Lange Commentary - Luke 5:12 - 5:26

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Lange Commentary - Luke 5:12 - 5:26


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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

2. The first Excursion from Capernaum to the surrounding Districts. The Son of Man the Physician of the Sick, the Friend of Publicans, the Lord of the Sabbath, the Lawgiver in the Kingdom of God

Chs. Luk_5:12 to Luk_6:49

a. The Son Of Man, The Physician Of The Sick (Luk_5:12-26)

(Parallels: Mat_8:1-4; Mar_1:40-45.—Paralytic: Mat_9:1-8; Mar_2:1-12.)

12And it came to pass, when he was in a certain city, behold a man full of leprosy; who seeing Jesus fell on his face, and besought him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thoucanst make me clean. 13And he put forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will: bethou clean. And immediately the leprosy departed from him. 14And he charged him to tell no man: but go, [said he,] and shew thyself to the priest, and offer for thycleansing, according as Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them. 15But so much the more went there a fame abroad of him [did the report concerning him go abroad]: and great multitudes came together to hear, and to be healed by him of their infirmities.16And [But] he withdrew himself into the wilderness, and prayed [kept himselfsecluded in the solitary places, and gave himself to prayer]. 17And it came to pass on a certain day [on one of the days], as he was teaching, that there were Pharisees and doctors [teachers] of the law sitting by, which were come out of every town [village] of Galilee, and Judea, and Jerusalem: and the power of the Lord [God of Israel] was present18[in Jesus] to heal them. And, behold, men brought in a bed a man which was taken with a palsy [who was paralyzed]: and they sought means to bring him in, and to layhim before him. 19And when they could not find by what way they might bring him in because of the multitude, they went upon the housetop, and let him down through thetiling with his couch [pallet] into the midst before Jesus. 20And when he saw theirfaith, he said unto him, Man, thy sins are forgiven thee. 21And the scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, Who is this which speaketh blasphemies? Whocan forgive sins, but God alone? 22But when Jesus perceived their thoughts, he answering 23said unto them, What reason ye in your hearts? Whether [Which] is easier, to say, Thy sins are forgiven thee; or to say, Rise up and walk? 24But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power upon earth to forgive sins, (he said unto the sick of the palsy,) I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy couch, and go into thine house. 25And immediately he rose up before them, and took up that whereon he lay [had been lying],and departed to his own house, glorifying God. 26And they were all amazed [utter astonishment seized all], and they glorified God, and were filled with fear, saying, We have seen strange [unheard of] things to-day.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

General Remarks.—Mark and Luke relate the healing of the leper immediately after the Saviour’s leaving Capernaum; Matthew, on the other hand, puts it after the Sermon on the Mount. To us the former order appears to be the most exact. A glance at Mat_8:9., compared with Mark and Luke, gives clear indication that in this chapter of the first Gospel many miracles are chrestomathically connected without respect to an exact chronology. As Luke relates (Luk_5:12) that this miracle took place when Jesus was in one of their towns, and Mark (Luk_1:43), that the Saviour drove from Him ( ἐîÝâáëåí ) him whom He had healed (apparently from a house in which the leper had stopped), this of itself proves that this miracle could not have taken place as Matthew appears to indicate to us (Luk_8:7; comp. Luk_5:5), on the way between the Mount of Beatitudes and Capernaum, but after His entrance into an unnamed town. From Mar_1:45 it appears, moreover, that Jesus cannot have returned immediately after the healing of the leper to Capernaum, which we should otherwise conclude from Mat_8:1-13. From all these grounds we adhere to the order of Mark and Luke. Another view will be found represented by Lange, Matthew, p. 150. Audiatur et altera pars.

Luk_5:12. In a certain city.—The name is not given, but from the connection it appears that it was a town in Galilee which the Lord visited on this journey, undertaken (see above) in order to visit Jerusalem at the Feast of Purim, and ending there, and which, therefore, probably lay in the direction of Judæa.

Full of leprosy.—See Lange, Matthew, p. 150, and the there cited authors.

Lord, if Thou wilt.—It may be assumed that the faith of the leper had been aroused and strengthened by the report that had gone ut concerning Jesus (see Luk_4:37), and which may have extended even to his neighborhood.

