Bible Commentaries

St. Luke's Gospel

Luke 1:3-4

Our information concerning St. Luke is scanty. It is conjectured by some that he was one of the seventy disciples sent forth by our Lord, in addition to the twelve Apostles ( Luke 10:1). There seems no reason to doubt that he was the companion of St. Paul in his travels, and that he was a "physician" ( Colossians 4:14). Some have thought that his profession as a physician may be traced in his manner of describing our Lord's miraculous cures of diseases, and his companionship of St. Paul in his manner of speaking on such subjects as God's glory and Christ's love to sinners. It is generally agreed that his Gospel was written with a special reference to Gentile converts rather than Jews. Origen, Jerome, Chrysostom, Ambrose, and others suppose that St. Paul refers to St. Luke and his Gospel in the words, "the brother whose praise is in the Gospel" ( 2 Corinthians 8:18).

The short preface is a peculiar feature of St. Luke's Gospel. But we shall find, on examination, that it is full of most useful instruction.

I. St. Luke Gives us a Short but Valuable Sketch of the Nature of a Gospel.—He calls it, "a declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us". It is a narrative of facts about Jesus Christ. Christianity is a religion built upon facts. Let us never lose sight of this. It came before mankind at first in this shape. The first preachers did not go up and down the world proclaiming an elaborate, artificial system of abstruse doctrines and deep principles. They proclaimed facts.

II. He Draws a Beautiful Picture of the True Position of the Apostles in the Early Church.—He calls them "eye-witnesses and ministers of the Word". There is an instructive humility in this expression. They were servants of the word of the Gospel. They were men who counted it their highest privilege to carry about, as messengers, the tidings of God's love to a sinful world, and to tell the story of the Cross.

III. He Describes his own Qualifications for the Work of Writing a Gospel.—He says that he "had perfect understanding of all things from the very first". It would be mere waste of time to inquire from what source St. Luke obtained the information which he has given us in his Gospel. We have no good reason for supposing that he saw our Lord work miracles or heard Him teach. To say that he obtained his information from the Virgin Mary or any of the Apostles is mere conjecture and speculation. Enough for us to know that St. Luke wrote by inspiration of God. Unquestionably he did not neglect the ordinary means of getting knowledge. But the Holy Ghost guided him, no less than all other writers of the Bible, in his choice of matter. St. Luke does not wish his friend to remain in doubt on any matter of his faith. He tells him that he wants him to "know the certainty of those things wherein he had been instructed". Let us bless God daily that we have a written volume which is "able to make us wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus" ( 2 Timothy 3:15).

Luke 1:3-4

What are the legitimate uses of the imagination, that is to say, of the power of perceiving, or conceiving with the mind, things which cannot be perceived by the senses? Its first and noblest use Luke 1:16

It is because we have so few high saints among us, that we have so many low sinners.

—Richard Baxter.

It would have been but a poor occupation for God to compose this heavy world out of simple elements, and to keep it rolling in the sunbeams from year to year, if He had not had the plan of founding a nursery for a world of spirits upon this material basis. So He is now constantly active in higher natures to attract the lower ones.

—Goethe.

Preparation for the Best (First Sunday in Lent)

Luke 1:17

When we speak of preparing ourselves for the future, we commonly think of some coming evil. Life Luke 1:19

Then Gabriel, like a rainbow's birth,

Spread his wings and sank to earth;

Entered, in flesh, the empty cell,

Lived there, and played the craftsman well;

And morning, evening, noon and night,

Praised God in place of Theocrite;

(He did God's will; to him, all one,

If on the earth or in the sun.)

—R. Browning, The Boy and the Angel.

Reference.—I:20.—Expositor (6th Series), vol. x. p281.

Luke 1:25

Dr. Richard Hooker, at one period of his life, was exposed to a cruel slander against his moral character, which, says Izaak Walton, "he kept secret to himself for many months; and being a helpless Luke 1:26-28

The festival of the Annunciation has been variously yet appropriately designated thus: "The Day of Salutation"; "the Day of the Gospel"; and "the Festival of the Incarnation". In many parts it was for some time the first day of the ecclesiastical year, as it is now, under its vernacular name—Lady Day, the first quarterly division of the ordinary year. How the ancient Church observed the day can scarcely be ascertained now. And this is not a little remarkable, as the Christian Fathers have written numerous homilies on the day itself, and the Christian Muse has for centuries been actively engaged in illustrating it To the Christian artist, the holy mysteries of the day have ever had a special fascination, as shown by the pictures and paintings—some very grotesque, others very beautiful—which were produced during the first ages succeeding the Annunciation itself. Christians of the present day regard it as the first stage of the Incarnation. Hence we gladly keep the day as a holy festival, and fix our mind upon its marvels.

