CRITICAL NOTES
Luke 8:4. A parable.—The word “parable” means a putting forth of one thing beside another for the purpose of comparison between them. Christ’s adoption of this mode of teaching marks a certain change of procedure: He clothes the truth in a garb which will veil it from the carnally-minded, but illustrate it to the spiritually-minded. This parable was the first of the kind Christ spoke.
Luke 8:5. A sower.—Rather, “the sower,” also “the rock” (Luke 8:6), “the thorns” (Luke 8:7). The wayside.—The hard, beaten pathway. Trodden down.—This detail is peculiar to St. Luke.
Luke 8:6. Rock.—That is, a rock covered with a thin coating of earth. St. Matthew and St. Mark speak of the seed’s rapid growth and of the heat of the sun beating upon it. St. Luke lays stress upon its being unable to draw up the moisture it needs for growth.
Luke 8:7. Thorns.—I.e. roots of thorns: ground infested with weeds which spring up along with the good seed.
Luke 8:8. An hundred-fold.—St. Luke omits the varying degrees of fertility—“some thirty-fold, some sixty-fold, some an hundred-fold” (Matthew and Mark). He that hath ears, etc.—“In other words, ‘this teaching is worthy the deepest attention of those who have the moral and spiritual capacity to understand’ ” (Farrar).
Luke 8:9. Asked Him.—When He was alone (Mark 4:10).
Luke 8:10. Unto you it is given, etc.—This rather an answer to a question which St. Matthew says the disciples put to Him, as to why He spoke to the multitude in parables. Mysteries.—The word is generally used in the New Testament in reference to things that have once been hidden, but are now revealed. Seeing they might not see, etc.—Unwillingness to obey the truth leads to incapacity to see the truth. It is not Christ’s wish to reserve knowledge of deeper truths for initiated disciples, but deprivation of the faculty of understanding follows as a necessary consequence of neglect of that faculty. There is abundant compensation, on the other hand, in the fact that the method of teaching He adopted opens up fresh vistas of truth to those who are willing to be taught—who receive what they hear into an honest and good heart.
Luke 8:12. Those by the wayside are they, etc.—Notice in this and following verses the seed is identified with those who hear it with varying results. In Luke 8:14 the identification leads to a certain confusion of metaphor in the use of the phrase “go forth.” The first fault noted is hardened indifference to the word that is heard; it has no effect whatever upon them, and disappears without leaving a trace behind it.
Luke 8:13. They on the rock.—The second fault is want of moral earnestness, which is generally accompanied by impulsiveness of feeling. Temptation.—Trial, in the form of “affliction or persecution” (Matthew and Mark).
Luke 8:14. Among thorns.—The third fault is that of preoccupation with other things, which, whether morally innocent or evil, distract the attention and hinder growth in spiritual life.
Luke 8:15.—Several details in this verse are peculiar to St. Luke—“an honest and good heart,” “keep [the word],” and “with patience.” All lay stress upon “the need of perseverance in opposition to the various temptations to fall away which have just been described” (Speaker’s Commentary).
Luke 8:16-18.—This section is connected with the foregoing parable, as is evident from the first sentence of Luke 8:18, and also from the fact that a similar section is found in the parallel passage in St. Mark’s Gospel.
Luke 8:16. A candle.—Rather, “a lamp” (R.V.), and so “candlestick” should be “stand” (R.V.). “The object of this saying is to impress upon the disciples their duty: they must explain to others what has become clear to themselves” (Speaker’s Commentary).
Luke 8:17.—The reference here is still to the light, or to Divine truth which was being unveiled to the disciples: the Divine purpose is that it should shine out and illuminate the world.
Luke 8:18. Seemeth to have.—Or, “thinketh he hath” (R.V.). For whoever hears without understanding may in one sense be said to have, in another not to have, the truth.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Luke 8:4-18
The Same Seed and Differing Soils.—As Jesus watched the crowd assembling, and perceived the various dispositions with which the people came, he could not but reflect how much of what He had to say must certainly be lost on many. He was conscious of that in His own mind which, could it only be conveyed into the minds of those pressing around Him, would cause their lives to flourish with righteousness, beauty, love, usefulness, and joy. They came, some out of curiosity, some out of hatred, all thinking themselves entitled to hold and express an opinion concerning the importance or worthlessness of what He said. They needed to be reminded that, in order to benefit by what He had to say, they must bring certain capacities. The object of the parable is to explain the causes of the failure and success of the gospel. The seed is not in fault, the sowing is not in fault, but the soil is faulty.
