Matthew 11:1

Mat_11:1-5

Art Thou He that should come?

Johns inquiry

I. The inquiry made by the baptist. It was suggested by the incredulous state of his disciples.

(1) Because if Jesus was Messiah He had not exerted His power for the deliverance of John from prison;

(2) Because they observed that our Saviour had as yet made no public claim to the title; and

(3) Because the manner of our Saviours life and conversation had less appearance of sanctity than the life of their master.

II. The reply made by the saviour.

1. AS to the manner of it. It is not direct and positive, but enables them to answer their question themselves.

2. As to the matter of it. Three things deserve to be weighed by us.

(a) The remarkable gradation and rise there is in the particulars there mentioned;

(b) The appositeness of it in relation to the inquirers;

(c) The general force and evidence of the argument contained in it. (Francis Atterbury.)

Marks of convincing miracles

I. They must be above the known powers of all natural causes.

II. They must he done publicly and in the face of the world, that there may be no room to suspect artifice and collusion.

III. The doctrines which they are brought to vouch must be every way worthy of God.

IV. They should carry marks of good-will and beneficence to men.

V. It is the more convincing if such miracles were foretold, and

VI. If there be no appearances of self-interest and design in the worker of such miracles. (Francis Atterbury.)

Johns message to Jesus

It will appear odd that John should entertain any doubt, or require any satisfaction about this matter … John sent this message, not from any doubt which he himself entertained of the matter, but in order that the doubts which his disciples had conceived about it might receive an answer and satisfaction from the fountain head. From our Lords answer we are entitled to infer that-

I. The faith which He required was a rational assent and faith founded upon proof and evidence. These were given in His miracles.

II. Our Lords miracles distinguished Him from John.

III. Our Lord distinctly put, the truth of His pretensions upon the evidence of His miracles.

IV. Our Lord fixes the guilt of file unbelieving Jews upon this article, that they rejected miraculous proofs which ought to have convinced them. (W. PaIey.)

Proving Jesus to be the Messias

I. The evidence which our saviour gives of his being the true messiah, and to prove this three things were necessary:-

1. To show that He was sent by God, and had a peculiar commission from Him, by the miracles which He wrought.

2. This will more clearly appear by the correspondency of the things here mentioned with what was foretold by the prophets concerning the Messias.

(1) It was foretold of the Messias that He should work miraculous cures (Isa_30:4-6);

(2) That He should preach the gospel to the poor (Isa_61:1);

(3) That the world should be offended at Him (Isa_8:14).

II. An intimation in the text that notwithstanding all the evidence Christ gave of himself yet many world be offended at him.

1. Consider how the poor came to be more disposed to receive the gospel than others. They had no earthly interest to engage them to reject the Saviour. They enjoy little of the good things of this life, and are willing to entertain good news of happiness in another.

2. What those prejudices are which the world had against Christ. That He wrought miracles by diabolical skill; that He kept company with sinners; that He profaned the Sabbath. (J. Tillotson, D. D.)

The Messiah

I. The prophets declared that the Saviour should be Himself the Everlasting God (Mic_5:2).

II. The family of the Messiah was foretold (Isa_11:1).

III. The prophets foretold the time at which the Saviour should be born.

IV. The place of the Saviours birth was foretold.

V. The character of the Messiah was the subject of prophecy.

VI. The offices the Messiah was to sustain for His people were foretold by the prophets.

VII. The prophets plainly foretold the manner of Christs death, resurrection, and exaltation. Application:-

1. To those who treat with unholy mirth this sacred season.

2. There may be some whose faith in the incarnate Son of God is assaulted by Satan, and perplexed by cruel doubts.

3. There are those who have been effectually taught by the Spirit to believe in Him who came in the flesh. No man can say that Jesus is the Christ but by the Holy Ghost. (E. Blencowe, M. A.)

Third Sunday in Advent

I. The word of the Lord stands firm. Forty centuries had passed since the promise of the seed of the woman had been given.

II. The work of the Lord goes on. Men may not understand it; His own servants may be perplexed about it. But there is the secure ongoing of the eternal plan.

III. The consummation cometh-all that pertains to Messianic work He will perform. God has no cause for haste. (J. A. Seiss, D. D.)

I. Johns doubt. The subject of the doubt-the Messiahship of Jesus.

II. Johns way of acting under the doubt.

1. What he did not do. He did not boast of His doubt. He was not content to remain in this state of-doubt without making an effort to rise out of it.

III. Christs answer to johns doubt. Johns question is, in substance, the question of to-day. But the answer of Jesus is distinct, calm, dignified. (Dr. Ritchie.)

Doubting

I. That there is No sin in doubting. Some doubts are sinful, when born of irrational prejudices, or bred of unregulated life. But doubt, of its own nature, cannot be sinful. Must be hesitation till evidence be sufficient.

II. But faith is better than doubt. We are never encouraged in Scripture in cultivating an inner habit of intellectual or moral scepticism. Doubt is only a means to faith.

III. There may exist honest doubt, notwithstanding diligent efforts made to remove it.

1. In any attempt to subdue scepticism, regard should be had to the proximate cause of it, or to the real cause of it. Much perplexity has a physical cause. The gospel for the body: rest, change, ocean, may remove this. Doubt has intellectual cause; not to be forced down by acts of will, but by prayer for more light. There are doubts which have a moral origin. Let conscience speak and remove them.

2. That nearly all doubts concerning Christ or Christian truth, ought to be brought in some way before Christ Himself, and given as it were into His own hand for solution. Christs reply to the Baptist was clear, prompt, convincing. It is an argumentative reply; fresh evidence is presented. Christs work is always open to examination, and testifies to His Messiahship; if it does not then do not believe. (A. Raleigh, D. D.)

Doubt, a means to faith

What would be thought of a chemist who should conduct an experiment, day after day, making a number of little variations in his method, but always withholding the deciding element from the crucible, or else persistently refusing to look at the result? Or, what would be thought of a merchant, always reckoning up his figures, but never writing down the final sums? Or, what of a captain who should sail his ship in a circle? Or, of a traveller always on the road, never reaching home or inn? (A. Raleigh, D. D.)

Conflicts with unbelief.

Martin Luther, of a kindred spirit with the Baptist, and with a like task to perform, had many days of despondency, and passed through many conflicts of unbelief. He writes: One may overcome the temptations of the flesh, but how hard it is to struggle against the temptations of blasphemy and despair. Again: Having all but lost my Christ, I was beaten by the waves and tempests of despair and blasphemy. Bunyan, who, with his wonderful imagination, could body forth the things unseen and spiritual, as if he could see them with his eyes, hear them with his ears, and touch them with his hands, had many conflicts with unbelief. Of all temptations I ever met with in my life, he says, to question the being of God and the truth of His gospel is the worst, and worst to be borne. When this temptation comes it takes my girdle from me, and removes the foundation from under me. Though God has visited my soul with never so blessed a discovery of Himself, yet afterwards I have been in my spirit so filled with darkness, that I could not so much as once conceive what that God and that comfort were with which I had been refreshed.

Natural melancholy obstructs the sense of Divine comfort

As it is in clear water, when it is still and transparent, the sun shines to the very bottom; but, if you stir the mud, presently it grows so thick that no light can pierce into it. So it is with the children of God: though their apprehensions of Gods love be as clear and transparent, sometimes, as the very air that the angels and glorified saints breathe in heaven, yet if once the muddy humour of melancholy stirs they become dark, so that no ray of comfort can break into the deserted soul. (Bishop Hopkins.)

Morbid self-suspicions

Colton declares that in moments of despondency Shakespeare thought himself no poet; and Raphael doubted his right to be called a painter. We call such self-suspicions morbid, and ascribe them to a hypochondriacal fit; in what other way can we speak of those doubts as to their saintship, which occasionally afflict the most eminently holy of the Lords people!

Truth not afraid of the light

Here is One evidently, who is not afraid of the light. He will not seek the homage of superstition. Depend on it, Christ is glad of the science of to-day, and its investigations, when carried on in the spirit of reverence and earnestness. He is glad for the broadening light, and for every new coign of vantage whence we can look at Him. Shall we, then, be afraid of the light? When we take a rose, a lily out of the garden, we put it in the clearest light that all its beauty may be seen. We are not afraid of the light for it. We say, Get the microscope, and let its lenses concentrate the rays upon these flowers of God, and they will glorify Him all the more. Shall it not be so with this Rose of Sharon, this Lily of the Valley! Ask your question! Push your inquiry! Who is afraid of it? Not Christ. Not we. (J. Brierley, B. A.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Mat 11:1. When Jesus had made an end of commanding, that is, of giving instruction to his twelve disciples, and thereby of preparing them for the service they were now to undertake, he departed to teach and preach in their cities — The other cities of Israel, being unwearied and constant in his great work.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

CRITICAL NOTES

The general heading of the chapter may be given as: Jesus judging His contemporaries and Himself (A. B. Bruce, D.D.). Hitherto almost everything has been hopeful and encouraging in our Evangelist’s record of the Saviour’s ministry. But the path of the King is not to be a triumphal progress. It is to be a via dolorosa, leading to a cross and a grave. It is not at all to be wondered at, then, that the Evangelist should now give his readers some idea of the discouragements which met the King in the setting up of His kingdom on the earth.

1. The first of these which he mentions comes from a quarter from which least of all it might have been expected: John in doubt (Mat_11:1-15).

2. The unreasonableness of the people (Mat_11:16-19).

3. The unbelief of the cities (Mat_11:20-24). How does the Saviour bear Himself under these repeated discouragements? The passage which follows will show (Mat_11:25-30). See note below on Mat_11:25 (J. M. Gibson, D.D.).

Mat_11:1. 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 Mat_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 (Plumptre). Their cities.—Might seem grammatically to point to the towns where the Twelve had been, or to which they belonged; but probably used here vaguely for the cities of Galilee in general (ibid.).

Mat_11:2. Prison—See note on Mat_14:3. 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 were present when our Lord was teaching (Mat_9:14), and were certain to hear of such wonders as those narrated in

8. and

9. (ibid.). Two of his disciples.—By his disciples (R.V.), a reading supported by the best MS. authority.

Mat_11:6. Shall not be offended in Me.—Shall find none occasion of stumbling in Me (R.V.). Some had thought only of an avenging and triumphant Christ (Carr).

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Mat_11:1-6

Untaught disciples.—Hitherto in this Gospel we have met with little else than advance. The personal ministry of Jesus has prospered so far that He has just finished selecting and commissioning twelve special servants to aid Him in His work. But now we hear of words and actions which are symptomatic of doubt. A message is brought, and another is returned, which whisper it at the least. If we would rightly trace out the story of the Saviour’s ministry, we must consider them both.

I. The message brought.—A message remarkable, first, for the person it comes from. It is from “John the Baptist”—the forerunner of Christ—the man to whom Jesus of Nazareth had been pointed out as Messiah both by vision and voice (Mat_3:16-17), and the man who, in turn, had pointed Him out to the faith of the world (Joh_1:29). More remarkable is it, next, this being so, for the question it asked. Ostensibly and generally that question asks, Who art Thou that art filling Syria—filling even my “prison” (Mat_11:2)—with the fame of Thy works? More particularly, and in reality, it asks, Art thou the “Man,” or only His shadow? The end of the series, or only another step in it? The fulness of hope, or merely another postponement, not to say another disappointment as well? Most remarkable is it, however, for the state of things it implies, viz. a state of suspense which, in such a matter and circumstances, was a state of offence. Whether this was so on the part of the Baptist himself, shut up there in his unfriended prison, most are reluctant to hold. They rather believe that he asks thus for the sake of his disciples only, and to clear up their doubts on the subject. But, even so, it is surprising that his disciples should have such doubts to clear up. To think that he should have to send them to the Saviour Himself to settle their minds about Him. What has been the aim of his preaching amongst these disciples? What the subject of it? What the power of it? What the effect it produced? Apparently, the very message he came to teach has been so taught by him as not yet to be learned!

II. The message returned.—This is remarkable, on the one hand, in not being a direct answer at all. It does not say who Jesus was in so many words. It only does so in the way of inference. It is remarkable also in that it only points, in so doing, in the first place, at any rate, to the kind of knowledge which was already in existence. We are expressly told that John had “heard in the prison”—not improbably through some of his own disciples—of the works of Jesus. When he asks to know for the sake of his disciples (as is supposed) what he is to think of Him who wrought these marvels, he is simply referred to more of the kind. “Go and report to John what you are looking on now.” There is the first answer to what he inquires (Mat_11:5). Are not these works which he has heard of just the things which the “Coming One” ought to do? The second answer also seems to be a reference to what was already known to the Baptist. We cannot but believe that he was familiar with that declaration of Isaiah 61 about the Messiah, which the Saviour, in the synagogue at Nazareth, once applied to Himself (Luk_4:15-21). Well, his messengers were to go and report what they had seen on this point also. They were to bid the Baptist, in fact, judge for himself on what he already knew and had read of; and so understand, therefore, that, employed as it should be, that settled the point about which he inquired. A view which is confirmed by the apparent purport of the solemn words which ensue (Mat_11:6). As though He would say thereby to the Baptist, “Let thy disciples beware how they allow themselves to doubt about Me. Let them understand that they have evidence enough on the point as it is, and that, if there be anything which disappoints or perplexes them on what else they may hear about Me, they had better fall back upon that. Happy indeed for all who do so. Blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in Me” (Mat_11:6).

1. How trying all this must have been to the Saviour.—There is a touch of reproach in these closing words which signifies this. How grievous to find doubt where He had looked for support! To be questioned about His mission where He had looked for testimony in its favour!

2. How instructive to all who favour His cause.—The disappointments and defections of these days sometimes tend to overwhelm us with fear. We may see from this that they are by no means new to the church. She has survived countless others before. She began with them in the time of the Saviour Himself. Scarcely indeed had He fully risen before such mists gathered around Him.

3. How encouraging also to some of those who are troubled by doubts!—Why are they so? For lack of light? Rather for not rightly availing themselves of the light which they have. There is that in Christ’s works which is sufficient to prove the truth of His words. There is more in “Moses and the prophets” (Luk_16:31) than men have found out as yet. “What is that in thy hand?” So it was that God Himself once confirmed faith (Exo_4:2). So, in effect, it was here!

HOMILIES ON THE VERSES

Mat_11:1-6. John’s doubting message to Jesus.—There was real, serious, honest doubt in John’s mind concerning Jesus; and doubt, be it observed, not in regard to the identity of the worker of the works reported to John with Jesus, but in regard to the nature of the works viewed as Messianic. That he was staggered by the character of the works is plainly indicated in the reflection, “Blessed is he that is not offended in Me.” Obviously John had stumbled at something in the public life of Jesus, and the something was just the works which Jesus, sent the disciples of John back to report to their master.

I. But why should John stumble at those works, so full of the spirit of love and mercy?

1. Just because they were works of mercy.—These were not the sort of works he had expected Messiah to busy Himself with; at all events so exclusively (see Mat_3:10; Mat_3:12). He had looked for judgment and beheld unaccountable patience, and the grim Hebrew prophet was astonished; none the less that his own forlorn plight brought very vividly home to his mind how evil the time was and how utterly ripe for judgment.