I. In Old Testament times names were reckoned of paramount consequence, as they were identified with some unusual fact in personal and family life, and were also prophetical. The name Mary—so familiar to us—is the same as Miriam. Its first and best signification is "exalted"; and this applies with peculiar emphasis to Mary of Nazareth. Yet it must not be forgotten that she had lineally descended from David; therefore the blood of Israel's ancient kings flowed in her veins. She was also a virgin—pure and spotless. Had it been otherwise she had never been the mother of Jesus, because, from first to last, He was to be holy and undefiled; and this could not possibly have been if the least fleck of impurity had been found in her nature. The place of her residence corresponded with her true condition. Nazareth means "separated" or "sanctified". Yet it was no grand metropolis, no flourishing sea-side town, but a small inland, upland city, in the heart of Galilee, called "Galilee of the Gentiles". In other words, it was a little city of carpenters; hence Joseph lived here, and though "of the house of David, "yet, being poor, he worked hard at the toilsome craft of the place. It had no reputation for learning or piety. To this little city a great angel was Divinely sent. He is called Gabriel—"the strength of God". In the celestial hierarchy he ranked next to Michael the archangel, and when in heaven, he says, "I stand in the presence of God"; that Luke 1:46-47). High dignity, beside deep joy, was now conferred upon Mary. "Thou art highly favoured," said Gabriel to her. But this dignity was not of an earthly, fleeting nature; for Mary was left by the angel in the same humble condition in which he found her; and, in truth, her humble condition was the same at the birth of Christ, and to the day of her own death. The dignity, therefore, was heavenly and lasting. So it has proved itself. No woman, from Eve downward, has been so honoured as the Blessed Virgin of Nazareth. Her very memory is fragrant as Eden. Nor is this all: "The Lord is with thee". This constituted her real blessedness, and was the climax of the annunciation of the angel. The Lord was with Mary in two sublime senses—to sustain and further deepen the joy of her soul, and to perform the covenant which Gabriel had made with her at His bidding. One other brief sentence fell from those angel lips, forming the noblest utterance ever made: "Blessed art thou among women!" After the battle of the river Kishon, and after Jael had slain, in her tent, the captain of the host of the King of Canaan, Deborah, the prophetess, pronounced the heroine "blessed above all women"; but Gabriel, the angel, pronounces a better and richer blessing on Mary; and Mary, in her glorious Magnificat, says of herself, "All generations shall call me blessed". This they have done since the birth of Christ, and this they will continue to do as long as Christ Himself shall reign, even for ever ( Luke 1:32-33).

References.—I:28.—J. Keble, Sermons for the Saints" Days, p191. J. T. Bramston, Fratribus, p111. C. A. Berry, Vision and Duty, p157. J. H. Barrows, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xlvi. p330. J. Denney, ibid. vol. xlix. p337.

Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Luke 1:32-33

March25 is a memorable day in our calendar. It is important in our business life and in our domestic life. To Churchmen Lady Day has a high significance because that on it we commemorate the announcement of the angel to the Blessed Virgin that she should bring forth a Son who was to be the Incarnate Son of God. We can never forget that she was "highly favoured amongst women" in that she was chosen to be the channel by which—and the thought is a most stupendous one—the Incarnation of the Son of God was to be effected. We reverence her purity and we admire the beauty of her character. When we think of the greatness conferred upon womanhood in the Incarnation it should lead all men—should it not?—to cultivate habits of chivalry and grace in all their dealings with women. But we shall mistake the significance of this festival unless we observe that the Church centres our attention not upon Mary but upon her promised Son. The Collect, the Epistle, the Gospel, the Lessons all point to Him.

I. The Promised Son.—The message of the angel revealed to Mary that her Son should be Jesus, the Saviour. He was coming to redeem Israel, "to save His people from their sins"—and not Israel only but all the world. This was Luke 1:35-40

In her volume on The Makers of Florence, Mrs. Oliphant describes Mariotto's picture of the "Visitation "which hangs in the Pitti Palace; Elisabeth and Mary stand in the foreground of the canvas, against the blue sky, the elder woman stepping out eagerly to meet and welcome the shrinking mother of our Lord. "I have heard," she adds, "of a woman, sadly lonely in a strange country, and little aware of the merits of the picture, poor soul! who would go and linger in the room "for company," wistfully wishing that the kind, penetrating, sympathetic tale of that old, tender Elisabeth could but fall on herself." The passage has an autobiographic note, for the woman was no other than Mrs. Oliphant herself.