I. The first fault of soil is impenetrability.—The hard, beaten footpath that crosses the cornfield may serve a very useful purpose, but certainly it will grow no corn. The hard surface does not admit the seed: you might as well scatter seed on a wooden table, or a pavement, or a mirror. The seed may be of the finest quality; but for all the purposes of sowing you might as well sprinkle pebbles or shot. It lies on the surface. This state of matters then represents that hearing of the word which manages to keep the word entirely outside. The word has been heard, but that is all. It has not even entered the understanding. Either from pre-occupation with other thoughts and hopes such hearers have their minds beaten hard and rendered quite impervious to thoughts of Christ’s kingdom, or from a natural slowness and hard frostiness of nature: they hear the word without admitting it even to work in their understanding. They do not ponder what is heard; they do not check the statements they hear by their own thought; they do not consider the bearings of the gospel on themselves. The proposals made to the wayside hearer suggest nothing at all to him. His mind throws off Christ’s offers as a slated roof throws off hail. You might as well expect seed to grow on a tightly braced drum-head, as the word to profit such a hearer; it dances on the hard surface, and the slightest motion shakes it off. The consequence is it is forgotten. When seed is scattered on a hard surface, it is not allowed to lie long. The birds devour it up. So when not even the mind has been interested in Christ’s word that word is quickly forgotten; the conversation on the way home from church, the thought of to-morrow’s occupations, the sight of some one in the street—anything is enough to take it clean away.
II. The second faultiness of soil is shallowness.—The shallow hearer our Lord distinguishes by two characteristics:
(1) he straightway receives the word, and
(2) he receives it with joy. The man of deeper character receives the word with deliberation, is one who has many things to take into account and to weigh. He receives it with seriousness, and reverence, and trembling, foreseeing the trials he will be subjected to, and he cannot show a light-minded joy. The superficial character responds quickly because there is no depth of inner life. Difficulties which deter men of greater depth do not stagger the superficial. These men may often be mistaken for the most earnest Christians; you cannot see the root, and what is seen is shown in greatest luxuriance by the superficial. But the test comes. The same shallowness of nature which makes them susceptible to the gospel and quickly responsive makes them susceptible to pain, suffering, hardship, and easily defeated. But how, then, can the shallow man be saved? The parable, which presents one truth regarding shallow natures, does not answer this question. But, passing beyond the parable, it may be right to say that a man’s nature may be deepened by the events, and relationships, and conflicts of life. Many young persons are shallow: the old persons whom you would characterise as shallow are comparatively few.
III. The third faultiness of soil is “dirt.”—There is seed in it already, and every living weed means a choked blade of corn. This is a picture of the preoccupied heart of the rich, vigorous nature, capable of understanding, appreciating, and making much of the word of the kingdom, but occupied with so many other interests that only a small part of its energy is available for giving effect to Christ’s ideas. And as there is generally some one kind of weed to which the soil is congenial, and against which the farmer has to wage continual war, so our Lord specifies as specially dangerous to us “the care of this world and the deceitfulness of riches.” Among rich men and poor men alike you will find some or many who would be left without any subject of thought, and any guiding principle in action, if you took from them anxiety about their position in life. The actions of a year, the annual outcome or harvest of the man, are in many cases almost exclusively the product from this seed. Our Lord warns us that if the word is to do its work in us, it must have the field to itself. It is vain to hope for the only right harvest of a human life if your heart is sown with worldly ambitions, a greedy hasting to be rich, an undue love of comfort, a true earthliness of spirit. One seed only must be sown in you, and it will produce all needed diligence in business, as well as all fervour of spirit.
