The power that delivers a man's body, in this respect breaking the thralldom of Satan, however true, is eclipsed by that which is still more precious. Nevertheless men could not but feel the homage that was due to power, and this so beneficent. “And it came to pass as he spice these things, a certain woman of the company lifted up her voice, and said unto him, Blessed is the womb that bare thee, and the paps which thou hast sucked.” This gave the Lord occasion to show what was far better. “But he said, Yea, rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it.” Without denying the value of divine power in such a world as this, yet, said our Lord, “rather blessed are they that bear the word of God and keep it.” The goodness of God shown in nature, for which (though not alone) the Jews were called to wait, would give place to a superior order of blessing. The very badness of the world's state and of men upon it is the occasion for God to bring in what never passes away, and is destined to endure when the world is gone. There is nothing here below that introduces the eternal like the word of God. Power, even were it as great as that which Jesus wielded over man or the enemy, is but for a time in its effects; but “he that doeth the will of God abideth forever.” And “he that believeth hath everlasting life.” “Rather blessed are they that hear the word of God and keep it.” The word of God is the link between man on earth and God above; it is the seed of the incorruptible life, “which liveth and abideth forever.”
Accordingly here again man is put to the proof. He had been already tested by power, and he that could impute that which cast out Satan to Satan himself was self-condemned. It would make Satan more foolish than the most foolish man; for it is a universal principle that a kingdom divided against itself cannot stand. Can it be thought that Satan deliberately destroys his own kingdom and himself? Is he really suicidal? The Jews then show to what they were fallen when they imputed to Satan the power that cast out demons.
And now what became of the Jews who heard the word of God and did not keep it? Nothing more terrible.
“When the people,” therefore, “were gathered thick together, he began to say, This is an evil generation: they seek a sign; and there shall no sign be given it but the sign of Jonas the prophet.” Instead of keeping the word of God, they were seeking outward tokens. They wanted something visible to their senses, an object tangible in their midst, not only present but earthly and suited to the world. “But there shall no sign be given it but the sign of Jonas the prophet.” The allusion is to one who prophesied in Israel, but who was sent to the Gentiles—to the Ninevites. “For as Jonas was a sign unto the Ninevites, so shall also the Son of man be to this generation.” He too the rejected Messiah would take the place of Son of man, despised and rejected of men.
But more than this: a queen of the south and men of Nineveh are brought before us in another way to condemn the Jews of that day. “A queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with the men of this generation, and condemn them: for she came from the utmost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a greater than Solomon is here.” This showed her earnestness of purpose to bear the wisdom of Solomon. The wise and wealthy son of David was not the vessel of the word of God in his ordinary speech as the Lord Jesus was: yet she came without a single miracle to attract her, without a sign to guide or confirm, and heard the wisdom of Solomon: “and, behold, a greater than Solomon is here.” Then, again, men of Nineveh themselves, that great city which had been given up to destruction at last— “men of Nineveh shall rise up in the judgment with this generation and shall condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonas.” They were willing to own their own evil, their sinfulness, their forgetful ignorance of God, and this at the preaching of Jonas—a prophet comparatively unfaithful, who strove to escape from the mission on which God sent him: “and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here.” But where were the men of this generation, and what? Did they repent? No more did they repent than they chewed what was seen in a queen of the south—earnestness of heart in listening to the wise man of her day. Thus there was a double testimony against them; Gentiles, high or low, at one time or another, rose up to condemn the men of Jerusalem.
Then the Lord brings out another truth, namely, that the fault lay not in the want of signs any more than in the display of power (for we have seen the contrary), but in the state of the heart. That is the only reason why man does not rejoice in, or keep, the word of God; it is because his heart is not right with God. No person would prefer darkness to light or pleasure to the word of God unless the heart were wrong. “No man when he hath lighted a candle putteth it in a secret place, neither under the bushel (or corn-measure), but on the lampstand, that they which enter in may see the light.” So it was in the ways of God. There was no defect in His presentation.
The Light was come, and God set it in a due and commanding position, that all who saw it might be profited. Never was there one that held forth the light of God as Jesus did. He never wavered, for He was the holy One, the undefiled, separate from sinners. There was no fault therefore to be found with the medium; Jesus not only chewed perfect light in what He said, but was it in Himself. All was perfection in Him; yet how had men treated it? Alas! there are other conditions necessary. “The lamp of the body is thine eye: therefore, when thine eye is single, thy own body also is light; but when it is evil, thy body also is dark.” Here we reach so far what man is. It is not here as in John, that Christ is the Light; there we see His personal glory.
But Luke always brings in man's state, or moral condition. “The lamp of thy body is the eye.” Light alone outside does not enable a man to see. If the eye, physically, is powerless, the light makes no impression. As in John the light may be ever so true, but according to Luke the eye also enters the account; and by nature it is evil and only so. It is not only Christ as light that is wanted. Eyes to see must be given; its actual state must be considered. “Therefore when thine eye is single, thy whole body also is light.” It is a question here of moral purpose. If there be no object to divide the heart's attention; if Christ fills the field of vision, the whole body is light. “But when thine eye is evil, thy body also is dark.” And is there not evil in looking to other objects from Christ, in turning away from the only One that is worthy? “When thine eye is evil, thy body also is dark. Take heed therefore that the light that is in thee be not darkness.” What darkness is comparable to it? This is moral darkness, and fatal to the soul which can see nothing in Christ, or if it seem to see, it is evidently indifferent to Christ, indifferent not to one's own soul alone, but to the eternal truth of God. The eye is evil, the body therefore is dark indeed.
“Take heed therefore that the light which is in thee be not darkness.” Such is the end of a carelessness and unfaithfulness to truth. This was becoming the confirmed history of Israel. They bad, as compared with the Gentiles, possessed divine light; but “Take heed that the light which is in thee be not darkness.” It was to the last degree becoming their fixed state. They were first indifferent to Christ; finally, they would reject Him to the uttermost—then it would be the darkness of death. “If thy whole body therefore is light, not having any part dark, the whole shall be light, as when the lamp lighteth thee with its brightness.” Thus when one has light for oneself, it becomes the means of light for others. In divine things you cannot separate power from testimony to the glory of God for others.