2. In his astonishment and doubt John was not only in harmony with his own antecedents, but with what we may venture to call the prophetic temperament.—The prophet, from the nature of his vocation, is a man more likely to have sympathy with manifestations of Divine righteousness than with manifestations of Divine long-suffering. When we say this we do not forget that there are splendid exceptions, notable above all the author of the second half of the Book of Isaiah, whether Isaiah or another. In one sense John was not wrong, for Israel’s judgment-day was not far off; and just on that account it was needful that the messengers of mercy should make a hasty run over all her borders, urging her with unwonted earnestness to repent. But be was too hasty and too impatient, and hence he was offended in Jesus.

II. The reply sent back by Jesus to John amounted to this, that the sure marks that He was the Coming One, the Christ, were just the very works which had awakened his (John’s) surprise (Mat_11:4-6). It was a good reply, not only on its own merits, but from the point of view of Old Testament prophecy, as it claimed for Jesus, as marks of His Messiahship, some of the most outstanding features in the picture of the Messianic era drawn by that very prophet from whom John took his own watchword: “The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord” (cf. Isa_35:5-6; Isa_42:7, Ias. 61). Having recounted rapidly His mighty works, Jesus appended the reflection, “and blessed is he,” etc. The tone of compassion, rather than of severity or soreness, is audible in the utterance. Jesus felt keenly how much John missed by being in such a state of mind that that in His own work which was most Godlike was a stumbling-block to him. Translated into positive form the reflection means: “Blessed are they to whom the mercy and grace of which I am full, and whereof My ministry is the manifestation and outflow, are no stumbling-block but rather worthy of all acceptation.”—A. B. Bruce, D.D.

Mat_11:2-5. The world’s King.—This chapter is a mirror wherein is reflected the restlessness of the age in which Christ lived. Even John seems to have shared this feeling to some extent; hence his question. In thinking of Christ’s relationship to humanity we must think of Him not merely as dealing with individuals here and there, but as dealing with the world as an organised whole.

I. Jesus Christ is the King of the world.—It is a familiar fact that Christ gave Himself this title. The Apostles and Evangelists also made it prominent. The charge laid against them in one place was that they said “there was another king—one Jesus.” What is a king? Does the putting of a crown on a man’s head make him a king? That depends upon what sort of a head it is which receives the crown.

1. Is not a king one who governs by the mighty influence of his personality—by the force of a commanding character? Many are called kings who are not kings; many are kings who have not the name. Kingliness is the true sign of the king, and judged by this criterion Christ is the greatest king who has ever appeared. This royal quality was put to the severest test. Art Thou the King? is virtually the question which John put. He had proclaimed the coming of the kingdom, but this does not yet look much like the King. I do not wonder at the doubt; we should have doubted too. But the fact that there was room for doubt supplied an additional opportunity of proving His real kingliness. The life of Christ was a revelation, in a thousand forms, of the kingliness of His person.

2. Another sign of real kingliness is the power to bless. Some are great by what they receive; the greatest are great by what they bestow.

II. The sphere of His kingship.—In words which belong either to a madman or to God, Christ says: “All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth.” He claims what all men desire for themselves and yet are jealous of in others. The expression is unqualified. Consider this power in regard to its operation on human life in two of its dimensions:—

1. Its depth.—Christ touches human nature not merely on the surface. The glory of His work lies in His power to change the heart itself into something it could not have been without Him.

2. Its breadth.—It goes without saying that if Christ thus acquire dominance over the hearts of men, His influence will also be felt in every department of their life. The questions of life, of death, of society, of politics, and of commerce are best understood by him who kneels at the feet of Jesus of Nazareth.

III. What should be the effect upon us of this view of the greatness of Christ’s kingdom?—One thing is certain; if we are to partake of the spirit of the King, and so belong to Him in the truest sense, our faith must not be a weak, effeminate thing, but a strong confidence, which sees all power arrayed on its side.—J. B. Stedeford.

Mat_11:3-4. The supreme social Benefactor.—There are times when the old problems of human life seem to come back upon us more imperiously than ever. We cannot forget, for example, that nigh two thousand years have run their course since the night of the angels’ song; and what of our poor world to-day? If the world’s Saviour be indeed born, how is the world still thus? And so from our perplexity there goes up to Christ’s ear the impatient question of the Baptist, “Art Thou He that should come, or look we for another?” The point on which it is important we should fix attention is that, in answer to John’s perplexed inquiry, Christ simply pointed to His own method of working. To a lamentable extent there has been misapprehension and mistake on the part of the church and of Christian people as to the way of advancing the Divine kingdom.

I. Let us observe how the person of the Man Christ Jesus has been largely obscured.—When we turn to the gospel record we find a Christ who delighted in the name, “the Son of man,” and who abundantly proved His right to that name. But now we turn to history; and away back in the early centuries the clouding influence comes in. We find controversy raging so fiercely over dogmatic definitions of the nature of Christ, and men so intolerantly eager regarding His Divine glory alone, that His true and tender humanity fell quite into the background. Hence it came about that, in course of time, men and women began to crave anew for some more approachable mediator. Christ was so far, so high above them, so widely separated from poor, weak, burdened, sinful men and women that, though He might be the ultimate way to the Father, others must first form a way of access to Him; and so longing hearts groping about turned to the Virgin Mother, and to the saints, that they, in the first instance, might interpose and intercede; and a corrupt church, instead of feeling its way back to the manhood which had been ignored, sanctioned the dishonouring idolatry. Let us give thanks that a characteristic feature of the religious thought of our time is a return to the recognition of Christ in His true and tender human life. We are taking our ideas of His person, not from dogmatic systems, but from His own life on earth.

II. We are thus reminded how Christ’s method of working has been to a sad extent overlooked.—The usual method of exposition with reference to our Lord’s works of healing is this: These works are expressive symbols of the great spiritual work He came into the world to effect. But while His works of mercy may undoubtedly be viewed as symbols worthy of something more, have they not a reality of their own? They were themselves most real acts, instinct with the living breath of a most practical pity. But now, what as to the church’s way of following Christ? Has it adequately imparted and expressed through the centuries His spirit of earnest sympathy and helpful service? In our answer to such questions we must be on our guard against exaggeration. Time would fail me to tell of all the various ways in which the spirit of Christ, the Divine leaven, reveals its pervasive power in our modern social life, or of the countless agencies and institutions which bear growing testimony to its beneficent and abiding presence. But while truth and gratitude call for large acknowledgments we may not shut our eyes to the fact that the church’s energies and efforts have been to a large extent deplorably misdirected. Instead of steadily striving to carry on Christ’s saving work amidst the world’s millions it has earned for itself a reputation as a debating ground, an arena where gladiators fight to the death for their respective tenets, and where preachers show their skill in defining and dividing and drawing hair-splitting distinctions in regard to matters far apart from ordinary human interests. The great need of our time is that our abounding Christian profession be translated into Christlike lives.—W. R. Taylor, M.A.

Mat_11:3. John’s question.—

I. What is the explanation of John’s doubt about Jesus?

1. No doubt it was in part his disappointment.—Jesus did not do the very things that John expected in the very way that John expected.

2. His own unhappy lot.—John seemed to have laboured, and Jesus entered into his labours and left him at the mercy of this profligate king. And these things entered into John’s soul, and perhaps made him a little bitter, and he wondered if the great King who was to come, just and victorious, had really come when things like that were really being done in the world; and despondency made him ask the question again and again, till it became unbearable, and he felt bound to put it direct to Jesus.

II. Notice how Jesus deals with this kind of question.—Practically He said to John: Yes, I am He that should come. He pointed to the works that He did, and how these works were the very things that the Coming One had been foretold to do, and left John to draw the inference. But Jesus adds another word, a word of warning to the doubter—“Blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in Me.” Possibly in the prison John had begun to think too much about himself, to think that the kingdom of God could not have come because he was left in the dungeon to suffer and to die. Now Jesus had that very trial to bear Himself. He knew that His own path led straight to the cross, and He knew that that did not throw any shadow of doubt on His calling to be the Saviour of the world. So He says, “Blessed is the man who can look on Me who am meek and lowly in heart, and come without the axe and the fan; who can look on Me preaching glad tidings to the meek, healing the sick, cleansing the lepers, and raising the dead; who can see Me suffering for righteousness’ sake; who can do all that and not doubt.” Jesus warns us in this place that no man is too good to suffer for God’s sake; that no man’s life is too good a thing to lay down that the kingdom of God may come, and that it is a danger when what he has to bear for the kingdom of heaven’s sake makes a man wonder whether the kingdom of heaven is there or not.

III. Let us bring this question about doubting concerning Jesus down to our own time.—People wonder whether after all Jesus is the Saviour of the world, or whether there may not be something better to hope for than the gospel has really brought. What are the reasons, what are the forces that create that kind of doubt in people’s minds now?

1. One is this—it is the same as in John’s time—that we are standing at the beginning of a new age. Young people especially cannot help asking, Is Christ to be for us what He has been to our fathers? Is He still to preside in the future, as He has done in the past, over the growth of all that is worthiest and best in human nature? Is the gospel still to be the inspiration and the restraint of men? Or have we to put that away and look for something else? Now that kind of doubt one may call without offence, I think, thoughtless. One can only cherish that kind of feeling if he looks at the future vaguely, and does not look at Christ at all. But if we think of the new ideas that are really working themselves into prominence, we shall feel that almost all of them are really Christian.

2. Another kind of doubt arises out of ignorance. Sometimes people meet Christ at a particular place. They get one revelation of what Jesus is, very often that precise revelation that John had when he said, “Behold the Lamb of God,” etc. But then, although Jesus does bear the guilt of the race, that is not all He does, and that is not all we should find in Him. And if we do not go on to find more in Him, even what we have found will become doubtful. I suppose there is no kind of doubter more common than the doubter who has once been fervently evangelical. And that is not any fault at all of evangelicalism; it is the fault of some slothfulness or worldliness that has kept a man from improving his knowledge of Christ, and that keeps him walking not in the light of Christ’s presence, but in the light of some far away, and often fading, recollection of Christ.

3. This kind of doubtful question is often prompted still in good men and earnest men, as it was in John, by disappointment. Men lose temper when they see that God is so slow, that things do not go swiftly in their way; and they say, Art Thou He that should come? Is the thing we see salvation? It was a question that was put straight to Christ Himself, and He answered it. And the way He answered it was to point out that this trial of the partial failure of the gospel was one that He Himself had to bear. In this very chapter a little further down we are told, “He began to upbraid the cities wherein most of His mighty works were done, because they repented not.”—Jos. Denney, D.D.

Looking for another Christ.—I find it rather hard to believe that John the Baptist’s faith was really shaken. With his severe ascetic habits, with the resoluteness of his nature in which will counted for quite as much as passion, and with his religious temper, which made more of righteousness than of emotion, a few months’ imprisonment could hardly have produced upon him an effect so disastrous. The real explanation seems to be that the Baptist’s conception of the Messiah included elements in it which it was difficult to bring together. The prophetic visions of the Christ were generally bright with glory, but they were sometimes clouded with intimations of struggle and of suffering. A Christ knowing nothing of sorrow was hardly the Christ that this sorrowful world needed; and the prophets felt sure that He must endure pain and humiliation. How the glory and the sufferings were to be blended they could not tell. And so John, in his earlier preaching, had spoken of the power and glory of the Christ. He was to found a kingdom; He was to be a mighty prince; He was to cut down the trees that did not bring forth good fruit; He was to burn up the sin of the world with unquenchable fire. Later on, after Christ’s baptism, John the Baptist began to speak of Him as “the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world”; and I think it must have been difficult for John to understand how it should be possible for the Christ both to suffer and to reign, to bear the sin of the world and yet to be enthroned in glory. Some of the learned teachers of the Jewish race had speculated on the possibility of there being two Messiahs, a Messiah who should suffer, and a Messiah who should be enthroned in majesty and in splendour. This idea had not penetrated the popular mind, and there is no trace of it in the Gospels; but when John came to reflect in prison on all that the prophets had spoken of the Messiah’s glory, and on what, I imagine, Jesus had told him at the baptism about His being the sacrifice for the sins of the world, it is very possible that John began to wonder whether Jesus Himself would both suffer and reveal Himself to the world in glory. With unfailing faith in Jesus as the Christ, with an immovable conviction that He was all that He claimed to be, John may have been unable to see how He was to be at once a great Prince and the Lamb of God taking away the sin of the world; and so, in his perplexity, he sends two of his disciples to Jesus to ask Him whether He was the Christ that was to come, or whether they were still to look for another. That John should have sent to Christ Himself to solve the doubt, shows that his faith in Christ was unshaken.

I. There are times when, through the disappointments and failures of our personal religious lives, it may be necessary for us, in a sense, to look for another Christ than the Christ we have already known.

1. Some have been restless for months, perhaps years, about their sin. They have appealed to Christ again and again, and the peace of Christ has not come to them. They are almost ready to say, “Art Thou He that should come?” etc. Christ may reply to that question by pointing them, as He pointed the disciples of John, to the great triumphs of mercy by which they are surrounded.

2. Some have no trouble about forgiveness. Long ago they were able to bring their sins to the feet of Christ and leave them there. But their Christian life has not had the power and brightness they hoped for. I believe that this also often arises from a defective knowledge of Christ. He is a “Prince and Saviour.” He gives us a law that we must obey, and if we expect Him to keep His promises we must be willing to keep His precepts.

II. This question, or something very like it, may be suggested by the general condition and history of the world.—He came to save the world, and the world, or a large part of it, remains still unsaved. Well, do you look for another Christ? And, if you do, what kind of a Christ do you desire Him to be?

III. We do not look for the coming of another Christ, but the Christ whom we know will come in another form (Act_1:11).—He will seem to some of us to be another Christ from the Christ that we once knew, a Christ whom we never expected to see, and in whom we had never believed. But He will come in His power and majesty, only to complete the work which He commenced in weakness and in shame, for it was always His purpose to assert the authority of righteousness, to get the will of God done, to defeat and destroy sin, to give to holiness a perfect and everlasting triumph.—R. W. Dale, LL.D.

Mat_11:5. The gospel and the poor.—There must have been something very remarkable in the act of preaching to the poor if it was striking enough to be held forth as a proof of the Divinity of the Preacher. And it certainly was a contrast to the ways of those then in authority. By them the poor were despised. But our Lord most probably desired to call attention to the fulfilment of prophecy. Consider the fact related in the text:—

I. As a distinguishing mark of the Christian religion.—Heathen nations cared little for their poor. They might live or die. In some cases they were put to death. Selfishness was the only motive of their lives, and the burden of helpless people was not to be undertaken. But the motive of Christianity is disregard of self, and tenderness, gentleness, love, and kindness towards the sick and weak.

II. As showing the inclusiveness of the kingdom of heaven.—It does not consist of any one particular class. The rich and the poor are one in Christ.

III. As intimating the character of enlightened hearers.—It is those who are poor in spirit who alone accept the gospel (Mat_18:3; Luk_18:14). Application: This fact brings consolation and encouragement to those who feel their weakness and to those who have nothing of their own. They are welcome to the Saviour, and the message of love is their inalienable heritage.—B. in “Homilist.”

Mat_11:6. Offended in Christ.—

I. The causes of offence.—“Offended in Me.”

1. The strictness of Christ’s requirements.—Christ demands our whole service, our whole attention, our self-denial. His love is inexorable. To follow Him requires the renunciation of much that is congenial to human nature.

2. The painful consequences of a religious profession.—In ancient times it involved persecution. In the present day it courts sneers, domestic strife and bitterness. There is the dissevering of old companionships, the breaking off of old friendships. True, there are many encouragements. Many loving hands and tender hearts smooth the young convert’s first steps to heaven, but this does not remove the fact that much unpleasantness must be endured.

