Bible Commentaries
Luke 10

Introduction

Watson - Exposition of the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Mark

1 Christ sendeth out at once seventy disciples to work miracles, and to preach:

17 admonisheth them to be humble, and wherein to rejoice:

21 thanketh his Father for his grace:

23 magnifieth the happy estate of his Church:

25 teacheth the lawyer how to attain eternal life, and to take every one for his neighbour that needeth his mercy:

41 reprehendeth Martha, and commendeth Mary her sister.

Verse 1

Watson - Exposition of the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Mark

Other seventy also. — Seventy other preachers beside the twelve apostles before appointed, and who had fulfilled their commission in another direction. Our Lord, who had laboured chiefly in Galilee, was about to visit several parts of Judea; and these seventy disciples were sent to those cities and villages whither he himself would come, to prepare his way, by preaching his doctrine, and confirming it by miracles in his name. In going up to Jerusalem he made short stages, visiting many places. This mission, from the number of those employed was soon accomplished; and hence we read of their speedy return. St. Luke alone mentions this mission of the seventy; and ancient tradition affirms that he was of the number, — a fact which is not confirmed by the introduction to this gospel, which rather intimates that he was of a subsequent class of disciples. In the choice of twelve apostles, and seventy other preachers, there was reference probably to the twelve tribes of Israel, and to the seventy elders of Israel, and also to the sanhedrim or grand ecclesiastical assembly of Jewish doctors, consisting of seventy persons. Some, indeed, think the sanhedrim to have had seventy-two members; and from this notion it was that some of the fathers conclude that there were seventy-two disciples, called seventy as a round number, according to the Jewish mode. It is of more consequence to observe that our Lord appears by these numbers to have intimated that he was displacing the old Church, and forming a new one, with its appropriate officers of apostles, elders, and instructers, to govern and teach it.

Verse 2

Watson - Exposition of the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Mark

The harvest truly is great. — The harvest in Judea as well as Galilee. See the notes on Matthew 9:37.

Verse 3

Watson - Exposition of the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Mark

Go your ways, &c. — Our Lord gives many of the same directions to the seventy, as he had done to the twelve. See the notes on Matthew 10:1-42.

Verse 6

Watson - Exposition of the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Mark

The son of peace. — The meaning is, If the master of the house be a man of kind and friendly disposition, returning your salutation, which was a form of wishing peace in the same language and spirit, your peace shall rest upon the house. It would not be an empty form, but prove an effectual prayer, bringing down the peace and blessing of God. In the Jewish style, a man who has any good or bad quality is called the son of it. Hence we have sons of wisdom, for wise men; and in the text, son of peace, for a man of peaceable and friendly disposition.

If not, it shall turn to you again. — The salutation, Peace be to this house, shall not be effectual. There is a similar expression in Psalms 35:13: “And my prayer returned into mine own bosom.”

Verses 7-12

Watson - Exposition of the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Mark

And in the same hour, &c. — See notes on Matthew 10:1-42. Verse 13. Wo unto thee, Chorazin. — See notes on Matthew 11:21-23. Verse 17. Through thy name. — This was the grand distinction between the miracles of our Lord and those of his servants. One was wrought by an original, the other by a derived power; his, says Grotius, vi propria, by his own power, theirs, vi magistri, by the power of Christ. As heretofore demons had been ejected in the name of the God of Israel, they were now cast out in the name of Jesus.

Verses 18-19

Watson - Exposition of the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Mark

I beheld Satan, &c. — The disciples returned with joyful surprise to announce that the devils had been subject to them through the name of Christ. Our Lord’s calm reply indicates that they were conveying no news to him; he had been with them in spirit, knew all that had passed, by virtue of his omniscience, and he answers, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven. To fall from heaven is, in prophetic language, to fall from a height of power and authority. So the king of Babylon is addressed Isaiah 14:12: — “How art thou fallen from heaven!” The Latins have the same mode of expression. Pompey is said by Cicero, ex astris decidisse, “to have fallen from the stars.” Upon the kingdom of Satan our Lord was making war, both by casting out devils by his word, or by his name, and by rescuing the souls of men from his power, by the hallowing influence of his heavenly doctrine. Even by his weak and despised disciples was he effecting this casting down of Satan from the heaven of that dominion he had so long held. But he promises to render those disciples still more formidable to the kingdom of darkness, by increasing those miraculous endowments with which he had already enriched them; which was fulfilled at the day of Pentecost.

