Post by M.R. Hagerty on Aug 29, 2023 13:41:36 GMT -7
Matthew 12:43-45, Luke 11:27-28, Matthew 12:46-50, Luke 11:33-36
43 "Now when the unclean spirit goes out of a man, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and does not find it. 44 "Then it says, `I will return to my house from which I came'; and when it comes, it finds it unoccupied, swept, and put in order. 45 "Then it goes and takes along with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there; and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first. That is the way it will also be with this evil generation." (Matt 12:43-45)
27 While Jesus was saying these things, one of the women in the crowd raised her voice and said to Him, "Blessed is the womb that bore You and the breasts at which You nursed." 28 But He said, "On the contrary, blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it." (Luke 11:27-28)
46 While He was still speaking to the crowds, behold, His mother and brothers were standing outside, seeking to speak to Him. 47 Someone said to Him, "Behold, Your mother and Your brothers are standing outside seeking to speak to You." 48 But Jesus answered the one who was telling Him and said, "Who is My mother and who are My brothers?" 49 And stretching out His hand toward His disciples, He said, "Behold My mother and My brothers! 50 "For whoever does the will of My Father who is in heaven, he is My brother and sister and mother." (Matthew 12:46-50)
33 "No one, after lighting a lamp, puts it away in a cellar nor under a basket, but on the lampstand, so that those who enter may see the light. 34 "The eye is the lamp of your body; when your eye is clear, your whole body also is full of light; but when it is bad, your body also is full of darkness. 35 "Then watch out that the light in you is not darkness. 36 "If therefore your whole body is full of light, with no dark part in it, it will be wholly illumined, as when the lamp illumines you with its rays." (Luke 11:33-36)
_____________________________________________________________
Commentary
Matthew 12:43-45
43 "Now when the unclean spirit goes out of a man, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and does not find it.
No matter how modern man chooses to explain away demons as beliefs of ignorant times, the character and integrity of Jesus makes their reality unavoidable. Jesus in no way treats them as fictions or myths. This passage is a good example of just how straightforward their real existence actually is.
This comes from seeing how Jesus, without a hint of chagrin, describes in matter-of-fact terms their habits and modes of operation. The case is of a demon that gives up on its host, then goes to seek rest. We might be tempted to conclude that it has become exhausted in its expending of energy to control and possess a human being so as to eventually seek rest. But we find in a moment that it finds no rest and returns, which is antithetical to a state of exhaustion, because why return to the condition that sapped its resources?
Rather, we are to understand “seeking rest” as seeking a new home – a new soul – and that the wandering typifies a state of restlessness, and rest that of a home. The idea of a wasteland simply means it finds no candidates. (We might wonder why it left in the first place if this is the result. But we aren’t told the reason, except to conclude that it may be by a casting out or that it gets the gumption to try something new.)
The pressure to be comfortably at rest again in a new host is overwhelming.
44 "Then it says, `I will return to my house from which I came'; and when it comes, it finds it unoccupied, swept, and put in order.
The restlessness with no other prospects causes the demon to view its last home as the best thing remaining.
The idea that it finds the place “unoccupied, swept and in order” means that when the individual was delivered, he did not fill his soul with something else, i.e. a faith in God. His soul remains “unoccupied.” Nor is another demon now there. This is to say that no lesson was learned in his deliverance, he is dull to the need to put the right things in its place.
45 "Then it goes and takes along with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there; and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first.
An empty soul is not a safe soul. It cannot take comfort or confidence in the freedom it now has, while taking no spiritual action to ensure it never happens again. This is the case of individuals who are simply not in tune with the larger spiritual issues of life, who see life as largely practical and may even consider religion sort of silly or mere nonsense.
There is a rationalization even in modern times that religion is a crutch for people of weak constitutions, who can’t think for themselves and are prone to follow others who can talk a good line. In the case here of possession, one would think the person would now be keen to spiritual realities and abandon their cynicism. But people are varied in terms of motivations and it is often the case that when the crisis is over, they do not learn the lesson, but return to what is easiest, our same old ways.
Here, the demon invites others to take up residence and the next state of the man is noticeably worse. That is essentially what exorcism is about in the hands of the clergy – to be sure to replace possession with Christian faith.
“. . That is the way it will also be with this evil generation."
