| |
THE GOSPEL
ACCORDING TO
LUKE
Commentary by DAVID BROWN
[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]
[5]
[6]
[7]
[8]
[9]
[10]
[11]
[12]
[13]
[14]
[15]
[16]
[17]
[18]
[19]
[20]
[21]
[22]
[23]
[24]
CHAPTER 4
@Lu
4:1-13. TEMPTATION OF CHRIST.
(See on Mt 4:1-11.)
@Lu
4:14-32. JESUS ENTERING ON HIS PUBLIC MINISTRY, MAKES
A CIRCUIT OF GALILEE--REJECTION AT NAZARETH.
Note.--A large gap here occurs, embracing the
important transactions in Galilee and Jerusalem which are
recorded in @Joh
1:29-4:54, and which occurred before John's
imprisonment (@Joh
3:24); whereas the transactions here recorded occurred
(as appears from @Mt
4:12,13) after that event. The visit to
Nazareth recorded in @Mt
13:54-58 (and @Mr
6:1-6) we take to be not a later visit, but the same
with this first one; because we cannot think that the
Nazarenes, after being so enraged at His first
display of wisdom as to attempt His destruction, should,
on a second display of the same, wonder at it and
ask how He came by it, as if they had never witnessed it
before.
16. as his custom was--Compare @Ac
17:2.
stood up for to read--Others
besides rabbins were allowed to address the congregation.
(See @Ac
13:15.)
18, 19. To have fixed on any passage announcing His
sufferings (as @Isa
53:1-12), would have been unsuitable at that early
stage of His ministry. But He selects a passage announcing
the sublime object of His whole mission, its divine
character, and His special endowments for it; expressed in
the first person, and so singularly adapted to the
first opening of the mouth in His prophetic capacity,
that it seems as if made expressly for this occasion. It
is from the well-known section of Isaiah's prophecies
whose burden is that mysterious "SERVANT OF THE
LORD," despised of man, abhorred of the nation, but
before whom kings on seeing Him are to arise, and princes
to worship; in visage more marred than any man and His
form than the sons of men, yet sprinkling many nations;
laboring seemingly in vain, and spending His strength for
naught and in vain, yet Jehovah's Servant to raise up the
tribes of Jacob and be His Salvation to the ends of the
earth (@Isa
49:1-26, &c.). The quotation is chiefly from the Septuagint
version, used in the synagogues.
19. acceptable year--an allusion to the jubilee
year (@Le
25:10), a year of universal release for person
and property. (See also @Isa
49:8 2Co 6:2.) As the maladies under which humanity
groans are here set forth under the names of poverty,
broken-heartedness, bondage, blindness, bruisedness
(or crushedness), so, as the glorious HEALER of all
these maladies, Christ announces Himself in the act of
reading it, stopping the quotation just before it comes to
"the day of vengeance," which was only to come
on the rejecters of His message (@Joh
3:17). The first words, "THE SPIRIT of the LORD
is upon ME," have been noted since the days of the
Church Fathers, as an illustrious example of Father,
Son, and Holy Ghost being exhibited as in distinct yet
harmonious action in the scheme of salvation.
20. the minister--the chazan, or
synagogue-officer.
all eyes . . .
fastened on Him--astounded at His putting in such
claims.
21. began to say, &c.--His whole address was
just a detailed application to Himself of this and perhaps
other like prophecies.
22. gracious words--"the words of grace,"
referring both to the richness of His matter and the
sweetness of His manner (@Ps
45:2).
Is not this,
&c.--(See on Mt 13:54-56). They knew He had received
no rabbinical education, and anything supernatural
they seemed incapable of conceiving.
23. this proverb--like our "Charity begins at
home."
whatsoever,
&c.--"Strange rumors have reached our ears of Thy
doings at Capernaum; but if such power resides in Thee to
cure the ills of humanity, why has none of it yet come
nearer home, and why is all this alleged power reserved
for strangers?" His choice of Capernaum as a place of
residence since entering on public life was, it seems,
already well known at Nazareth; and when He did come
thither, to give no displays of His power when distant
places were ringing with His fame, wounded their pride. He
had indeed "laid his hands on a few sick folk and
healed them" (@Mr
6:5); but this seems to have been done quite privately
the general unbelief precluding anything more open.