For the mission of the seventy, like that of the twelve apostles, was to be considered as emblematical of that ministry which they were, with enlarged powers and heightened qualifications, to be permanently employed in. Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, not only literally, though they had that; but figuratively, over devils and their agents, fitly represented, as to their cunning and deadly cruelty, by serpents and scorpions: And over all the power of the enemy, however displayed, or by whatever instruments wielded against you: And nothing shall by any means hurt you, that is, nothing shall injure you as to your work, which shall prevail against all opposition; or injure you personally: no affliction being permitted till it shall turn out for the fartherance of the Gospel, and your spiritual welfare, and the greatest tyrants not being able to inflict death upon you until your death itself shall be a benefit, and not an evil, both to yourselves and to the cause in which you suffer. This total exemption from harm, by all things being made to work together for the good of them who love God, belongs, in an important sense, to all Christians; for it was with reference to this encouraging and elevating doctrine that St. Peter, when writing even to suffering and persecuted Christians, says, “And who is he that shall harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good?”

Verse 20

Watson - Exposition of the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Mark

Because your names are written in heaven. — The words are plainly metaphorical; for that God keeps a book, and writes in it the names of his servants, is too gross a conception to be entertained even by children. The allusion here is either to the public enrolment of the names of citizens in their respective cities, in a book kept for that purpose, so that those whose names were found there were entitled to the rights, immunities, and privileges of citizenship, which in many cases were objects of great honour and ambition; or more generally to the record kept of the names of all living Israelites, — which appears to have given rise to the phrase, the “book of life,” and to “blotting the name out of the book,” to express death, because the names of the dead were obliterated, — and to which also the Apostle Paul alludes, when he speaks of the Church or assembly of the first born, whose names are written in heaven.

As those written in the book of life were Israelites, and entitled to all the privileges of the Jewish Church and nation, so Christians as forming the true and spiritual Israel of God are said to have their names enrolled in heaven. This has no relation to predestination and election from eternity; but expresses the actual relation and acceptance of the persons referred to by God. As the Israelite after the flesh obtained his enrolment by virtue of his natural birth, so the spiritual Israelite obtains his by virtue of his reconciliation and new birth. This is the foundation of the distinction. It rests not upon supposed eternal decrees, but upon the actual experience of man in the forgiveness of sin, and the renewal of his heart; and it was for this reason that our Lord bade the seventy rejoice, not because they were endowed with miraculous powers, which were no certain evidences of grace, either of its reality or its degree; and which had no direct relation to their final salvation; but rather to rejoice that God had accepted them as his people, the members of his Church, and the heirs of his eternal kingdom.

He thus taught them, and he teaches us, to estimate the most splendid gifts, as nothing in comparison with real piety; since the former indeed might, as he teaches us elsewhere, fail to give us any title to be received into his kingdom; while the latter brings every one who lives under its influence into vital communion with God here, and will, if persevered in, infallibly secure his final acceptance with God at the last day. He who in this spirit “endureth to the end shall be saved.” This great lesson is lost in those comments which consider these words as a declaration of the eternal election of the seventy disciples, to whom they were originally addressed; and awkwardly brings in a subject which had at best, if true, a very distant relation to any part of the context. — Certain also it is, that if this registry of the names of true believers had any reference to their eternal election, the fact of their names being written in heaven could give them no security of eternal salvation, since Christ threatens some to blot out their names from the book of life, Revelation 22:19, and promises others Revelation 3:5, that he will not blot out their names.