This is a declaration about the future. This evil generation is endemic such that it will be found still living in the days when Christ comes to judge the world. As things get worse, people without a godly focus will have exchanged their fewer possessions for ever worse ones, such that their condemnation will not be merely a shame, but a necessity.
This generation is filled with rejection of the Truth. So will that later one be.
Luke 11:27-28
27 "Blessed is the womb that bore . . .28 "On the contrary, blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it."
Some might take this as a denigration of His mother’s role in birthing and nursing Him. But it is a matter of showing the immense contrast in terms of what blesses. The woman is not being upbraided for choosing something so little to praise. She has listened to His teaching and recognizes the incredible rightness in it that she bursts into praise.
But Jesus wishes to make sure that the wrong conclusion from that praise is not drawn – that the truly blessed are those called to special service for God. Mary’s role was extremely rare, so rare as to be of little application to anyone else in humanity, since how likely is it that someone would bare another man of the nature of Jesus?
So for Jesus, it is all important that in the subject of “blessedness,” the focus be on the hearing and doing of God’s Word. What makes this blessed is that His Word has worked its way into the life, it constrains the life to do the righteousness, and frankly, if no one ever does the righteousness taught, its teaching would be in vain.
That is, of course, the rub that atheists and reprobate people everywhere quickly discern. That this is not recreational philosophy, but a way of life meant to be lived out in actions and thoughts. The atheist and debunker will have none of this, so he spoofs the doctrine wherever he can.
Matthew 12:46-50
46 While He was still speaking to the crowds, behold, His mother and brothers were standing outside, seeking to speak to Him.
For Catholics, this verse presents a difficulty to be managed in defending Immaculate Conception, because that doctrine not only proclaims Mary’s innocence at Jesus birth, but her perpetual sinlessness, which sexual relations would have made untenable in the Catholic mind. Hence, Jesus cannot have actual brothers by Mary and Joseph.
Much of this treatment comes from Catholic Tradition, which can only be taken at face value as it’s proclaimed, without use of the typical historical processes for validating facts. It has the advantage of being believed back to within centuries of the apostles, but Protestants reject it because of its conflict with Scripture on the universal application of sin to all mankind and the lack of a specific expression in anything that could be attributed directly to the apostles themselves.
For Catholics, brothers are translated cousins, relying on the alternate meaning of ’adelphoi’ as kin. The main support for retaining ‘brothers’ is that there are two clearly different words for brother and cousin – ‘adelphos’ and ‘suggenes.’ Admittedly this distinction is blurred in Aramaic, but the writing of the Greek versions of the Gospels is widely held to have been a “new” work not merely a case of mechanically translating pre-existing Aramaic language into Greek.
The writer therefore had at his disposal all the clarity available in Greek, so as to better translate the intent known in the mind of those words that were by nature less precise. The men with Mary were either known in fact to be real brothers or to be real cousins. So the writer had no hindrances whatsoever in choosing the appropriate word. Since he chose ‘adelphoi’ we are compelled by simple logic to conclude he intended that as the meaning. He certainly knew the real facts.
48 "Who is My mother and who are My brothers?" 49 And stretching out His hand toward His disciples, He said, "Behold My mother and My brothers! . . . 50 whoever does the will of My Father . . . he is My brother and sister and mother."
These and similar words are often attributed to a sort of coldness in Jesus that cares only for His mission and denigrates the natural affections we develop for family and friends. Jesus previously said publicly to His mother, “Woman, what have I to do with thee?”
Understanding Jesus there and here would have readily come from being there to see His expressions in person and to see how He treated His family members. We must draw our conclusions from His tender manner elsewhere and the upholding of the love of God in all things.
In eastern manner and thought, things mentioned are often used as launching pads for teaching valuable truths, and are often couched in terms whose comparison with the things used may attribute denigration, but are clearly understood as being tools in the hands of the speaker.
Jesus’ wishes to introduce the novel notion that those who follow Him are as much His family as His natural kin because they and He are one in His Father, Who makes all believers co-heirs, therefore the family of God.
It is notable that, contrary to liberalism and the social gospel peddlers, Jesus does not point to all in the room. That is what the liberal would have Jesus do. But Jesus limits this designation to those who are both hearers and doers – His own disciples.
Also of note is that the state of His disciples is hardly that of perfection. They are not perfect doers of His Word, yet are called His family members because their hearts are inclined to do it.
