (John vi. 54) shall never be taken away, but result in everlasting life.

The two types of character have ever been found in the Church; both, caring for Him, and for love to Him doing what they do but the one busy and restless, anxious, and stirring; the other quiet and humble, content to sit at His feet and learn. We see here which of the two He praises. But on the other hand we must not derive any argument hence against an active Christian life of doing good: this is, in fact, to sit at His feet and learn-to take His yoke on us, and learn of Him. It is the bustling about the many things of which there is no need, which is blamed; not the working out the fruits of the Spirit, which are needful, being parts themselves of the good part.

CHAP. XI. 1-13.] JESUS TEACHES THE DISCIPLES TO PRAY. The locality and time of the following incident are alike indefinite. The only limits are those of the great journey which is the subject of this section. There is no reason for supposing this to be the only occasion on which the Lord delivered this prayer to His disciples. In the Sermon on the Mount, it stands in close connexion with what goes before ;-and here also. In so weighty a summary of His teaching as that was, He was not likely, when speak

1.]

ing of prayer, to omit it;-when asked by His disciples to teach them to pray, He was not likely to depart from the form once given them. Such are ordinary probabilities, antecedent to every question affecting the two Gospels: and those critics who throw aside all such, are far more prejudiced in reality, than those who allow them full weight. "The peculiar and abridged form in Luke," says Meyer, "is a proof that the apostolic Church did not use the Lord's prayer as a form." Rather, we may say, a proof of the fidelity with which our Evangelist reproduced his ori- ́ ginal reports, not correcting them, as others after him did, to suit the forms most probably in use. If the apostolic Church did not use the Lord's Prayer as a form, when did its use begin, which we find in every known Liturgy? as John also of this fact we know nothing beyond the allusion here. 2.] When ye pray say. .... more definite than "after this manner pray ye...." in Matthew. On the prayer itself, see notes on Matt. vi. 9-13. The clauses printed in brackets in the text could hardly by any possibility have been omitted by any, had they ever formed a part of it. The shorter form, found in the Vatican, the most ancient of all our MSS., and in the recently published Sinaitic MS., was the original one: then the copyists inserted the clauses which were not found here, taking them from St. Matthew. That this, and not the converse process, must have been the one followed, is evident to any one who considers the matter. Stier's argument, that our text has not been conformed to Matthew, because the doxology has never been inserted here, seems to me to tend in quite another direction: the doxology was inserted there, because that was the form in general liturgical use, and not here, because this form never used liturgically. 3.] literally. . for that day's need, or, for

was

....

&c.

And lead us not into

b

every one that is indebted to us. temptation [1; but deliver us from evil]. 5 And he said unto them, Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go unto him at midnight, and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves; 6 for a friend of mine in his journey is come to me, and I have nothing to set before him? 7 And he from within shall answer and say, Trouble me not: the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I b ch. xviii. 1, cannot rise and give thee. 8 I say unto you, Though he will not rise and give him because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needeth. 9c And I say unto you, Ask, and it xi. 24. John shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it iii. 22. shall be opened unto you. 10 For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. 11 d If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent?

e Matt. vii. 7:

xxi. 22. Mark

xv. 7.

i. 6. 1 John

d Matt. vii. 9.

1 omit: see note.

ex

that day.
4.] for we also.
pressed here more strongly than in Mat-
thew, as the plea for the exercise of
the divine forgiveness to us,-'for it is
our own practice also to forgive:' but
notice the difference-there is no sin in
this second case, between man and man,
only the ordinary business word of this
world. 5.] Now follows a parable on
continuing instant in prayer, of the same
nature as that in ch. xviii. 2. ff. In both
parables, the argument is that called

à fortiori;'"if selfish man can be won by prayer and importunity to give, and unjust man to do right, much more certainly shall the bountiful Lord bestow, and the righteous Lord do justice," Trench; who further remarks, that here intercessory prayer is the subject of the parable; there, personal. And, that we must remember that all reluctance on the part of God to answer our prayers is not real, but apparent only, and arises from deeper reasons working for our good: whereas the reluctance in these two parables is real, arising from selfishness and contempt of justice. 6. in his journey] In the

East it was and is the custom to travel
late at night, for coolness sake. Why
three loaves does not appear.
I forbear to
give the allegorical interpretations of the
number, which abound: the significance
of the thing asked for, see below on ver.
7.] We have an interesting frag-

13.

m render, shamelessness.