In contrast to these three faults of impenetrability, shallowness, and dirt, we may be expected to do something towards bringing to the hearing of the word a soft, deep, clean soil of heart, or as said here “an honest and good heart.” There are differences in the crop even among those who bring good hearts; one bears thirty-fold, one sixty, one a hundred-fold. One man has natural advantages, opportunities of position, and so forth, which make his yield greater. One man may have had a larger proportion of seed; in his early days and all through his life he may have been in contact with the word, and in favouring circumstances. But wherever the word is received, and held fast, and patiently cared for, there the life will produce all that God cares to have from it. The requisites for hearing the word so as to profit by it are
(1) honesty,
(2) meditation,
(3) patience.—Dods.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON Luke 8:4-18
Luke 8:4-15. The Sower and the Seed.—Consider this seed of the everlasting gospel—
I. In the activities which it demands.—Sowing, watering, reaping. Casting the seed of Divine truth into the mind and heart, vigilant looking for the germinating of the seed, the expecting of results, and the gathering in of these in greater or less abundance.
II. In the conditions which it imposes.—Genuineness, skilfulness, and faith. The seed must be genuine, not bastard wheat: skilfulness comes through self-culture and experience. The full assurance of a simple and unhesitating faith.
III. There are risks which the seed encounters.—The incessant malevolence of the evil spirit, the emotional or the earthly nature of those you try to win, the peril from the home environment, an imperfect sense of responsibility, a one-sided view of duty, a specious self-esteem, a morbid self-distrust.
IV. The wages that it claims.—Visible results, “gathered fruit,” the love of those instructed, the enriching of one’s own spiritual life, the discipline of one’s own understanding. To share our possessions is to double them. Truth is a possession not to be covetously hoarded, but to be eagerly passed on.
V. The joy of harvest.—Joy noble, holy, unselfish, Divine. Joy among the angels of God, in the heart of the crowned Jesus, to the Father who sees His Son glorified, to the husbandman who gathers the sheaves into his barn. What will your harvest be?—Thorold.
The Sower and the Seed.—Having our Lord’s own explanation of the parable, the application of its various points is easily made.
I. The Sower.—He means Himself. He came forth into the world to sow good seed.
II. The seed.—God’s message in His gospel.
III. The soil.—The four kinds are pictures of four kinds of human hearts:
1. Those into whom God’s message never sinks.
2. Those who are temporarily influenced.
3. Those who are preoccupied—the commonest soil of all.
4. Those who have “honest and good” hearts.—Watson.
The Hearts which hear.
I. The heart which is never impressed.—Neither melted, attracted, nor terrified. Because they listen carelessly or with dislike. Satan, too, is ever at hand to hinder.
II. The heart which receives shallow impressions.—Eager to learn, but shallow-souled. Feelings touched, but conscience unaffected. The hard rock of an unchanged heart under the outward show of warmth and interest.
III. The preoccupied heart.—Cares keep some, riches keep others, from Him at whose right hand are “pleasures for evermore.”
IV. The prepared heart.—Earnest, simple, grateful. The word is received with the full intention of obeying it.—W. Taylor.
Three Obstructions to Growth.—Three distinct obstructions to growth and ripening of the seed are enumerated. The statement is exact and the order transparent. The natural sequences are strictly and beautifully maintained. The three causes of abortion—the wayside, the stony ground, and the thorns—follow each other as the spring, the summer, and the autumn. If the seed escape the wayside, the danger of the stony ground lies before it; if it escape the stony ground, the thorns at a later stage threaten its safety; and it is only when it has successively escaped all three that it becomes fruitful at length.—Arnot.
How the Call of God is received.—This parable is both a solemn lesson and warning, and also a description of what is actually taking place in the world. It tells how the human heart actually treats the seed which is put into it—the word of God—the impulse which it receives from God to lead a good and holy life. All these receptions and all these rejections of the word are actually going on amongst us. There are calls perpetually going on; there are either sudden rejections or gradual forgetting of these calls perpetually going on also. The parable tells us how people treat these calls.