Verse 21

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Jesus rejoiced in spirit. — The subject of this exulting and grateful excitement in the mind of our Lord must have been important. It is not often that we read of his manifesting such emotions of joy; and nothing but considerations of the mightiest character can be supposed to have produced a manifestation of them visible to all the seventy who were with him, the twelve apostles, and probably many other disciples. — This strong emotion could scarcely have been produced by the short mission of the seventy on this occasion, and the works they had wrought. He regarded them rather in this as making an essay in preparation for that wonderful ministry they were to accomplish; for that it was with reference to their whole ministerial life that he addressed both the twelve and the seventy, in the discourses he held with them on their appointment, many parts of those discourses themselves sufficiently prove. On this occasion, both the seventy who had just returned, and the twelve apostles also, stood before him when he offered this ardent thanksgiving, in which he recognized at once the sovereignty of God to choose his own instruments to accomplish his own designs, and his wisdom and power in accomplishing such events by an agency despised by the world, but which brought to shame all that the world had held wise and great. “The scribe,” “the disputer,” the philosopher, were all confounded, when it had pleased God, by the instrumentality of these simple men, to fill the earth with the profoundest wisdom on all theological and moral subjects, and to implant a system which all foresaw must ultimately absorb all others, and by the very force of its own internal evidence fix an everlasting conviction of its truth and Divinity in the hearts of men.

In fact, the true Christian ministry is the most wonderful institution ever introduced among mankind. — It is that which gives a new life to the soul, creates a new order of feelings, awakens men out of the sleep of sin, leads them in penitence and prayer to God produces such a trust in Christ as is followed by peace of conscience and the supporting assurance of the friendship of God, inspires man with a moral power which he has not by nature, exerts a sanctifying influence upon his affections, raises him into the condition of a spiritual man, and completes its high office by presenting the souls which it has trained under its godly discipline purged from every spot of sin, and meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. Such effects produced by the visible agency of weak and inefficient men, and hence called “babes,” implies necessarily the constant agency of God in its most gracious and condescending as well as powerful operations; and under these views our Lord offers this thanksgiving, and acknowledges the wondrous work of God. See the notes on Matthew 11:25-27.

Verse 24

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Many prophets and kings have desired. — Of the prophets and inspired kings, as Moses, David, Josiah, &c., here referred to, St. Peter says, “They searched what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of the Christ, and the glory that should follow.” Distant and obscure, though to them most interesting, visions of the future intensely fixed their attention, and produced the strongest desires for clearer knowledge on subjects all-important to them, and to mankind at large. See the notes on Matthew 13:16-17.

Verses 25-26

Watson - Exposition of the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Mark

A certain lawyer stood up, and tempted him. — The lawyers, νομικοι , were interpreters and teachers of the Mosaic law. They were the same as the scribes. To tempt here signifies to prove his skill by a question, which was a favourite mode of trying each other’s skill among the Jewish doctors, It was one, probably, debated in their schools, and to which various answers would be given, just as some estimated the comparative importance of different duties, or of ceremonial observances. Our Lord’s answer, What is written in the law? how readest thou? seems intended to turn the attention from all the vain disputations of the schools, and the opinions of mere men, on this grave question, to the written word of God. The Jews had a revelation of the will of God; and an answer to the question, What shall I do to inherit eternal life? must of necessity be found there. Our Lord therefore somewhat reprovingly said, How readest thou?

Verse 28

Watson - Exposition of the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Mark

This do, and thou shalt live. — This is the religion of both the Old and the New Testament. It has indeed been said that our Lord said this only to convince the inquirer that life by the law was impossible, and that obedience to the command is impracticable. But nothing appears to warrant this in the history itself. When our Lord commended the answer he showed that this was the way to life opened by the Mosaic institute; and when he repeats, This do, and thou shalt live, he shows that this also is the way to eternal life, under his own dispensation. Under the law of Moses, the forgiveness of sin was provided for by sacrifice, and so under the Gospel; the Holy Spirit was also formerly promised to those who sought the gift, to renew their nature. — “Thy Spirit,” says David, “is good: lead me into the land of uprightness.” And still more largely is that heavenly gift promised by Christ; but the great practical end and effect of our redemption, and all the promises of God, is, that we may be brought to love him with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind, that is, with the might of all our affections, and our neighbour as ourselves. Faith leads to pardon; a sense of forgiving mercy produces LOVE: love is the great principle of true obedience, and when supreme and universal, produces the willing consecration of our entire service to God. — So as to our neighbour: love is the great principle here; it extinguishes all the malignant, selfish, and irascible passions, and is, as to the duties of the second table, “the fulfilling of the law.” All this is NECESSARY to eternal life; and if so, all this is POSSIBLE, by the grace of God.