References.—I:35.—W. Alexander, Primary Convictions, p67. J. Keble, Sermons for the Saints" Days, p201. W. Archer Butler, Sermons Doctrinal and Practical (1Series), p16. Expositor (5th Series), vol. ii. p165; ibid. vol. ix. p865

The Handmaid of the Lord (The Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary)

Luke 1:38

The story of the Annunciation is one of the most impressive to be found in the Gospels. In the Gospel for today we have a striking illustration of the singular beauty, purity, and steadiness of character which are manifested by the Blessed Virgin.

I. Her Faith.—The remarkable faith with which she received the annunciation from the angel of the wonderful event which was to take place is a lesson to us all. Her words are very simple and very full of submissive faith—"Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to Thy word".

II. Her Piety.—The manner in which, as we read later, she pondered in her heart the various events of the Lord's childhood, which seemed to point out her Son as being greater than even she herself had suspected, is worthy of notice. It befits religious character of the highest order, and shows her to have been possessed of the deepest piety.

III. Her Submission.—The same religious discretion marked her conduct on the occasion of her losing sight of Jesus on their return from Jerusalem when He was twelve years old. His answer might well add to His parents" perplexity, and His mother does not seem to have understood it; but she did not forget the saying because she could not understand it; on the other hand, she kept it in her heart. She was wholly submissive to what she believed to be the Divine will.

IV. The Reverence Due to Her.—We need not flinch from according to the Blessed Virgin the honour which belongs to her. "All generations shall call me blessed," and we must have dull hearts if we do not so account her. We honour the Apostles because they were very near to, and much honoured by, the Lord, and we rightly honour the Virgin Mother of our Lord. But one word of caution is necessary. While we reverence the Blessed Virgin as one of the first of saints, while we call her blessed, and think her the most highly honoured of the human race, we must not harbour any temptation in our hearts to worship her. The best antidote to Mariolatry is to have our whole souls filled with the contemplation of the Virgin's Luke 1:46-47

"After this," writes George Fox in his Journal for1646 , "I met with a sort of people that held women have no souls (adding, in a light manner) no more than a goose. But I reproved them, and told them that was not right; for Mary said, My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour."

References.—I:46.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxvi. No1514. W. P. Paterson, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xliii. p22. J. M. Neale, Sermons Preached in a Religious House, vol. i. p269. I:46-55.—A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture—St. Luke 1:48

Many truths are, like the "things which the seven thunders uttered," "sealed up" from us. In particular, it is in mercy to us that so little is revealed about the Blessed Virgin, in mercy to our weakness, though of her there are "many things to say," yet they are "hard to be uttered, seeing we are dull of hearing".

But, further, the more we consider who St. Mary was, the more dangerous will such knowledge of her appear to be. Other saints are but influenced or inspired by Christ, and made partakers of Him mystically. But, as to St. Mary, Christ derived His manhood from her and so had an especial unity of nature with her; and this wondrous relationship between God and man it is perhaps impossible for us to dwell much upon without some perversion of feeling. For, truly, she is raised above the condition of sinful beings, though by nature a sinner; she is brought near to God, yet is but a creature, and seems to lack her fitting place in our limited understandings, neither too high nor too low. We cannot combine, in our thought of her, all we should ascribe with all we should withhold. Hence, following the example of Scripture, we had better only think of her with and for her Luke 1:68

About one hundred and eighty years ago (that was in the time of King Charles II.) six persons died in this college in less than a week. That was what we call an awful visitation of God. When we speak of a visitation of God we generally mean His visitation to punish. Then why is it said here, "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for He hath visited". Why, because you see how it goes on, He hath visited and redeemed His people.

I. Old age is His very true and real visitation—and being Luke 1:71-79

We talk very much, and very badly; in pulpit, and Parliament, and press. We want the man who has something new to say, and knows how to say it. For my own part, I don"t think, when he comes, that he will glorify explosives. I want to hear some one talk about Peace—and not from the commercial point of view. The slaughterers shan"t have it all their own way: civilization will be too strong for them, and if old England doesn"t lead in that direction it will be her shame to the end of history.