I. There is a certain class not necessarily without religious impressions and perceptions, but they think that they shall be able to make religious convictions and their treasured aim of success in life agree. All at once some impediment—something which goes against their conscience—bars the way. By a summary act they cast out the scruple, and are satisfied. Scripture assigns this to diabolical influence. Judas overcame with high hand his reluctance to betray our Lord; and it is said the devil entered into him. Where Satan succeeds he has gained a great victory, and goes far to achieve the loss of a soul.
II. The second class are those who from levity or carelessness of mind allow the word, which they at first received with gladness, to escape from them. They can be acted upon, “receive the word,” but have no energy of their own to take hold of it and extract its powers, and so they soon fall away. It is one thing to begin a thing, and a totally different thing to go on with it. The commencement is fresh; the continuance becomes stale. Perseverance to the end is the Christian triumph. Love is tried by continuance, by going on with what we have begun. This class, however, had no depth of affection for what was right in God’s law: they adopted it as a fancy, and threw it away again when they had tried it. Is not this very prevalent? What change, what inconstancy, do we see in the human heart!
III. The third class is guilty of worldliness—absorbed in the business, plans, and pursuits of this present life. They do not give a place in their thoughts to another world. The stream of life carries them along, being interested in the objects of this world, until that which has thriven by practice has completely driven out the principle which has had no exercise, and the result is a simple man of the world.
IV. Opposed to these different ways of treating the word of God, which end in its decay and suppression in man’s heart, is the treatment given to it by the honest and good heart, which does not sin against light, abandon what is undertaken, is not ensnared by the deceitfulness of riches, or captivated by the pomp and show of this world. It is faithful to God, knows the excellence of religion, is able to count the cost, and to make the sacrifice for the great end in view.—Mozley.
Different Classes of Hearers.
I. The wayside hearers.—Some people become familiarised with the gospel; it ceases to be news of any kind. Every time we hear and do not, that is a hardening of the footpath. “A smile at the end of a sermon; a silly criticism at the church door; foolish gossip on the way home.” Thus the seed is lost.
II. The rock hearers.—The word gets easily in, and as easily out again. Shallow, emotional hearers, who would do anything when they hear, except what costs trouble. They cannot resist temptation.
III. The thorny hearers.—The thorns are riches and worldly cares, and the poor are troubled with both as well as the rich.
IV. The honest hearers.—Sincere, earnest, believing, obedient.—Hastings.
Diverse Reception of the Word.
I. The wayside hearer hears the word, but does not understand it: the spiritually stupid.
II. The stony-ground hearer receives the word with joy, but without thought: the inconsiderately impulsive.
III. The thorny-ground hearer receives the truth, but not as the one supremely important thing: the double-minded.
IV. The fruitful-ground hearer receives the truth with his whole heart, soul, and mind: those of open and receptive mind.—Bruce.
Four Classes of Men.—Jesus discerned in the crowd four distinct kinds of countenances: some unintelligent and vacant; some enthusiastic and delighted; some of grave aspect, but evidently preoccupied; and some joyous and serene, as of those who had surrendered themselves wholly to the truth He taught. The first class includes those who are characterised by utter religious insensibility; they experience no anxiety of conscience, fear of condemnation, or desire of salvation: consequently they find nothing in the gospel of Christ which is congenial to them. The second is that of those whose hearts are fickle, but easily excited, and in whom imagination and sensitiveness of feeling supply for a time the lack of a moral sense. The novelties of the gospel, the opposition to received ideas which it proclaims, charm them. In almost every revival such men form a large proportion of the new converts. The third are those of serious but of divided heart: they seek salvation, and recognise the value of the gospel; but they long also for worldly prosperity, and are not prepared to sacrifice everything for the truth. In the case of those of the fourth class, spiritual interests rule the life. Conscience is not in their case asleep, as it is in those of the first of these classes: by it the will is governed and not by imagination or sentimental feelings, as in the case of the second; and it rules over those worldly preoccupations which are so potent in the lives of the third.—Godet.