24. And he said, &c.--He replies to the one
proverb by another, equally familiar, which we express in
a rougher form--"Too much familiarity breeds
contempt." Our Lord's long residence in Nazareth
merely as a townsman had made Him too common,
incapacitating them for appreciating Him as others did who
were less familiar with His everyday demeanor in
private life. A most important principle, to which the
wise will pay due regard. (See also @Mt
7:6, on which our Lord Himself ever acted.)
25-27. But I tell you, &c.--falling back for
support on the well-known examples of Elijah and Elisha (Eliseus),
whose miraculous power, passing by those who were near,
expended itself on those at a distance, yea on heathens,
"the two great prophets who stand at the commencement
of prophetic antiquity, and whose miracles strikingly
prefigured those of our Lord. As He intended like them to
feed the poor and cleanse the lepers, He points to
these miracles of mercy, and not to the fire
from heaven and the bears that tore the
mockers" [STIER].
three years and six
months--So @Jas
5:17, including perhaps the six months after the
last fall of rain, when there would be little or none
at any rate; whereas in @1Ki
18:1, which says the rain returned "in the third
year," that period is probably not reckoned.
26, 27. save . . . saving--"but
only." (Compare @Mr
13:32, Greek.)
Sarepta--"Zarephath"
(@1Ki
17:9), a heathen village between Tyre and Sidon. (See
@Mr
7:24.)
28, 29. when they heard these things--these
allusions to the heathen, just as afterwards with
Paul (@Ac
22:21,22).
29. rose up--broke up the service irreverently and
rushed forth.
thrust him--with
violence, as a prisoner in their hands.
brow,
&c.--Nazareth, though not built on the ridge of a
hill, is in part surrounded by one to the west, having
several such precipices. (See @2Ch
25:12 2Ki 9:33.) It was a mode of capital punishment
not unusual among the Romans and others. This was the
first insult which the Son of God received, and it came
from "them of His own household!" (@Mt
10:36).
30. passing through the midst, &c.--evidently
in a miraculous way, though perhaps quite noiselessly,
leading them to wonder afterwards what spell could have
come over them, that they allowed Him to escape. (Similar
escapes, however, in times of persecution, are not
unexampled.)
31. down to Capernaum--It lay on the Sea of Galilee
(@Mt
4:13), whereas Nazareth lay high.
@Lu
4:33-37. DEMONIAC HEALED.
33. unclean--The frequency with which this
character of impurity is applied to evil spirits is
worthy of notice.
cried out,
&c.--(See @Mt
8:29 Mr 3:11).
35. rebuked them, &c.--(See on Lu 4:41).
thrown him,
&c.--See on Mr 9:20.
36. What a word--a word from the Lord of
spirits.
@Lu
4:38-41. PETER'S MOTHER-IN-LAW AND MANY OTHERS,
HEALED.
(See on Mt 8:14-17.)
41. suffered them not to speak--The marginal
reading ("to say that they knew him to be
Christ") here is wrong. Our Lord ever refused
testimony from devils, for the very reason why they
were eager to give it, because He and they would thus
seem to be one interest, as His enemies actually alleged.
(See on Mt 12:24, &c.; see also @Ac
16:16-18.)
@Lu
4:42-44. JESUS SOUGHT OUT AT MORNING PRAYER, AND
ENTREATED TO STAY, DECLINES FROM THE URGENCY OF HIS WORK.
See on Mr 1:35-39, where we learn how early He retired,
and how He was engaged in solitude when they came seeking
Him.
42. stayed him--"were staying Him," or
sought to do it. What a contrast to the Gadarenes! The
nature of His mission required Him to keep moving, that
all might hear the glad tidings (@Mt
8:34).
43. I must, &c.--but duty only could move Him
to deny entreaties so grateful to His spirit.
|
|
