XVIII. (1) WHO IS THE GREATEST IN THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN? — St. Mark records more fully that they had disputed about this in the way, that our Lord, knowing their thoughts (Luke 9:47), asked them what had been the, subject of their debate, and that they were then silent. We may well believe that the... [ Continue Reading ]
JESUS CALLED A LITTLE CHILD UNTO HIM. — As the conversation was “in the house” (Mark 9:33), and that house probably was Peter’s, the child may have been one of his. As in other like incidents (Matthew 19:13; Matthew 21:15), we may recognise in our Lord’s act a recognition of the special beauty of ch... [ Continue Reading ]
EXCEPT YE BE CONVERTED. — The English word expresses the force of the Greek, but the “conversion” spoken of was not used in the definite, half-technical sense of later religious experiences. What was needed was that they should “turn” from their self-seeking ambition, and regain, in this respect, th... [ Continue Reading ]
WHOSOEVER THEREFORE SHALL HUMBLE HIMSELF. — This, then, was the answer to the question “Who shall be the greatest.” The secret of true greatness lay in that unconsciousness of being great, which takes the lowest position as that which of right belongs to it. For a man to “humble himself” with the pu... [ Continue Reading ]
WHOSO SHALL RECEIVE ONE SUCH LITTLE CHILD. — The words are memorable as the first utterance of the truth afterwards proclaimed as the law of final judgment in Matthew 25:40, and as giving to that law the widest possible range of universality. No child of man is excluded from those whom Christ calls... [ Continue Reading ]
WHOSO SHALL OFFEND. — The words seem to indicate the thoughts which rise unbidden in the minds of men in proportion as they are Christ-like in character. We gaze on the innocent beauty of childhood with love and admiration. What if that beauty should be marred by the taint of evil? What if those who... [ Continue Reading ]
WOE UNTO THE WORLD. — The interjection is one of sorrow as well as denunciation, and here the former meaning is predominant, as the latter is in the next clause of the verse. The true meaning of “offence,” as meaning not the mere transgression of a law, but such a transgression as causes the fall of... [ Continue Reading ]
IF THY HAND OR THY FOOT OFFEND THEE. — (See Notes on Matthew 5:29.) The disciples had heard the words before in the Sermon on the Mount, but their verbal reproduction, sharpened as by a special personal application addressed not to the multitude but to the Twelve, gave them a new and solemn emphasis... [ Continue Reading ]
TAKE HEED THAT YE DESPISE NOT. — The words remind us of what we are apt to forget in the wider range of the preceding verses. The child was still there, perhaps still folded in the arms of Jesus, still the object of His care, even while He spake of the wider offences that “must needs come” upon the... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR THE SON OF MAN IS COME. — The words are wanting in many of the best MSS. Assuming their genuineness, two points call for special notice. (1.) The work of the Son of Man in saving that which was lost is given as the ground of the assertion of the special glory of the angels of the little ones. Th... [ Continue Reading ]
IF A MAN HAVE AN HUNDRED SHEEP. — The parable is repeated more fully in Luke 15:4, and will best find its full explanation there. The fact that it reappears there is significant as to the prominence, in our Lord’s thoughts and teaching, of the whole cycle of imagery on which it rests. Here the openi... [ Continue Reading ]
REJOICETH MORE OF THAT SHEEP. — More literally, _over it. _... [ Continue Reading ]
EVEN SO IT IS NOT THE WILL ... — The form of the proposition has all the force that belongs to the rhetorical use of the negative. “It is not the will” suggests the thought that the will of the Father is the very opposite of that, and so the words are identical in their teaching with those of St. Pa... [ Continue Reading ]
MOREOVER IF THY BROTHER SHALL TRESPASS. — Better, _and if thy brother shall sin._ A twofold train of thought is traceable in what follows. (1.) The presence of “offences” implies sin, and the question arises how each man is to deal with those sins which affect himself personally. (2.) The dispute in... [ Continue Reading ]
TAKE WITH THEE ONE OR TWO MORE. — The principle of action is the same as before. The first point aimed at is the reformation of the offender without the scandal (here we may take the word both in its earlier and later senses) of publicity. If personal expostulation failed, then the _“_one or two” we... [ Continue Reading ]
IF HE SHALL NEGLECT TO HEAR THEM. — Better, _refuse,_ the word implying something more than mere negligence. TELL IT UNTO THE CHURCH. — Here, and here only in our Lord’s teaching after the promise to Peter (Matthew 16:18), we have the word _Ecclesia_ repeated. The passage takes its place among the m... [ Continue Reading ]
WHATSOEVER YE SHALL BIND ON EARTH. — (See Note on Matthew 16:19.) The promise before made to Peter is now extended not only to the other Apostles, but to the whole society of which they were the representatives, and is, of course, to be understood as dependent on the same implied, though not express... [ Continue Reading ]