Verse 29

Watson - Exposition of the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Mark

But he, willing to justify himself, &c. — Some have thought that the scribe, expecting our Lord to describe his neighbour according to the Jewish idea, as a man of his own nation and religion, thought that he should justify or prove himself righteous by averring that he had always strictly observed this branch of the law. But we are rather to conclude that he felt himself somewhat piqued at being referred to the written testimony of the law as an answer to his question, “What shall I do to inherit eternal life?” as though it were a very plain and simple one; and answered by a mere reference to a well known scripture, and that, willing to justify himself in having propounded such a question, he intimates that it was not so easily answered as our Lord had suggested; but that, as to the duty of loving our neighbour as ourselves, a question might arise. He therefore said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbour? Many of the Jewish teachers would not allow a Gentile, nor even a proselyte, to be intended in the law enjoining the love of our neighbour; and they excluded the Samaritans with still bitterer hostility. This churlish and exclusive spirit, though no doubt often exaggerated, is made matter of reproach against them by heathen writers, as by Tacitus: “Apud ipsos misericordia in promptu; sed adversus omnes alios hostile odium;” and also Juvenal, Sat. 14:103. But the very question of the lawyer shows that the subject had been debated in the Jewish schools; and although the proud, exclusive spirit of Pharisaism predominated, a few had been found to advocate a more rational and religious interpretation of this important law. It was to settle this point for ever that our Lord spake the beautiful and affecting parable which follows.

Verse 30

Watson - Exposition of the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Mark

A certain man. — A Jew, as the whole story shows, for the points turn upon it.

From Jerusalem to Jericho. — In the days of Christ Jericho was a large and important city, and had a royal palace, where Herod died. It was numerously inhabited by priests, who had to go up to Jerusalem to attend at the temple service in their regular courses. See Luke 1:5. The road would therefore often be travelled by priests and Levites, a circumstance which forms part of the picture of the parable. A part of the road was wild and rocky, and notoriously infested with robbers. The whole road from Jerusalem to Jericho is described by modern travellers as, at this day, the most dangerous in Palestine, from the numbers of robberies and murders committed upon it.

Verses 33-35

Watson - Exposition of the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Mark

But a certain Samaritan. — The point of the parable lies here. The man left by the road side, half dead, was a Jew; the priest and Levite, who unfeelingly passed by on the other side, after they had seen him, were of course Jews, and Jews who from their office and character were most bound to an observance of the law of their God; but the man who actually treated this unfortunate Jew as a neighbour, and exemplified the true spirit and meaning of the law, “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself,” was a Samaritan, before whose conscientious and warm charity all distinctions of nation and religion, all prejudices of education and habit and associations, vanished, so that he was intent only on fulfilling the law of love. The benevolence of this excellent Samaritan, which probably was not an ideal picture, but a real occurrence, is so amplified by our Lord, that one feels, in reading the words, that his heart delighted to dwell upon the scene. When he saw him, he had compassion upon him, and went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, both which were used as medicaments by the ancient surgeons; and set him on his own beast, himself going on foot, and not influenced by the fear of not being able to escape from robbers if attacked while so encumbered with a wounded stranger; and brought him to an inn, πανδοχειον , a house of public entertainment for travellers; and took care of him, by personal attendance and procuring for him all necessary aid during that day and the following night; and departing on the morrow, pressed probably by his own concerns, he places two denarii, Roman pence, about fifteen pence of our money, in the hands of the host, with an injunction to take care of him, and an engagement to pay all additional expenses upon his return. Nothing could be more complete than this act of charity. It stopped short of nothing, but performed all that the circumstances required, being simply intent, not upon making an appearance, not upon compounding matters with conscience by a half and imperfect effort at exercising kindness, but upon relieving the case, and placing the unfortunate man in the best circumstances to promote his recovery.