3. The apparent discrepancies of the gospel.—The true follower of Christ should remember that Scripture contains many things hard to be understood, that God does not reach the soul through the intellect, but through the heart, and that He leaves many things unexplained in order to test our faith.

II. The reward of constancy.—“Blessed.” This blessedness will consist of:—

1. The approval of Christ.—His smile of recognition will encourage. His “well done” will rejoice. His friendship will make up for the loss of all.

2. The participation in His reward.—This will include:

(1) Victory over all doubts. There is no triumph so sweet as victory over self and mental misgivings.

(2) A share in His kingdom.

(3) The enlightenment of the understanding and the clear manifestation of the Divine purposes. Application: To be offended in Christ is unreasonable as well as sinful. It seems inhuman to refuse infinite love, reject almighty power, and cast away unspeakable blessedness.—Ibid.

Beatitude of unfaltering faith.—These words imply that the temptation to unbelief is inward and experimental rather than speculative in its origin; it starts in a wounded affection rather than in the revolt of the reason and the understanding. It was not enough that the Baptist’s thought should be turned to the outward sign of Christ’s Messiahship. Christ’s message on that point only confirmed what he already knew by common rumour. The healing of mental tribulation must begin within. The most convincing sign will fail of its appointed end, unless the mind can be freed from the distress of its own entangling wilfulness and preconception, and made loving and loyal in its every fibre and sensibility. “Blessed is he, whosoever,” etc.

I. These words suggest a danger of secret and subtle disaffection of heart towards Christ that threatens to destroy faith. Our Lord felt how much there was in Himself and His plans that was out of harmony with the best opinion of the time. Whilst the most advanced mind of the old dispensation was staggered by His method, He knew He must inevitably become a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence to men at large, unless they could be warned against themselves.

1. The peculiarities of early education often give rise to this temptation of offence in Christ. The past twelve months of Christ’s ministry had been replete with proofs of His Divine authority; but the proofs were not of such a character, nor did they seem to attest the particular kind of Messiah, that John’s special education had led him to expect. We, too, have the prejudices of our own special education and standpoint.

2. This temptation is sometimes connected with the fact that Christ seems to abandon His friends to the most cruel suffering and oppression. The unbelief that starts in suffering rather than in a syllogism of the scribe has a special claim to sympathy and patient love. Christ dealt very tenderly and mercifully with that. Do we not sometimes fall into the temptation of thinking that Christ under-estimates our temporal well-being?

3. The limitations that hem in our love of the excitements and activities of public service often give rise to this peril. John cannot realise as yet that, as he has been Christ’s type and forerunner in his public teaching, he must now be type and forerunner likewise in his final suffering. And in our quieter paths some of us may be just on the point of stumbling for very similar causes. Our service seems lightly esteemed in the dispensation under which we are placed. Possibly we feel within us a capacity for effective religious enterprise, from the exercise of which we are cut off by some embarrassing condition in our lives.

4. This peril sometimes springs up because our knowledge of Christ comes through indirect and prejudiced channels. There had been scarcely any intercourse between the King and the herald who was sent to announce His coming. After the days of childhood Jesus and the Baptist probably only once saw each other face to face. Now this was a disability for John’s personal faith although a gain in the end to the cause of Christ. This offence may arise in us because we have to view Christ, in some of His relations, through crude, ignoble, small-minded representatives.

II. Consider the beatitude of the heart that is proof against this hidden temptation.—Christ knew just the measure of admonition and just the measure of encouragement His great servant needed; and He adjusted the one to the other, and each to the bleeding sensibilities of the prophet, with the silken touch of an exact science.

1. Not offended in Christ he proved the beatitude of an unwavering faith in the hour of trial. No curse that can poison human life is so deep and dire as the curse of a lost trust.

2. This beatitude includes full salvation from all the power and disability of sin. Herod’s captive began to see at last that the earthly kingdom for which he had pined was denied him only because its limits were too narrow to receive the vastness of the Messianic gift, and he was content to die that he might prove its unfathomed mysteries of blessing. Whatever secretly alienates us from Christ robs us of the benefits of that salvation He is appointed to achieve in us.

3. Not offended in Christ, John proved the beatitude linked with conformity to a higher plan of life than his own. If the temper of hidden loyalty be maintained, life will be worked out for us in agreement with counsels that will issue in higher honour and more abiding satisfactions than our own. John could not picture a future for himself other than of activity, heroism, unselfishness. But his own future would have been barren in comparison with that which God was ordaining for his trial and for his deathless renown. Remember, Christ is Master, you are servant.—T. G. Selby.

The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.

B. CHRIST MANIFESTING HIMSELF AS THE KING, BY CLEARLY BRINGING OUT THE FACT, THAT HE HAS NOT BEEN OWNED AS PROPHET, AND BY MANIFESTING HIS ROYAL DIGNITY. COMMENCEMENT OF THE GREAT CONFLICT BETWEEN CHRIST AND THE OLD THEOCRATIC WORLD, PREFIGURED BY THE DIFFICULTIES EXPERIENCED BY THE BAPTIST, AND BEGINNING WITH THE UNBELIEF MANIFESTED IN THE CITIES OF GALILEE

Matthew 11

(The Gospel for the 3rd Sunday in Advent: Mat_11:2 to Mat_10:42.—Parallels: Luk_7:18-35; Luk_10:13-15; Luk_10:21-22)

Contents:—While Christ’s blessed activity was bearing richest fruits, and during the course of His third journey, when passing along the shores of the Lake of Galilee, where His advent had been announced and prepared by His twelve Apostles, the great conflict between Him and the old secularized theocracy commenced. Hitherto the attacks of the Pharisees and scribes on the Lord had been at least isolated. But now commenced a series of contradictions, springing from opposition avowed, and on principle, and incited by the chiefs of the party at Jerusalem. The contest opens with the serious circumstance, that even John, the Baptist and forerunner of the Lord, seems for a moment in danger of being offended at Him. Christ feels, however, so certain of His victory over John, that immediately after replying to his inquiry, He publicly claims him as His associate and precursor. All the more, therefore, does He lay it to the charge of His cotemporaries, that they had disbelieved both John and Himself. The hopeless captivity of John was sufficient evidence that the people had given him up: while the unbelief of the cities of Galilee formed a plain indication that they were also ready to surrender the Lord. It is characteristic of the systematic method of Matthew, that he records on this occasion the sentence of condemnation pronounced by the Lord upon these cities, which, in the actual course of events, was uttered at a later period, when Christ finally left Galilee. But this unbelief and opposition evoke, in all its depth and fulness, Christ’s consciousness of His royal dignity, as it appears in the concluding sentences of this chapter. In Matthew 12 this conflict appears as one of principle,—the Pharisees meeting the Lord with the charge, that His disciples, and He Himself, broke the sabbath, and obliging Him to withdraw from their machinations against His life. At last, they come publicly forward with the accusation, which they had before spread in secret, that the Lord practised magic, was in league with Satan, and cast out devils by the prince of the devils. This daring accusation obliged the Lord publicly to rebuke and to warn them of blasphemy against the Holy Ghost. In return, they insist on some sign from heaven to verify His Messianic claims, which His disciples had published as a secret. The Lord Jesus points them to the token from the deep, the sign of the prophet Jonas—the type of His death on the cross, and to the impending judgment of becoming subject to the sway of demons, which awaited them after His decease. The opposition to Jesus was now so great and general, that even His mother and His brethren were, in their mistaken kindness, offended at Him, and attempted to withdraw Him from His enemies under a pretext,—a circumstance to which the Evangelist faintly alludes. In this contest, the Evangelist records the seven parables concerning the kingdom of heaven ( Matthew 13), some of which had, however, been uttered at a former period. These parables also indicate the altered position of the Lord with reference to the people. He now requires to instruct them by parables in the kingdom of heaven. The offences still continue and increase. At the close of these parables, the Evangelist records, that the Lord was rejected even by His own city,—a circumstance which had occurred at an earlier period. Jesus then withdraws (though, chronologically, at an earlier period, see Matthew 12) from Herod Antipas, the ruler of Galilee, who had shortly before ordered the execution of John the Baptist, and betakes Himself to the eastern shore of the sea ( Matthew 14), where He spreads a table for the multitudes. On several subsequent occasions. He teaches on the western shore; the last two times to be opposed by the Pharisees, Matthew 15, 16. Only in passing, and preparatory to His journey to Jerusalem, does He again visit His own country ( Matthew 17-22).

We have been obliged, in some measure, to anticipate the course of this history, in order to exhibit the series of conflicts between the Lord and the unbelieving people. But there is another and higher fact to which this chapter points. We see in it the royal consciousness of Jesus gradually unfolding with increasing majesty. 1. Christ restores the wavering Baptist to the pristine confidence of his faith. 2. He presents the Baptist to the people as Elijah, who, according to Malachi, was to precede the advent of the royal Angel of the Covenant. 3. He places him by His own side, as sharing that rejection which Himself had met from His life. 4. In His indignation on account of the unbelief of Galilee, He manifests His royal dignity by announcing the coming judgment. 5. This dignity He manifests still further by a grand hymn of praise to His Father, and by the revelation of His own majesty. 7. He graciously invites those who are weary and heavy laden to find rest in Him in the kingdom of meekness, of patience, and of holy suffering.

1. The Baptist wavers, but the Lord remains stedfast, and restores His wavering friend. Mat_11:1-6

1And it came to pass, when Jesus had made an end of commanding his twelve disciples, he departed thence to teach and to preach in their cities. 2Now when John had heard in the prison the works of Christ, he sent two of his [through his]1 disciples,3And said unto him, Art thou he that should come [that cometh],2 or do we look [shall we look]3 for another? 4Jesus answered and said unto them, Go and shew John again [report to John]4 those things which ye do hear and see:

5The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them. 6And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in [at] me.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

Mat_11:1. Thence.—From the place whence He had sent His disciples, somewhere to the south of Capernaum.

To teach and to preach.—It was during this journey that Jesus soon afterward reached Magdala, where He was anointed by the woman who had been a sinner, and then Nain, where He raised the widow’s son. During His onward course, a number of female disciples gathered around Him and ministered unto Him, Luk_8:2.—On this occasion He was overtaken by the messengers of John, who had been committed to prison in the later part of the autumn of the year 781. The journey closed with the appearance of Jesus at the festival of Purim in the year 782, after which the Baptist was executed.

In their cities, αὐτῶν.—Fritzsche (after Gerhard): In the cities where the Apostles had already preached. To this Meyer objects, that Jesus followed immediately upon His disciples. But if the disciples had distributed themselves over the different cities which Jesus afterward visited in succession, they must have been considerably in advance of Him. Meyer’s own explanation—in the cities of those to whom He went—amounts to a mere tautology. Euthym. Zigabenus: the birth-places of the Apostles.

Mat_11:2. In the prison.—In the fortress of Machærus, Joseph. Ant. xviii. 5, 2.—The castle of Machærus, on the southern border of Peræa, toward Moabitis—probably the modern Mkaur—was, after Jerusalem, the strongest fortress of the Jews, being protected on all sides by deep valleys. It fell into the hands of the Romans after the destruction of Jerusalem (Joseph. De Bello Jud. vii. 6, 1).

The works of Christ.—Probably referring to His mode of working, and more especially to the events above recorded; His gracious intercourse with publicans and sinners ( Matthew 9, etc.). The Baptist would obtain from his disciples the latest reports of the works of Christ.

He sent.—Following the reading διά, instead of δύο, we might feel almost inclined with Meyer to take πέμψας absolutely, and to connect διὰτῶ ν, κ.τ.λ., with εῖπεναὐτῷ. He sent and said unto Him by his disciples. But this would scarcely give a good meaning. Accordingly, whatever view we may take of the reading διά, we must join πέμψας with the words that follow (de Wette).

Mat_11:3. Art Thou He?—Σύ is put first by way of emphasis.—Ὀἐρχόμενος, He that cometh, הַבָּא, a designation of the Messiah, which, according to Psa_40:7; Psa_40:5 would be peculiarly suitable at that time, and especially in the circumstances of the Baptist; comp. Joh_1:27.

Προσδοκῶμεν, in the conjunctive, shall we look, or are we to look,6 and not in the indicative.—The old explanation of the passage (Origen, Chrysostom, etc.; Calvin, Beza, Melanchthon, Stier), that John himself felt no doubts at all, but that he sent this embassy to Jesus for the sake of his disciples, who doubted, is not supported by the text, and can only have originated in a desire to vindicate the Baptist, or else to obviate an objection against the doctrine of inspiration, since John had previously proclaimed that Jesus was the Messiah [Mat_3:14; Mat_3:16; Joh_1:29]. But these commentators ignore the fact, that if such were the case, John would have had recourse to the doubtful expedient of assuming a false appearance and simulating difficulties which he had not felt; they vindicate his orthodoxy at the expense of his morality. Similarly do they ignore the history of the Old Testament saints, all of whom stumbled at some one of the great critical periods in their lives (Moses, David, Elijah, Job). Specially striking here is the analogy between Elijah on Mount Horeb and his antitype John. But, on the other hand, we do not suppose (with Meyer, and many others, commencing even with Tertullian) that the Baptist had cherished any dogmatic doubt as to the Messiahship of Jesus. In our opinion, the two views must be combined,—that John, in the midst of his mental perplexities and trials, was offended by the kindly and gentle mode of Christ’s activity (Paulus, Olshausen, Ebrard, and others), and that his embassy was designed to determine the Lord to manifest Himself openly as the Messiah, by some. solemn act of judgment (Lightfoot, Hase, and others). Above all must we clearly realize the situation of the Baptist During a long and dreary winter had he been imprisoned in the lonely fortress of Machærus. Meantime Herod Antipas was in the immediate neighborhood, indulging in every kind of luxury; while Herodias, with whom he lived in adulterous connection, meditated vengeance upon the bold preacher who had denounced her sin. When preaching the baptism of the Spirit, John had also proclaimed the coming baptism of fire, or the impending judgment At this period the disciples of the Baptist returned from their visit to Jesus, full of indignation, and reported to the captive and offended ascetic that Jesus accepted invitations to feasts with publicans and sinners. It was impossible for John to doubt either his own mission, or the vision he had seen. But he might doubt the conduct of the Lord, whom he had owned as Messiah. Hence his, embassy. It was prompted by doubt and disappointment about Christ’s conduct; by an inordinate desire for His more public manifestation; by an Elijah-like wrath on account of the corruptness of the court and world; by a desire himself to witness the manifestation of that kingdom of heaven which he had announced; above all, by ardent longing for a decisive word. But the faithfulness and strength of this friend of Jesus, in the midst of his weakness, appears even in the form of his message—straightforward and directly to Jesus. This characteristic is the earnest of his victory.

