Luke 10

Lu 10:1-24.

MISSION OF THE

SEVENTY

DISCIPLES, AND

THEIR

RETURN.

As our Lord's end approaches, the preparations for the establishment of

the coming Kingdom are quickened and extended.

1. the Lord--a becoming title here, as this appointment was an act

truly lordly [BENGEL].

other seventy also--rather, "others (also in number), seventy";

probably with allusion to the seventy elders of Israel on whom the

Spirit descended in the wilderness

(Nu 11:24, 25).

The mission, unlike that of the Twelve, was evidently quite

temporary. All the instructions are in keeping with a brief and

hasty pioneering mission, intended to supply what of general

preparation for coming events the Lord's own visit afterwards to the

same "cities and places"

(Lu 10:1)

would not, from want of time, now suffice to accomplish; whereas the

instructions to the Twelve, besides embracing all those to the Seventy,

contemplate world-wide and permanent effects.

Accordingly, after their return from this single missionary tour, we

never again read of the Seventy.

2. The harvest, &c.--(See on

Mt 9:37).

pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth

labourers into his harvest--(See on

Mt 9:38).

3-12. (See on

Mt 10:7-16).

10. son of peace--inwardly prepared to embrace your message of

peace. See note on "worthy," (see on

Mt 10:13).

12-15. (See on

Mt 11:20-24).

for Sodom--Tyre and Sidon were ruined by commercial prosperity; Sodom

sank through its vile pollutions: but the doom of otherwise correct

persons who, amidst a blaze of light, reject the Saviour, shall be

less endurable than that of any of these.

16. He that, &c.--(See on

Mt 10:40).

17. returned--evidently not long away.

Lord, &c.--"Thou hast exceeded Thy promise, for

'even the devils,'" &c. The possession of such power, not being

expressly in their commission, as in that to the Twelve

(Lu 9:1),

filled them with more astonishment and joy than all else.

through thy name--taking no credit to themselves, but feeling lifted

into a region of unimagined superiority to the powers of evil simply

through their connection with Christ.

18. I beheld--As much of the force of this glorious statement depends

on the nice shade of sense indicated by the imperfect tense in the

original, it should be brought out in the translation: "I was beholding

Satan as lightning falling from heaven"; that is, "I followed you on

your mission, and watched its triumphs; while you were wondering at the

subjection to you of devils in My name, a grander spectacle

was opening to My view; sudden as the darting of lightning from

heaven to earth, lo! Satan was beheld falling from heaven!" How

remarkable is this, that by that law of association which connects a

part with the whole, those feeble triumphs of the Seventy seem to have

not only brought vividly before the Redeemer the whole ultimate result

of His mission, but compressed it into a moment and quickened it into

the rapidity of lightning! Note.--The word rendered "devils,"

is always used for those spiritual agents employed in

demoniacal possessions--never for the ordinary agency of Satan in

rational men. When therefore the Seventy say, "the devils [demons]

are subject to us," and Jesus replies, "Mine eye was beholding

Satan falling," it is plain that He meant to raise their minds not

only from the particular to the general, but from a very

temporary form of satanic operation to the entire kingdom of evil.

(See

Joh 12:31;

and compare

Isa 14:12).

19. Behold, I give you, &c.--not for any renewal of their mission,

though probably many of them afterwards became ministers of Christ; but

simply as disciples.

serpents and scorpions--the latter more venomous than the former:

literally, in the first instance

(Mr 16:17, 18;

Ac 28:5);

but the next words, "and over all the power of the enemy, and

nothing shall by any means hurt you," show that the glorious power

of faith to "overcome the world" and "quench all the fiery darts of the

wicked one," by the communication and maintenance of which to His

people He makes them innocuous, is what is meant

(1Jo 5:4;

Eph 6:16).

20. rejoice not, &c.--that is, not so much. So far from forbidding

it, He takes occasion from it to tell them what had been passing in His

own mind. But as power over demons was after all intoxicating, He gives

them a higher joy to balance it, the joy of having their names in

Heaven's register

(Php 4:3).