Verses 36-37

Watson - Exposition of the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Mark

Which of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour? &c. — Which of the three fulfilled the office of neighbour? To this the answer was imperative. The kindness being done to a Jew, he could not say that the Samaritan had done more than his duty, as he might have replied had the unfortunate man been a Samaritan, and the person relieving him a Jew. They denied, indeed, the right of others to their kindness, but, as God’s chosen people, thought they had a right, to be served by all others; and therefore the lawyer must needs commend the benevolence of the Samaritan. This then being granted, the great moral was explicitly laid down: Go, and do thou likewise; compassionate and relieve the distressed, without any respect to nation or religion; be a neighbour to every man that needs thy assistance, and consider him thy neighbour, one who according to the law thou art to love as thyself. Thus our Lord teaches that this law is binding upon all men, and that all men are neighbours of each other. He breaks down, as to the obligation of this great social statute, all the distinction of nation and religion, all the divisions created by interests and partial affections, erects the whole community of man into one neighbourhood, and binds each individual to serve another by all kinds of good offices. Nor is this to be admired only as a just and noble sentiment. Sentiments somewhat similar may be found in some pagan writers, the relics of that traditional truth and morality which descended from the patriarchs; but in them these are opinions, and not law. In Christianity they are not only more perfectly stated, and radicated in their true principles but they become obligatory; they seize upon the conscience, and connect themselves as THE LAW of Christ with our hopes and fears. That they have not hitherto been so influential as they ought in this bad world, is true; but that they have had, in all ages, a large and happy influence, is certain.

Verse 38

Watson - Exposition of the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Mark

A certain village, and a certain woman. — The village was Bethany, about two miles from Jerusalem. The woman was Martha: the family was that which Jesus loved, composed of Martha, Lazarus, and Mary. From Martha receiving Jesus into her house hospitably to entertain him, it appears that she was its mistress, and that Lazarus and Mary resided with her. Grotius conjectures, with probability, that Martha was a widow.

Verse 39

Watson - Exposition of the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Mark

Which also sat at Jesus’ feet, &c. — To sit at the feet, is a mode of describing a disciple, because this was the attitude; the Master sitting, and the disciples forming a semicircle about his feet. That Mary very literally took this position with the other disciples, may be doubted; the words only indicating that she was a diligent and attentive hearer of Christ’s discourses. This too was the character of Martha. She was a disciple, for Mary is said also to sit at Jesus’ feet, that is, as Martha did. When our Lord visited them, they both placed themselves with the others, as attentive, believing, and deeply interested auditors; and probably, like several other female disciples, followed him to various places, and heard his words, and witnessed his wondrous works. On this occasion, our Lord’s visit appears to have been improved, with special diligence, by Mary, who left all other occupations to continue within the hearing of those words which conveyed to her so much instruction, and life, and joy. Both Martha and Mary were common names among the Jews; Mary is the same as Miriam.

Verses 40-42

Watson - Exposition of the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Mark

But Martha was cumbered, &c. — The word περισπαω signifies to draw around or aside, and is therefore properly applied to express those cares which absorb the attention, and lead it from that which ought also to be observed and done, as well as the immediate object of solicitude. The same word is used by Epictetus, when describing the distractions to which that man must necessarily be exposed who, fond of externals, has yet some relish for mental improvement and cultivation. Martha was thus drawn aside by her anxious care to have the meal properly prepared and served, in honour of her Lord, from paying that attention to the words of Christ which the opportunity presented, and which Mary embraced. Not only so, but she thought her excess in this respect right, and therefore complains of her sister, nay, even of our Lord himself, who, by detaining Mary by his discourse, she intimates, partook of the blame of not sufficiently caring that she was left alone to the bustle and fatigue of the occasion. Our Lord’s reply is at once full of wisdom and affection. The repetition of her name twice in his address showed that he was uttering a solemn caution, as to a person in danger. The state of her mind was both careful and troubled, too anxious because inwardly disquieted and querulous; a state inconsistent with self-possession, the spirit of prayer, and delight in God. It does not appear that our Lord condemns the many things about which Martha cared; but her caring unnecessarily and in too great a degree about them. Those who fancy that he enjoins one dish instead of many, debase the passage entirely; and it is certain that our Lord often partook of public dinners, after the mode of the country, without objection: besides, if by the one needful thing is meant one dish, what can be understood by Mary having chosen that good part which should not be taken away from her? By the good part our Lord must, in all fair interpretation, mean the same as the one thing which he had declared to be needful, or the connection of the sentence is lost.