SHALL AGREE ON EARTH. — The promise, as before, is dependent on implied conditions. Those who pray must be gathered together in the name of Christ (Matthew 18:20), _i.e.,_ as trusting to His intercession, asking a prayer which is not the utterance of the natural but the spiritual man, asking it in e... [ Continue Reading ]
WHERE TWO OR THREE... — The true meaning of the words is well embodied in the well-known patristic axiom, _Ubi tres, ibi Ecclesia_ (“Where three are there is a church”). The strength of the Christian society was not to be measured by a numerical standard, but by its fulfilment of the true conditions... [ Continue Reading ]
HOW OFT SHALL MY BROTHER SIN...? — The words of Matthew 18:15 had obviously told on the minds of the disciples, and had roused them to question with themselves. But they could not, all at once, take in the truth that the “commandment” was “exceeding broad.” Surely, they thought, there must be some l... [ Continue Reading ]
SEVENTY TIMES SEVEN. — The use of the symbolic numbers that indicated completeness was obviously designed to lead the mind of the questioner altogether away from any specially numerical standard as such. As there was no such limit to the forgiveness of God, so there should be none to that of man. Th... [ Continue Reading ]
THEREFORE IS THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN LIKENED ... — Over and above the direct teaching of the parable it has the interest, as regards its form, of being, in some sense, an advance on those of chapter 13, _i.e.,_ as more fully bringing out human interests, and so more after the pattern of those that are... [ Continue Reading ]
TEN THOUSAND TALENTS. — It is hardly necessary to discuss in detail the value in modern coinage of the sum thus described. Assuming the Greek “talent” to have been rightly used by the LXX. translators for the Hebrew _kikar_ in Exodus 38:25, we have a basis of calculation which makes the talent equal... [ Continue Reading ]
HIS LORD COMMANDED HIM TO BE SOLD. — The framework of the parable was necessarily drawn from human laws, and, except as indicating the sentence of condemnation passed upon the sinner himself, there is no occasion of pressing the details as we unfold the spiritual meaning that lies below the imagery.... [ Continue Reading ]
FELL DOWN, AND WORSHIPPED HIM. — The word implies simply the prostrate homage of a servant crouching before his master. I WILL PAY THEE ALL. — The promise was, under such circumstances, an idle boast, but it describes with singular aptness the first natural impulse of one who is roused to a sense o... [ Continue Reading ]
WAS MOVED WITH COMPASSION. — The teaching of the parable deals tenderly even with that impotent effort at justification. It touches the heart of the “lord of that servant,” and is met with more than it asked for — not with patience and long-suffering only, but with the pity that forgives freely. The... [ Continue Reading ]
WHICH OWED HIM AN HUNDRED PENCE. — Here the calculation is simpler than in Matthew 18:24. The “hundred pence” are a hundred Roman _denarii_ (the _denarius_ being equal to sevenpence-halfpenny), a hundred days’ wages of the labourer and soldier, enough to provide a meal for 2,500 men (John 6:7). Ther... [ Continue Reading ]
HAVE PATIENCE WITH ME. — No one can fail to note the dramatic force of the utterance of the selfsame words as had been used before by the debtor, who now appears as creditor. And in this case the promise was not a vain pretence. A few weeks or months of labour would have enabled the debtor to pay wh... [ Continue Reading ]
TILL HE SHOULD PAY THE DEBT. — Neither the memory of his lord’s mercy, nor any touch of pity, restrains the man who broods over the memory of wrong. But the course which he takes is, it may be noted, as unwise as it is ungenerous. He, as a slave, cannot command his fellow-slave to be sold. He can ca... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY WERE VERY SORRY. — The fellow-servants are, of course, in the inner meaning of the parable, those who are members of the same spiritual society. Our Lord appeals as by anticipation to the judgment which Christians in general, perhaps even to that which mankind at large, would pass upon such con... [ Continue Reading ]
DESIREDST ME. — Better, _entreatedst me._ In the story of the parable, the man had not specifically asked for this. His general prayer for forbearance had been answered above all that he could ask or think.... [ Continue Reading ]
EVEN AS I HAD PITY ON THEE. — The comparison of the two acts, the implied assumption that the pity of the one act would be after the pattern of the other, was, we may believe, designed to lead the disciples to the true meaning of the prayer they had been taught to use, “Forgive us our debts, as we f... [ Continue Reading ]
DELIVERED HIM TO THE TORMENTORS. — The words seem deliberately vague. We dare not say that the “tormentors” are avenging angels, or demons, though in the hell of mediæval poetry and art these latter are almost exclusively represented as the instruments of punishment. More truly, we may see in them t... [ Continue Reading ]
MY HEAVENLY FATHER. — The adjective is slightly different in form from that commonly used, suggesting rather the thought of the “Father in heaven.” DO ALSO UNTO YOU. — The words cut through the meshes of many theological systems by which men have deceived themselves. Men have trusted in the self-as... [ Continue Reading ]