Lange Commentary - Luke 6:17 - 6:26

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Lange Commentary - Luke 6:17 - 6:26


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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

First Section: Salutation of Love

(Luk_6:17-26.)

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

Luk_6:17. And He came down with them.—We have therefore to conceive the Saviour as surrounded by a threefold circle of hearers; the first indicated by ìåô ̓ áὐôῶí (the recently chosen Twelve), the second described as an ὄ÷ëïò ìáèçôῶí , and this latter again closed around by ðëῆèïò ðïëὺ ôïῦ ëáïῦ , who come partly even from beyond the boundaries. Comp. Mat_4:23-25.

Luk_6:19. For there went virtue out of Him.—Comp. Luk_5:17; Luk_8:46. As therefore the choice of apostles is preceded by silence and prayer, so is the Sermon on the Mount immediately preceded by miraculous works. Here in fullest significance is the sublimest symbolism of the kingdom of heaven whose fundamental laws He will forthwith reveal to the world. The might of deed must support the might of the word. So is the faith of the just-chosen ones strengthened and the people prepared for hearing.

Luk_6:20. And He lifted up His eyes.—It belongs to the peculiarities of Luke that he in some passages gives us to feel the eloquence of the look of Jesus even when this is not indicated by others. See here and in Luk_22:61.

Blessed are ye poor.—“This is indeed an admirably sweet friendly beginning of His doctrine and preaching. For He does not proceed like Moses or a law-teacher with command, threatening, and terrifying, but in the friendliest possible way, with pure, enticing, alluring, and amiable promises” (Luther). The question whether the most original and exact form of the Beatitudes is to be found in Matthew or Luke appears to us to admit an answer in favor of the former. This gives us the right even at this point to call to our help as a legitimate subsidium interpretationis, the ôῷ ðíåýìáôé of Matthew. That the Saviour means no other than the spiritually poor is quite as plain as that those at this day were commonly found among the poor in worldly respects; comp. Jam_2:5. Luke is here as far as in chs. 12 or 16 from the thought of conceding to external poverty, considered in and of itself, even the least advantage. With the confessedly universal and Pauline character of his Gospel such an Ebionitic tendency is incompatible. Comp. moreover Lange on the passage, and upon the inner connection of the different Macarisms, Kienlen in the Studien und Kritiken, ii., 1848.

Luk_6:21. Ye that hunger now—ye that weep now.—According to what is said above, only spiritual hunger and trouble for sin and the suffering arising from the same can be understood. As only such come with eager longing to the kingdom of God, so could God’s kingdom and truth only come to these. In answering the question how satisfaction and comfort should fall to their lot, we have not only to bear in mind the word of the kingdom of heaven, which was perfectly to satisfy their spiritual necessities, but especially also the new spiritual life, which was to be bestowed upon them in communion with the King Himself.

Luk_6:22. Blessed … when men shall hate you.—Comp. Mat_5:11-12. A noticeable climax is found in the description of this hatred in Luke, first, as the foundation of all that follows, ὅôáí ìéóÞóùóéí , then the severing of the thus hated from general and special intercourse ( ὅôáí ἀöùñßóùóéí ), and moreover, alongside of this negative persecution, also the more positive and more malicious ( êáὶ ὀíåéäßóùóéí ), finally, the formal excommunication from the synagogue ( êáὶ ἐêâÜëùóéí ); comp. Joh_9:34; Joh_16:2.—And all this is not purely personal injuriousness, but is an opposition in principle against the principle of faith represented by them: “and cast out your name as evil;” to be understood of the name which they bore as Jesus’ disciples. What, however, alone can make such a suffering the ground of a beatitude is the adjoined: “for the Son of Man’s sake.” Not every ignominy, only the ignominy of Christ gives the ground for joy and renown. Comp. Act_5:41; Heb_11:26.

Luk_6:23. Rejoice ye.—Comp. Act_16:25; Rom_5:3; Rom_8:35-39. “Great is your reward in heaven. Deus est debitor noster, non ex congruo, sed ex promisso.” (Augustine.) At the same time an indirect intimation that they for their approved faithfulness must not expect too great a reward on earth. It is especially noticeable how the Saviour at once places His scarcely-called apostles in one rank with the prophets of the Old Testament, and in the demand that they should be ready for His name’s sake to suffer shame, shows the sublimest self-consciousness. Such intimations must also, above all, not be overlooked by those who are paying attention to the Christology of the Synoptical gospels. As to the rest, it scarcely needs pointing out how completely the idea that they were to suffer in such society, surrounded by such a íÝöïò ìáñôýñùí , was adapted to strengthen the courage and the spiritual might of the witnesses of the Lord.