He could not therefore refer to dishes or foods, since the time of the meal had not arrived, and Mary was not choosing any thing already upon the table, or selecting any thing to be brought there. The absurdity of the interpretation, not less than its trifling and jejune character, is sufficient to refute it. The meaning is well expressed in the paraphrase of Grotius: “Various and multiplied are the cares of this life: but there is one thing which, if we would be saved, is altogether and indispensably necessary to us, namely, the care of religion and piety, and the study of Divine things.” A most important moral is thus taught, which ought to be deeply engraven upon the heart of every human being. As Martha was not forbidden to care about the affairs of her house, but to care excessively, so to care, in fact, as to neglect important opportunities of instruction and salvation; so we are not prohibited from a proper attention to the affairs of this life, but are exhorted to subordinate them all to our higher and eternal interests, and so to engage in them as not to be hurried and distracted or absorbed by them, but so as still to leave the mind unembarrassed, in the exercise of holy affections, and in the performance of holy duties. Those who would go to the other extreme, and argue, like the papists, from this passage, in favour of the contemplative life, to the renunciation of active duties, find no real countenance from the history rightly understood.

That Mary did not renounce her domestic engagements and affairs in consequence of her discipleship, is plain from this, that she was not, any more than Martha, a constant follower of Christ. We never read of her being in his train either before or after this visit, except when he was at Bethany or the neighbourhood. She was not, therefore, one of those who were commanded to leave all and follow Christ, and was, in all probability, as active in the family as Martha. But on this occasion she lost no part of the opportunity of hearing Christ; and yet it does not follow that she neglected any part of her duty, nor that Martha would have neglected any part of hers, had she sat as closely as her sister at the feet of Christ. Preparations for this visit had, doubtless, been made; as people of wealth, they had servants at command; and the affairs of the house and table would, in all likelihood, have gone on as well or better had not Martha given herself up to chafing, restless, and distracting cares. No defect of real duty is implied in the case of Mary; but excess of solicitude and bustle is certainly implied in the reproof administered to Martha. Yet was Martha a good woman, loved by her Lord, and, as a proof of that, reproved by him. She had a dangerous habit of indulging an anxious mind; this was her weakness and her source of danger; but this reproof probably cured the evil. In the account we have of St. John, she appears before us as a woman of a noble and most exalted faith. Let all who have the natural fault of Martha, be corrected by the reproof which our Lord administers to them through her; for, as Mr. Baxter truly, though quaintly, remarks, “preferring things unnecessary, though good, and troubling ourselves about NEED-NOTS, is a common fault, even of religious persons.”

Which shall not be taken away from her. — She hath made choice of an imperishable good, the effects of which will endure to eternity. Mary therefore wisely regulated her cares by the true measure and proportion of things; and gave up her whole affection only to those objects which were spiritual and enduring. There is one good which we, through the mercy of God, can command, and but one. That is THE CHIEF GOOD. Every other may be taken away by time, accident, by the power of man, by the stripping and impoverishing hand of death. But this is above all such accidents, it is a “life hid with Christ in God.” Of this truth several of the heathen sages had some notion. “The true good,” says one, “is something strictly belonging to and within ourselves, and that cannot easily be taken from us;” and another makes it a characteristic of virtue that “it cannot be taken away,” αρητη αναφαιρετον .