Luke 11:33-35
33 "No one, after lighting a lamp, puts it away in a cellar nor under a basket, but on the lampstand, so that those who enter may see the light. 34 "The eye is the lamp of your body . .”
Here we have a repetition of what He taught on the Mount of the Beatitudes (see Matthew 6:22), but here He emphasizes more the purpose of the light in relation to the individual and the world. In the Sermon on the Mount, the emphasis was on inner light compared to inner darkness.
Here it is about the light we are to shine out into the world. There are others in darkness and our light is to shine so as to draw men out from darkness.
There are folks who often adopt the mode or style of living that is not verbal in witness. They are in dreadful fear of speaking up about saving faith or mentioning Christ in a social or public setting.
To some extent, Christ questions the genuineness of one’s salvation if they are embarrassed to confess Him – ”neither will I confess him before My Father.” But we have to be as sensitive as the all-knowing Christ in allowing for the reality that some people are so desperately wounded in their own self image and confidence that forcing them into public witness may be in fact detrimental until those issues are healed.
In no way is a natural hindrance to become a permanent excuse. Those who love the Lord and are genuinely saved will have a new natural desire to witness of the gift and hope they’ve found.
It is a matter of love for the lost that must get us eventually over our natural fears and on to the work of evangelism.
So we are to put our lamp deliberately in public view. “Deliberate” brings to mind an anecdote of an opposite analogy, but a good example just the same. When we go to the dentist, he says, “Open, please.” But to open means deliberate consent, and we feel neither. It means we have resolved to take this seriously and let happen all that is necessary. To put our lamp deliberately out in public view means we are resolved to give ourselves an exposure that is clear and unmistakable. We are willing to be known as Christians rather than simply blending in with all sorts of other “good” people.
35 "Then watch out that the light in you is not darkness.
This sounds like a logical contradiction because light in us cannot be darkness. But it can be in terms of what the world sees, just as putting a light in the cellar does nothing for the darkness in the house.
We are to be watchful because the devil is staying up nights thinking of ways to get our light hidden and out of the way, hence of no effect. And he is clever to not come all of a sudden with suggestions obviously contrary to God. Instead, he comes with slight variations, full of perfectly good reasoning that take us slightly off the mark. And gradually he woos us away from what we are called to do. So we are to be watchful for those temptations, but also generally observant that our light has not unwittingly become hidden.
43 "Now when the unclean spirit goes out of a man, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and does not find it. 44 "Then it says, `I will return to my house from which I came'; and when it comes, it finds it unoccupied, swept, and put in order. 45 "Then it goes and takes along with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there; and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first. That is the way it will also be with this evil generation." (Matt 12:43-45)
27 While Jesus was saying these things, one of the women in the crowd raised her voice and said to Him, "Blessed is the womb that bore You and the breasts at which You nursed." 28 But He said, "On the contrary, blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it." (Luke 11:27-28)
46 While He was still speaking to the crowds, behold, His mother and brothers were standing outside, seeking to speak to Him. 47 Someone said to Him, "Behold, Your mother and Your brothers are standing outside seeking to speak to You." 48 But Jesus answered the one who was telling Him and said, "Who is My mother and who are My brothers?" 49 And stretching out His hand toward His disciples, He said, "Behold My mother and My brothers! 50 "For whoever does the will of My Father who is in heaven, he is My brother and sister and mother." (Matthew 12:46-50)
33 "No one, after lighting a lamp, puts it away in a cellar nor under a basket, but on the lampstand, so that those who enter may see the light. 34 "The eye is the lamp of your body; when your eye is clear, your whole body also is full of light; but when it is bad, your body also is full of darkness. 35 "Then watch out that the light in you is not darkness. 36 "If therefore your whole body is full of light, with no dark part in it, it will be wholly illumined, as when the lamp illumines you with its rays." (Luke 11:33-36)
_____________________________________________________________
Commentary
Matthew 12:43-45
43 "Now when the unclean spirit goes out of a man, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and does not find it.
No matter how modern man chooses to explain away demons as beliefs of ignorant times, the character and integrity of Jesus makes their reality unavoidable. Jesus in no way treats them as fictions or myths. This passage is a good example of just how straightforward their real existence actually is.
This comes from seeing how Jesus, without a hint of chagrin, describes in matter-of-fact terms their habits and modes of operation. The case is of a demon that gives up on its host, then goes to seek rest. We might be tempted to conclude that it has become exhausted in its expending of energy to control and possess a human being so as to eventually seek rest. But we find in a moment that it finds no rest and returns, which is antithetical to a state of exhaustion, because why return to the condition that sapped its resources?
