Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadLange Commentary - Luke 23:47 - 23:49
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
(Parallel with Mat_27:51-56; Mar_15:38-41)
The centurion.—Comp. Lange on Matthew and Mark. The impression which what took place produced upon a noble soldier’s soul like his, is psychologically very explicable. Such a death the proud Roman, who had beheld death and its victims in its most diverse forms, has never yet seen. In the midst of the gloom of the three hours’ darkness, the day begins to break before the eye of his soul: the mighty voice with which the last word on the cross is uttered resounds in his ears like the voice of a God, and with Jesus’ death-hour there strikes also for him the birth-hour of a higher life. He has, doubtless, heard that this Jesus has been condemned as a blasphemer of God, but he cannot possibly believe it. He remembers the testimony of Pilate, and concurs fully with that which the Penitent Thief but a short time before had said in Jesus’ honor. The substance of his confession Luke communicates when he makes him call our Lord a äßêáéïò . But the original form of this, Matthew and Mark appear to have preserved to us, although the possibility undoubtedly must be allowed that both the one and the other expression may be genuine. As to the supposed sense of his words, see Lange. It must, above all, not be overlooked that they are less the expression of an exactly defined conception of the understanding than the outgush of a deeply-moved sensibility, and that it is as unreasonable to deny the echo of superstition as the voice of sincere faith in his manly words.
Luk_23:48. And all the people.—Scarcely can we conceive the number of the witnesses of Jesus’ death and of the events connected therewith as great enough. At the time of the Passover there were from two to three millions of Jews, gathered from all lands of the earth, in the capital, a multitude almost as great as that which had once come out of Egypt, and of these it may be presupposed that there was no stranger among them that had not heard of Jesus of Nazareth (Luk_24:18). So far as the hills and plains around Calvary give room for it, all are covered with beholders, who now, however, are found in a wholly different mood from that which is described Luk_23:35. As the centurion, in fact, glorifies God by his confession (a doxological trait entirely in the spirit of the third gospel, Luk_13:17; Luk_18:15), so do these beholders accuse themselves as sharers in the guilt of the death of Jesus, and as objects of the holy displeasure of God. Even in itself such a transition in the mood of a mixed throng is not at all uncommon, and the objection (Strauss) that here is related to us, not so much what the Jews felt and did, as rather what they, according to the Christian view, should have felt and done, proceeds from an unpsychological and, for that very reason, an exceedingly uncritical mistrust. The murder of the Messiah had been a deed of national intoxication and bewilderment, upon which an hour of awakening must follow. The extraordinary phenomena of nature spoke, therefore, so much the more loudly to their conscience, and the remembrance of everything great and good which our Lord had done bestowed on Him in their eyes a so much greater dignity after they had rejected Him by their own guilt. The terror of death upon so many countenances is also an involuntary homage which is brought to the dead Christ, and the mournfully earnest Passover mood of so many contrite hearts becomes the preparation for the earnest Pentecostal inquiry: Men and brethren what shall we do?
Luk_23:49. All His acquaintance.—Luke mentions these in addition to the people and the women, of whom he also, as well as Matthew and Mark, speaks. “Only Luke has this notice, which is so mere a summary, that it does not even by the ἀðὸìáêñüèåí , contradict the account of John (Luk_19:25).” Meyer. We may understand particularly the acquaintance in the wider sense of the word, at Jerusalem and of the region round about, to whom, for instance, the owner of the colt at Bethphage and the owner of the Passover-hall at Jerusalem belong. In respect to the women, comp. Luk_8:2 and the parallels. In what mood they now stood there, after they were now no longer hindered by the scoffings of the people from coming near, may be better felt than described. With the deepest sorrow over this irrevocable loss, which was not yet softened by the joyful hope of the resurrection, there is united melancholy joy that now at last the agonizing conflict is ended, and the heartfelt longing to render now the last honors to the inanimate corpse. In infinite diversity of moods, according to the measure of their spiritual development, receptivity, and their peculiar relations to our Lord, they stand there in the neighborhood of the place which had heard His last sighs, while we even now do not yet read respecting the disciples that they were with the women. John has led Mary home. Peter wanders lonesomely about. The other scattered sheep have vanished, without leaving a trace, when the Shepherd was smitten. Only the faithfulness of female love holds its ground when all seems lost.
2. The heathen centurion the first fruits of the believing heathen world which shall yet one day bow the knee before Jesus. His joining in the confession of the robber in honor of our Lord the first union of Jews and Gentiles, who hitherto had been separated from one another by the middle wall of partition, and the presage of the communion of saints, Eph_2:14-16. If we may assume that he stood at the head of the Legio Germanica, which the Romans, as is known, had in service at this time in Palestine, then the Germanic Christendom of Europe may consider him in a yet closer sense of the word as their representative and Prodromus.
3. The awakening remorse of the people a precursory fulfilment of Jesus’ own word, Joh_8:28, and, at the same time, a prophecy of the hour in which Israel as a nation shall acknowledge what it did when it rejected the Son of David, Zec_12:10-12; Rev_1:7. Here also, however, wickedness remains consistent with itself even to the end. Only the people, and not the Pharisees and Scribes, return from Calvary smiting their breasts. With reason, however, may we regard these first penitents of Israel as a first fruits of the hearing of the prayer, Luk_23:34.
4. Never has the might of love been more speakingly revealed than on the death-day of our Lord. It yet keeps its ground even there where faith has suffered shipwreck and hope is utterly frustrated. With right, might Paul extol it as the chief among the Three, 1Co_13:13.
Starke:—Confess Jesus even when He is on the cross, and when it seems to fare worst with His church.—The first fruits of the power of the death of Christ are so remarkable, what great things shall not the full harvest bring?—Brentius:—Miracles, as well in nature as in grace, have no other design than the conversion of men.—He must certainly have a hard heart whom the Passion of Christ cannot move to repentance.—Cramer:—God can be mighty even in the weak (2Co_12:10).—There are witnesses enough of the cross of Christ; he that will not believe cannot be helped.—Schultz:—Concerning the miracles at the death of Christ, they show us: 1. Wherein the benefit consists which He has purchased for us by His death; 2. what the dispositions are to which the benefit must excite us.—Gerok:—The holy evening stillness upon Calvary: 1. The still rest of the perfected Sufferer; 2. the still repentance of the shaken world; 3. the still labor of the loving friends; 4. the still rest of the holy grave.—Ahlfeld:—What seest thou on the cross of Christ? 1. The love that sues for us; 2. the love that dies for us: 3. the love that never dies.—Thym:—The cross on Calvary: 1. A sign of grace for us; 2. a sign of judgment against us.—Rautenberg:—Christ’s death, my sin’s death (Joh_19:1-30).—My Jesus dies, why should I live?—(On Luk_23:47) Bobe:—How do believing Christians stand under the cross of the dying Redeemer?—Ackerman:—The death of the Redeemer of the world in its composing influence on our death.—Alt:—The death of Christ a strong incitement to conversion from sin.—Schmid:—The preaching of the Crucified: 1. A preaching of repentance for sinners; 2. a preaching of joy for believers; 3. a preaching of glory for our Lord.—Arndt:—The signs at Jesus’ death: 1. The signs of God’s almightiness in nature; 2. of the grace of God in the hearts of men.—Krummacher:—The funeral: 1. How it is rung in from heaven: 2. how it is attended on earth.