Luk_6:24. But woe unto you.—The force and application of these four ïὐáß , which are only found in Luke, is, after what has been said, self-evident. Had the Saviour been able to find among the rich also the spiritually poor, He would not the less have pronounced them blessed. The rich Chuza with his wife (Luk_8:2-3), or the family of Bethany (Luk_10:38-42), had surely never for an instant drawn this ïὐáß upon themselves. But if even a Nicodemus ventured only in the night to come to Jesus, if the rich young man went away sad, and if there were innumerable proofs of the truth of the declaration Mat_19:23-24, no wonder that here there proceeded forth a terrific Woe over the rich, who for the greater part were self-satisfied and proud characters; sumptuous livers who suffered a pious Lazarus to pine away at their gate, unrighteous ones who stinted the wages of the poor (Luk_16:20; Jam_5:4). These threatenings also are, therefore, directed against a moral degeneracy, which however at that time was a chief sin of the rich and powerful. A poor man who merely on account of his neediness should have made claim to the kingdom of heaven, must have been pride itself, have been no truly hungry soul, but one spiritually full, who should be left empty. Comp. Luk_1:53; Rev_3:17, and from the Old Testament, Isa_65:13-14; Hos_2:9.—Ye have received your consolation.—“As something perishable” (De Wette); comp. Mat_6:2; Luk_16:25.—The retribution which here is first described only as a coming short of the expected consolation is in the two following threatenings, ðåéíÜóåôå , ðåíèÞóåôå êáὶ êëáýóåôå , represented as a direct feeling of hunger, pain, and sadness.

Luk_6:26. Woe, when all men shall speak well of you.—Is this Woe like the first three addressed to unbelievers (Meyer), or to the disciples, in opposition to the Beatitudes of Luk_6:22-23? (De Wette, Kuinoel, and most.) Without doubt the former is demanded by symmetry. Those who accept the praise of the hostile world are compared by the Saviour with the øåõäïðñïöῆôáé ; but disciples who could so far forget themselves as to take any special pains to secure the praise of all men, would be properly no longer disciples. The Saviour first begins again in Luk_6:27 to address Himself directly to the circle most nearly surrounding Him. It is, however, of course, self-evident that the rule here expressed by the Lord can be easily applied to His first disciples and to all further witnesses of His name.

As to the rest, there is not the slightest ground respecting the four Woes in Luke “to assign them to the later formation of the later tradition” (Meyer), in other words, to deny that the Saviour Himself uttered this fourfold judgment. If one is not disposed to assume that He delivered it immediately after the seven Beatitudes of Matthew, there is yet nothing against the supposition that the Saviour first uttered this Woe on another occasion, and that Luke has (very fittingly) taken it up into his abridged redaction. Respecting all the Beatitudes, comp. the admirable homily of Herder in his complete works.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. There are moments in the public life of the Lord in which, if possible, even more than at others, He does everything to prepare the coming and founding of His kingdom in Israel. To such culminating points of the light of His glory belongs also that to which we have now drawn near. The calling of the twelve apostles is in the fullest sense of the word a decisive step towards His goal. A rich fulness of miracles shown forth urges at the same time the enthusiasm every moment higher. An incomparable sermon exalts and intensifies this impression. Even before the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount it is already shown into how wide a circle the report of His words and deeds had gone out, and certainly this circle now enlarges itself to a yet more significant extent. Within a few hours there is concentrated thus a work of love which at another time might have been divided through several days. It is the hour of the preparation for a great decision. That Israel did not know and use such a êáéñὸí ôῆò ἐðéóêïðῆò increases its shame and guilt.

2. There exists an inward connection between the choice of apostles and the Sermon on the Mount. Now when the heralds of the King are appointed, the Magna Charta of the kingdom of heaven is proclaimed. All which the recently called hear is, on the one hand, adapted to inflame the holy fire on their altar, on the other hand, fitted to extinguish the fire that is fed by the stubble ofearthly expectations.

3. The Beatitudes present to us, even in the imperfect form given in Luke, a clear mirror of the kingdom of heaven. The first and the last of the Beatitudes preserved in the evangelical history (Luk_1:45; Joh_20:29) agree in this, that they promise salvation to those who believe even without seeing. Between these two Beatitudes stand those of the Sermon on the Mount in the midst. They reveal to us the glory of the King of the kingdom of heaven as the Christus Consolator of suffering and sorrowing mankind (an admirable work of art representing this by Ary Scheffer); comp. Luk_4:18-19. They give us to see the final purpose of the kingdom of God as in the highest degree adapted to satisfy the deepest spiritual interests of man. They present before us the image of the citizen of heaven, as well as the character that is peculiar to him, and the destiny that stands before him. The highest blessings of the kingdom of heaven, perfect satisfaction, joy, and consolation, do they make known to all that desire salvation; yea even into the future of this kingdom of God there is granted us here as in a prophetic sketch a glance. Thus does already the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount deserve to be called a short summary of the whole preaching of the gospel, as indeed the words in Nazareth’s synagogue, Luk_4:18-19, already were.

