The Pulpit Commentary — Luke — Volume 2 — Section 111

noun~,,nwnt tl,nt he wn,s going up to face and St. Matthew mentions thnt two blind his C'nemi,·s at the great feast in Jerusalem; mrn received their sight at the bidding of and now al,1ne and silent be walked at their Jesus. Several solutions of this little difll.- !wad. ""hat. was coming? thought the culty have been proposed. Perhaps the twelve and their friends. He rend their most probable is that the sufferers were sit- 1.bongi,ts. and, calling them round him, told ting near the town gates as the Lord entered. them what was abci:t to happen. Behold, They, hearing who was passing by, eagerly we go up to Jerusalem, and all things that called to him for help. Surrounded by the are written by the prophets concerning the orowd, he probably did not hear the cry, or Son of ma!l shall be accomplished. possibly wished to test the earnestness of Vers. 32, 38.-For he shall be delivered their faith by allowing them to wait. They unto the Gentiles, and shall be mocked, and follow him through the plaoe, and in the spitefully entreated, and spitted on : and. open space outside the city they attract they shall scourge him, and put him to his attention, nud he heals them. Or, in death : and the third day he shall rise age.in. the words of Dr. l\lorrison, "the case seems The outlines Qf the Passion he had sketched to have begun ns he entered into the city, for the disciples before on two occasions, but it culminated in all likelihood as he but never so clearly as now. lie even tells departed." A later explanation, apparently them the manner of his end, and how his preferred by Godet and Farrar, is that, as own countrymen would give him up to the Josephus and Eusebius distinguish between Romans, and how these Gentiles, amidst the old and the new Jericho-the old town everv conceivable circumstance of horror, on the ancient site, and the new Herodian wouid do him to death. And the Master town which had sprung up at a little dis- closed his dread revelation by predicting tance from it-the blind man might, accord- his speedy resurrection. ing to some traditions, have been healed as Ver. 34.-A.nd they understood none of Jesus was leaving old Jericho: according these things : and this saying was hid from to others, as he was entering the new town. them, neither knew they the things which Tlie fact of SS. Mark and Luke only men- were spoken. But they listened all dazed tioning one blind man is easily explained, and confused; they could not take it in, There was one evidently (as we shall suggest neither the shame of the death of their loved further on), a well-known character in Chris- Leader, nor the glory of the Resurrection tian story-Bartimmus. Two of the evan- which was to follow immediately after. gelists reoorded his cure, as being of special They could not persuade themselves that interest to the Church, leaving the second the hopes of an earthly 111:essianic glory in among the numberless unrecorded miracles which they were to share must positively of healing of Jesus. A certain blind man. he gil"en up. "We must learn to love St. Mark names him Bartimmus. It may Divine trnths before we can understand be inferred that, as St. Mark specially names them," said Pascal. " Toward everything him, this mau was well known in early which is contrary to nattll'&l desire," wrote Christian story. We know that after the Riggenbach (in Godet), "there iB produced cure he joined the company as one of the in the heart a blindness, which nothing followers of Jesus. but a miracle can heal." Ver. 37.-And they told him, that J'esus Ver. 35.-And it came to pass, that as he of Nazareth passeth by, The Lord's name was come nigh UI1.to Jericho. Jericho was was by this time a household word iu Pales- once called " the City of Palms," afterwards tine, and among the sick and afflicted a " the City of Perfumes." It was about most precious end welcome sound. eighteen miles from Jerusalem. In the Hero- Ver. 38.-Jesus, thou Son of David. This dian times it became a popular resort, owing form of address distinctly shows that the to the affection the great Herod entertained idea that the Rabbi of Nazareth, the great for it. Its palm-groves and balBam-gardens Wonder-worker, the wise kind Teacher, were a present from Antony to Cleopatra. was in some way or other the long looked- Herod the Great bought them from her, and for Deliverer, was now taking possession made it one of his royal cities, and adorned of the people's mind. " Son of David" was it with many stately bnildings, and even- diRtinctly a Messianic salutation. tually died there. It is now a miserable Ver. 89.-And they whioh went before village. A certain blind man sat by the rebuked him. It must be remembered that wayside begging. An apparent discre- our Lord we.s surrounded by a great host of pancy exists in the three accounts given of Passover pilgrims, by many of whom ho this act of our Lord. St. Luke speaks of was reverenced as " Rome great One," per- one blind man who was healed as our Lord haps the King Messiah. Such a low wnil- was entering the town. St. Matthew and ing cry on the part of a blind beggar, asking St. Mark mention that the miracle took to be brought into the presence of him they place as our Lord was leaving the pla.ce, wondered at and admired and hoped eo on. xvm. 1-43,] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. LUKE. 115