Luk_5:13. And He.—Mark alone adds: óðëáã÷íéóèåßò . The stretching out of the hand, a token of miraculous power, was at the same time a revelation of condescending love, since He by touching a leper might have been accounted Levitically unclean.

Be thou clean.—“Such an imperative as the tongue of man had hitherto never uttered. Thus has hitherto no prophet healed. Thus speaks only He in the might of God who speaks and it is done.” (Stier.) That here it is no declaring a leper clean by already discovering the beginning of recovery (Von Ammon, Leben Jesu, p. 113), but a miraculous cleansing of a sick man whom the physician Luke designates by ðëÞñçò ëÝðñáò , is self-evident. Why else should silence be imposed upon the man, and to what serves the åὐèÝùò of Mark?

Luk_5:14. And He charged Him.—According to Mark even in a sharp vehement tone, ἐìâñéìçóÜìåíïò , from which, however, it by no means follows that the Saviour displayed any resentment against him whom He had delivered, as Von Ammon will have it.—To tell no man.—For the different explanations of this command by earlier and later expositors, see Lange, Matthew, p. 151.—In order to judge rightly here we must take special note of the place where, the time when, and the person on whom, the miracle was done. The Saviour finds Himself now in the heart of Galilee, in the land of longing after freedom, of enthusiasm, of insurrection. The fame of His miracles at Capernaum had undoubtedly intensified expectation in a high degree. The one healed was a man who by his coming and crying to Jesus had already shown great courage and strength of faith, who now was bound to his deliverer by bonds of most intimate gratitude, and who doubtless was thereby lacking in the necessary considerateness needful to apprehend when he should speak of Him or be silent. Here, therefore, a sharp reminder was just in place, and we do not, therefore, at all need to assume that the Saviour gave it from fear of being Himself accounted Levitically unclean, on account of His contact with the leper.

But go … and offer.—A transition from the oratio indirecta to the directa not strange in the usus loquendi of the New Testament. See Winer, § 63, 2. The here-mentioned sacrifice we find prescribed, Lev_14:10; Lev_14:21. The Saviour stoops so low as to permit His miracle to be judged by the priest as to its genuineness and completeness.

Åἰò ìáñôýñéïí áὐôïῖò . For the priests themselves, and of what else than of Jesus’ Messianic dignity and redeeming power?

Luk_5:15. But so much the more went there a fame abroad of Him.—The cause Mark gives (Luk_1:45); the delivered one forgets the injunction, 1Sa_15:22. Thankful joy makes silence impossible for him. We will not censure his behavior too severely, for it must have come hard to him not to venture to utter the name of his deliverer. It is noticeable also, that in the Gospels we never find the behavior of those who transgress such a command very severely censured. Yet, certainly he did the cause of Christ no service, since, indeed, on every hand the enthusiasm of the people soon reaches such a height that the Saviour holds it advisable to abide in a desert region, where He devotes Himself to solitary prayer. This latter, moreover, is emphasized with peculiar force by Luke, agreeably to his custom.

Luk_5:17. And it came to pass.—In view of the slender thread by which this narrative is connected with the foregoing one, nothing constrains us to suppose that this miracle took place precisely on this journey and very soon after the former one. The variance mentioned here as existing between the Saviour and the Pharisees, testifies to a later period. (See Lange, Matthew, p. 166.)

Êáὶ äýíáìéò êõñßïõ . Not to be understood of the Lord Jesus, who, in Luke, is commonly called ὁ êýñéïò (“the healing power dwelling in Him revealed itself,” Olshausen), but of the Father who operated through the Son. Here also the Divine energy does not manifest itself before faith has shown itself. But while in the foregoing miracle the faith of the sick man himself appears in the fore-ground, here the sufferer is passive, and is, not only in a bodily but also in a spiritual respect, borne by the faith of those who at any cost will bring him before the feet of the Lord. There is nevertheless no ground for the supposition that he himself did not share in this faith. Would he have been brought wholly against his will in so extraordinary a way to the Saviour? On the contrary, we may name him “infirm in limb but fresh in heart, a chief warrior of faith on the litter.” Lange, Leben Jesu, ii. p. 665.

