XI. (1) HE DEPARTED THENCE — i.e., from the place from which He had sent forth the Twelve. Where this was St. Matthew does not tell us, but Matthew 9:36 makes it probable that it was not in Capernaum nor any other city, but from some spot in the open country where He had rested with them. Their ret... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEN JOHN HAD HEARD IN THE PRISON. — The position of the Baptist was so far that of a prisoner treated with respect. Herod himself observed him, and heard him gladly. Herodias had not yet found an occasion of revenge. His disciples came and went freely. Some of these we have seen (Matthew 9:14) as p... [ Continue Reading ]
ART THOU HE THAT SHOULD COME? — There are no adequate grounds for assuming, as some have done, that the Baptist sent the disciples only to remove heir doubts. The question comes from him; the answer is sent to him. No difficulty in conceiving how the doubt which the question seems to imply could ent... [ Continue Reading ]
GO AND SHEW JOHN AGAIN. — There is no Greek adverb answering to the last word. St. Luke (Luke 7:21) adds that “in that same hour Jesus cured many of their infirmities and plagues, and of evil spirits,” and they were therefore to carry back their report as eyewitnesses.... [ Continue Reading ]
THE BLIND RECEIVE THEIR SIGHT. — Apparently no facts were stated which might not have already come to the ears of the Baptist. At least one instance of each class of miracle has already been recorded by St. Matthew, the blind (Matthew 9:27), the lame (Matthew 9:6), the leper (Matthew 8:2), the dead... [ Continue Reading ]
BLESSED IS HE. — The words at once confirm the view that the question which the messengers had brought came from the Baptist himself, and show how tenderly our Lord dealt with the impatience which it implied. A warning was needed, but it was given in the form of a beatitude which it was still open t... [ Continue Reading ]
AS THEY DEPARTED. — There was an obvious risk that those who heard the question of the Baptist, and our Lord’s answer, might be led to think with undue harshness, perhaps even with contempt, of one who had so far failed in steadfastness. As if to meet that risk, Jesus turns, before the messengers we... [ Continue Reading ]
A MAN CLOTHED IN SOFT RAIMENT?-Had they seen, then, one who shared in the luxury, and courted the favour of princes? No, not so, again. They that wear soft clothing, or, as in St. Luke’s report, “they that are gorgeously apparelled, and live delicately,” are in kings’ houses. The words had a more po... [ Continue Reading ]
WHAT WENT YE OUT FOR TO SEE? A PROPHET? — The words again throw the hearers back upon the impressions made on them when they first saw and heard the Baptist. They then went out to see a prophet, and they were not, disappointed. Nothing that they had seen or heard since was to lead them to think less... [ Continue Reading ]
THIS IS HE, OF WHOM IT IS WRITTEN. — The words in the Greek are not taken from the LXX. version of Malachi 3:1, but are a free translation from the Hebrew. In the original it is Jehovah Himself who speaks of His own coming: “Behold, I will send My messenger, and he shall prepare the way before _Me.”... [ Continue Reading ]
THERE HATH NOT RISEN A GREATER. — The greatness of men is measured by a divine not a human standard. The prophet, who was more than a prophet, the herald or the forerunner of the kingdom, was greater in his work, his holiness, his intuition of the truth, than the far-off patriarchs, than David or So... [ Continue Reading ]
THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN SUFFERETH VIOLENCE. — The Greek verb may be either in the middle voice, “forces its way violently,” or passive, as in the English version, but there is little doubt that the latter is the right rendering. The words describe the eager rush of the crowds of Galilee and Judæa, fir... [ Continue Reading ]
ALL THE PROPHETS AND THE LAW. — The usual order is inverted, because stress is laid on the prophetic rather than the legislative aspect of previous revelation. They did their work pointing to the kingdom of heaven in the far-off future of the latter days, but John saw it close at hand, and proclaime... [ Continue Reading ]
THIS IS ELIAS. — The words of Malachi (Malachi 4:5) had led men to expect the reappearance of the great Tishbite in person as the immediate precursor of the Christ. It was the teaching of the scribes then (Matthew 17:10; John 1:21); it has lingered as a tradition of Judaism down to our own time. A v... [ Continue Reading ]
