18 The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because I am marked out by him to give good news to the poor; he has sent me to make well those who are broken-hearted; to say that the prisoners will be let go, and the blind will see, and to make the wounded free from their chains,
Who gives their rights to those who are crushed down; and gives food to those who are in need of it: the Lord makes the prisoners free; The Lord makes open the eyes of the blind; the Lord is the lifter up of those who are bent down; the Lord is a lover of the upright;
Again, I give you a new law, which is true in him and in you; for the night is near its end and the true light is even now shining out. He who says that he is in the light, and has hate in his heart for his brother, is still in the dark. He who has love for his brother is in the light, and there is no cause of error in him.
And I will take the blind by a way of which they had no knowledge, guiding them by roads strange to them: I will make the dark places light before them, and the rough places level. These things will I do and will not give them up. They will be turned back and be greatly shamed who put their hope in pictured images, who say to metal images, You are our gods. Give ear, you whose ears are shut; and let your eyes be open, you blind, so that you may see.
And in that day those whose ears are stopped will be hearing the words of the book; and the eyes of the blind will see through the mist and the dark. And the poor will have their joy in the Lord increased, and those in need will be glad in the Holy One of Israel.
For you are all sons of light and of the day: we are not of the night or of the dark. So then, let us not take our rest as the others do, but let us be self-controlled and awake.
And when Jesus went on from there, two blind men came after him, crying out, Have mercy on us, you Son of David. And when he had come into the house, the blind men came to him; and Jesus said to them, Have you faith that I am able to do this? They said to him, Yes, Lord. Then he put his hand on their eyes, saying, As your faith is, let it be done to you. And their eyes were made open. And Jesus said to them sharply, Let no man have knowledge of it.
Make yourself clean from the dust; up! and take the seat of your power, O Jerusalem: the bands of your neck are loose, O prisoned daughter of Zion. For the Lord says, You were given for nothing, and you will be made free without price.
For you at one time were dark, but now are light in the Lord: let your behaviour be that of children of light (Because the fruit of the light is in all righteousness and in everything which is good and true), Testing by experience what is well-pleasing to the Lord; And have no company with the works of the dark, which give no fruit, but make their true quality clear; For the things which are done by them in secret it is shame even to put into words. But all things, when their true quality is seen, are made clear by the light: because everything which is made clear is light. For this reason he says, Be awake, you who are sleeping, and come up from among the dead, and Christ will be your light.
And Jesus said, I came into this world to be a judge, so that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind. These words came to the ears of the Pharisees who were with him and they said to him, Are we, then, blind? Jesus said to them, If you were blind you would have no sin: but now that you say, We see; your sin is there still.
Those who were in the dark, in the black night, in chains of sorrow and iron; Because they went against the words of God, and gave no thought to the laws of the Most High: So that he made their hearts weighted down with grief; they were falling, and had no helper. Then they sent up their cry to the Lord in their sorrow, and he gave them salvation out of all their troubles. He took them out of the dark and the black night, and all their chains were broken. Let men give praise to the Lord for his mercy, and for the wonders which he does for the children of men! The doors of brass are broken by his arm, and the bands of iron are cut in two.
And the spirit of the Lord will be resting on him, the spirit of wisdom and good sense, the spirit of wise guiding and strength, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord; And he will not be guided in his judging by what he sees, or give decisions by the hearing of his ears: But he will do right in the cause of the poor, and give wise decisions for those in the land who are in need; and the rod of his mouth will come down on the cruel, and with the breath of his lips he will put an end to the evil-doer. And righteousness will be the cord of his robe, and good faith the band round his breast.
Will the goods of war be taken from the strong man, or the prisoners of the cruel one be let go? But the Lord says, Even the prisoners of the strong will be taken from him, and the cruel made to let go his goods: for I will take up your cause against your haters, and I will keep your children safe.
And as for you, because of the blood of your agreement, I have sent out your prisoners from the deep hole in which there is no water. And they will come back to you, O daughter of Zion, as prisoners of hope: today I say to you that I will give you back twice as much;
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible » Commentary on Luke 4
Commentary on Luke 4 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
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.