Luke 12:54-59

5 th. To the Multitudes: Luke 12:54-59.

After having announced and described the rending, the first symptoms of which He already discerns, Jesus returns anew to the multitude whom He sees plunged in security and impenitence; He points out to those men, so thoroughly earthly and self-satisfied, the thunderbolt which is about to break over their heads, and beseeches them to anticipate the explosion of the divine wrath.

Vers. 54-56. The Signs of the Times. “ And He said also to the people, When ye see a cloud rise out of the west, straightway ye say, There cometh a shower; and so it is. 55. And when ye see the south wind blow, ye say, There will be heat; and it cometh to pass. 56. Ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky and of the earth; but how is it that ye do not discern this time? ” ῎Ελεγε δὲ καί, He said also, is, as we have already seen (i. p. 276), the formula which Luke uses when Jesus at the close of a doctrinal discourse adds a last word of more gravity, which raises the question to its full height, and is intended to leave on the mind of the hearer an impression never to be effaced: “Finally, I have a last word to address to you.” This concluding idea is that of the urgency of conversion. Country people, in the matter of weather, plume themselves on being good prophets, and in fact their prognostics do not mislead them: “ Ye say, ye say..., and as ye say, it comes to pass.” The rains in Palestine come from the Mediterranean (1 Kings 18:44); the south wind, on the contrary, the simoom blowing from the desert, brings drought. These people know it; so their calculation is quickly made (εὐθέως); and what is more, it is correct (καὶ γίνεται, twice repeated). So it is, because all this passes in the order of things in which they are interested: they give themselves to discover the future in the present; and as they will, they can. And this clear-sightedness with which man is endowed, they put not forth in the service of a higher interest! A John the Baptist, a Jesus appear, live and die, without their concluding that a solemn hour for them has struck!

This contradiction in their mode of acting is what Jesus designates by the word hypocrites. What they want is not the eye, it is the will to use it. The word καιρός, the propitious time, is explained by the expression, Luke 19:44, the time of thy visitation. Δοκιμάζειν, to appreciate the importance.

Mat 16:1-3 ought not to be regarded as parallel to our passage. The idea is wholly different. Only in Matthew our Luke 12:56 has been joined with a parable similar to that of Luke in point of form, and that by an association of ideas easily understood.

Vers. 57-59. The Urgency of Reconciliation to God. “ Yea, and why even of yourselves judge ye not what is right? 58. (For) While thou goest with thine adversary to the magistrate, as thou art in the way give diligence that thou mayest be delivered from him; lest he hale thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and the officer cast thee into prison. 59. I tell thee, thou shalt not depart thence till thou hast paid the very last mite. ”

A new example (τί δὲ καί) of what they would make haste to do, if their good-will equalled their intelligence. ᾿Αφ᾿ ἑαυτῶν, of yourselves; same meaning as the “at once ye say” (Luke 12:54). It should be so natural to perform this duty, that it ought not to be necessary to remind them of it. But alas! in the domain of which Jesus is speaking, they are not so quick to draw conclusions as in that wherein they habitually move. Their finger needs to be put on things. Τὸ δικαῖον, what is just, denotes the right step to be taken in the given situation, to wit, as the sequel shows, reconciliation to God by conversion.

The following parable (Luke 12:58) is presented in the form of an exhortation, because the application is blended with the figure. The for (Luke 12:58) has this force: “Why dost not thou act thus with God? For it is what thou wouldst not fail to do with a human adversary.” We must avoid translating the ὡς ὑπάγεις, “ when thou goest” (E. V.). ῾Ως signifies “ whilst thou goest;” it is explained by the in the way which follows. It is before arriving at the tribunal, while you are on the way thither, that you must get reconciled to him who accuses you. Once before the judge, justice takes its course. The important thing, therefore, is to anticipate that fatal term. ᾿Εργασίαν δοῦναι seems to be a Latinism, operam dare. In the application, God is at once adversary, judge, and officer: the first by His holiness, the second by His justice, the third by His power. Or should we understand by the creditor, God; by the judge, Jesus; by the officers, the angels (Matthew 13:41)? Will it ever be possible, relatively to God, to pay the last mite? Jesus does not enter into the question, which lies beyond the horizon of the parable. Other passages seem to prove that in His view this term can never be reached (Mark 9:42-49). There is in the whole passage, and especially in the I tell thee (Luke 12:59), the expression of a personal consciousness wholly free from all need of reconciliation.

Matthew places this saying in the Sermon on the Mount (Luke 12:25-26); he applies it to the duty of reconciliation between men as the condition of man's reconciliation to God. It cannot be doubted that this saying, placed there by Matthew in virtue of a simple association of ideas, finds its real context in Luke, in the discourse which is so perfectly linked together.