Luk_5:18. ÐáñáëåëõìÝíïò . The cessation of nervous activity is a disease that is found everywhere in various forms. Sometimes it attacks the whole body, sometimes only parts of it. “The old authors named the former ἀðïðëçîßá , the latter ðáñÜëõóéò ; but now I see that they call both ðáñÜëõóéò . Commonly those who are attacked in all their members by severe nervous debility, are quickly taken away; if not, they live, it is true, but seldom recover their health, and for the most part drag on a miserable life, losing, moreover, their memory. The sickness of those who are partially affected, is, it is true, never severe, but often long and almost incurable.” From the physician Corn. Celsus, L. 3. Medicinœ, Luke 27, cited by Hug, “Criticism upon the Life of Jesus by Strauss,” 2. p. 20.

Luk_5:19. They went upon the housetop.—Hug, l. c. p. 22, shows that such a thing could be done without any danger. Comp. the valuable statements of Winer, i. p. 283. Even if in this dwelling there was no stair-case outside, a way could have been made over the roof of another to gain access to the place where Jesus was stopping. A breaking up of the roof right over the place where Jesus was, is the less inconceivable, inasmuch as corpses were often in this way removed from the house of death. See Sepp, ii. p. 160.

Luk_5:20. Man, thy sins are forgiven thee.—Only the most superficial unbelief can from this word, spoken for an entirely definite case, draw the conclusion that the Saviour at all times regarded special suffering as punishment for special sins. Here, however, trouble of conscience appears actually to stand in the way of restoration of the body, and the Saviour, who with unerring glance looks through the outward and inward condition of the sick man, begins in this way to heal his soul.

Luk_5:21. Who is this.—This very wondering of the Pharisees shows plainly that here not only was forgiveness promised but also bestowed, which was exclusively a Divine work.—Who can forgive sins, but.—And, therefore, whoever forgives sins must be infinitely more than man. So think they, much more justly than many later scribes.

Luk_5:23. Which is easier.—Which was easier could be well made out without trouble. Miracles had other prophets also performed, but really to bestow forgiveness, that belonged to the Searcher of hearts alone, or His highest representative on earth. They think, however, that to say that sin is forgiven, is undoubtedly the easiest, particularly so long as inquiry is not made respecting the credentials of the speaker’s authority; that they may not, however, doubt longer of these latter, the Saviour accomplishes the miracle of healing, whereby the blessing of the forgiveness of sins is at once manifested and sealed.

Luk_5:25. Took up that whereon he had been lying.—Suavis locutio, lectulus hominem tulerat, nunc homo lectulum ferebat. Bengel.

Luk_5:26. They glorified God.—An admirable antithesis, the enthusiasm of the people over against the murmuring of the scribes. The dissonances dissolve themselves in harmony, the shadows in light and life.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. Were we disposed with a certain school of criticism to make a distinction between more difficult and more easy miracles, the healing of the leper, undoubtedly, would belong to the category of the first. To make, by the utterance of a word, a man full of leprosy so clean that he can freely show himself to the most searching eye, is a deed which deserves a place not only in the sphere of the mirabilia, but also in that of the miracula in the strictest sense of the word. Comp. 2Ki_5:7. It is no wonder that the Saviour mentions this kind of miracle also with special emphasis to the disciples of John the Baptist as proofs of His Divine mission, Luk_7:22. Moreover, like all miracles, this kind of healing especially has a symbolical character. As even in the Old Testament leprosy was an image of sin, see Psa_51:9; Isa_1:6, and elsewhere, so was purification from leprosy a type of the forgiveness of sins. This and the following miracle give us to behold the Saviour as the living image of Him who once said to Israel: I am Jehovah, thy physician, Exo_15:26.

2. As the miracle itself is a symbol of the highest blessing of the New Covenant, the confirmation of the miracle takes place altogether in an Old Testament manner. The Saviour is not come to destroy the law and the prophets, but to fulfil them, Mat_5:17. Moreover, the priests must by the testimony here required of them be hindered from denying afterwards that the man had actually been leprous.