21, 22. Jesus . . . said, &c.--The very same sublime

words were uttered by our Lord on a former similar occasion (see on

Mt 11:25-27);

but (1) There we are merely told that He "answered and said" thus;

here, He "rejoiced in spirit and said," &c. (2) There it was

merely "at that time" (or season) that He spoke thus, meaning with a

general reference to the rejection of His gospel by the

self-sufficient; here, "In that hour Jesus said," with express

reference probably to the humble class from which He had to draw the

Seventy, and the similar class that had chiefly welcomed their message.

"Rejoice" is too weak a word. It is "exulted in spirit"--evidently

giving visible expression to His unusual emotions; while, at the same

time, the words "in spirit" are meant to convey to the reader the

depth of them. This is one of those rare cases in which the veil

is lifted from off the Redeemer's inner man, that, angel-like, we may

"look into it" for a moment

(1Pe 1:12).

Let us gaze on it with reverential wonder, and as we perceive what it

was that produced that mysterious ecstasy, we shall find rising in our

hearts a still rapture--"Oh, the depths!"

23, 24. (See on

Mt 13:16, 17).

Lu 10:25-37.

QUESTION OF A

LAWYER AND

PARABLE OF THE

GOOD

SAMARITAN.

25. tempted him--"tested him"; in no hostile spirit, yet with no tender

anxiety for light on that question of questions, but just to see what

insight this great Galilean teacher had.

26. What is written in the law--apposite question to a doctor of the

law, and putting him in turn to the test [BENGEL].

27. Thou shalt, &c.--the answer Christ Himself gave to another

lawyer. (See on

Mr 12:29-33).

28. he said, &c.--"Right; THIS do, and life is thine"--laying such

emphasis on "this" as to indicate, without expressing it,

where the real difficulty to a sinner lay, and thus nonplussing the

questioner himself.

29. willing--"wishing," to get himself out of the difficulty, by

throwing on Jesus the definition of "neighbor," which the Jews

interpreted very narrowly and technically, as excluding Samaritans and

Gentiles [ALFORD].

30. A certain man--a Jew.

from Jerusalem to Jericho--a distance of nineteen miles northeast, a

deep and very fertile hollow--"the Temple of Judea" [TRENCH].

thieves--"robbers." The road, being rocky and desolate, was a notorious

haunt of robbers, then and for ages after, and even to this day.

31, 32. came down a . . . priest . . . and a Levite--Jericho, the

second city of Judea, was a city of the priests and Levites, and

thousands of them lived there. The two here mentioned are supposed,

apparently, to be returning from temple duties, but they had not

learnt what that meaneth, 'I will have mercy and not sacrifice'

[TRENCH].

saw him--It was not inadvertently that he acted.

came and looked--a further aggravation.

passed by--although the law expressly required the opposite treatment

even of the beast not only of their brethren, but of their

enemy

(De 22:4;

Ex 23:4, 5;

compare

Isa 58:7).

33. Samaritan--one excommunicated by the Jews, a byword among them,

synonymous with heretic and devil

(Joh 8:48;

see on

Lu 17:18).

had compassion--His best is mentioned first; for "He who gives outward

things gives something external to himself, but he who imparts

compassion and tears gives him something from his very self"

[GREGORY

THE

GREAT, in

TRENCH]. No doubt the priest and Levite had

their excuses--It is not safe to be lingering here; besides, he's past

recovery; and then, may not suspicion rest upon ourselves? So might the

Samaritan have reasoned, but did not

[TRENCH]. Nor did he say, He's

a Jew, who would have had no dealings with me

(Joh 4:9),

and why should I with him?

34. oil and wine--the remedies used in such cases all over the East

(Isa 1:6),

and elsewhere; the wine to cleanse the wounds, the oil to

assuage their smartings.

on his own beast--himself going on foot.

35. two pence--equal to two day's wages of a laborer, and enough for

several days' support.