HE THAT HATH EARS TO HEAR. — The formula, which meets us here for the first time, is one which our Lord seems to have used habitually after any teaching, in parable or otherwise (Matthew 13:9; Mark 4:9), which required more than ordinary powers of thought to comprehend. To take in the new aspect of... [ Continue Reading ]
IT IS LIKE UNTO CHILDREN SITTING IN THE MARKETS. — The comparison is drawn from one of the common amusements of the children of an Eastern city. They form themselves into companies, and get up a dramatic representation of wedding festivities and funeral pomp. They play their pipes, and expect others... [ Continue Reading ]
HE HATH A DEVIL. — The phrase was a common one, asserting at once the fact of insanity, and ascribing it to demoniacal possession as its cause. (Comp. John 7:20; John 8:48.) This was the explanation which the scribes gave of John’s austerities. The locusts and wild honey were to them the diet of a m... [ Continue Reading ]
EATING AND DRINKING — i.e., as in the feast in Matthew’s house, or at the marriage-feast of Cana, sharing in the common life of man. The words point almost specifically to the two instances just named, and the very form and phrase recall the question which the Pharisees had asked of the disciples, “... [ Continue Reading ]
THEN BEGAN HE TO UPBRAID. — The rebuke is inserted by St. Luke in our Lord’s charge to the Seventy (Luke 10:13). As in the case of the passages common to both Evangelists in Matthew 10 and Luke 10, we need not assume that the former has compiled a discourse from fragments collected separately. It is... [ Continue Reading ]
WOE UNTO THEE, CHORAZIN! WOE UNTO THEE, BETHSAIDA! — It is singular enough that no miracles are recorded in the Gospels as wrought at either of these cities. The latter was indeed nigh unto the scene of the feeding of the five thousand, but that comes later on in the Gospel narrative. The former is... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THOU, CAPERNAUM. — This city had already witnessed more of our Lord’s recorded wonders than any other. That of the nobleman’s son (John 4:46), of the demoniac (Mark 1:21), the man sick of the palsy (Matthew 9:1), of Peter’s wife’s mother and the many works that followed (Matthew 8:1), of the wom... [ Continue Reading ]
ANSWERED AND SAID. — The phrase is more or less a Hebraism, implying that the words rose out of some unrecorded occasion. St. Luke connects them (Luke 10:17) with the return of the Seventy; but as their mission is not recorded by St. Matthew, it seems reasonable to connect them, as here recorded, wi... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR SO IT SEEMED GOOD. — Literally, _Yea, Father,_ [I _thank Thee_]_ that thus it was Thy good pleasure._ The words recall those that had been spoken at our Lord’s baptism (“in whom I am well pleased,” Matthew 3:17), and the song of the heavenly host on the night of the Nativity (“good will among me... [ Continue Reading ]
ALL THINGS ARE DELIVERED. — Literally, _were delivered,_ as looking back on the moment of the gift. The “all things,” though not limited by the context, are shown by it to refer specially to the mysteries of the kingdom implied in the word “reveal.” The wider meaning of the words appears more clearl... [ Continue Reading ]
COME UNTO ME. — As in the consciousness of this plenitude of power, the Son of Man turns with infinite compassion to those whose weakness and weariness He has shared, and offers them the rest which none other can give them. LABOUR AND ARE HEAVY LADEN. — The words arc wide enough to cover every form... [ Continue Reading ]
TAKE MY YOKE UPON YOU. — As the teaching of the Pharisees was a yoke too grievous to be borne, so the yoke of Christ is His teaching, His rule of life, and so is explained by the “learn of Me” that follows. (Comp. Sir. 51:26.) I AM MEEK AND LOWLY IN HEART. — The stress lies upon the last words. Oth... [ Continue Reading ]
EASY. — The Greek has a wider range of meaning — _good, helpful, kind, profitable._ MY BURDEN IS LIGHT. — The “burden” of Christ was the commandment that most characterised His teaching — the new commandment that men should love one another; and those who obeyed that commandment would find all to w... [ Continue Reading ]