Mat_11:5. The blind see, etc.—The evidence of the Messiah’s working as given by the prophets, Isa_35:5; Isa_61:1. The cleansing of lepers and raising the dead, Ezekiel 36, 37. [Comp. the raising of the daughter of Jairus, Mat_9:18-26, and of the widow’s son at Nain, which, in the Gospel of Luke, immediately precedes this embassy, Luk_7:11; Luk_7:18. P. S.] Most commentators refer the expression poor to spiritual poverty; Meyer, to the national misfortunes of Israel. The statement with reference to these poor must, of course, be taken in a limited sense; just as that about the blind, the lame, etc.,—to all of whom it only applied on condition of their susceptibility to the influence of Christ.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. As the representative of the law, the prophet is another Moses: he may call for lightning, for thunder, or for fire from heaven. As messenger of the gospel, the prophet is only a precursor of Christ; and hence has not attained the full height of Christianity, especially in regard to patience under suffering. In this respect, also, it holds true that the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.—From the inquiry of the Baptist—shall we wait for another?—we learn the extent of his temptation. In the case of Israel, this query has, alas! been answered affirmatively, and they wait for “another,” to their own condemnation. But with John the difficulty arose from the knowledge that Messiah would also appear as Judge. And although he could not be ignorant of the difference between the suffering and the glorified Messiah, yet he was not aware of the distance intervening between the advent of the one and of the other; and his impatience was all the greater that he did not even see the Messiah suffering, in the strictest sense of the word. But the special object of his inquiry seems to have been, to urge Jesus publicly to declare Himself before all the people.

2. Formerly (in Matthew 9), Jesus had met the disciples of the Baptist by recalling to their minds the last testimony of the Baptist concerning Himself (the Bridegroom and His friend). He now replies to the Baptist, whose warrant was derived from the prophecies of Isaiah ( Matthew 40), by appealing to another part of these predictions ( Matthew 35 and 60), nay, by referring him even to the prophetic figure of the advent of the Lord through the wilderness. John impatiently longed for assistance, for retaliation, and for the vengeance of God. This was the occasion of his offence. Jesus replied by reminding him of the characteristics of Messiah in Isa_35:5, which are intended to meet such impatience as that of the Baptist. For, in the verses preceding those quoted by Christ, we read: “Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees. Say ye to them that are of a fearful (hasty) heart, Be strong, fear not: behold, your God cometh to vengeance, even God cometh to a recompense, that He may save you. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,” etc.—The description of the Messiah which follows—the transition from physical to spiritual deliverance, and the connection between the two—the relation between these deliverances and the character of the Messiah as drawn by Isaiah—lastly, the connection between this description and that of his own situation,—could not but have a beneficial and quickening influence upon John, especially when taken along with the concluding words, which would recall the prediction in Isa_8:14.

3. The conclusion of Christ’s reply to the Baptist indicated that the miracles of Jesus were also intended as emblems of spiritual deliverance. This view has been entertained by all sound interpreters, and only called in question on insufficient grounds. Lastly, we infer from this passage, that the miracles of Jesus were also designed to serve as evidence of His Messianic mission and Divine nature.

4. Hitherto Jesus had carefully avoided publicly taking the name of Messiah. John now urged Him to assume that title. This might easily have led to a popular movement in favor of John. But in His reply, Jesus combined the highest wisdom with the highest power: He appealed to His works, by which John could not fail to recognize Him as the Messiah; while at the same time He refused to yield to the suggestion of John, and openly avow Himself the Messiah.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

Jesus everywhere accompanies His honest messengers, to confirm their work.—Jesus teaches and preaches in the cities of His faithful witnesses (in their fields of labor: schools, churches, institutions, and works).—The call of the Lord penetrates everywhere, even within prison-walls.—The embassy of John the Baptist to the Lord, an evidence of strength in weakness. 1. An evidence of his weakness. Former joyous certitude of the Baptist; his present offence. Explained by his situation and his Old Testament character. Courage to bear suffering and the cross was only preparing. The temptations of saints. 2. Evidence of his strength: John addresses the Saviour, even as Christ Himself, in His last trial on the cross, appealed to the Father: My God, My God, etc.—The inquiry of the Baptist: Shall we look for another?—a wavering between truth and error: 1. True, in so far as it referred to the second advent of Christ; 2. false, as a misunderstanding of the first advent of Christ; 3. a doubt, or uncertainty as to the connection between the first and the second advent of Christ.—Glorious answer, by which the Lord in His strength restores His zealous friend in his weakness: 1. Glorious in its contents; 2. glorious in its humility and in its wisdom (He avoids the declaration that He did all this, and that He was the Messiah); 3. glorious in its mode of expression (reference to the passage in Isaiah in its context); 4. glorious in its promise (the dead are raised—which applied especially to John—and to the poor, etc.).—The miracles of Jesus an evidence of His claims and character.—The physical miracles of Jesus, signs and seals of His spiritual miracles: 1. Signs preceding them; 2. seals following them.—Blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended at Me: 1. Deep import of this saying (Whosoever shall not be offended at My infinite patience with the world, at My readiness to suffer, at My delay of judgment); 2. solemn warning: to judge and decide hastily may lead even to apostasy; 3. the great promise: he that overcometh the temptation to be of fended in Christ, has conquered and is saved.

[1] Mat_11:2.—The reading: διὰ τῶν μαθητῶν αὐτοῦ, through His disciples, adopted by Lachmann and Tischendorf, is strongly supported by Codd. B., C., D., etc. But even Origen and other fathers favor the reading: δύο, and this corresponds at all events with the actual fact as stated by Luk_7:19. [Διά is undoubtedly the original reading, supported by the oldest MSS., including the Cod. sinaitiens, and adopted also by Tregelles, Alford, Wordsworth; while δύο is a correction from Luk_7:19. Lection difficilior primatum tenet.—P. S.]

[2] Mat_11:3.—[Or: the coming One, ὁ ἐρχόμενος, הַבִּא, i. e., the Messiah. See Com.—P. S.]

[3] Mat_11:3.—[Προσδοκῶμεν is the conjunctive here. See Com.]

[4] Mat_11:4.—[The word again in the E. V. does not mean here a second time, but represents the preposition ἀπό in [illegible]αγγείλατε. But report, make known to, is a better translation. See the Dictionaries, s. verbo.—P. S.]

[5][Olshausen derives the designation from Psa_118:26 : “Blessed is He that cometh;” Hengstenberg from Mal_3:1 : “Behold He cometh.”—P. S.]

[6][Dr. Lange and his Edinb. trsl. add here: “after the Vulgate, etc.” But this is an error. The Vulgate translates: expectamus (indicative). So also Tertullian (Adv. Marcionem, Ab. iv. chap. 18). Erasmus, Beza, Fritzsche. But Bengel, de Wette, and Meyer more correctly regard it as a deliberative conjunctive which agrees better with the psychological condition of John and his disciples at the time. Comp. Mar_12:14 : δωμεν ἥ μὴ δωμεν. De Wette adds: “This question decidedly indicates doubt, if not concerning the Messianic mission, at least respecting His Messianic activity or mode of proceeding which did not fall in with the theocratic notions of the Baptist.” Others regard the question merely as a question of impatient zeal and indirect admonition to proceed faster. But even this would imply a certain discontent on the part of John. The same is true of Alford’s explanation that John, hearing the contradictory reports concerning the works of Christ, intended to bring him, through this embassy, to an open profession of His Messiahship, and thus incurred a share of the same rebuke which Mary received at Cana (Joh_2:4). Most of the fathers on the other hand, with the exception of Tertullian. Adv. Marc. Mat_4:18. Opera omnis, ed orhler, tom. 2 p. 203 (not Mat_4:5. as Dr. Wordsworth misquotes), especially Origen, Chrysostom, Theophylact, Jerome, Ambrose, Hilary, and Augustine, deny that John was in any doubt. Stier among the modern German, and Wordsworth among the English, commentators, elaborately defend the patristic view. The latter regards this sending of his disciples as the crowning act of the ministry of John, who thus guarded against a schism between his own disciples and those of Jesus, and bequeathed his disciples to Christ. I agree substantially with Dr. Lange’s view, viz: that John (like all saints in this world) was temporarily under a cloud of depression and doubt, not respecting the Messiahship of Christ (as Meyer in a long note, pp 244 and 245, 4th ed., asserts, contrary to Mat_11:7-8), but respecting the slow and unostentatious mode of His manifestation, and the true nature of His kingdom. It is very plain, what Lang does not notice, that the answer of our Saviour is directed to John himself (ἀπαγγείλατε ̓Ιωάννῃ), and not to his disciples, which implies that he needed it as much as they, for his own spiritual comfort and encouragement. That the message of Christ had the desired effect upon both may be inferred from the martyrdom of John and from the action of his disciples, who “took up his body and buried it and came and told Jesus,” Mat_14:12.—P. S.]

Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

8. The Forerunner in Prison. The Kingdom Preaching Rejected.

CHAPTER 11

1. John Imprisoned Sends his Disciples. (Mat 11:1-6.)

2. The King’s Testimony Concerning John. (Mat 11:7-19.)

3. The King Announces Judgment. (Mat 11:20-24.)

4. The Greater Invitation. (Mat 11:25-28.)

The first verse of this chapter belongs to the sending forth of the twelve, and should be put to the previous chapter. “And it came to pass when Jesus had finished commanding His twelve disciples, He departed thence to teach and preach in their cities.” He took the work upon Himself once more, and with the disciples He had sent forth He preached the Kingdom of the Heavens to be at hand. The Lord of the harvest, who had sent forth the laborers, enters the harvest field Himself. His rejection is now to be made more and more manifest. He came to His own and His own received Him not. Gradually in this Gospel we have seen how Israel had no heart, no desire for Him; they were indeed blinded. The rejection of Him who had so fully shown Himself to be Jehovah manifested in the flesh, is now rapidly approaching. Soon He will leave the house and take His place at the seashore (Mat 13:1) to teach the mysteries of the Kingdom of the Heavens, that which is to pass, while He, the King, and with Him the Kingdom is rejected. The eleventh chapter is the beginning of the crisis, and the twelfth chapter is the great turning point.

First of all we have the record of John the Baptist in prison sending to our Lord, and the message our Lord sends to him. “But John, having heard in the prison the works of the Christ, sent by His disciples and said to Him, Art Thou the Coming One? or are we to wait for another? And Jesus answering said to them, Go, report to John what you hear and see. Blind men see and lame walk; lepers are cleansed and deaf hear; and dead are raised and poor have glad tidings preached to them; and blessed is whosoever shall not be offended in Me.”

The incident has been differently interpreted. From the fourth chapter we learned that when Jesus heard that John was cast into prison He departed into Galilee (Mat 4:12). The fourteenth chapter in this Gospel gives the story of John’s imprisonment and his death. In this arrangement the divine hand which guided Matthew’s hand is seen again.

John the Baptist spent therefore some time in prison before he sent his disciples to our Lord. It is generally assumed that John, the preacher of repentance and the coming Kingdom, had finally expected that Jesus would soon establish the Kingdom, and that he, as the voice in the wilderness, the forerunner, would have a share in its glories. Instead of this expected glory he is cast into a dungeon. He had faithfully discharged his duties. Not like a miserable hireling had he acted, but fearlessly he had denounced evil, and for all his faithfulness nothing but suffering, rejection and death staring him in the face. It is, therefore, said by many that he doubted that Jesus was truly the promised Messiah, and asked for evidences of His Messiahship. However, this interpretation can hardly be right. If we turn to the Gospel of John and read his utterances there, we find that he had a complete insight into the work which Christ as the Lamb of God was to do, and he knew Jesus was the Christ. It is also reasonable to assume that his own disciples who had come to our Lord with the question, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast but Thy disciples fast not?” had come to him and given him the answer, that the bridegroom, the Messiah, was to be taken away from them, and then there would be fasting.

Others have looked upon this incident in another light. They attempt to shield John the Baptist altogether, and defend his absolute faith and confidence in Jesus as the Christ. According to many John was perfect so that no doubt could assail his mind. But why should he send from his prison and ask of the Lord such information? The difficulty is, according to these, solved, in that John desired the answer not for any confirmation of his faith, but that he sent his disciples because they were staggered in their belief. Martin Luther says on this passage: “It is certain that John sent to inquire on account of his disciples; for they did not yet regard Christ as the One for Whom He was to be regarded. They waited for one who would move along pompously, highly learned, as a mighty King. John treats them tenderly, endures their weak faith till they become strong; does not reject them because they do not yet believe in Him so firmly.” This solution of the difficulty, however, lacks scriptural support. It is a fanciful theory that John should have sent to Christ for the sake of his disciples. We need not claim perfection and infallibility for John the Baptist, for he had neither. Only one on the earth was perfect and infallible, sinless and spotless, who was never assailed by doubt, and that one is our Lord Jesus Christ. John, like Elijah, was “a man of like passions as we are.” Elijah’s ministry was marked with individual failure. His life was threatened by Jezebel: “And when he saw that, he arose and went for his life, and came to Beer-sheba, which belongeth to Judah, and left his servant there. But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree: and he requested for himself that he might die; and said, It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers” (1Ki 19:3-4). What a failure this was! Surely there is nothing good in man, and even in the most privileged servants of the Lord there is the flesh and the failure of the flesh. John in prison passes through the experience of Elijah in whose spirit and power he had come. It would be incorrect to say that John doubted the Messiahship of Jesus. He knew Him as the Christ. Yet in prison his patience is severely tested, and doubt troubles him. In this test he looks to Him, whom he always honored as his Lord, for succor. He sent directly to the Lord, and certainly He knew the weak and doubting one, as well as his faith, which looked to Him for strength and a word of cheer.

And is this not an incident with lessons for us? It teacheth us to confess our weakness before Him, and look to the Lord for the strength and comfort He alone can give.

We may also meditate in connection with John in prison and his doubt with another servant of the Lord in prison. There in Rome he sat and wrote, “I, Paul, prisoner of the Lord.” And out of that prison came forth the strains of praise and joy. How many “ifs’ and “hows” and “whys” he might have asked? How many murmurings and bitter complaints might have flown from His lips? He sends out a letter from the dungeon which has not the slightest hint of failure in it, where sin and flesh is not seen and not mentioned. But what is the secret of the rejoicing prisoner of the Lord? What is the secret which underlies the triumphant language of joy in the Epistle to the Philippians? It is one word, “Christ.” The life of Christ in him, and Christ the center, Christ the pattern and object before the apostle, and Christ his strength, enabled by Him to do all things, is the secret of all; and that John the Baptist, the greatest of the Old Testament did not know, nor could he be in possession of it. It is our full inheritance as believers on the other side of the cross. Oh, may we live in enjoyment of it, up to the mark of our position and possession in Christ.

But we return to our chapter. The Lord gives the message for John. If his disciples had any doubt, the words of the Lord must have dispersed these. And when John heard the answer it must have brought him strength and cheer. The Lord speaks of the signs of the Kingdom which He did in fulfillment of Old Testament predictions. We have shown before how in the miracles our Lord performed of Isa 35:5-6 was fulfilled. The dead also were raised and the glad tidings preached. The spiritual significance of the latter two is of course fully seen in the Gospel of John. The words, “And blessed is whosoever shall not be offended in Me,” are words of exhortation to John the Baptist. How like the Lord to put them at the end of the message. The Holy Spirit has repeated this in the Epistles where the admonitions are always coming in at the end or after words of love and commendation were given first. The admonition was certainly understood by John, and how deeply it must have exercised him. It led to humiliation, heartsearching, and in the end it was a beatitude, a “blessed.” May it ever be so with us.

And all this was not unknown to the crowds. They stood there and heard what passed between the Lord and John’s disciples. They heard the question they asked and the answer our Lord sent to John. John the Baptist was known by these crowds and they believed in him as a great prophet. His testimony and his personality might then be discredited by them. The Lord addresses himself to the crowds in what may be termed a defense of John. He shields him now before any criticism, and maintains his testimony and divinely given mission.