36. Which . . . was neighbour?--a most dexterous way of putting the

question: (1) Turning the question from, "Whom am I to love as my

neighbour?" to "Who is the man that shows that love?" (2) Compelling the

lawyer to give a reply very different from what he would like--not only

condemning his own nation, but those of them who should be the most

exemplary. (3) Making him commend one of a deeply hated race. And he

does it, but it is almost extorted. For he does not answer, "The

Samaritan"--that would have sounded heterodox, heretical--but "He that

showed mercy on him." It comes to the same thing, no doubt, but the

circumlocution is significant.

37. Go, &c.--O exquisite, matchless teaching! What new fountains of

charity has not this opened up in the human spirit--rivers in the

wilderness, streams in the desert! What noble Christian institutions

have not such words founded, all undreamed of till that wondrous One

came to bless this heartless world of ours with His incomparable

love--first in words, and then in deeds which have translated His words

into flesh and blood, and poured the life of them through that humanity

which He made His own! Was this parable, now, designed to magnify the

law of love, and to show who fulfils it and who not? And who did this as

never man did it, as our Brother Man, "our Neighbor?" The priests and

Levites had not strengthened the diseased, nor bound up the broken

(Eze 34:4),

while He bound up the brokenhearted

(Isa 61:1),

and poured into all wounded spirits the balm of sweetest consolation.

All the Fathers saw through the thin veil of this noblest of stories,

the Story of love, and never wearied of tracing the analogy

(though sometimes fancifully enough) [TRENCH].

Exclaims GREGORY NAZIANZEN

(in the fourth century), "He hungered, but He fed thousands; He was

weary, but He is the Rest of the weary; He is saluted 'Samaritan' and

'Demoniac,' but He saves him that went down from Jerusalem and fell

among thieves," &c.

Lu 10:38-42.

MARTHA AND

MARY.

38. certain village--Bethany

(Joh 11:1),

which Luke so speaks of, having no farther occasion to notice it.

received him . . . her house--The house belonged to her, and she

appears throughout to be the older sister.

39. which also--"who for her part," in contrast with Martha.

sat--"seated herself." From the custom of sitting beneath an

instructor, the phrase "sitting at one's feet" came to mean being a

disciple of any one

(Ac 22:3).

heard--rather, "kept listening" to His word.

40. cumbered--"distracted."

came to him--"presented herself before Him," as from another apartment,

in which her sister had "left her to serve (or make preparation)

alone."

carest thou not . . . my sister, &c.--"Lord, here am I with everything

to do, and this sister of mine will not lay a hand to anything; thus I

miss something from Thy lips, and Thou from our hands."

bid her, &c.--She presumes not to stop Christ's teaching by calling

her sister away, and thus leaving Him without His one auditor, nor did

she hope perhaps to succeed if she had tried.

41. Martha, Martha--emphatically redoubling upon the name.

careful and cumbered--the one word expressing the inward

worrying anxiety that her preparations should be worthy of her Lord;

the other, the outward bustle of those preparations.

many things--"much service"

(Lu 10:40);

too elaborate preparation, which so engrossed her attention that she

missed her Lord's teaching.

42. one thing, &c.--The idea of "Short work and little of it suffices

for Me" is not so much the lower sense of these weighty words, as

supposed in them, as the basis of something far loftier than any

precept on economy. Underneath that idea is couched another, as to the

littleness both of elaborate preparation for the present life and

of that life itself, compared with another.

chosen the good part--not in the general sense of Moses' choice

(Heb 11:25),

and Joshua's

(Jos 24:15),

and David's

(Ps 119:30);

that is, of good in opposition to bad; but, of two good ways of

serving and pleasing the Lord, choosing the better. Wherein,

then, was Mary's better than Martha's? Hear what follows.

not be taken away--Martha's choice would be taken from her, for

her services would die with her; Mary's never, being spiritual

and eternal. Both were true-hearted disciples, but the one was absorbed

in the higher, the other in the lower of two ways of honoring their

common Lord. Yet neither despised, or would willingly neglect, the

other's occupation. The one represents the contemplative, the other

the active style of the Christian character. A Church full of Marys

would perhaps be as great an evil as a Church full of Marthas. Both are

needed, each to be the complement of the other.