Luke 11:27-45

27 This is a delicate yet decisive thrust at the slightest tendency toward Mariolatry. Mary was indeed most blessed to be chosen to bear such a Son, but it was a physical relationship, such as He sustained in some slight degree to all who were descendants of Jacob. Happiness did not inhere in this. It springs from a spiritual source. Hence He ignores the remark as to Mary, and turns it so as to include His spiritual relatives.

29 These were hard sayings for the religious Jews. For such a saying His townsmen at Nazareth sought to kill Him (Luk_4:24-30). They could not bear to hear of blessing coming to gentile curs while they are passed by. They did not see that privilege, in itself, does not bring happiness. It entails suffering if it be unheeded or spurned. He who is under the light of law will be judged by its illumination. Those in darkness will not be held responsible for a light they never had.

31 The resurrection of judgment is not altogether a matter of condemnation. The queen of Sheba will be commended for coming to hear Solomon. The repentance of the men of Nineveh will be recognized and rewarded.

31 Solomon, with all his wisdom, cannot compare with his greater Son. His reign closed under a cloud which caused the division of the kingdom. He did that which displeased Jehovah. But Christ's wisdom extended beyond His words to His ways. What He said and did were both in constant accord with the mind of God.

32 Jonah's conduct, both before and after his proclamation, shows how lacking he was in sympathy with his message and the One Who sent him. Jonah was exceedingly displeased and very angry when he found that God was gracious and merciful and of great kindness, so that He actually did not fulfill His threats of doom. Jonah was angry again because a gourd was destroyed by a worm. He cared only for his own comfort, and, to him, the withering of the gourd which sheltered him was of more consequence than the destruction of the great city with its thousands of God's creatures. God's judgments are not vindictive but remedial. He does not desire to condemn but to save. Judgment is His strange work.

36 That light may become darkness seems, at first sight, incomprehensible. But this was the case with the worst of our Lord's enemies, and is often true today. As an example, the truth that Christ should come from Bethlehem was a pure ray from the word of God. But His enemies turned it to dense darkness for themselves when they took it for granted that He had been born in Nazareth. What should have proven Him to be the Christ was made an argument to disprove it. In the same way today many a precious truth is supposed to deny another, equally precious, because they seem to be irreconcilable. If the scribes had made a careful inquiry, as they should have done, they would have known that, though the Lord was reared in Nazareth, He was born in Bethlehem. And if we seek for the facts accurately and carefully, the truth which we have will not eclipse some other truth. Let us labor that the light in us does not become darkness.

38 Compare Mat_7:1-8.

38 Baptism is simply ceremonial washing. The merest dipping of the hands in water would suffice for luncheon. No such ceremony was commanded by the law. It was one of the precepts of men which they had added to His statutes. The Pharisees made much of externals and non-essentials so as to have the appearance of sanctity. But their fastidiousness did not extend to the vital realities of life. Alas! Is not this the condition of the great religious world today? There is form and ceremony, but vital power is not present.

39 Compare Mat_23:25-26.

42 Compare Mat_23:23.

42 "Judging" in this connection can only mean the correction of wrongs. There is no good

English equivalent for the Greek word krisis. By leaving the term uniformly "judging" we hope to rid it of the sense of condemnation and attach to it the neutral idea of executing justice to the deserving as well as the undeserving. Judging awards for good as well as punishes for evil.

43 Compare Mat_23:6-7; Mar_12:38-39.

44 Compare Mat_23:27-28.

45 English needs a special term to distinguish these teachers of the law of Moses from the legal profession. They seem to have been a special class taking upon themselves what really pertained to the priesthood. The failure or the priests seems to have led to the rise of "lawyers" to expound the law of Moses, and to determine its application in practical life. This gave them an advantage of which they were not slow to avail themselves. Whenever men are given a divine monopoly they abuse it. When the exposition or the scriptures is usurped by a special class they not only fail to unfold them but they effectively hinder others from discovering the truth for themselves.