“But as they went away Jesus began to say to the crowds concerning John, What went ye out in the wilderness to see? A reed moved about by the wind? But what went ye out to see? A man clothed in delicate raiment? Behold those who wear delicate things are in the houses of kings. But what went ye out to see? A prophet? Yea, I say to you, and more than a prophet; this is he of whom it is written, Behold, I send My messenger before Thy face, who shall prepare Thy way before Thee. Verily I say to you, that there is not risen among the born of women a greater than John the Baptist. But he who is a little one in the Kingdom of the Heavens is greater than he.”

We confine our remarks to the end sentence. What is the meaning of it? Its common application is generally the thought that our Lord speaks here of the church age, and that the least in this present dispensation is greater than John in the old dispensation, to which he fully belonged. That such is the case no one doubts. We as Christian believers are higher in our standing than the Old Testament saints. However, the primary meaning of the passage is a different one. The question would be first of all, “What does our Lord mean here by Kingdom of the Heavens?” Up to the thirteenth chapter in the Gospel of Matthew the phrase, “Kingdom of the Heavens,” has only one meaning, viz., the Kingdom to be established in the earth, as predicted by the Old Testament prophets. In the thirteenth chapter it is the Kingdom of the Heavens in the hands of man in its development during the absence of the King. We cannot think, therefore, that in the eleventh chapter, where it is still the offer of the Kingdom of the Heavens, our Lord would introduce the present age. This would be all out of keeping with the scope of Matthew. Now as our Lord means the Kingdom of the Heavens actually set up in the earth, the meaning of His words becomes clear. The little one who is in that Kingdom of the Heavens, when it has come at last, will be greater than John, who but announced the Kingdom to come. It foreshadows the glories of the coming Kingdom age, when the little one will be greater than John ever could be in the earth.

But our Lord adds: “From the days of John the Baptist until now, the Kingdom of the Heavens is taken by violence, and the violent seize on it. For all the prophets and the law have prophesied unto John. And if ye will receive it (him), this is Elias, who is to come. He that has ears to hear let him hear.”

These words are again very simple and to our mind present no difficulty at all, if they are taken in their literal meaning. It is strange that the words of our Lord should be made to mean the Gospel, eternal life, conversion and the sinner’s own efforts to take possession of it. Yet such is the case. Many preachers and evangelists have no other light on this passage and preach and exhort from it what is in direct opposition to the blessed Gospel. According to these preachers, the violent, who take the Kingdom by force or press into it (Luk 16:16), are unsaved sinners. The devil, the flesh and the world stand in the sinner’s way of salvation, so they teach, and he must use force, great violence, to enter into the Kingdom. After due exercise, strenuous effort and violence he will be able to take it by force. This is the general interpretation of the passage. It is as erroneous as the interpretation of the parable of the treasure hid in the field and the pearl of great price, which makes the sinner give his all (though he has nothing to give) to buy salvation.

No, the violent who take the Kingdom by violence are not unsaved sinners, who seek salvation and that salvation must be taken by force. Salvation is by grace, it is God’s free gift, and the sinner is not saved through and in his violent efforts, but in believing in the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Pharisees and scribes who stand here before our Lord are the violent who take the Kingdom of the Heavens (never the Gospel) by force and seize on it. Our Lord says: “From the days of John until now.” The forerunner, John, was violently rejected by the Pharisees. This foreshadowed the rejection of the King, the rejection of the preaching of the Kingdom and the Kingdom itself. In this seizing upon the Kingdom, rejecting it, the Kingdom of the Heavens suffered violence. It was rejected by force and now is postponed till He comes again. If they had received John the Baptist he would have been Elias. But he was rejected, they would not have it so. They did violence to what the King had come to bring. Another Elias will come once more, and then no violence can keep back the coming of the Kingdom of the Heavens.

Let us notice that John’s ministry was exclusively to his own people. Elijah’s ministry is still future and falls in the period of the great tribulation. His ministry and testimony will be confined to the land of Israel and to the remnant of Israel. Any one who claims to be Elijah incarnate at this time is either a downright fraud, unbalanced in his mind, or so grossly ignorant of the Word of God and His revealed purposes, that the proud imaginations of his heart lead him astray into such a ridiculous claim.

The words which follow are a true description of the generation which was privileged to see the King, Jehovah, manifested in the earth. “But to whom shall I liken this generation? It is like children calling to their companions, saying, We have piped to you, and ye have not danced; we have mourned to you, and ye have not wailed. For John has come, neither eating nor drinking, and they say, He has a demon. The son of man has come eating and drinking, and they say, Behold a man that is eating and wine drinking, a friend of tax-gatherers, and of sinners; -- and wisdom has been justified by her children” (Mat 11:15-19). In other words, the generation was a foolish lot of people who could not be suited by anything. They were like children. It is a wonderful declaration of our Lord of the condition of the people, His own to whom He came, and who received Him not. The illustration is taken from children playing with the real things of life, with joy and sorrow, and idling their time away. John appeared, among them and they were dissatisfied with him. He was too strict, too severe; they cared not for him, and because he would not sit down and eat and drink with them they said, he has a demon. Then the Lord came. Truth and mercy were revealed through Him. He sat down with the tax-gatherers and sinners and mingled with them, eating and drinking. Divine mercy towards the fallen and outcast was most blessedly shown -- the spotless One in touch with the defiled and lost, calling sinners to repentance. But they had no understanding for this, no heart for that wonderful grace. He was in their eyes but a man, for they said: “Behold a man -- eating and drinking.” They put Him on the same level with the wine drinking company. Neither mourning nor rejoicing suited them. Behind it stands the evil heart, the natural man, never pleased with God’s way, always finding fault. “The carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be” (Rom 8:7). The words “wisdom has been justified by her children” has found many different interpretations. Its meaning is very simple. While the large mass of people were thus rejecting John and Christ, and had no understanding for God’s love and mercy made known, there were others, a few indeed, and these accepted the teaching of John and believed in the Lord. “Wisdom” is an Old Testament name of our Lord. The whole book of Proverbs abounds with the word Wisdom and the speech Wisdom utters. The eighth chapter tells us that Wisdom is a person and that person is our Lord. Those who believed in Him are the children of Wisdom and they had no fault to find, neither with John’s burning call to repentance, nor with the mercy of Christ in eating and drinking with the tax-gatherers and sinners. In this way Wisdom was justified by her children.

And is the present generation of nominal Christian better than the generation of professing Israelites in the day of Christ? We think not. They are today the same as the Christ rejecting Jews were then. The Christ of God, God’s way of Righteousness and Grace does not suit the natural heart at any time.

Solemn are the words which follow now. The Judge speaks. He who speaks here will take His place upon the throne and preside in that judgment day of which He speaks, “Then began He to reproach the cities in which most of His works of power had taken place, because they had not repented. Woe to thee, Chorazin! Woe to thee, Bethsaida ! for if the works of power which have taken place in you, had taken place in Tyre and Sidon, they had long ago repented in sackcloth and ashes. But I say to you, that it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in judgment day than for you. And thou, Capernaum, who hast been raised up to heaven, shall be brought down even to Hades. For if the works of power which have taken place in thee, had taken place in Sodom, it had remained until this day. But I say to you, that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in judgment day than for thee.” His divine patience is now seen as almost exhausted and for the first time in this Gospel He speaks the “Woe,” which He repeats later a number of times. And oh! the word “woe” coming from such lips! Chorazin and Bethsaida had been greatly privileged. Works of power, works which manifested Jehovah’s presence had been shown in their midst, yet they repented not. Tyre and Sidon never witnessed such manifestations. The responsibility of Chorazin and Bethsaida is therefore greater than the responsibility of Tyre and Sidon. There will be in that day different degrees of punishment. Capernaum, His own city, had come nearest to heaven and still there was no response. Sodom with all their awful fruits of the flesh will fare better in judgment day than Capernaum. The measure of relationship is always the measure of responsibility. Tyre, Sidon and Sodom had no such privileges and stood in no such relationship to the Lord as the cities which our Lord mentions here. It is so with Christendom today. It shall be more tolerable in that day to the nations of darkest Africa than to the so-called “Christian nations,” with light and privileges offered and wilfully rejected.

And what a scene follows! “At that time,” when in the midst of the outburst of His righteous words of condemnation, He speaks the words so precious still. What words could picture Him as He stood there and that face, soon to be marred and spit upon, turned upward to heaven? And now He said, “I praise thee, Father, Lord of the heaven and the earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them to babes. Yea, Father, for thus has it been well pleasing in Thy sight. All things have been delivered to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son but the Father, nor does anyone know the Father but the Son, and he to whom the Son may be pleased to reveal Him.”

The Lord stands on the earth and looks to the Father in heaven. Both are Lord. It was so at the destruction of Sodom. “Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven.” (Gen 19:24). The Lord who had then been in the earth and communed with Abraham His friend, stood once more on the earth. He came in the form of a servant, having emptied Himself of His outward glory, and here as the obedient One praises Him, to whom He had said coming into the world, “Lo, I come to do Thy will” (Heb 10:4-7). The Lord of the heaven and of the earth is His Father, but He who looks now to Him is not less the Lord of the heaven and of the earth. “Father,” He said. He was then the only One who could thus look to heaven. It is, blessed be His name! different now. The Spirit of Sonship has been given whereby we cry, “Abba, Father.”

From the wise and the prudent, the self-sufficient religionists, the Pharisees and speculating Sadducees these things were hid, but revealed unto babes. They had refused Him, the wisdom of God; being wise in their own conceits and blindness was the dreadful result. Babes instead received the revelation of Himself. We often wonder why the wise and prudent of our day do not see certain truths, the blessed Gospel of the Glory of God, the truth concerning the church, the coming of our Lord, while others, poor and weak though they are, are in full possession of these revelations and ever receive more out of his fullness. The reason is soon found. Only He who owns his nothingness, who takes his place in weakness at His feet, and is like a babe, can receive these things. Never does the Lord entrust His secrets and his councils to the wise and prudent. Would we know more of Him, of His Word, His purposes and His thoughts? There is only one way -- be a babe, own yourself as such and as a babe walk and live before the Lord of heaven and earth.

“All things,” our Lord said, “have been delivered unto me by my Father.” The people were soon ready to reject Him as their Messiah and King, but He knew His inheritance, an inheritance in which the babe in Him has a glorious share.

Furthermore, “the Father knoweth the Son.” How softly we should tread whenever we speak of the person of our Lord, for the full knowledge is only with the Father. “No one knoweth the Father but the Son and he to whomsoever the Son may be pleased to reveal Him.” No one cometh to the Father but by me. Whoever denies the Son has not the Father either. Revealing the Father is what our Lord did and still is doing. In resurrection He is Son of God with power, and all who receive Him are brought to God and become children of God, to know the Father.

Upon this divine statement of His own person, His oneness with the Father, He utters that word which is so well known and which has been a word of blessing to uncountable souls.

“Come to Me all ye who labor and are burdened and I will give you rest.” This is the first part of the gracious invitation. Significantly it comes in right after the rejection by His own becomes manifest and after He spoke of the rejection of the favored Galilean cities. It is typical of that full, free and blessed Gospel of Grace, which was made known after His death and resurrection, and which is still being preached.

It is an invitation to all, Jew and Gentile. The invitation is to those who labor and are burdened; it is to come to Him and He promises rest. How full it is! How inexhaustible in its meaning! The second part of His invitation brings us further. “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest for your souls; for My yoke is easy and My burden light.”

The one who has come to Him and found rest is to take now His yoke upon him and to learn of Him. It means to follow Him, to be under Him as Lord. The yoke is not the law, but His own yoke, His loving restraint; and two belong into the yoke; we are yoked together with Him. And having Him, the One meek and lowly in heart, ever before the soul, rest for the soul is the blessed fruit. It is the whole Epistle to the Philippians in a nutshell. “Let this mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus.” Coming to Him we have rest -- living in Him we find rest for our souls. May the reader meditate upon these words of our Lord till they become sweeter than honey and honeycomb.

Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Mat 11:1-6

Jesus and His Doubters.

I. The doubt. It is not at all clear who doubted, whether John or his disciples, or indeed whether they all did. The stoutest faith has often failed before now; ours has often failed us in circumstances far less grievous than these. John was indeed a prophet, but he did not cease to be human on that account. He had done his work before his imprisonment. The movement was too advanced to be determined henceforth by any influences which might proceed from John’s life. If his faith should for the time be unequal to the dampness and dimness of the dungeon, it had been equal to the warmth and the light of the open day. Whatever be the condition of mind his words here disclose, the question is formulated by one who can trust the Christ for telling the truth of the matter, and that when he had no confidence in the mood of his own mind or in the suggestion of his circumstances.

II. How the doubt was dealt with by the doubters. John did not wish to hear more about Christ, but something from Him. He might have called for the books of the prophets, to see again whether the anticipation there corresponded with the reality here; or have asked very helplessly, as we do, for a symposium of his disciples’ opinions, and tested the merits of the Christ by their vote. To his honour be it said, he did nothing of the kind, but sent two of his disciples to ask Him, "Art Thou He that should come?"

III. How Christ treated the doubters. He seems to have received them with great deference, and thought apparently no less of them and of John than He had done before. The messengers were commanded to go and tell John, and they would be able to use words in their true meaning now that they had heard Christ. It had been a tale of general beneficence and of universal kindness, and told by one who felt the power of its every word. It carried with it its own evidence.

J. O. Davies, Sunrise on the Soul, p. 171.

References: Mat 11:1-6.—A. B. Bruce, Expositor, 1st series, vol. v., p. 11. Mat 11:1-19.—Parker, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xix., p. 8; Ibid., Inner Life of Christ, vol. ii., p. 162. Mat 11:2-4.—E. W. Shalders, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xx., p. 164. Mat 11:2-5.—G. Salmon, Non-miraculous Christianity, p. 1; C. Kingsley, Sermons on National Subjects, p. 22. Mat 11:2-6.—Homiletic Quarterly, vol. ii., p. 404; W. Bull, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xviii., p. 103; H. W. Beecher, Ibid., vol. xxiv., p. 19. Mat 11:2-10.—Homiletic Quarterly, vol. i., p. 473; Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. iii., p. 292.

Mat 11:3

Doubting.

I. There is no sin in doubting. Some doubts are sinful. They are so when born of irrational prejudices or bred of an ill-regulated life. But doubt, of its own nature, cannot be sinful. For what is it? It is a certain fluctuation of the mind, this way and that way, while as yet, in the matter in question, it has no convincing evidence. The miracles of Jesus, in one aspect of them, were the Divine answers to men’s sinless doubts, and also the Divine method of preventing them from arising.

II. Faith is better than doubt. We are never encouraged in the Scriptures, nor are we justified in any of the dictates of natural wisdom, in cultivating, as an inner habit, an intellectual or moral scepticism. We are encouraged to ask questions of God and man, to read books, weigh evidence, reject fallacy; in one word, to prove all things. But all this with a view to the ending of hesitancy, to the settling of faith, and the holding fast of that which is good. So that to say we are encouraged to doubt is only another way of saying we are encouraged to believe.

