Biblical commentary on the New Testament - The Christian ...

Luke IX. 55-57. 603
to attribute weakness to John is wholly to mistake his nature. His
whole writings shew that with all its passive gentleness, his charac-
ter combined active energy, and sternness even to severity against
evil ;* it was this which the surname in question denoted, and thus
the union of energy with humility in Peter, of decision and severity
with gentleness in James and John, formed the basis of their new
nature.f
§ 2. Of Following Jesus.
(Luke ix. 57-62 ; Matth. viii, 19-22.)
The short passage which here follows, flowing directly from the
contemplation of the immediate circumstances, appears to hold its
place most appropriately in the narrative of a journey. .Some one
(according to Matthew he was no less than a ypannarevg, scribe) who
had been powerfully attracted by the Saviour, expressed on the way
a wish to accompany him, and Jesus sets before his view the diffi-
culties attending his life and labours. In Matthew a portion of this
passage stands amidst a collection of the miracles of Jesus, and
consequently in a less appropriate connexion. Nay, in the account
of Matthew there is wanting that very point which, with Luke,
stands prominently forth as the connecting link with the preceding
narrative. For, as the sufferings which his enemies were j)reparing
for the Saviour had been there described, so the following history
stall !S how it stood between Jesus and those friends whose affections
his appearance and his words attracted. One portion of them
pressed most hastily forward, but a single word as to the difficulties
caused them to withdraw ; another portion of them were called by
the Lord himself, but their anxiety on the subject of the world deterred
them from at once embracing the call. In Luke, then, we
are not to overlook the contrast between " Some one said to him,"
and "Jesus said to another," ver. 59, which mark the several posi-
tions of Christ's different friends.
* Let John's first epistle especially be read. It is full ofDivine (ipovr^ as well in its
descriptions of the true spirit as of the false (comp. iv. 1, seq). lie who considers the
Apocalypse to have been written by John will not fail to trace in it also the character of
spiritual power. [John's relation to Christ is femininely passive ; filled by him, it is
that of manly energy against everything anti-Christian. Smiting and crushing, like a
genuine son of thunder, he turns the force of a heaven-descended fire against the princi-
ples of ungodliness.]
f A doubt as to this view may bo raised by the circumstance that the name Sons of
Thunder never elsewhere again occurs. Had it been intended as the designation of their
new nature, one may suppose that like the name Peter it would have been generally
used. As it was, however, bestowed on two persons at once, it could not like the
name Peter come into general use, and this sufficiently explains its being passed over ia
gilence.