1 At that time, when thousands of the people had come together, in such numbers that they were crushing one another, he said first to his disciples, Have nothing to do with the leaven of the Pharisees, which is deceit.
But the wisdom which is from heaven is first holy, then gentle, readily giving way in argument, full of peace and mercy and good works, not doubting, not seeming other than it is.
So putting away all wrongdoing, and all tricks and deceits and envies and evil talk,
Take away, then, the old leaven, so that you may be a new mass, even as you are without leaven. For Christ has been put to death as our Passover. Let us then keep the feast, not with old leaven, and not with the leaven of evil thoughts and acts, but with the unleavened bread of true thoughts and right feelings.
But news of him went out all the more, in every direction, and great numbers of people came together to give hearing to his words and to be made well from their diseases.
For I gave to you first of all what was handed down to me, how Christ underwent death for our sins, as it says in the Writings;
O false ones! the face of the earth and the heaven is clear to you; how is it that the signs of these times are not as clear to you?
A curse is on you! for you are like the resting-places of dead men, which are not seen, and men go walking over them without knowledge of it.
And he came down with them to a level place, and a great band of his disciples, and a very great number of people from all Judaea and Jerusalem and from the parts of Tyre and Sidon by the sea, came to give hearing to him, and to be made well from their diseases;
And the king gave authority to that captain, on whose arm he was supported, to have control over the doorway into the town; but he was crushed to death there under the feet of the people, as the man of God had said when the king went down to him.
Now it came about that while the people came pushing to be near him, and to have knowledge of the word of God, he was by a wide stretch of water named Gennesaret;
And he said to them, Take care to be on the watch against the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod. And they said to one another, We have no bread. And Jesus, hearing it, said to them, Why are you reasoning among yourselves because you have no bread? do you still not see, and is it still not clear to you? are your hearts so hard? Having eyes, do you not see? and having ears, have you no hearing? and have you no memory? When I made a division of the five cakes of bread among the five thousand, what number of baskets full of broken bits did you take up? They said to him, Twelve. And when the seven among the four thousand, what number of baskets full of broken bits did you take up? And they said to him, Seven. And he said to them, Is it still not clear to you?
And Jesus said to them, Take care to have nothing to do with the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees. And they were reasoning among themselves, saying, We took no bread. And Jesus, seeing it, said, O you of little faith, why are you reasoning among yourselves, because you have no bread? Do you still not see, or keep in mind the five cakes of bread of the five thousand, and the number of baskets you took up? Or the seven cakes of bread of the four thousand, and the number of baskets you took up? How is it that you do not see that I was not talking to you about bread, but about keeping away from the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees? Then they saw that it was not the leaven of bread which he had in mind, but the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.
The sinners in Zion are full of fear; the haters of God are shaking with wonder. Who among us may keep his place before the burning fire? who among us may see the eternal burnings?
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Luke 12
Commentary on Luke 12 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 12
In this chapter we have divers excellent discourses of our Saviour's upon various occasions, many of which are to the same purport with what we had in Matthew upon other the like occasions; for we may suppose that our Lord Jesus preached the same doctrines, and pressed the same duties, at several times, in several companies, and that one of the evangelists took them as he delivered them at one time and another at another time; and we need thus to have precept upon precept, line upon line. Here,
Luk 12:1-12
We find here,
But this was not the worst of it: it was likely to be a suffering cause, though never a sinking one: let them therefore arm themselves with courage; and divers arguments are furnished here to steel them with a holy resolution in their work. Consider,
Luk 12:13-21
We have in these verses,
Luk 12:22-40
Our Lord Jesus is here inculcating some needful useful lessons upon his disciples, which he had before taught them, and had occasion afterwards to press upon them; for they need to have precept upon precept, and line upon line: "Therefore, because there are so many that are ruined by covetousness, and an inordinate affection to the wealth of this world, I say unto you, my disciples, take heed of it.' Thou, O man of God, flee these things, as well as thou, O man of the world, 1 Tim. 6:11.
Luk 12:41-53
Here is,
Luk 12:54-59
Having given his disciples their lesson in the foregoing verses, here Christ turns to the people, and gives them theirs, v. 54. He said also to the people: he preached ad populum-to the people, as well as ad clerum-to the clergy. In general, he would have them be as wise in the affairs of their souls as they are in their outward affairs. Two things he specifies:-