III. In any attempts to subdue scepticism, either in ourselves or in others, regard should be had to the proximate cause of it—or, since proximate and remote are often inseparably blended, say to the real cause—as far as that can be ascertained. (1) For instance, there can be no doubt that a large amount of mental perturbation is due to physical causes. The suffering body sometimes makes the troubled mind. In such cases physical medicaments are needed, and should be sought and used as the very balm of Gilead for the occasion. (2) Then if the doubt be purely intellectual, if it arises in the course of a natural development of thought and knowledge, then there must be applied to it an expressly intellectual solvent. (3) Let those who have moral doubts obey the Lord’s injunction and come unto Him for rest. Nearly all doubts concerning Christ or Christian truth ought to be brought in some way before Christ Himself, and given, as it were, into His own hands for solution.

A. Raleigh, The Little Sanctuary, p. 110; see also Three Hundred Outlines on the New Testament, p. 16.

References: Mat 11:3.—R. W. Dale, Contemporary Pulpit, vol. vi., p. 355; E. Blencowe, Plain Sermons to a Country Congregation, vol. ii., p. 13. Mat 11:4.—G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 111. Mat 11:4, Mat 11:5.—E. M. Goulburn, Occasional Sermons, p. 191. Mat 11:4-6.—R. Duckworth, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxiv., p. 49.

Mat 11:5

I. We may always find Holy Scripture, in its endeavours to make men good, using such arguments and taking such methods as are within the understanding of the poorest and most unlearned, if they have but a will to please God. When it would teach us to love God it does not require of us to plunge ourselves into deep and high thoughts of what He is in Himself, but it tells us what He is to us; our Father, and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. If we would understand how we are to love our neighbour, the Bible tells us that it must be as we love ourselves. Would we know how we are to renounce the world and cleave to Christ, it must be with such a love as causes a man to leave father and mother, brethren and sisters, and to cleave unto his wife—i.e., with our very best and most entire affection. Now this is quite as much within the reach of the poorest and meanest as well as of the wisest and wealthiest among us.

II. Consider our Lord’s manner of teaching, and see whether the same be said of that also. We must be, most of us, too well aware how sadly our attention first fails us, and afterwards our memory, when we are to receive instruction in a set speech or sermon; how apt we are to let go the thread of the preacher’s meaning, and how difficult it is to gather it up again. How thankful, then, ought we to be towards that best of masters, that best of instructors, who has left for our use so many short and plain sayings, any one of which, rightly received into an upright heart and seriously considered, will be found to contain the whole way to heaven in a very few words.

III. Again, the Gospel is preached to the poor especially by means of the great abundance of examples with which it is stored. When we tell a poor untaught person, who has not been much used to consider the meanings of words, that he must be merciful, contented, humble, devout, it is not to be wondered at if he often goes away without any very clear notion of what is expected from him. But when we bid him be merciful like David, contented like St. Paul, humble like the blessed Virgin, devout like St. John, and all like the holy Jesus, then, if he know anything of his Bible, he cannot fail to understand us in some measure, and he knows where to turn that he may understand us better.

IV. But the greatest privilege of all which the poor my find in the Gospel, if they will, is this: that our Master and only Saviour, when He was upon earth, chose to be one of them—chose to be so poor and needy as not to know where to lay His head. A rich man, when he is considering how to use his wealth, has to take thought how his Saviour would have acted if he had been rich in this world. A poor man, when he is considering how to bear his poverty, has only to look and see how his Lord actually did bear His, and how, in spite of it, He made Himself, even humanly speaking, most useful to the souls and bodies of all around Him. God give us all grace to make the most of those inestimable privileges which the meanest of us here enjoy.

J. Keble, Sermons Occasional and Parochial, p. 143.

Consider the answer of our Lord to John. Jesus was to show that He was the Messiah. He was to send to His poor suffering, despairing friend and cousin a true message of hope and reassurance. He says to the two messengers, "Go and show John again those things which ye do hear and see;" and one of these things is this, "The poor have the Gospel preached to them."

I. This, then, is one of the signs that the Son of God has come into the world. There is a Gospel for the poor. There are glad tidings for those who need them most. And of necessity, also, this is one of the marks and notes of the Church of Christ. She can hardly be a faithful handmaid of the Master who sent such a message to His poor afflicted servant, if it be not true of her that "to the poor the Gospel is preached."

II. If the preaching of the Gospel to the poor be so plain a duty of a church which would follow the example and obey the command of Christ, is it quite certain that we are rightly and fully grasping the meaning of the Gospel which is to be preached, and that we thoroughly understand how to preach it? I hold that the Gospel is larger than men are wont to think. I cannot confine my Gospel to the death of Christ, and shut out the life of Christ. I cannot teach a Gospel of the crucifixion, and ignore the Gospel of the resurrection. And yet the central light and glow of the Gospel is gathered round the cross of Calvary. And it is such a Gospel which is the one great spiritual need of the poor. The one thing which will brighten and beautify the darkest, meanest lives is the Gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, the bringing home to these poor souls of the love and tenderness and sympathy of our personal Saviour, the opening up to these of visions of a life of purity and peace in Him. "Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest," is the sort of sermon which encourages and strengthens the oppressed and exhausted toilers. It should ever be pointed out to them that Christ was a toiler Himself, personally acquainted with the difficulties and sufferings of the most abject of our race, and that He is as full of love and as ready to assist and comfort the needy as He ever was; that despotism and oppression are no part of the Gospel of Jesus. These would be the sermons, that the Gospel, which would fill our churches.

Bishop Walsham How, Cambridge Review, Feb. 11th, 1885.

References: Mat 11:5.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. iii., No. 114; H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xiii., p. 172; G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 157; Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. iii., p. 163; Bishop Magee, Three Hundred Outlines on the New Testament, p. 17; J. J. S. Perowne, Contemporary Pulpit, p. 207. Mat 11:6.—J. Edmunds, Sixty Sermons, p. 17; Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxiv., No. 1398; J. H. Evans, Thursday Penny Pulpit, vol. viii., p. 155; Bishop Moorhouse, Contemporary Pulpit, vol. vi., p. 257; J. Keble, Sermons from Advent to Christmas Eve, p. 362. Mat 11:7.—G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 108; J. C. Hare, The Victory of Faith, p. 351; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. iv., p. 359; H. P. Liddon, Christian World, Pulpit, vol. xviii., p. 369; Ibid., Expository Outlines of Sermons on the New Testament, p. 12. Mat 11:7-15.—A. B. Bruce, Expositor, 1st series, vol. v., p. 98. Mat 11:9, Mat 11:10.—F. W. Robertson, Human Race and Other Sermons, p. 143.

Mat 11:10

I. Consider this text as referring to ourselves. Every Christian man, woman, or child is a messenger of God, sent to prepare the way for Christ’s coming. We are all of us, in one sense, apostles—that is, sent forth to help each other nearer to God. Our part is to build up the Church of Christ, and to strengthen His kingdom by setting a good example to others.

II. Let us remember Whose we are and Whom we serve. If we are tempted to do a mean, a fake, or a disgraceful action, if we are tempted to do or say what our conscience tells us to be wrong, then let us pause and think. I am a messenger sent by God to prepare His way before Him; how dare I commit this sin against God, and against my brother whom I injure by my example? If we would escape the unspeakable remorse of knowing that we have led astray, by our evil ways, souls for which Jesus died, let us guard more carefully our conduct and our conversation. Let us day by day ask God to make us more like our perfect pattern, Jesus Christ.

H. J. Wilmot-Buxton, The Life of Duty, vol. i., p. 17.

References: Mat 11:10.—T. Arnold, Sermons, vol. iv., p. 117; A. B. Bruce, Expositor, 1st series, vol. vi., p. 61; H. W. Grimley, The Temple of Humanity and other Sermons, p. 226; R. D. B. Rawnsley, Village Sermons, 1st series, p. 26. Mat 11:10, Mat 11:11.—Preacher’s Monthly, vol. v., p. 20.

Mat 11:11

I. The first thing which demands our notice in John the Baptist seems to be his singleness in carrying out the work which God appointed him. Consider the time when he appeared. It was no ordinary season. Many eyes were eagerly looking for the dawn of the kingdom of God. The Deliverer to come was much in the thoughts and on the lips of the devout men in Israel. Any one of pre-eminent sanctity and power of persuasion might have gathered the Jewish people round him as their Messiah. It was a moment which might well try the earnestness and singleness of purpose of any of the sons of men. Yet amidst all, how blameless is John—how simple-hearted—how is his eye ever fixed on the one great object of his mission—how totally absent are all self-regard, all visions of ambition, all pretensions to holiness and eminence! To testify to Christ is all his aim, and from that nothing diverts him.

II. Another point in the Baptist’s character was his "bold rebuking of vice." We have this exemplified in the strong and fervid exhortations he administered to the various classes of persons who came to his baptism. But it reaches its highest point in his behaviour towards the unprincipled and licentious Herod Antipas. In our witnessing for Christ we must not shrink from this, one of its most imperative, as it is one of its least palatable duties. By the fearless testimony of Christian men almost all the improvements in society and opinions among us have been brought about.

III. The last scene in the Baptist’s life stands unsurpassed in history, both for what it does relate and what it does not relate. It furnishes us, on the one hand, with the saddest recorded triumph of vanity and depravity over integrity and godliness. And the saint of God—he is utterly worthless in the matter; his life is recklessly sacrificed to the cruelty and caprice of an adulteress. But turn to the other side—to that which is not recorded, but left for us to infer. Who are they for whom our hearts bleed in this sad history? Who lie the deepest in misery after the catastrophe—the oppressed or the oppressors, the martyr or the tyrant and his court? Hence let us learn to measure all such incidents in the history of the world, and to cast in our lot accordingly.

H. Alford, Quebec Chapel Sermons, vol. v., p. 32.

Nature and Circumstances.

Jesus was telling His disciples that the true greatness of human life must come by following Him. It was inevitable, then, that men should ask, "How is it about those great men who are not His followers; those great men who have gone before Him; those great men who are wholly outside of His influence—are they not truly great? And if they are, what has become of His saying that true greatness lies only in Him, and in the kingdom of God to which He is so earnestly summoning us?

I. This question belongs not to the things of Christ, nor to religious things alone. All life suggests it, for in all life there are these two ways of estimating the probable value of men: one by the direct perception of their characters; the other by the examination of the institutions to which they belong, the privileges which they enjoy. Think of the schoolboy who is just graduating from one of our public schools, and of Socrates, who died more than two thousand years ago in Greece. The schoolboy represents the privileged condition which is the result of centuries of civilization. He cannot help knowing things which were utterly out of the power of the ancient philosopher. The philosopher is among the very greatest of historic men; but the least of modern men has that which he, with all his greatness, could not have.

II. Here, then, we see the two elements: there is the greatness of nature, and there is the greatness of circumstances. Christ recognizes the two elements of personal greatness and of lofty condition, and He seems almost to suggest another truth, which is at any rate familiar to our experience of life, which is that personal power which has been manifest in some lower region of life seems sometimes to be temporarily lost and dimmed with the advance of the person who possesses it into a higher condition.

"You must be born again," the Master said to Nicodemus. Nicodemus wanted Christ to meet him in a lower world, a world of moral precepts and Hebrew traditions, where the Pharisee was thoroughly at home. But Christ said, "No, there is a higher world; you must go up there; you must enter into that; you must have a new birth, and live in a new life—in a life where God is loved and known and trusted and communed with. He who is least in that kingdom, he who has in any degree begun to live that higher kind of life, has something which the best and noblest soul in the inferior life has not, is greater than the greatest who is not in the kingdom."

Phillips Brooks, Sermons in English Churches, p. 200.

Mat 11:11

I. These words, as they were spoken, need very little explanation. We can well understand how they rose to the lips of our Lord as He looked back upon the past history of His race, and forward to the larger Church which He came to found. He came to set before men a new ideal, another standard, a higher rule of life, to make a new revelation of God to man; but not for this only. He came to plant a leaven in the world, that must spread and germinate and affect the world, or perish; and therefore, as He looked back on that earlier Church which had been laid step by step to the eve of this era, and forward to the new power and the new life which His own work was to bring alike to the spirit of the individual and the framework of society, He might well say that the humblest of those who were admitted into that new kingdom would enjoy greater privileges, stand on a higher vantage-ground, than even he who, like Moses, had led his race to the verge of the promised land, but had failed to enter.

II. The text may save us from refusing to honour all that justly claims our homage; it may guard us against doing violence to the Christian conscience by accepting a lower or un-Christian standard, by reverencing that which has no claim to reverence. It may remind us that we need not prostrate ourselves in unmanly hero-worship before the mingled clay and gold of mere human greatness; but that we may not refuse to acknowledge and to honour all that is high, all that is good, see it where we may. We cannot admire too fully or too cordially whatever in any age or on any scene is truly great, is truly noble; but we may still prize above all gifts for ourselves and for others the full surrender of the heart to God, the admission into the number of those who seek His voice and do His bidding, and are taught of Him, led by Him, and owned by Him. Verily, I say unto you, we may hear within our hearts that among those born of women there is none greater than this or that hero of this age or of another; yet "he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he."

Dean Bradley, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxviii., p. 289.

References: Mat 11:11.—Homiletic Quarterly, vol. v., p. 89; S. Macnaughten, Real Religion and Real Life, p. 172; J. Brierley, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxiv., p. 53.

Mat 11:12

(with Luk 16:16)

The Virtue of Violence.

We shall try to draw the character of the βιαστής, or man of violence, as Christ here introduces him, in two or three of his relations to the kingdom of grace.

I. The "royal" life, or it would not be such, is a life, in part, of renunciation. It has to make sacrifices. The violent man, determined to take the kingdom by force, goes to war with his sins, makes no excuse for them, never pretends to say that they are venial, or to say that they are natural. He must be rid of them, and he knows it, or he cannot enter heaven. Therefore he brings the fire and sword of the new kingdom into their encampments and into their fastnesses, burns and slays without mercy, as though they were his enemies, counts nothing worth keeping if it involves truce, treaty, or compromise with them.

II. Every one knows, most men have felt, at some period of their lives, that the royal life is not easy in what it demands of the reason. In the most difficult, most delicate, most critical matter of believing there is a timidity which is no prudence, and there is a vehemence which is no presumption. The man of violence must have his answer; and when he has it he will embrace, he will avow, he will live it. This one thing I do: I follow after till I know, and then I follow after till I attain.

III. The life into which man finds entrance through faith is a life of two chief activities: there is an activity Godward and there is an activity manward. The one is devotion, the other is work. There is a force necessary, as well as a sweetness, to the perfection of the Christian character. All the great works have been done by it. There has always been an outspokenness, an independence, a willingness to stand alone, to go forth without the gate and the camp of the conventional and the traditional, in the men who have told upon their times, in the men who have made history, in the men who have set forward on its march the cause of good. This is the violence of which the text tells in its positive activity.

C. J. Vaughan, Cambridge Review, May 5th, 1886.

I. Let us look in a large way at this important truth. Everything great on earth has to be achieved by long, earnest, persistent toil. If you seek to become master of any art, any literature, any science, any accomplishment, you do not sit down and say, "God is the Giver of all good, and I shall not be so arrogant as to strive for that which He alone can bestow." You know very well it can only be had by meeting every obstacle and conquering it. The very value of a thing is estimated often by the straining endeavour, the unconquerable zeal, and the ceaseless labour which are requisite to its attainment. One might go through the whole range of human experience and culture, and everywhere the kingdom that you want to become master of has been taken by force. The door is opened to the persistent knocking. The bread is given to the unwearied demand. The treasure is found by the one who has been seeking.

