The Great Commentary of Cornelius a Lapide: S. Luke
Chapter 9
Ver. 8. — One of the old prophets was risen again. As Enoch and Elias will rise again before the end of all things, to resist Antichrist. In like manner as Peter, Bishop and Martyr, the son of Urijah the prophet (Jer. xxvi. 20), was recalled to life by S. James the Apostle, and ordained first Bishop of Braga, six hundred years after his decease. S. Athanasius and others, cited by Bivarius.
Ver. 14. — Make them sit down by fifties in a company , κλισίας, i.e. in companies, in ranks or rows. Syriac.
Ver. 26. — For whosoever shall be ashamed of Me and of My words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when He shall come in His own glory , and in His Father’s , and of the holy angels , i.e. at the day of judgment, when He shall sit as judge in the valley of Jehoshaphat, and in the presence of all, both men and angels, reward the just, and punish the evildoers.
Whosoever shall be ashamed of Me. Whosoever, from false shame or from fear of others, shall deny his faith in Me or refuse to obey My commandments, or fear the reproach of the Cross and a crucified Saviour, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed, i.e. him will Christ pass over, and make of no account when He comes in that glory which He has acquired by the humiliation of His passion. For the Cross of Christ seemed to many a shame and a reproach, for Christ crucified was “unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness,” 1 Cor. i. 23. Many, therefore, from shame or fear, did not dare to profess their belief in the Cross, much less to preach Christ crucified. In opposition to whom S. Paul boldly declares, “ I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek,” Rom. i. 16.
So the monk Martyrius took Christ, who appeared to Him as a wearied leper, upon his shoulders, and carried Him to the monastery , but felt not the weight of his burden, for the burden he was carrying supported him. There Christ assumed His own proper form, and ascending to heaven said, “ As thou, Martyrius, wast not ashamed of Me on earth, I will not be ashamed of thee in heaven.”
S. Gregory (horn. 39), also, explaining this passage of S. Luke, writes, “ Each one should ask himself, in order to test the reality of his confession of Christ, not whether he is ashamed of the name of the Redeemer, but rather whether by strength of purpose he has subdued all false feelings of earthly shame. In time of persecution believers might have had cause for shame at the treatment to which they were subjected ; but now that persecutions are past, there is another aspect of the matter to which we should give heed. We shrink often from being lightly esteemed, and from being evilly spoken of by our fellow men, and in case of a dispute with our neighbour, we are ashamed to be the first to make amends. Because the carnal heart, seeking this world’s glory, refuses the grace of humility; and further on he gives the remedy for this false shame. “ Let human pride be confounded, and let every man be ashamed, if he be not the first to seek to make amends to his neighbour ; since, after we have done amiss, God by His ministers beseeches us to be reconciled to Him, whom we have offended.”
Ver. 29. — Glistering, ἐξαστράπτων, i.e. like lightning glittering and emitting flashes of light, for the raiment of Christ shone from the glory of His altered countenance.
Ver. 31. And spake of his decease , ἔξοδον, departure, i.e. death.
1. They spake of His death, that He should die upon the Cross.
2. But the words may signify the victory which Christ was to win over death and sin and Satan. Allusion is made to the deliverance, the exodus of Israel from Egypt, and the destruction of Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea, which is a type of the deliverance effected by Christ for His people. Cyril thinks that by exodus we must understand “ His passion ” and the Arabic version interprets the word by “ eventum,” “ outcome :” “They spake of the outcome and the events connected with the sufferings and triumph which He was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.”
3. Some take the word to mean the excess of love and all virtues. For on the Cross was exhibited the excess and perfection of love, obedience, humility, patience, and every Christian virtue, inasmuch as Christ by the offering of Himself far exceeded the utmost limits of human virtue. This “ excessus ” then was an ecstasy of love, wherein Christ went as it were out of Himself to show the immensity of His love for God and men.
Ver. 32. — But Peter and they that were with Him were heavy with sleep. S. Chrysostom takes sleep to mean amazement. But we may rather accept the words simply as describing the natural sleep which had fallen on the Apostles after the fatigue of their journey and watchings, from which they were awakened by the brightness of the transfiguration. See S. Matt. xvii. 1.