The

ment of domestic life here given us.
door is barred,' not only shut;' there is
the trouble of unbarring it: the father
and children are in bed (observe how in
all the parables which place the Father, or
the Husband, before us, the Mother, or the
Bride, does not appear); and he cannot
(i. e. will not, cannot from being over-
come by reluctance) rise and give to him.

9.]

10.]

8.] The word is too mildly ren-
dered in the A. V. by importunity.' It
should be, as in margin, shamelessness.
It is presupposed here that the postulant
goes on knocking and asking.
What follows is in the closest connexion.
and will not bear the idea that it is trans-
ferred here merely as being appropriate.
The asking, seeking, knocking, all answer
to the features of the parable.
declares to us not merely a result observ-
able here among men, (in which sense it is
not universally true,) but a great law of
our Father's spiritual Kingdom: a clause
out of the eternal Covenant, which cannot
be changed. 11-13.] Our Lord sets
forth the certainty of our obtaining the
Holy Spirit, (the unspeakable gift, in
which all other good gifts are included,)
from our Father, by another à fortiori
argument, drawn from the love of earthly
parents, so far less careful and tenderly
wise than He is over His children.

For the rest, see notes on Matt. vii. 7 ff.
The egg and scorpion are added here.

12 or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? 13 If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?

:

[ocr errors]

xii. 22.

14e And he was casting out a devil, and it was dumb. e Matt. ix. 32: And it came to pass, when the devil was gone out, the

dumb spake; and the P people wondered.

render, give the word is the same as above. • literally, the Father from heaven. P render, multitudes.

The serpent and scorpion are the positively mischievous: the samples, ch. x. 19, of the "power of the enemy "-the stone, that which is simply unfit for food. So that God's answers to our prayers consist of neither useless nor mischievous things, but of His best gift-His Holy Spirit-in all the various and fitting manifestations of His guidance, and consolation, and teaching, in our lives. This is (because this takes of and imparts to us by leading us continually to Him who is) the "bread " of the parable;-the "father of the family" is the Father from Heaven, with whom however the night is as the day, who never slumbers nor sleeps. It has been noticed how by the hungry traveller coming to the man, may be imported, in the depth of the parable, the awakening in a man's own soul (which is so precious to him) of that hunger which he has nothing to satisfy, and which none but God can satisfy. The reader may, as in the foregoing parable, follow out this clue for himself (provided it be done soberly) with much interest and profit. Notice

that when we address God (Matt. vi. 9), He is "Our Father (which is) in heaven" -when He answers us, He is the Father from heaven. In the former case, we go up into Him and His abode; in the latter He comes down to us.

14-36.] ACCUSATION OF CASTING OUT DEVILS BY Beelzebub, AND DEMAND OF A SIGN FROM HEAVEN, OUR LORD'S DISCOURSE THEREUPON. Matt. xii. 2245. Mark iii. 23-30. The reasonings of Mr. Greswell to shew that St. Luke relates an entirely different incident from St. Matthew and St. Mark, able and well conducted as they are, fail to carry conviction to my mind. The marks of identity are too many and striking to be mistaken; and on the plan of discrimination which he has adopted, I am persuaded that we might prove four distinct Crucifixions and Resurrections to have happened just as easily. Besides, it

15 But some of

"Your" is not expressed at all.

is quite impossible to carry the hypothesis throughout this section of St. Luke's Gospel and when it has been once given up, a considerable difference is made in the way of regarding the various narrations. On the side of which Evangelist the strict accuracy lies, it is next to impossible for us now to decide. I am inclined to think that the section from ch. xi. 14-xii. 53 (or rather perhaps 59) is a connected whole, or, at all events, is intended to form such. But then the whole is introduced (ver. 14) without any mark of connexion with the preceding, and terminated as abruptly. On the other hand, the narrative in Matthew is introduced by his usual " Then" following upon a very general descrip tion of a retirement of our Lord, and His being pursued by multitudes, all of whom He healed; but whether the multitudes are the same, and the "then" meant to specify that this incident occurred then and there, is by no means certain. Nor is the close of the section (xii. 50) bound very closely to xiii. 1, which commences "In that day" (not as the A. V., see margin), and can hardly be said with certainty to define the very same natural day. We may observe that the attendant circumstances, as introduced and closed in Mark iii. 20; iv. 1, are equally indeterminate. I therefore leave the difficulty where I found it, and where I believe it will ever remain, during our present state of imperfection: only observing, that the important incident and discourse grounded on it are no way thereby invalidated in authority. It seems to have been a portion of the evangelic history, the position of which was not exactly and satisfactorily fixed; of which there have been already some instances (see ch. ix. 57-62), and there are, as will be seen, yet more as we proceed. 14.] dumb --and blind, Matthew, ver. 22, where see notes on all the common matter. 15. some of them] No inference can here

xii. 24.

xvi. 1.

