When we ask speculative questions, the Master bids us take heed to ourselves. His predictions in this passage were literally fulfilled in the events which culminated in the siege and fall of Jerusalem, forty years afterward. "The whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together," and through these throes and agonies mankind steps up to a new level of experience. The devil will not surrender his kingdom, any more than the bodies of men, without a grievous rending first: but there is a mightier than he.
The Church is called to follow her Lord. No easier path than His may she choose. Where there is no outward suffering there may be the inner cross and the death to all that the soul had once prized. Jesus has always stood beside His own wherever they have been called to witness for the truth; and the testimony given by His witnesses has reached the great ones of the earth and reverberated through courts and palaces. In suffering our souls become searched as by fire. We learn to know ourselves and to come into possession of an experience and a self-knowledge with which only suffering could have endowed us. [source]
Chapter Summary: Luke 21
1Jesus commends the poor widow 5He foretells the destruction of the temple, and of the city Jerusalem; 25the signs also which shall be before the last day 34He exhorts them to be watchful
Greek Commentary for Luke 21:17
Not a hair of your head shall perish [τριχ εκ της κεπαλης υμων ου μη αποληται] Only in Luke. Second aorist middle subjunctive of απολλυμι apollumi with ου μη ou mē (double negative). Jesus has just said that some they will put to death. Hence it is spiritual safety here promised such as Paul claimed about death in Philemon 1:21. [source]
Acts 4:11Of you the builders [υπ υμων των οικοδομων] The experts, the architects, had rejected Jesus for their building (Psalm 118:22) as Jesus himself had pointed out (Matthew 21:42; Luke 21:17). This very Rejected Stone God had made the head of the corner (either the highest corner stone right under the roof or the corner stone under the building, Isaiah 28:16) as Jesus showed, as Peter here declares and repeats later (1 Peter 2:6.). [source]
Greek Commentary for Luke 21:17
Only in Luke. Second aorist middle subjunctive of απολλυμι apollumi with ου μη ou mē (double negative). Jesus has just said that some they will put to death. Hence it is spiritual safety here promised such as Paul claimed about death in Philemon 1:21. [source]
Reverse Greek Commentary Search for Luke 21:17
Like the dative υμιν humin (Textus Receptus) as in the papyri and modern Greek (Robertson, Grammar, p. 594). For my name‘s sake See John 15:20. See this same warning and language in Matthew 10:22; Mark 13:13; Matthew 24:9; Luke 21:17). There is little difference in meaning from ενεκεν μου heneken mou (Mark 13:9; Luke 21:12). Loyalty to the name of Christ will bring persecution as they will soon know (Acts 5:41; Philemon 1:29; 1 Peter 4:14). About the world‘s ignorance of God see Luke 23:34; Acts 3:17; John 16:3. [source]
The experts, the architects, had rejected Jesus for their building (Psalm 118:22) as Jesus himself had pointed out (Matthew 21:42; Luke 21:17). This very Rejected Stone God had made the head of the corner (either the highest corner stone right under the roof or the corner stone under the building, Isaiah 28:16) as Jesus showed, as Peter here declares and repeats later (1 Peter 2:6.). [source]