Luke 8:4. “He spake by a parable.”—The preceding verses indicate a change in the outward mode of life of our Saviour. What follows indicates a change in His mode of teaching, which arrested the attention and excited the surprise of His most intimate disciples (cf. Matthew 13:10). Many were now gathered together about Him, and the mode of teaching He adopted was calculated to sift the crowd, and separate genuine disciples from mere careless hearers.
Parables have a Dark and a Bright Side.—A parable is like the pillar of cloud and fire, which turned the dark side to the Egyptians, the bright side to the people of the covenant; it is like a shell which keeps the precious kernel as well for the diligent as from the indolent.—Gerlach.
Local Colouring of this Parable.—The parable spoken, as St. Matthew tells us, while Christ taught on the shore of the Lake of Gennesaret, may have been suggested by the scene before Him. Dean Stanley, describing the shores of the lake, shows us how easily this may have been the case: “A slight recess in the hillside, close upon the plain, disclosed at once in detail every feature of the great parable. There was the undulating cornfield descending to the water’s edge. There was the trodden pathway running through the midst of it, with no fence or hedge to prevent the seed from falling here and there on either side of it, or upon it—itself hard with the constant tramp of horse and mule and human feet. There was the “good” rich soil, which distinguishes the whole of that plain and its neighbourhood from the bare hills elsewhere, descending into the lake, and which, where there is no interruption, produces one vast mass of corn. There was the rocky ground of the hillside protruding here and there through the cornfields, as elsewhere through the grassy slopes. There were the large bushes of thorn springing up, like the fruit trees of the more inland parts, in the very midst of the waving wheat” (Sinai and Palestine).
Luke 8:5. “A sower.”—Rather, “the sower,” i.e. the servant to whom this task is entrusted. The figure Christ here uses of Himself—as one who by simple teaching begins the task of establishing the kingdom of God on earth—is in striking contrast to the conception of the Messiah which John the Baptist had formed: “whose fan is in His hand, and He will throughly purge His floor” (chap. Luke 3:17).
“Some fell.”—Not “he sowed some by the wayside,” but “some fell there.” The intention of the sower is good, but it depends upon the hearer where the seed shall fall.
“Trodden down … devoured it.”—Two dangers:
1. Careless obliteration of the truth heard.
2. The active malice of the devil.
“Fowls of the air.”—These are the thoughts, talk, and business of the world, that dissipate the mind and keep it in an atmosphere of frivolity, preventing all entrance of what is heard to the heart.—Stier.
The Seed by the Wayside.
I. The beaten path.—
1. The heart is trodden down by habit and custom.
2. The heart is trodden down by sin.
3. The heart is trodden down by the very feet of the sower.
II. The lost seed.—
1. It lies on the surface for a little while and does nothing.
2. It is soon carried off.—Maclaren.
How are Human Hearts beaten into a Highway?—Every child’s heart is sensitive to impression. But as it grows older—
I. The thousand influences, feelings, emotions, imaginations, treading over it continuously trample it into hardness.—Conviction of sin, not followed by turning from sin, leaves the heart harder.
II. The same effect is produced by the common experiences of life.—The wheels and carts of business. Too many make their hearts an open common, till they are beaten into an unimpressible callousness.
III. Another way is by the feet of sinful habits.—The vile feet of lust, of sensuality, of greed, of selfishness, of passion, are allowed to tread there. There is an impression that it does young people no harm to indulge in sin for a time, if they afterwards repent. It is a fatal falsehood. The heart that is trodden over by vile lusts or indulgences of any kind is never the same again.—Miller.
Luke 8:6. “It lacked moisture.”—The moisture at the root of the seed is the same as what is called in another parable the oil, to trim the lamps of the virgins—that is, love and steadfastness in virtue.—Bede.
Luke 8:7. The Thorns.