Rather, we are to understand “seeking rest” as seeking a new home – a new soul – and that the wandering typifies a state of restlessness, and rest that of a home. The idea of a wasteland simply means it finds no candidates. (We might wonder why it left in the first place if this is the result. But we aren’t told the reason, except to conclude that it may be by a casting out or that it gets the gumption to try something new.)
The pressure to be comfortably at rest again in a new host is overwhelming.
44 "Then it says, `I will return to my house from which I came'; and when it comes, it finds it unoccupied, swept, and put in order.
The restlessness with no other prospects causes the demon to view its last home as the best thing remaining.
The idea that it finds the place “unoccupied, swept and in order” means that when the individual was delivered, he did not fill his soul with something else, i.e. a faith in God. His soul remains “unoccupied.” Nor is another demon now there. This is to say that no lesson was learned in his deliverance, he is dull to the need to put the right things in its place.
45 "Then it goes and takes along with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there; and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first.
An empty soul is not a safe soul. It cannot take comfort or confidence in the freedom it now has, while taking no spiritual action to ensure it never happens again. This is the case of individuals who are simply not in tune with the larger spiritual issues of life, who see life as largely practical and may even consider religion sort of silly or mere nonsense.
There is a rationalization even in modern times that religion is a crutch for people of weak constitutions, who can’t think for themselves and are prone to follow others who can talk a good line. In the case here of possession, one would think the person would now be keen to spiritual realities and abandon their cynicism. But people are varied in terms of motivations and it is often the case that when the crisis is over, they do not learn the lesson, but return to what is easiest, our same old ways.
Here, the demon invites others to take up residence and the next state of the man is noticeably worse. That is essentially what exorcism is about in the hands of the clergy – to be sure to replace possession with Christian faith.
“. . That is the way it will also be with this evil generation."
This is a declaration about the future. This evil generation is endemic such that it will be found still living in the days when Christ comes to judge the world. As things get worse, people without a godly focus will have exchanged their fewer possessions for ever worse ones, such that their condemnation will not be merely a shame, but a necessity.
This generation is filled with rejection of the Truth. So will that later one be.
Luke 11:27-28
27 "Blessed is the womb that bore . . .28 "On the contrary, blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it."
Some might take this as a denigration of His mother’s role in birthing and nursing Him. But it is a matter of showing the immense contrast in terms of what blesses. The woman is not being upbraided for choosing something so little to praise. She has listened to His teaching and recognizes the incredible rightness in it that she bursts into praise.
But Jesus wishes to make sure that the wrong conclusion from that praise is not drawn – that the truly blessed are those called to special service for God. Mary’s role was extremely rare, so rare as to be of little application to anyone else in humanity, since how likely is it that someone would bare another man of the nature of Jesus?
So for Jesus, it is all important that in the subject of “blessedness,” the focus be on the hearing and doing of God’s Word. What makes this blessed is that His Word has worked its way into the life, it constrains the life to do the righteousness, and frankly, if no one ever does the righteousness taught, its teaching would be in vain.
That is, of course, the rub that atheists and reprobate people everywhere quickly discern. That this is not recreational philosophy, but a way of life meant to be lived out in actions and thoughts. The atheist and debunker will have none of this, so he spoofs the doctrine wherever he can.
Matthew 12:46-50
46 While He was still speaking to the crowds, behold, His mother and brothers were standing outside, seeking to speak to Him.
For Catholics, this verse presents a difficulty to be managed in defending Immaculate Conception, because that doctrine not only proclaims Mary’s innocence at Jesus birth, but her perpetual sinlessness, which sexual relations would have made untenable in the Catholic mind. Hence, Jesus cannot have actual brothers by Mary and Joseph.
Much of this treatment comes from Catholic Tradition, which can only be taken at face value as it’s proclaimed, without use of the typical historical processes for validating facts. It has the advantage of being believed back to within centuries of the apostles, but Protestants reject it because of its conflict with Scripture on the universal application of sin to all mankind and the lack of a specific expression in anything that could be attributed directly to the apostles themselves.