Ver. 49. — And John answered and said , Master , we saw one casting out devils in Thy name ; and we forbad him, because he followed not with us , i.e. because he was not Thy disciple. For he thought that only the Apostles, to whom that power was given, were permitted to do this. Cyril and S. Ambrose remark, “ He thinks that he who does not render obedience, should not enjoy the benefit arising therefrom.” S. John asks the question, because from his love he was the more zealous for his Master’s honour.
Ver. 50. — And Jesus said unto him, Forbid him not: for he that is not against us is for us. They were taught that no one was to be hindered from the exercise of such powers of doing good as he possessed, but rather to be encouraged to seek to increase them. Gloss. God rewards the strong, but does not reject the weak. S. Ambrose. For, saith Theophylact, the grace of God operates of the unworthy who are not disciples of Christ : like as men are made holy by priests who are not holy themselves. Hence Bede remarks, In the case of heretics, it is not their sacraments , which they hold in common with us, but their divisions, so contrary to the truth and peace, which we ought to detest and strive to amend. See S. Mark ix. 37.
Ver. 51. — And it came to pass when the time was come (i.e. was drawing nigh) that He should be received up. The time when, after having fulfilled His earthly ministry, He was to return again to the Father. The day foreordained of God when He was to be taken up into heaven. Euthymius. Up to this time Christ had, for two years and a half, been preaching the Gospel everywhere, but chiefly in the towns and villages of Galilee.
The stedfast resolution of Jesus.
There yet remained to Him six months of life. He therefore now set forth to preach more particularly to the inhabitants of the holy city and Judaea, in order to prepare for His passion in Jerusalem and resurrection from the dead. S. Luke therefore implies that hitherto he had written of those things which Christ had done in Galilee, but was henceforward about to tell of what was done in Judaea.
He stedfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem . With a firm and undismayed mind. Bede. Christ turned not aside, as timid and hesitating people are wont to do, but went direct to Jerusalem, eager for the dread encounter. Titus, Theophylact, and others.
“For,” says Jerome, “He who of His own will was hastening to His passion, needed both fortitude and firmness.”
Thus it behoves us also to nerve our hearts, after the example of the martyrs, to endure hardship, like the lions described by Pliny, who tells us that, “when a lioness fights for her young, she keeps her eyes fixed on the ground, that she may not be terrified by the sight of the hunters.”
S. Mark adds, x. 32, “and Jesus went before them: and they were amazed ; ” because they saw Him cheerfully and with a good courage going up to suffer and to die, and “as they followed, they were afraid ” lest they might be called upon to die with Him.
It seems clear, as I have said in my chronological table, that this journey of Christ from Galilee to Judaea, is the same as that mentioned by S. Matt. xix. 1 ; by S. Mark x. 32; and S. John vii.
From the latter Evangelist it is apparent that the journey was undertaken at the time of the feast of tabernacles, which falls in the September of our year, and since Christ suffered in the following March, it follows that the events here recorded happened about six months before the crucifixion. It is also evident, from what is recorded by S. Luke in the subsequent chapters, that during this period Christ often went to Jerusalem, and returned thence through Judaea, preaching and working miracles, as He had before done in Galilee ; but we must bear in mind that S. Luke at times interrupts his narrative to recapitulate certain things which had happened before our Lord had come to Judaea. Jansenius, Francis Lucas, and others.
On the other hand, Maldonatus places this journey a year before the death of our Lord, and is of opinion that Christ returned again to Galilee, and only went up to Jerusalem to suffer and to die. But this explanation does not agree with the words of the fifty-first verse, “ when the time was come that He should be received up ” —words which would not have been written if the time had been a year distant.
Ver. 52. — And sent messengers before His face: and they went , and entered into a village of the Samaritans , to make ready for Him , to prepare food and lodging for Him and His companions, the twelve Apostles and the holy women who had followed Him out of Galilee. See chap. viii. 2, xxiii. 49.