4. The four “Woes,” which in Luke follow the Macarisms, are as little unworthy of the Saviour as the fact that in the Old Covenant over against mount Gerizim there stood mount Ebal, and that in the Gospel of Matthew (Luke 23) the eight “woes” uttered by the Saviour stand over against the eight Beatitudes of the Sermon on the Mount. He might have reiterated here what Moses at the end of his last address testified, Deu_30:18-19. In this respect there exists a noticeable agreement between the beginning and the conclusion of the Sermon on the Mount, which in Luke also ends with a proclamation of a blessing and a curse in a parabolic form. This blessing and this woe might even be named a typical symbol of that which in sublimest wise shall hereafter repeat itself; comp. Mat_25:34-40. It is the audible resonance of the àָøåּø and of the áָּøåּêְ of the prophets (comp. Jer_17:5-8), with the distinction that here in true evangelical wise the ìáêÜñéïò precedes the ïὐáß .

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

The King of the kingdom of heaven for the first time in the circle of His future ambassadors.—Christ the Physician of body and soul.—The might of deed and word.—The Saviour’s gracious look upon weak yet sincere disciples.—The Beatitudes of the New Testament: 1. In their sweetness, 2. in their holy earnestness.—Blessing and cursing, life and death.—The common character of the Macarisms as: 1. Enigmatical utterances, 2. utterances of truth, 3. utterances of comfort and life.—The Mount of Beatitudes and the Mount of the Law-giving: 1. How they stand over against one another; 2. how they condition one another.—The first beatitude on earth, the last in heaven, Rev_22:14.—What is foolish before the world that hath God chosen, 1Co_1:26-31.—The beatitude and description: 1. Of the character; 2. of the salvation of the heavenly citizen: 1. a. poor, b. hungry, c. weeping, d. hated by men; 2. a. riches, b. full contentment, c. joy, d. reward of a prophet.—The identity in the reception of the prophets of the Old and the apostles of the New Covenant in the unbelieving world: 1. The exactness, 2. the ground, 3. the significance of this identity for all succeeding centuries.—The King of the kingdom of heaven: 1. The Friend of the poor, 2. the Bread of the hungry, 3. the Joy of the sorrowing, 4. the Judge of the oppressed.—Even under the day of grace a Woe.—Self-righteousness and unrighteousness the two hindrances to entering into the kingdom of heaven.—The distinction between reality and semblance among those called to the kingdom of heaven: 1. The unfortunate not seldom least to be commiserated, 2. those worthy of envy not seldom furthest removed from the salvation of the Lord.—The kingdom of heaven: 1. The riches of the poor, 2. of all poor, 3. of the poor alone.—It is blessed, 1. To need consolation, 2. to receive consolation, 3. to enjoy consolation.—The alternation of joy and pain in the life of the disciple of the Lord: 1. Joy of the world must become sorrow for sin, 2. sorrow for sin must become joy in Christ—1. No disciple of Christ without hatred of the world; 2. no hatred of the world without rich compensation; 3. no compensation without steadfast faithfulness.—The great reward in heaven: 1. To whom it was once given and why; for whom it is even now prepared and how.—How the self-righteous man stands in respect to Christ and how Christ stands in respect to the self-righteous.—The hungering of the already satisfied; 1. a painful, 2. a self-caused, 3. an unending hungering.—Universal praise of the world a stigma for the Saviour’s disciples, since it brings them into the suspicion, 1. of unfaithfulness, 2. of characterlessness, 3. of the lust of pleasing.—False prophets can ever reckon upon loud applause.

Starke:—Jesus has an entirely different office from Moses.—Love of riches and love of God can never agree together in one heart.—Rich enough, whoever has the kingdom of God.—Quesnel:—Tears belong to time, but true joy to eternity.—Whoever finds it irksome to bear the cross of Christ understands not its worth.—Osiander: Godless rich men have their heaven on earth, and after this life hell is made ready for them.—For a good Christian name we must certainly strive, but not against our consciences speak to please every one. Gal_1:10.—Many a one might come to repentance if flattery did not, so to speak, bar the door against conversion. Jer_23:15-22.

St. Martin (l’homme de désir, 1790):—Voulezvous que votre esprit soit dans la joye? faites que votre âme soit dans la tristesse. [Would you have your spirit joyful? Contrive that your soul may be in heaviness.]—Kern:—Heaviness and highness, sadness and gladness of true Christians.

Entirely original treatment of the Sermon on the Mount (according to Matthew) by Dr. C. Harms, in twenty-one sermons, Kiel, 1841. Examples: The first Beatitude: 1. It opens the door of the kingdom of heaven that we may look in, 2. bids us stand still to inquire: Are we therein? 3. It is the call at the door of the kingdom of heaven to enter in, and 4. a word of encouragement to those entered in, that they may also remain therein.—The second: 1. the Who, 2. the When, and 3. the How.—The third: We discourse 1. of righteousness, 2. of the longing after it, and 3. of the promise which is given to this longing.