I. They suck in the sap which should go to nourish the good seed, and leave it a living skeleton.
II. They outgrow the grain both in breadth and height.
III. They spring of their own accord, while the good seed must be sown and cherished.
IV. As long as they live they grow.
V. They tear the husbandman’s flesh, as well as destroy the fruit of his field.
VI. It was where the seed and the thorns grew together that the mischief was done.
VII. When pulled up too late, they leave a mere blank in the field.—Arnot.
Luke 8:8. “Other fell on good ground.”—Whence, then, is the difference? Not from the seed. That is the same to all. Not from the sower, neither; for though these be divers, yet it depends little or nothing on that. Indeed, he is the fittest to preach who is himself most like his message, and comes forth not only with a handful of seed in his hand, but with store of it in his heart, the word dwelling richly in him (Colossians 3:16). Yet the seed he sows, being this word of life, depends not on his qualifications in any kind, either of common gifts or special grace. People mistake this greatly; and it is a carnal conceit to hang on the advantages of the minister, or to eye them much.—Leighton.
“He cried.”—The Lord calls the serious attention of the crowd to the unsatisfactory result of the sower’s labours: “He exclaimed aloud”—He emphasised these words, which were intended to awaken in His hearers that faculty for recognising Divine things without which even the teaching of Jesus Himself would have been for them an empty sound. The parable, indeed, has that in it which might easily be heard without being understood: some might take pleasure in the picture which it presented to the imagination, without perceiving the spiritual truth that lay behind it. More than the bodily ear was needed for the perception of that truth.—Godet.
Luke 8:10. “Unto you it is given” etc.—Yet was there no permanent line of demarcation drawn between the disciples and the multitude. It was allowable for any hearer at any time to pass from the careless or hostile crowd into the company of those who intelligently and sincerely accepted Jesus as their Teacher and Saviour.
Luke 8:11. “The seed is the word of God.”—The point of resemblance between the two is the powerful vitality that lies wrapped up in the unpretentious husk. The word, like the germ within the seed, has within it a force which is quite independent of human toil or effort, and which testifies to its Divine origin.
Luke 8:12. “The way side.”—“The way is the heart beaten and dried by the passage of evil thoughts.”
“Then cometh the devil.”—“This is the most terrible saying in the whole Bible,” says Luther, “and yet is so little thought of! For who thinks and believes that the devil too goes always to church and sees how men listen so carelessly to the word of God and do not even pray, and how their hearts are like a hard road, which the word does not penetrate? Alas! even in us who love the word of God there is still something of the hard road in our hearts.”
Luke 8:13. “With joy.”—There are two kinds of joy which the hearer of the word may experience. There is
(1) the joy which springs from a recognition of the greatness of the blessing as meeting a moral need, and which will lead the hearer to make any sacrifice to secure that blessing (cf. “for joy sold all that he had,” Matthew 13:44); and
(2) the joy which springs from an overlooking the costs, and hazards, and hardships involved in a Christian life.
“In time of temptation fall away.”—The heat which only matures a true faith scorches up that which is merely temporary.
Faith the Root.—Faith is to the Christian life what the root is to the plant.
I. It is hidden from sight in the depth of the soul; but—
II. It is the source of spiritual firmness, and stability, and prosperity.
Rocky Hearts.—O rocky hearts! How shallow, shallow, are the impressions of Divine things upon you! Religion goes never further than the upper surface of your hearts. You have but few deep thoughts of God, and of Jesus Christ, and of the things of the world to come. All are but slight and transient glances! The seed goes not deep. It springs up, indeed, but anything blasts and withers it. There is little room in some. If trials arise, either the heat of persecution without, or of temptation within, this sudden spring-seed can stand before neither.—Leighton.
Luke 8:14. Preoccupation with Worldly Things.—The failure of the seed among thorns is due to a preoccupation with worldly things which in different cases takes a different form.
I. The cares which harass the poor.
II. The distractions inseparably connected with a life devoted to the pursuit of riches.
III. The pleasures to which those who are rich are tempted to addict themselves. Cf. Jeremiah 4:3: “Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns.”
“Go forth.”—An indication of the restlessness of such characters, as contrasted with the “patience” of those of honest and good heart.
Childhood, Youth, and Age.—The first hindrance, viewed generally and as a whole, threatens the period of childhood, which lives for the outer world, and is as yet unsusceptible of the higher truth; the second, the period of youth, which is as susceptible as it is inconstant; the third, a still further advanced age, when the ripening in sanctification depends on the rooting out of indwelling sin.—Stier.
