Bible Commentary (1871–1879 Edition)
Parahle of the Good Samaritan. LUKE X. Christ Eeprehendeth Martha.
of their enemy, Deuteronomy 22. 4; Exodus 23. 4, 6. (Ct Isaiah 58. 7.) 33. Samaritan — one excommunicated by the Jews, a by-word among them, synonymous with heretic and devil (John 8. 48). See on ch. 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 tlie priest and Levite had their excuses-' Tisii't safe to be lingering here; besides, he's past recovery; and then, mayn't suspicion rest upon ourselves? So miglit the Samaritan have reasoned, btU did not.' [Trench.] Kor did he say. He's a Jew, who would have had no dealings with me (John 4. 9), and why should I with him? oil and wine—the remedies used in such cases all over tlie East (Isaiah 1. 6), and elsewhere ; the wine to cleanse tlie wounds, the oil to assuage their smartings. on Itis own beast—himself going on foot. 35. two pence—equal to two days' wages of a labourer, and enough for several days' support. 36. Which was neighbour 1—a most dexterous way of putting the question : (1.) Turning the question from 'Whom am I to love as my neighbour ?' to ' Wlio always used for those spiritual agents employed In demoniacal possessions— never for the ordinary agency of tsatan in rational men. When thereforethe Seventy say, " Uie devils ^demons) are subject to us," and Jesus replies, 'Mine eye was beholding <Sa<are falling,' It is plain that He meant to raise their minds not only from the particular to tlie general, but from a very temporary form of satanlc operation to the entire kingdom of evil. (See John 12. 31 ; and of. Isaiah 14. 12.) 19. beliold I give you, <fec.—not for any renewal of their mission, though probably many of them afterwards became ministers of Christ; but simply as disciples, serpents and scorplonththe latter more venomous than the former: literally, in the first Instance (Mark 16. 17, 18 ; Acts 28. 5) ; but the next words, " and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurl you," show that the glorious power of faitli 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. (1 John 5. 4; Epheslans 6. 16.) 20. rejoice not, Ac—i. e., 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. (Phillppians 4. 3.) 21, 23. Jesns aald, &c.—The very same sublime words were uttered by our Lord on a former similar occasion. Matthew U. 25-27 (on which see note); but (1.)
Is tlie man that shows that love?' (2.) Compelling tlie lawyer to give a reply very difierent from what he would like—not only condemning his own nation, but those of them who should be tlie 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 iieterodox, lieretical—but " He that showed mercy on hini." It comes to the same thing, no doubt, but the circumlocution is signifloant. 37. Go, <fec. — O exquisite, matchless teucliing ! What new fountains of charily 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 witli 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 wliicli 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 Neighbour?" The priests and Levites had not strengthened the diseased, nor bound up the broken (Ezeklel 34. 4), while He bound up the brokenhearted (Isaiah 61. 1), and poured into all wounded spirits the balm of sweetest consolation. All the Fathers saw througli the thin veil of this noblest of stories, the Story of love, and never wearied of tracing the analogy (though sometimes fancifully enough). [Trench.] ' He hungered,' exclaims Gregory of Nazianzen (in the fourth century), tliere we are merely told that He "answered and said" thus; here. He "rejoiced in spirit and said." (2.) Tliere 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 olT the Redeemer's inner man, that, angel-like, we may "look into it" for a moment. (1 Peter 1. 12.) Let us gaze on it with reverential wonder, and as we perceive what it was that produced that mysterious ecstasy, we sliall find rising In our hearts a still rapture—" Oh the depths 1" 23, »*.—See on Matthew 13. 16, 17.
QoESTioN OP 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 patting him in turn to the test. [Benqel.] 27. thou shalt, &c.—the answer Christ Himself gave to another lawyer. See on Mark 12. 29-33. 28. he aaid, &c.—'Right; this do, and life is thine'—laying such emphasis on "this" as to indicate, without expressing It, where the real dijffleuUy to a tinner lay, bluCl thus nonplussing the questioner himself. 20. willing— 'wishing,' to get himself out of the difliculty, by throwing on Jesus the definition of 'neighbour,' which the Jews interpreted very narrowly and technically, as excluding Samaritans and Gentiles. [AiiFORD.] 30. a certain man—a Jew. trom Jerusalem to Jericho —a distance of nineteen miles nortli-east, a deep and very fertile hollow—
' 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.
38-12. Martha and Mary. 38. certain village—Bethany (John 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 elder sister. 39. wliichaiso—' who for her part,' iu contrast with Martha, sat—'seated herself.' From the custom of sitting 6enea</i -an Instructor, the phrase 'sitting at one's feet' came to mean being a disciple of any one (Acts 22.3). heard—rather, 'kept listening' to His word. 40. cambered—'distracted.' cametol»im—'presented herself before Him,' as from another apartment, in which her sister had "left her to serve (or make preparation) atone." carest thou not . . . my sister, &c.—'Lord, here am I with everything to do, and this sister of mine win not lay a hand to anything; thus I miss something from Tliy lips, and Thou from our hands.' bid lier, AcShe 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 hud tried. Martha, Martha—Emphatically redoubling upon the name, careful and cumliered—the one word expressing the Inward worrying anxiety that her prepara-
' the Tempc of Judea.' [Trench.] thieves —" robbers." The roiul, 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 Ijevite—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 meanelh, " I will have mercy and notsiicriflce."
[Trrnch.] saw him— it was not inadvertently that he acted, came and loolced—a farther aggravation, passed by — although the law expressly required the opposite treatment even of tlie beaxt not only of their brethren, but