—George Gissing.

References.—174 , 76.—E. J. Boyce, Parochial Sermons, p216. E. H. Hopkins, The Record, vol. xxvii. p799. I:76.—W. G. Rutherford, The Key of Knowledge, p96. I:77-79.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxii. No1907.

The Dayspring

Luke 1:78

The Eternal God is never in a hurry, for a thousand centuries are unto Him but as a moment. In all His great kingdoms the Divine Actor works gradually—the blade, the ear, and the full corn in the ear; the daydawn, the ascending sun, and the full meridian; the promise, the type, and the antitype; the law, the prophets, and the Gospel; the crude altar, the superb temple, and God manifest in the flesh. Gradual progression runs through the ages like a line of light. We invite your attention to the gradual unfolding of Redemption.

I. Gradualness of Development is a prominent feature in all the works of God. (1) In the physical sphere we meet on every hand with this striking feature. A great story demands a long prologue—hence the slowly ascending scale from the protoplasmic beginning to man! In the words of Emerson: "The gases gather to the solid firmament, the chemic lump arrives at the plant and grows, arrives at the quadruped and walks, arrives at the man and thinks". The wheels of His stupendous machinery revolve slowly, and the majestic gradualness of their revolutions bears the stamp of eternity. (2) In the intellectual sphere we meet with this feature of gradualness. Even our consciousness, the Luke 1:78

Thus, from our point of view, does Goethe rise on us as the Uniter, and victorious Reconciler, of the distracted, clashing elements of the most distracted and divided age that the world has witnessed since the introduction of the Christian Religion; to which old chaotic Era, of world-confusion and world-refusion, of blackest darkness succeeded by a dawn of light and nobler "dayspring from on high," this wondrous Era of ours Luke 1:78-79

"Them that sit in darkness." The figure is not suggestive of the twilight of a summer's eve, or the trembling expectant twilight of a summer's morn; it is the midnight of the winter season. We all know the power of the darkness. How intense and feverish becomes the imagination in the still dark hours of the night! How erratic and untrustful our judgments!

I. "Them that sit in darkness." That was the condition of the race before the Saviour was born. The world was dark, and clammy, and cold. What did death mean to these tenants of the night? It meant the dissolver of the body. It meant the pilot of the soul. If you want to know the explanation of much of the darkness, you must turn to the first and second chapters of the Epistle to the Romans.

II. "They sit in darkness and in the shadow of death...." Now, when Jesus was born in Bethlehem... what? The morning dawned upon that night-burdened, shadow-haunted, fear-filled world. "The dayspring from on high hath visited us." "The dayspring?" not the full day, but the spring of the day, the light-fountain, Heaven's East. We should only have been "blinded with excess of light". So He dawned upon us; the light fell upon the sore and wearied hearts of men with the soft warmth of an infant's kiss. "Soft and quiet as the breast feather of a motherly bird." "Hath visited." Another word which helps to heap up and multiply the comforting suggestion. It is a visit of sympathy, of healing, of relief, of release. Such is the infinitely gentle and delicate coming of the omnipotent God.

III. What was the purpose of the dawning? "To give light to them that sit in darkness." (1) To illumine the world. The mission of the dayspring was the ministry of illumination. The Dayspring was not first of all a redeemer. He must first reveal before He can redeem. (2) As redeemer also did this Dayspring visit us. "To guide our feet into the way of peace." It is the guidance of a pioneer. Pioneers are "living ways". David Livingstone laid down his life in Africa, and became a "living way "to guide our feet into the heart of that dark continent. The pioneer is the living way into undiscovered realms.

—J. H. Jowett, Apostolic Optimism, p186.

References.—I:78 , 79-—R. J. Campbell, City Temple Sermons, p223. J. Keble, Sermons for Christmas to Epiphany, p1. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture, St. Luke 1:80

"Every week," said Goethe of Schiller in his early life, "he became different and more finished; each time that I saw him he seemed to me to have advanced in learning and judgment."

References.—II:1.—Expositor (7th Series), vol. i. p89; (6th Series), vol. v. p433; (6th Series), vol. iii. p137. II:1 , 2.—Ibid. vol. v. p274. II:1-7.—Bishop Gore, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lvii. p193. II:1-3.—Expositor (7th Series), vol. v. p19. II:4.—Ibid. (6th Series), vol. x. p280. II:6.—Expositor (5th Series), vol. i. p11.