For Catholics, brothers are translated cousins, relying on the alternate meaning of ’adelphoi’ as kin. The main support for retaining ‘brothers’ is that there are two clearly different words for brother and cousin – ‘adelphos’ and ‘suggenes.’ Admittedly this distinction is blurred in Aramaic, but the writing of the Greek versions of the Gospels is widely held to have been a “new” work not merely a case of mechanically translating pre-existing Aramaic language into Greek.
The writer therefore had at his disposal all the clarity available in Greek, so as to better translate the intent known in the mind of those words that were by nature less precise. The men with Mary were either known in fact to be real brothers or to be real cousins. So the writer had no hindrances whatsoever in choosing the appropriate word. Since he chose ‘adelphoi’ we are compelled by simple logic to conclude he intended that as the meaning. He certainly knew the real facts.
48 "Who is My mother and who are My brothers?" 49 And stretching out His hand toward His disciples, He said, "Behold My mother and My brothers! . . . 50 whoever does the will of My Father . . . he is My brother and sister and mother."
These and similar words are often attributed to a sort of coldness in Jesus that cares only for His mission and denigrates the natural affections we develop for family and friends. Jesus previously said publicly to His mother, “Woman, what have I to do with thee?”
Understanding Jesus there and here would have readily come from being there to see His expressions in person and to see how He treated His family members. We must draw our conclusions from His tender manner elsewhere and the upholding of the love of God in all things.
In eastern manner and thought, things mentioned are often used as launching pads for teaching valuable truths, and are often couched in terms whose comparison with the things used may attribute denigration, but are clearly understood as being tools in the hands of the speaker.
Jesus’ wishes to introduce the novel notion that those who follow Him are as much His family as His natural kin because they and He are one in His Father, Who makes all believers co-heirs, therefore the family of God.
It is notable that, contrary to liberalism and the social gospel peddlers, Jesus does not point to all in the room. That is what the liberal would have Jesus do. But Jesus limits this designation to those who are both hearers and doers – His own disciples.
Also of note is that the state of His disciples is hardly that of perfection. They are not perfect doers of His Word, yet are called His family members because their hearts are inclined to do it.
Luke 11:33-35
33 "No one, after lighting a lamp, puts it away in a cellar nor under a basket, but on the lampstand, so that those who enter may see the light. 34 "The eye is the lamp of your body . .”
Here we have a repetition of what He taught on the Mount of the Beatitudes (see Matthew 6:22), but here He emphasizes more the purpose of the light in relation to the individual and the world. In the Sermon on the Mount, the emphasis was on inner light compared to inner darkness.
Here it is about the light we are to shine out into the world. There are others in darkness and our light is to shine so as to draw men out from darkness.
There are folks who often adopt the mode or style of living that is not verbal in witness. They are in dreadful fear of speaking up about saving faith or mentioning Christ in a social or public setting.
To some extent, Christ questions the genuineness of one’s salvation if they are embarrassed to confess Him – ”neither will I confess him before My Father.” But we have to be as sensitive as the all-knowing Christ in allowing for the reality that some people are so desperately wounded in their own self image and confidence that forcing them into public witness may be in fact detrimental until those issues are healed.
In no way is a natural hindrance to become a permanent excuse. Those who love the Lord and are genuinely saved will have a new natural desire to witness of the gift and hope they’ve found.
It is a matter of love for the lost that must get us eventually over our natural fears and on to the work of evangelism.
So we are to put our lamp deliberately in public view. “Deliberate” brings to mind an anecdote of an opposite analogy, but a good example just the same. When we go to the dentist, he says, “Open, please.” But to open means deliberate consent, and we feel neither. It means we have resolved to take this seriously and let happen all that is necessary. To put our lamp deliberately out in public view means we are resolved to give ourselves an exposure that is clear and unmistakable. We are willing to be known as Christians rather than simply blending in with all sorts of other “good” people.
35 "Then watch out that the light in you is not darkness.
This sounds like a logical contradiction because light in us cannot be darkness. But it can be in terms of what the world sees, just as putting a light in the cellar does nothing for the darkness in the house.
We are to be watchful because the devil is staying up nights thinking of ways to get our light hidden and out of the way, hence of no effect. And he is clever to not come all of a sudden with suggestions obviously contrary to God. Instead, he comes with slight variations, full of perfectly good reasoning that take us slightly off the mark. And gradually he woos us away from what we are called to do. So we are to be watchful for those temptations, but also generally observant that our light has not unwittingly become hidden.