The Two-hearted Hearers.—The two-hearted come to no speed in anything. Friendship, it has been said, is one heart in two bodies; indecision is two hearts in one body, the one filled with earth’s thorns, the other with heaven’s seed. Your heart can hold many things at once, but you should never place side by side in it the seed and the thorns. Your whole soul must receive the seed as the Ark received the law, having no room for aught besides.—Wells.
Luke 8:15. “Honest and good heart.”—As for captious inquiries concerning human goodness, we know indeed that “there is none good but one, that is God”; and yet Scripture, reason, and experience convince us that some natures afford a better soil for the growth of spiritual seed than others.—Burgon.
Types of Character not Necessarily Permanent.—The three unfruitful kinds of ground do not indicate three types of character which must necessarily remain permanent: nor is the good ground good in itself; it is made good by the operation of the word, which, though here described as seed, is elsewhere represented as the dew and rain, the hammer and the fire, which soften, crush, and purify the hearts of men.
Luke 8:16. “When he hath lighted a candle.”—Having spoken of the effect of the word upon the hearers, Christ now tells His disciples what they must do as teachers of the word.
Christ the Bringer of Light.—Christ represents Himself as the bringer of light, just as He is the sower of seed. This light therefore comes to us from without, and is given to us that we may display it to others. The very purpose of a lamp is to shine and to give light to those in the house (cf. Matthew 5:14-16). The truth at present veiled from the careless and indifferent is communicated by Christ to His apostles, but not as a mystery to be possessed and enjoyed by themselves: they are illumined in order that they may communicate to the world what they have received. Hence the apostles should take care to learn the meaning of the parables, “not hiding them under a blunted understanding, nor when they did understand them, neglecting the teaching of them to others.”
Luke 8:17. “Be made manifest.”—Christ was now taking special care in teaching the apostles, imparting to them in private special instruction, and removing the veil that concealed His meaning from so many who heard His public discourses. But there was nothing like favouritism in His procedure. He had in view the benefit of all in imparting illumination to the few: the present concealing was for the purpose of future revealing. This explains the plan He took for giving light to all men. Instead of leaving the truth to its fate, and contenting Himself with a public proclamation of it, He took special care to see that a certain number were thoroughly acquainted with it, and qualified to teach it to others. Instead of leaving a vague, ill-understood impression of His teaching to pervade human society, He gave the twelve a thorough training in spiritual things.
Luke 8:18. The Pulpit and the Pew.
I. A critical spirit is a great hindrance to profitable hearing.
II. A formal spirit hinders profitable hearing.
III. The preparation of the heart is necessary to profitable hearing.
IV. A teachable spirit is helpful to profitable hearing.
V. Attention is requisite to profitable hearing.—Kelly.
“Whosoever hath.”—This was a current proverb which Christ used to enforce one of His own parables. It is true in nature, and also in the spiritual sphere. Not that we acquiesce in any doctrine of God’s arbitrary decrees. It may be true that few are chosen, but it is no less true that many are called; and if they do not respond to the call, if they are not disposed to receive the teaching of Christ, the fault lies with those who have so disposed them—at first with their parents, and also much more with themselves. The “irreducible minimum” of truth which a man must have if more is to be given him is the “honest and good” heart. It was just that honest and good heart which alone made the difference between the eleven and the multitude to whom the same call was given, “Come unto Me, and I will give you rest.”—Beeching.
Progress in Knowledge.—The longing to know is that which the disciples “had,” and on account of which it was granted to them to receive the fulness of knowledge. His word given to us raises ever deeper questions in our hearts, and we receive ever richer answers.
The Responsibility of Hearing.—
1. The reward of hearing aright—fresh knowledge communicated as the faculty for receiving it is developed and strengthened by exercise;
2. The penalty attaching to neglect—utter deprivation of knowledge, and atrophy of the very power by which it is apprehended. There is nothing arbitrary in this rule; it belongs to God’s procedure in the kingdom of nature as well as in that of grace. “The fabric of the soul is affected by our indifference—the penalty of degeneration is the loss of functions, the decay of organs, the death of the spiritual nature.”