Mark iii. 24.

i John ii. 25.

f Matt. ix. 34: them said, 'He casteth out devils through 4 Beelzebub the g Matt. xii. 38: chief of the devils. 16 And others, tempting him, & sought h Matt. xii. 25. of him a sign from heaven. 17 h But he, i knowing their thoughts, said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and a house divided against a house falleth. 18 If Satan also be divided against himself, how shall his kingdom stand? because ye say that I cast out devils through 4 Beelzebub. 19 And if I by q Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your sons cast them out? therefore shall they be your judges. 20 But if I with the finger of God cast out devils, no doubt the 1 Matt. xii. 29. kingdom of God is come upon you. 21 1 When a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace: m Isa. lii. 12. 22 but m when a stronger than he shall come upon him, and overcome him, he taketh from him all his armour wherein 23 n He that is not

k Exod. viii.

19.

Mark iii. 27.

Col. ii. 15.

n Matt. xii. 30. he trusted, and divideth his spoils. with me is against me: and he that

¶ in the original, Beelzebul.

be drawn that these persons were not
Pharisees (as Greswell has done), and con-
sequently that the charge proceeded from
a different quarter.
16.] This is

[ocr errors]

gathereth not with

r render, the.

8 render, had trusted.
rather than in comparison with himself.
The strong man is the adversary,
Satan; his palace this present world, -
John xii. 31; xiv. 30; xvi. 11. His goods
or tools, or spoils,-a
-are the sons of men,-
2 Tim. ii. 26; 1 John v. 19 (margin).
With these is he clothed and armed, or
rather with their evil capacities, which he
furbishes and brightens for his use: with
this whole armour of the devil, compare
by way of contrast, the "whole armour of
God," Eph. vi. 11-20. Without these
arms and tools he would be powerless :
the evil one must have evil men-some-
thing receptive of evil-to work upon.
But these the Stronger than he takes from
him, and divides his spoils, Isa. liii. 12.
He divides his spoils-turns to His own
use and that of His followers all that good
which the enemy had corrupted into evil.

not mentioned here by St. Matthew, but
further on in the discourse, ver. 38. No
distinction can be drawn, as Greswell has
done, for the purpose of maintaining that
the two incidents were distinct, between
a sign" and "a sign from heaven :" for
(1) our Lord answers the demand in both
places by the same reply, the sign of Jonas;
see also Matt. xvi. 1-4; and (2) the or-
dinary Jewish idea attached to a sign
would imply from heaven: see notes on
Matt. xvi. 1.
17.] knowing their

thoughts: so Matthew also, ver. 25.
20. with the finger of God] “by the Spirit
of God," Matthew. No distinction can
be established, as Greswell attempts. The
one expression explains the other. What
was done (Hebraistically speaking) by the
finger of God, was done by the Spirit of
God. We have much greater variations
than this in sayings demonstrably the

same.

21.] This parabolic sentence is in close connexion with many prophetic sayings, Isa. xl. 10 marg., liii. 12, and most pointedly Isa. xlix. 24, 25. It will be reinembered that the Baptist called the Lord by this name, a stronger, or one who is mightier-placing after it, it is true, "than I," but still using it as indicative of the Almightiness of the Son of God,

:

The Stronger had already come into the strong man's house-the Saviour, into the world-and was robbing him of his captives, and making them into His own disciples-e. g. Mary Magdalene and others but the work was not fully completed yet, till the Lord, by and in His death, overcame him that had the power of death, i. e. the devil. And that His great victory is still proceeding;-He is still taking from him one and another, -rescuing the sons of men by the power of His Gospel, till the end, when He shall (Rev. xx. 1 ff.) bind him in the abyss; and though he be

« SebelumnyaLanjutkan »