Luke 11:37

37. Besought him Doubtless in full concert with the set mentioned in Luke 11:53.

Sat down In the Greek lay down or reclined, as was the custom of the ancients at their meals.

The narrative that follows suggests the following queries and answers: What were the grounds of opposition on the part of the Jews, and the reasons of their rejection of Jesus of Nazareth? We may answer: First, While Jesus accepted Moses, and made the Old Testament the basis of his system, he assailed and aimed to abolish, as false and corrupt, the pretended oral tradition, with its infinite mass of petty distinctions and ritual observances, in which the Jewish doctors so much delighted, and which, was the source of all their influence and power with the people. Second, Whereas they desired a Messiah of a political and warlike character, Jesus was a moral type, and only a Saviour from sin; and this was an unpardonable disappointment of all their hopes. Third, Even the ceremonial law of Moses, with all its sacrifices and passovers, and its great body of priesthood, Jesus proposed to abolish, as being all fulfilled and centered in HIMSELF; thus making the powerful and ruling class his unanimous enemies. Even the pride of the Jewish state, with its temple and favour with God, he proposed to abolish by bringing the hated Gentiles into the Church of God, and to reduce Israel to the level of the rest of the world. Thus it was that rabbies, priests, and rulers held him as a subverter, who aimed at the destruction of their interests and power.

What were the reasons that the common people heard him gladly? First, They had no power or position which they feared he would overthrow, so that they could hear him without previous prejudice or jealousy. Second, His miracles, through all their regions, aroused the whole mass of their community; and as they were entirely miracles of love, a gratitude and tenderness towards him arose in their hearts. His miracles of mercy prepared the way for his lessons of mercy. And as he descended to the lowly, and spoke in popular parables and beautiful analogies, drawn from nature, he won their hearts. Third, He spoke to the hearts of men; to their consciences; to their intuitive feelings; to their wants, and to their sorrows. He showed them their misery; and when he spoke of forgiving their sins, they were taught by his miracles to see that he had such power on earth.

Fourth, They could then believe that a being so powerful, and so good, and so wise, was the son of God, the Messiah who would establish the kingdom of God; of which they had no clear idea, but believed it would be, like him, powerful, good, and glorious. Why should they not hear him gladly and love him freely?

What methods did the ruling class take to ruin Jesus? First, They charged him with blasphemy in making claim to be the Son of God; with being thereby an impostor and deceiver. Second, They solved the problem of his miracles by attributing them to diabolical agency. Third, They endeavoured by questions to draw out not only his opposition to traditional maxims and rites, but his purpose to supersede the ritual of Moses, the Temple, and the Jewish pre-eminence as a favoured nation. Fourth, They endeavoured to embroil him with government as a disturber and pretender to royalty, and finally procured his death as an enemy to Caesar.