II. Now we come to the highest life of all, to the culture of that part of our nature which transcends all else. Is it not this principle which pervades all the physical and mental world, and which is to be found in the grander life of the immortal soul? Surely it is, and we ignore the teaching of Christ and His apostles if we regard Christ’s religion as merely a means by which we are to be saved from all trouble and responsibility about the future. Side by side with the fullest statements of God’s free grace, what do we find in the life and writings of St. Paul? All through those Epistles which are so full of the Gospel of the grace of God, and where Christ and Him crucified is the central fact of the Christian faith, the apostle, in words which thrill with the living power of deep personal experience, speaks of the Christian life as a ceaseless, protracted, fearful struggle. He exhausts things sacred and profane to find imagery to depict and to impress this truth. The Christian life is a race for which no previous preparation is too careful, in which every nerve is to be strained, and in which all our force is to be concentrated, that we may "obtain the prize." It is not a mere isolated battle, but a fierce, protracted warfare, for which is provided alike offensive and defensive armour, and into which he dare not enter unless completely equipped. Such was St. Paul’s conception of the Christian life; such, he tells us, was his experience of what it was "to live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me."

T. T. Shore, Some Difficulties of Belief, p. 165.

References: Mat 11:12.—R. W. Evans, Parochial Sermons, vol. ii., p. 238; H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit, No. 1,905; Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. v., No. 252; Homiletic Magazine, vol. ix., p. 79; H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit, vol. v., p. 8; S. Cox, Expositor, 1st series, vol. iii., p. 252; D. Rhys Jenkins, The Eternal Life, p. 318. Mat 11:12, Mat 11:13.—A. B. Bruce, Expositor, 1st series, vol. v., p. 197. Mat 11:14.—Homiletic Quarterly, vol. iv., pp. 337, 505. Mat 11:14-17.—Ibid., p. 470; J. H. Evans, Thursday Penny Pulpit, vol. xv., p. 81. Mat 11:15.—J. C. Jones, Studies in St. Matthew, p. 184; S. Cox, Expository Essays and Discourses, p. 159. Mat 11:16, Mat 11:17.—S. Cox, The Bird’s Nest, p. 33.

Mat 11:16-19

The Baptist and Christ.

I. When John appeared to Israel, and made his voice heard from the wilderness, the stern reality of such a life struck all imaginations; the hope he held out of a teacher who should subdue all hearts, and lift off the weight of sin, his own short, well-defined teaching kindled men with the hope of peace, and all classes streamed into the desert to hear his tale. Only a few remained; the rest streamed back again, untouched or angry. But all the same, they could not get rid of the religious impulse in their heart. The leaven of the time still worked, and when they got back to their homes in Jerusalem they were charmed to hear of a more liberal teacher than John. (1) The religion of the Baptist had been too hard for them, because of its stern morality. It demanded outward purity—domestic, social, political, and mercantile purity. We shall be better off with Christ, they thought. "He will not be so hard on us." Alas! they found themselves worse off than before. It was bad enough to hear that the whole of the outward life had to be reformed; it was ten times worse to hear that the inward life had to be reformed. (2) The religion of the Baptist had been too hard on them, because of its demand for self-sacrifice. And, lo! Christ was ten times more severe on this point than John. To relieve their conscience they turned to abuse and vilify Him who had shown them a vision they could not bear. They were piped unto, and they had not danced.

II. Another class of men turned from the Baptist to look at the religion of Christ. These were the religious leaders of the day, the Pharisees. John had treated them with no gentle terms. Serpents, generation of vipers—these were the soft words ho used. No doubt there were sleek hyprocrites and bigots among them, and the bitter words were well deserved. But there must have been others who were really moral men among them, and who strove to follow righteousness. So far as the religious pride and persecuting and exclusive spirit was concerned, they were not much better than the hypocrites. The Pharisees were disappointed in Christ. No sharper or more indignant language was ever used by man against other men than the words with which Christ denounced them—words which cost Him His life, and which He knew would do so. He would have nothing to do with them unless they came to Him humbly, and confessed themselves sinners. Not among their ranks, but among unlearned fishermen and villagers, He chose His special followers; He dined with the publicans, even at one of their houses He admitted the sinful women to salvation. Let the Pharisees say what they will, "wisdom is justified of her children."

S. A. Brooke, The Fight of Faith, p. 19.

References: Mat 11:16-19.—H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit, Nos. 2,248, 2,251; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. vi., p. 75; G. Salmon, Sermons Preached in Trinity College, Dublin, p. 249; Pulpit Parables, p. 207. Mat 11:16-20.—A. B. Bruce, Expositor, 1st series, vol. v., p. 257. Mat 11:16-29.—R. C. Trench, Studies in the Gospels, p. 153.

Mat 11:19

I. The idea of the essential badness of pleasure has been very commonly held and advocated by the propounders of ethical and religious systems. The religions of the Hindus and the Buddhists aim at the gradual suppression of the body, and the entire eradication of desire. Like many other views which find no warrant in the Christianity of Christ, this idea has had a considerable influence upon the Christianity of Christendom.

II. Asceticism in its extreme form, in which it is synonymous with the worship of pain, will scarcely bear a moment’s examination. The supposition that God takes delight in agony is the foulest of all conceivable blasphemies. Asceticism, however, often takes a somewhat different form. Many persons seem to think that they ought by rights to care for nothing but heaven. They seem to think, as they lavish their affections upon those who are dear to them, that God is watching them with an angry, greedy jealousy, and will never be satisfied till He has concentrated the whole wealth of their love upon Himself.

III. Now this is not the kind of self-denial which Christ requires from us. Serious and earnest as the Saviour was, no one can say that He was a harsh or gloomy ascetic. Think of Him at the marriage festival. Think of His friendly visits to the family at Bethany. He never refused anything agreeable, except when it would have hindered Him in the accomplishment of His Father’s work. "I pray not," said our Lord, "that Thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that Thou shouldest keep them from the evil." "The Son of man came eating and drinking." Ay, the very Man of Sorrows refused to join in the irrational worship of pain.

A. W. Momerie, The Origin of Evil, p. 123.

References: Mat 11:19.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. x., No. 556; J. W. Lance, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xv., p. 129; F. W. Farrar, Contemporary Pulpit, vol. i., p. 46; F. W. Robertson, The Human Race and Other Sermons, p. 182. Mat 11:20.—J. Tulloch, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxiv., p. 25. Mat 11:20, Mat 11:21.—H. W. Beecher, Ibid., vol. xxix., p. 233. Mat 11:20-24.—A. B. Bruce, Expositor, 1st series, vol. v., p. 387; R. M. McCheyne, Additional Remains, p. 514; Parker, Inner Life of Christ, vol. ii., p. 173. Mat 11:21, Mat 11:22.—C. Girdlestone, Twenty Parochial Sermons, 2nd series, p. 275.

Mat 11:23

I. Consider first what is implied by the denunciation of Capernaum as exalted unto heaven. The Bible finds man in a garden, it leaves him in a city. We cannot but think that it is here intimated to us that the highest kind of life is social life; that man, in the noblest development of his gifts, is not a creature meant to live in any degree by or for himself, but to dwell in close contact with his brethren, in a condition in which both his happiness and his sanctification are to be increased by, and to find scope in, mutual sympathy and mutual subjection. We take it, therefore, to be a very shallow view of things which considers a great town as a great evil, and a town life in its nature inferior to a country life in moral and religious excellence. But whilst this is so, we may not shut our eyes to the fact that city life has temptations peculiar to itself. Our Lord speaks of Capernaum as exalted to heaven; and it is this precise self-exaltation which is the snare of every man who is one of a great community. The concourse of men together has a tendency to put God at a distance. Men come gradually to trust to themselves, to do without God. Now it is this self-exaltation, which grows up so gradually and so naturally in great cities, which Christ in the text threatens with the doom of being cast down. And we thus arrive at a lesson profitable for all, that if we would lead a life safe from the casting down of shame and care, we must keep steadily before us, as a rule and motive, the thought of an ever-present, personal God.

II. But it is not only the being independent of God which our Lord charges upon Capernaum. He speaks of it as being in an especial degree insensible to His own wonder-working power. And here, again, Christ appears to us to lay bare another fault to which large and flourishing communities are peculiarly liable, namely, insensibility to religious impressions. There are various ways in which this insensibility shows itself. Perhaps, amongst ourselves, it is chiefly proved by the small proportion of the population who attend the public services or partake of the Lord’s supper. The root of the neglect is what Christ mentions in the text, an insensibility to all religious impressions, a half disbelief in any real operations of God amongst us. It is the spirit of independence and insensibility—whose final casting down our Lord foretells.

Bishop Woodford, Occasional Sermons, vol. ii., p. 135.

Reference: Mat 11:23.—H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit, No. 2,510.

Mat 11:25

I. Note, first, the Master’s words when He thanks God that He "has hid these things from the wise and prudent." A man may have understanding and wisdom enough on certain of life’s matters without having them on all. Everything must be known after its kind, and under its condition as knowledge. God is not to be inductively put together; we cannot by searching find Him out. The ultimate truth of everything is unseen, and accepted on the evidence of faith. If the world by wisdom found not God, much less can it find, or even appreciate, those things which the Master affirmed to be hid from the wise and understanding. The Gospel of God in His Anointed reconciling the world to Himself, while it is nearer in revelation—for in it God is made manifest—than is the thought of the existence of God, is the remoter of the two to speculation and reason. The formalist in thought will reject either it or its form. The Sadducee will be accompanied by the Pharisee in rejecting its claim.

II. He hath revealed these things unto babes. Ignorance was not the feature which the Master seized upon when He used this word "babes." A man who knows little may have this knowledge imparted to him; these things were revealed to Galilean fishermen, and are still being unveiled to the wondering eyes of the childlike. And they may be all made known to the man who knows much. A man may have the keen scrutiny of Faraday, and like that great and unsophisticated man, pray to God as his Father, and love Christ as his Revealer; or, as Pascal, be the abstruse reasoner, and the acute mathematician, and still hold his best thoughts in devout consecration to God. The thing is to conserve spiritual impressibility; if this be done, we may know much of the world and much of Him whose ways are past our finding out.

III. No other condition of receiving spiritual truth than that of being babes is universally possible. It is in our obedience that we realize our adoption, and become free to cry, "Abba, Father." Time is meaningless without these hidden and revealed things, and eternity is very cold and very dark to look to. But with these every day has in it some lasting thing, and by these the unseen is made substantial and real.

J. O. Davies, Sunrise on the Soul, p. 191.

The Educating Power of Strong Impressions.

I. The character of the child is wanted as the provisionary state, favourable for getting from the superior mind all that it can give. It does this all the better for its own passiveness and childlike properties; it takes in all the more intensely a living fund of thought from a master, which ultimately turns to the disciple’s own strength and his advantage as a man of power. What he needs for this is an extraordinary capacity of impress; but an extraordinary capacity of impress from a superior makes a child, for the time, in tone and character.

II. This was the case with the Apostles. They first appear as children in Scripture, being acted upon, receiving an impress, drawing into their hearts a type and pattern. And they have what is a characteristic of children, namely, an extraordinary happiness. They are wholly relieved from the care and responsibility of the sublime mission; that burden is taken off them. He bears it all who is able to bear the whole of it. This very happiness, this freedom and absence of strain upon them, enabled them all the more to take in the fresh ideas which were flowing in from our Lord’s discourse and example. All the powers of the fresh opening of life were devoted to the new springtide of truth.

III. Thus they came out men of formed and strong character, when the Apostles were all at once, by the departure of our Lord, thrown back upon themselves, and upon the supernatural guidance of the invisible Spirit; when, upon our Lord’s ascension, they were obliged to meet all the difficulties and face the dangers of the Gospel cause. The Apostles became men, able to see their way amidst obstacles, to guide the movement, to encourage the weak, and to give strength to the growing cause. This was the maturity of manhood, but it was the fruit of a previous childhood which had used to its utmost extent the power which childhood has of following a type, submitting to a superior influence, and receiving, in fact, education.

J. B. Mozley, Sermons Parochial and Occasional, p. 330.

I. The small success and efficacy of the preached Gospel upon multitudes who hear it is a subject of wonder and grief to the ministers and people of God. It was so to our Lord Jesus, considered as a Preacher and Messenger; and they, so far as they have received His Spirit, judge and act as He did. Those who have indeed tasted that the Lord is gracious have had such a powerful experience in their souls of the necessity and value of the Gospel that in their first warmth, and till painful experience has convinced them of the contrary, they can hardly think it possible that sinners should stand out against its evidence.

II. The best relief against those discouragements we meet with from men is to raise our thoughts to God and heaven. For this the Lord Jesus is our precedent here. He said, "I thank Thee, O Father." The word signifies to confess, to promise, to consent, and to praise. As if it had been said, "I glorify Thy wisdom in this respect. I acknowledge and declare it is Thy will, and I express My own consent and approbation." It is needful for our comfort to be well established in the truth suggested in the text, that the Lord hath provided for the accomplishment of our purposes, and that His counsels shall surely stand. From this doctrine we may infer: (1) That where the faithful labours and endeavours of ministers and others to promote the knowledge of grace and the practice of holiness fail of success, yet they shall be accepted. (2) Faithful endeavours in the service of the Gospel shall not wholly fail. (3) The Divine sovereignty is the best thought we can retreat to for composing and strengthening our minds under the difficulties, discouragements, and disappointments which attend the publication of the Gospel. If God appoints and overrules all according to the purpose of His own will, we have sufficient security both for the present and future. (1) For the present, we may firmly expect what Scripture and reason concur to assure us, that the Judge of all the earth will do right. (2) For the future, He has appointed a day when He will make it appear that He has done right. What we shall then see it is now our duty and our comfort assuredly to believe.

J. Newton, Church of England Pulpit, July 29th, 1876.

Mat 11:25-26

Why God reveals to babes. The babe is the representative of the receptive spirit. Its characteristic is trust, openness to impression, and freedom from prejudice. Childlike men may be powerful in intellect and capable of a bold initiative quite as much as those of a contrary character, but they possess, above all, the capacity of surrendering themselves to an influence outside of them, and letting it work its effects upon them unhindered by theory or questioning.

I. To reveal to babes harmonizes with God’s character as a Father, and illustrates it. "Babe" is the counterpart to "Father;" "wise and understanding" has no such relation. A father’s heart is not attracted to the brilliance or power in his family, but to the want. The open, clinging heart appeals to him. This is the advantage of the babe over the wise and understanding—he recognizes and claims relationship to God, and receives.

II. It glorifies God as Lord of heaven and earth to reveal to babes. Had God shown a preference for the elevated, had He touched mainly the hill-tops, what an impoverishing of the world it would have been! How the whole conception of God would have been lowered by the absence of lowliness! But how near God comes; how dear He is to us by His frequent close relationship to the poor and lowly! We are drawn to the mighty God who is drawn to the babes. This is the greatness that cheers us, and binds us to God. This makes us rich and great.

III. By revealing to babes the Father and Lord of heaven and earth manifests the supremacy of the moral element. When God passes by the soaring imagination, the lofty intellect, the keen understanding, and puts His main blessing into the lowly heart and open spirit, when He comes down to the very lowest form of the moral and spiritual—the mere sense of want, the mere hunger for better things—and gives infinite wealth to that, what a rebuke He conveys to pride of intellect! what honour. He confers upon plain heart and conscience!

IV. It glorifies God as Father and Lord of heaven and earth to reveal to babes, for it shows His desire to reveal as much as possible, and to as many as possible.

