Journeying toward Jerusalem - Luke represents all that is said, from Luke 9:51 , as having been done and spoken while Christ was on his last journey to Jerusalem. See the notes on Luke 9:51 , and Luke 12:58 ; (note), and see the Preface. read more
Verse 22 Luke 13:22.Journeying towards Jerusalem. It is uncertain whether Luke speaks only of one journey, or means that, while Christ walked throughout Judea, and visited each part of it for the purpose of teaching, he was wont to go up to Jerusalem at the festivals. The former clause, certainly, appears to describe that course of life which Christ invariably pursued, from the time that he began to discharge the office which had been committed to him by the Father. To make the latter clause... read more
The grace and progress of God's kingdom. We saw at the close of last chapter how urgent a matter it is to get reconciled to God. Luke, in constructing his Gospel, introduces us next to a cognate thought—the necessity of repentance if judgment is to be escaped. Let us take up the orderly thoughts as they are laid before us in this passage. I. JUDGMENT EXECUTED UPON OTHERS IS A CALL TO REPENTANCE ADDRESSED TO US . (Verses 1-5.) There was a disposition then, as there... read more
Then said he, Unto what is the kingdom of God like? and whereunto shall I resemble it? In the seventeenth verse—after the Lord's words spoken to his enemies, who took exception at his miracle of healing worked for the poor woman who had been bent for eighteen years, because he had done it on the sabbath day—we read how "all his adversaries were ashamed; and all the people rejoiced for all the glorious things that were done by him." This discomfiture of the hypocrites, and the honest joy of... read more
The growth of the kingdom of God. When we think of it we cannot fail to be impressed with the confidence, amounting even to the sublime, which Jesus Christ cherished in the triumph of his sacred cause. For consider— I. THE UTTER INSIGNIFICANCE of "the kingdom" at its commencement. At first it was represented by one Jewish Carpenter, a young Man born of very humble parents, unlearned and untravelled, without any pecuniary resources whatever, regarded with disfavour by the social... read more
The Lord, is two little prophetic parables tells the people how strangely and mightily his religion would spread over the earth. read more
It is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and cast into his garden; and it grew, and waxed a great tree; and the fowls of the air lodged in the branches of it . The simile was a well-known one in the Jewish world. "As small as a grain of mustard seed" was a proverb current among the people in those days. In Eastern countries this little seed often becomes a tree, and stories are even told of mustard trees so tall that a man could climb up into their branches or ride beneath them... read more
The peaceableness and diffusiveness of Christian truth. The words of Christ may properly suggest to us— I. THE QUIET PEACEABLENESS OF THE CHRISTIAN METHOD . The starting and the spreading of "the kingdom of God" is like a woman taking and hiding leaven in some meal. How impossible to imagine any of the founders of the kingdoms or empires of this world thus describing the course of their procedure! The forces they employed were forces that shone, dazzled, smote, shattered;... read more
It is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened . The first of these two little parables of the kingdom, "the mustard seed," portrayed its strangely rapid growth. The second, "the leaven," treats of the mighty inward transformation which the kingdom of God will effect in the hearts of men and women. Chemically speaking, leaven is a lump of sour dough in which putrefaction has begun, and, on being introduced into a far greater mass of... read more
Get Bible verse every day in your inbox
Read on Mobile
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Luke 13:21
Like leaven - See this explained, Matthew 13:33 ; (note). read more