3. The forgiveness of sins bestowed by the Saviour on the paralytic is an unequivocal proof of His celestial dignity. With entire justice, therefore, does Bengel say: cœlestem ortum hic sermo sapit. But it may justly be called incomprehensible that sometimes men have imagined themselves to have found in the bestowal of this benefit of the Saviour before His death an argument against the indispensable necessity and power of His atoning death. Was not then, considered from the Divine point of view, the sacrifice of perfect obedience, an eternal deed? And could He who was to bring it, not bestow the highest gift of grace on a sinner even before this deed was as yet in the fulness of time perfected?

4. The connection between natural and moral evil is undoubtedly placed by the Lord here, but by no means everywhere in a similar manner, in the foreground. Before the assertion was ventured that Jesus was in this respect as much in error as the Jews with their limited notions, it would have been better first to take more account of declarations such as Luk_13:5; Joh_9:8. Is the Saviour to be regarded as standing below the author of the book of Job, or below Moses, who undoubtedly represents misfortunes of the people as punishments of the people (Deuteronomy 28), but by no means concludes from personal misfortune as to personal transgression? We must rather assume here an especially immediate connection existing between sin and sickness, which, it is true, was not known to the superficial view of the beholder, but doubtless well known to the Searcher of hearts. [The disease was certainly one which is one of the most frequent consequences of sinful profligacy.—C. C. S.] Besides, it might yet be a question, which stood the lower, the Jews who considered misfortune and punishment ordinarily as synonymous words, or so many nominal Christians who will never behold in their own fate a direct retribution of sinful action.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

The cleansing of the leper, the image of the redemption of the sinner.—How the sinner stands with respect to the Lord and the Lord with respect to the sinner: 1. a. With an incurable malady, b. with awakened faith, c. with eager entreaty; 2, a. with a mighty arm, b. with a compassionate heart, c. with an earnest injunction.—Whither Jesus comes there He finds wretchedness; where Jesus finds wretchedness He is ready for healing.—Deep misery, great grace, imperfect thankfulness.—The prayer of faith; how sweetly it sounds; how much it desires; how richly it rewards.—The healing of the leper a revelation of the compassionate love, of the boundless might, of the adorable wisdom of the Saviour.—The redeemed of the Lord called: 1. To show himself, 2. to offer sacrifice, 3. to be silent when the Lord will not have him speak.—The injunction of silence which the Saviour here and elsewhere imposes on the healed: 1. Seemingly strange, 2. fully explicable, 3. most momentous: a. for our knowledge, b. for our faith, c. for our following the Lord.—Offer unto God thanksgiving and pay thy vows unto the Most High, Psa_50:14.—Obedience is better than sacrifice, 1Sa_15:22.—Un-enjoined testifying of Christ: 1. Whence it comes, 2. whither it leads.—Solitary prayer the best refreshment, consolation, strengthening, as for the Saviour so also for all His people.—The healing of the paralytic a proof of the truth of Simeon’s prophecy, Luk_2:34 : Christ to the one a Rock of hope, to the other a Stone of stumbling.—The great impulse to hear the word of God why: 1. Then often so great, 2. now often so slight?—The Saviour’s miraculous cures the revelation of a heavenly might.—No better service of friendship than to bring the sick to Christ.—Access to Jesus never barred.—Jesus the Searcher of hearts: 1. Over against praying faith, 2. over against murmuring unbelief.—The greatest message of joy for the sinner.—The connection between sin and sickness.—The first accusation of blasphemy in the public life of the Saviour: 1. Its occasion, 2. its injustice, 3. its result.—Two things, both alike impossible with man, both alike easy for the Son of Man.—The authority of the Son of Man upon earth: 1. An extended, 2. a beneficent, 3. a vehemently disputed, 4. a triumphantly vindicated authority.—The mournful coming to Jesus, the believing waiting on Jesus, the God-glorifying return from Jesus.—The result of this miracle, a confirmation of the old word of the sacred poet, Psa_2:11; Psa_12:1. Serve the Lord with fear, 2. rejoice with trembling, 3. kiss the Son—blessed are all they that trust in Him!—The benefit of the forgiveness of sins: 1. Missed with pain, 2. sought with earnest desire, 3. graciously bestowed, 4. unbelievingly denied, 5. convincingly sealed, 6. thankfully enjoyed.—Jesus: 1. The Searcher of hearts, 2. the Physician of the sick, 3. the Bestower of eternal life.

Starke (on the first miracle):—Temporal things we pray for with conditions, but spiritual things, for the most part, wholly without conditions.—Thus does it often fare with us that we doubt not, to be sure, of the might of God, but do doubt somewhat of His will, 2Ch_20:6; 2Ch_20:12.—It is to the almighty Saviour easy to help by a word.—Majus:—A faithful servant of Christ must seek neither honor or renown with his works.—Quesnel:—Sometimes, after Jesus’ example, we must prefer to the exercise of Christian love, solitude and prayer.—(On the second) Quesnel:—The faith, the prayer, and the love of pious people often help towards the conversion of the sinner.—It must needs come inwardly and outwardly to a thorough breaking through all hinderances to Jesus.—Majus:—The faith of another may well in some respects be serviceable to one, but to the forgiveness of sins he can give no help at all.—Brentius:—God gives us the most useful and best things always first.—A healthy soul in a healthy body a great benefit.—Hedinger:—Respecting Divine things and works partisan reason judges as the blind of color.—People of over-brisk wits must be met in love, and with speeches spiced with salt, Col_4:6.—Canstein:—The enemies of Christ must often against their purpose further the honor of Christ.

Heubner:—Jesus, the Pure, is infected by no impurity.—What would avail us an impotent even though benevolent Saviour?—The healing of the paralytic: 1. Christ begins it in the soul, 2. vindicates it against suspicious thoughts, 3. accomplishes it victoriously and gloriously on the body of the man.—Christ’s power to forgive sins: 1. The nature of this power (Luk_5:20), 2. its certainty (Luk_5:22-24), 3. its importance (Luk_5:26).—Rieger:—Jesus, a Saviour after the heart of the men who have begun to be heartily disposed towards God.—Steinhofer:—Three states of the soul in reference to the forgiveness of sins: 1. When one seeks it, 2. when one believes it, 3. when one has it.—Ranke:—Happy he who seeks his help with Christ, for: 1. For His love there is no man too mean, 2. for His power there is no misery too great, 3. the condition of His help is for no one too hard.—Rautenberg:—Pray for One another: 1. How this is done, 2. what fruit this brings forth.—Otto:—The leper: 1. The sufferer’s lamentation; he entreats: a. believingly, b. patiently. 2. The Physician’s gracious promise; He utters: a. words of comfort and promise, b. words of might and command.—Fuchs:—The paralytic; theme: the blessing of sickness: it leads: 1. To knowledge of ourselves, 2. to the Physician of our souls, 3. to the exercise of Christian virtues, 4. to the praise of the Lord.—Brastberger:—Forgiveness of sins, the source of all comfort.—Ahlfeld:—1. The sick man, 2. his friends, 3. the Physician.—Bachmann:—Christ’s power to forgive sins: 1. A most comforting, 2. a variously misapprehended, 3. an irresistibly attested, 4. a much to be glorified power.—Stier:—Concerning the comfort of the forgiveness of sins: 1. How much we all need it, 2. how Christ has it ready for us all, 3. how each one may receive for himself this comfort.—J. P. Hasebroek:—We have seen strange things to-day. A glance: 1. At the subject, 2. the means, 3. the fruit of true spiritual recovery, of which this miracle is a type.

Footnotes:

Luk_5:15.—Rec.: ὑð ’ áὐôïῦ . To be omitted, as by Griesbach, Lachmann, Tischendorf, Meyer, [Alford,] &c, not only on account of authorities of weight, but also of its uncertain position [om. B., Sin.].

Luk_5:20.—Rec.: áὐôῷ , apparently only a gloss [om. B., Sin.].

ἈöÝùíôáé . The old grammarians are not at one as to the explanation of this form. … The correctest view explains it as perf. pass. of the Doric form, related to the perf. act. ἀöÝùêá . Winer.]