V. The appointment of a personal Saviour glorifies God as Father and Lord of heaven and earth, and is peculiarly adapted to babes.

J. Leckie, Sermons preached in Ibrox, p. 1.

Note:—

I. the apparent paradox involved in these words, "Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes." (1) All revelation is to some extent a concealment. The veil is ever being drawn aside, but it is never taken away. Wherever we take our stand, our own shadow will fall on the glorious countenance. (2) The special revelation which God has made to some individuals is the very process by which He has concealed Himself from others. If God’s revelation has been made to certain nations, and if He is educating our race by conferring special and peculiar functions on different nations of men, then the process has been one of election on the grand scale, and He whose love has revealed itself to some has concealed itself from others. (3) The revelation, though made, needed special eyes, ears, minds, to receive it.

II. The Redeemer’s judgment and gratitude concerning it. (1) He attributes the arrangement to the universal Lord. The great fact and apparent paradox is a Divine arrangement, not an unfortunate accident. (2) The Saviour acquiesces in this arrangement, not simply as an act of universal sovereignty, but as most merciful and good, as the Father’s good pleasure. (3) Christ deliberately thanks God that it is so. Instead of being narrow or restricted in its range, the principle of discrimination was the widest and noblest that can be conceived. The babes may never become wise and prudent, but the greatest mind may and can humble itself, and become as a little child. Hence, this is the noblest and broadest offer of mercy.

H. R. Reynolds, Notes of the Christian Life, p. 67.

I. "Thou hast hid these things." What things? The facts that the Apostles had cast out devils, that they had healed the sick, that they had given antidotes for poison? Not at all. You must follow the inward thought of the Saviour. Here was the power of unlearned, untaught men. They were not equipped for speaking or for acting before the public, and yet there was a secret hidden power in their souls which was more than a match for the temple, and the synagogue, and the forum. It was not continuous at first, but it became so. The whole drift of the New Testament is to create in men the Divine element, or to let it loose if it be captive, or to develop it if it be yet in the germ. The hidden kingdom of the soul, this depth which no man can reveal in language, recognized by the Lord Jesus Christ, was the state into which the Apostles came, and is the state into which a great many have entered in every age and throughout the world.

II. Faith, hope, and love are the three things which the Apostle says will survive time and the changes of death. He declares that all our intellectual states are merely approximations. Knowledge, comprehensive with its relativities, subject to the light and to the disclosures of a new condition—these shall pass away. When the Apostle says that faith, hope, and love survive, can any man out of these three words give any conception of that vast kingdom which shall come by these disclosures, and combinations, and developments? No man can do it. And yet it is the power of this inward, hidden soul-life which is revealed to these babes, these unwashed fishermen, these uneducated peasants.

III. This hidden life of the soul is the most powerful life. It gives a man courage. It imparts light and gladness. It dissipates fear. It takes away doubt. He is luminous that dwells in the secret of God.

H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xviii., p. 227; see also Sermons, 2nd series, p. 25.

Mat 11:25-30

I. The word which our English version renders "I thank Thee" is in reality of more extended meaning. It means something of this kind, "I confess, I acknowledge, Thy great wisdom." There was something in the dispensation of God’s providence, of which our Saviour speaks, which at once commended itself to His holy mind as wise and good; not merely something in which He saw the demonstration of God’s power, which proved God’s omnipotence, but rather that which equally proved His mercy, His goodness, His wisdom.

II. What does our Lord mean by wise and prudent? These are words capable of a good sense. It is obvious that the text cannot mean that God has hidden the Gospel from all those who are endued with powerful minds, or who are learned in such things as pertain to this world. If it be said that the wisdom and prudence of this world can never reveal God to us, and can never be a substitute for that revelation which God has been pleased to make to us in Jesus Christ, this is indeed most true, and contains the meaning of the words of the text; for the just appreciation of the value of the Gospel of Jesus Christ requires something for which no talent, no learning, or wisdom or prudence, can be any substitute, any more than seeing can be hearing, or hearing can be smelling. And if the wise and the prudent very often miss the message of the Gospel, this is probably the point at which they go wrong; they imagine that they have in their own wisdom and prudence the guide to all they want to know; but it is not by his wisdom or his prudence that man holds communion with God; it is not by reasoning that he learns his true relation to God; for what is that true relation? It is that relation in which a man stands by sin, the relation of a lost sheep, wandering and straying, to a shepherd willing to lead it back again. Here, then, we see how it is that the Gospel, which the wise and prudent despise, may be accepted by babes—that is, by the poorest, the weakest, the simplest, the most ignorant.

Bishop Harvey Goodwin, Parish Sermons, 2nd series, p. 98.

This text teaches two lessons—

I. How the Lord judges results of His ministry which to our eyes appear strange. We are surprised to find that the very men who seem best fitted to understand the Lord remain in opposition to Him. How could the people understand the Lord? That was the business of the cultured, of the scribes and Pharisees. Further, who were better qualified to advance the work of the Lord than the scribes, the leaders of the people? The Lord is less surprised than we are at this issue of His work. He sees in it a Divine arrangement of His heavenly Father; He knows how faith arises in men; He knows that no man cometh unto the Father save through the Son, and that no man cometh to the Son save through the Father. Because He knows this, He sees in the fact that the truth of His salvation has been revealed to babes a sacred and Divine appointment, and He welcomes this appointment with thankfulness and praise. We feel that the words of the text are no mere resignation to a Divine appointment which He fails to understand. Through the meek resignation we catch a note of inward joy. St. Luke tells us that Jesus rejoiced in spirit when He spoke these words. It is hard for the wise man to attach himself closely to Christ. The scribes were prepared for a Messiah, but not for such a Messiah as this. It was not easy for them to accept a manifestation which was opposed to all their previous conceptions. The Lord had an easier task in dealing with the babes. He could be best understood by those who brought no preconceptions with them. His image was the first to be stamped upon their souls. Enlightened by His teaching, the witness of the babes was other and far nobler than that of cultured men and scholars.

II. The comprehension of this fact incites our Lord to a special kind of activity: "Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will refresh you." This is what the Lord says to the wise and prudent as well as to the babes. He does not address them as wise and prudent, but as weary ones, and the refreshment He offers depends on one condition only, we must take His yoke upon us. Who would refuse to take it, since He says, "I am meek and lowly in heart," and "My yoke is easy, and My burden is light"?

R. Rothe, Predigten, p. 161.

Reference: Mat 11:25.—Spurgeon, Evening by Evening, p. 31. Mat 11:25, Mat 11:26.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. vii., No. 394. Mat 11:25-30.—J. J. S. Perowne, Expositor, 1st series, vol. vii., pp. 215, 249, 348; Parker, Inner Life of Christ, vol. ii., p. 183; G. Macdonald, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxxii., p. 136; Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. ii., p. 87; J. J. S. Perowne, Expository Outlines of Sermons on the New Testament, p. 23.

Mat 11:26

I. There are some occasions of life and times of perplexing difficulty and sorrow when the mind, which was at first paralyzed, by degrees awakes and recovers itself to see reasons—merciful, satisfying reasons—why God did these things. That is one of the paths which lead out of the lower places up to a purer atmosphere, to peace and safety. But there is a much higher and more blessed state than that. It is when, with all your thinking, you can see no explanatory reason, nor trace one justifying cause whatsoever, in the whole circumstances of the case. Then at such a time as that to bend, to submit and believe, as much as when the mind had some clues to help it and rays to guide it—that is faith indeed, and will have its reward. "Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in Thy sight."

II. To cherish such a feeling in our hearts our Lord’s words give us two suggestions—one implied, and one expressed. (1) Take right views of the Fatherly character of God. There are no sins we ever commit greater than the sin of not treating God as a Father. (2) We often speak of certain great principles—principles of justice, reason, love, fitness—and we are offended if ever we see or hear anything which does not square with these great fundamental truths. But have these truths no foundation under them? Assuredly the mind of God must be the first seat of all—of all that is true and all that is right. These great principles make the mind of God; they come from the mind of God. Take that thought also with you down the labyrinth. Nothing could have happened to you unless it had first been in the mind of God. He knows the end from the beginning. To that vast intelligence there are thousands of reasons present of which you cannot read one. The unfoldings of another world will solve the problems here, and justify God in His moral government.

J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 10th series, p. 60.

Mat 11:27

I. We can know Christ, and yet we cannot. It seems a strange contradiction to say so, yet it is a contradiction which applies to a great many even of created things. We know them, and we know them not. We know how they act; we have seen, or can image to ourselves a notion of them, but what they are in their very nature we know not. So it is with the sun in the heavens: we have all felt his warmth, and seen his brightness; we know how he ripens the fruits of the earth, and makes the world such as we can live in; yet what he is in himself, of what made, or how—that we know not, and probably cannot know. And so it is much more with Him by whom the sun was made. His goodness we know, and His power; His love and mercy we have felt; and even of His very person, as it pleased Him to become flesh, and to dwell among us, we can readily conceive. But what He is in Himself—the Eternal, the Incomprehensible—that we cannot know. None but the Godhead knows what the Godhead is; none knoweth the Son, save the Father; none knoweth the Father, save the Son; none knoweth the things of God, save the Spirit of God.

II. In what sense is it true that none knoweth the Father, save he to whom the Son will reveal Him? or, in other words, what is the knowledge of the Father which we, as Christians, have gained? When I put myself in thought, even for a moment, out of the light of Christ’s Gospel,—when I fancy myself to be as one to whom the Son has not revealed the Father,—it seems to heighten my sense of the happiness which it is to have been taught of Christ. For consider what it is to be told that "God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." In these few words there is contained all we need. Truly may we say that we know the Father, when Christ has revealed to us thus much of His infinite love and holiness.

T. Arnold, Sermons, vol. iii., p. 29.

References: Mat 11:27.—B. F. Westcott, The Historic Faith, p. 205. Mat 11:27, Mat 11:28.—Spurgeon, Three Hundred Outlines on the New Testament, p. 20.

Mat 11:28

I. Restlessness. (1) We have all known the misery of restlessness in its physical, its bodily working. (2) There is a restlessness of mere suspense. (3) There is a suspense and a restlessness accompanying doubt, more trying still. (4) There is the restlessness of sin. (5) There is the restlessness of the heart itself.

II. The restless are all to whom Christ has not yet given His rest. To these He here addresses Himself. For He, seeing the end from the beginning, sees that the end of these things is death. In Him human restlessness finds sweet repose—in Him, in whose hands are accident and circumstance, chance and change. They that are in Him fear nothing. They will not be afraid of any evil tidings. In Him they who even doubt about all else find their feet upon the rock. Receiving Him into the ship, they are immediately at the land whither they go. He sends them strength, as their day, to do and to forbear, to dare and to endure. In Him the tempter "has nothing;" the souls that are in His hands no torment and no temptation can touch. In Him they find that spring and fountain of perfect beauty and absolute love of which no earthly loved one can have more, at the best, than the image and the reflection. There they cling to Him, and will not forsake Him, because they have found once, and because they find day by day, His words verified, "Come unto Me, thou that art weary and heavy laden, and I will give thee rest."

C. J. Vaughan, Temple Sermons, p. 123.

There was an old philosopher, long ago, who summed up his experience of man’s life and toils and cares by saying that "the end of work is to enjoy rest." And truly there is no pleasanter word or thing. We come to feel that at last. There are days when the young heart pants for larger excitement; when the strong arm is eager for earnest toil; when we are ambitious, and would fain do something which might be the talk of men. But the sobering years go forward. We grow wearied in the greatness of the way. We understand the Psalmist’s vague aspiration, "Oh that I had wings like a dove! for then would I fly away, and be at rest." Now, when we would find true rest for our souls we can find it only in Christ. He can give rest. He does give rest. When we think what are the main sources of the soul’s unrest, we shall see that Christ, even in this life, is ready to deliver His people from them.

I. The burden of sin. If we saw things rightly, and as they really are, we should feel that of all the burdens which can oppress us in this world, this is the weightiest; and when the Holy Spirit "convinces us of our sin and misery," what does that mean but just making the soul see what an overwhelming weight our sins, and the woe that follows on them, make up together, and how inexpressible is our need that the great Sin-bearer should take that load away?

II. The fear and the actual endurance of the ills, the bereavements, the losses, the disappointments that compass our path in this life. Those who know not our Christian consolation have solemnly said that the pains of life outweigh its satisfactions. Now Christ has changed all that, changed it utterly. It is not merely that Christ sends the Holy Spirit to sanctify all sorrows into means of grace. To a certain extent Christ gives His own, even in this world, rest from worldly cares.

III. The eager, anxious pursuit of those things to which worldly persons give their whole heart—worldly gain and good, wealth, eminence, and distinction. Is it not true that, even here, Christ gives His people rest? The fear of earthly chances and changes He takes away. The unrest of ambition He lifts above. Often burdened as we are, often disquieted as we are, we can see that the fault does not lie with our Saviour. The fault lies in our own lack of faith to fully trust Him, if He has not given us rest.

A. K. H. B., The Graver Thoughts of a Country Parson, 3rd series, p. 203.

Rest in Christ the true Communion of Saints.

I. The saying of our Lord in the text is one of those distinctive sayings of Christianity that have life and growth, and while appreciable by the little child in a sense which he can appropriate and live by, can never be exhausted by the most Christlike of men. The words were addressed at first to the unlettered peasants of Galilee, to those who were on the threshold of their new life as disciples. The Saviour does not mention from what burdens He called men to be delivered. He says nothing of hell, or even of sin. Nor of what nature the rest was to be did He make clear. The Greek equivalent of the word He used is ἀνάπαυσις, merely cessation. And each of His hearers would receive His words as He was able to receive them. But they would not listen long to the new Teacher without finding new anxieties stirring in their breast, new yearnings waking into life, and a desire for a rest they had never sought for before—a respite, not from sorrow, or poverty, or oppression, but from their own wayward fancies and erring wills—a rest for their souls.

II. And as they accepted the call to come to Him which the Master offered them they went on to learn new facts as to rest and the opposite of rest. The word Christ used was a word signifying a negative gift—"cessation" from labour and anxiety. But they were to learn that it implied something else, which no negative gift can supply. The body is rested in the most effectual manner, and bodily strength regained, by quiet and absolute inaction. The mind that has been wrought upon by hard study or by anxiety is best relieved by amusement or change. But if the spirit of immortal man is to find rest, it cannot be in lying inactive. The true rest of the soul must be in activity, not in vacuity. If it has hitherto worn the yoke of the world, there is no rest in only throwing off that yoke. It needs some other yoke in its stead. "Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me," etc. Here is one of the glorious paradoxes of the Gospel. The true deliverance from burdens is in taking on us a yoke. Rest is the reward of faith. If we have found something in which we can implicitly trust, we have found also that in which we can rest.

A. Ainger, Sermons in the Temple Church, p. 39.

When we think of this invitation we must think of human burdens of every kind. Weariness of body and mind, of soul and spirit, must alike be taken into account. There is nothing that we are able to feel which He will not relieve, if we come to Him. And He promises this relief to burdens, not only of every kind, but also of every degree. All that are weary and heavy laden.

I. But where is the reality of this burden and the pressure of this weariness found? Are not men living and passing on around us contented and gay-hearted, without Christ, knowing Him not, loving Him not, caring nothing for Him? These surely are not weary; these feel no burden. These He invites in vain, for they want Him not. But are we so sure of this? They are spending but a false and artificial life, after all; they are burdened with the thought of its real condition, burdened with the fear of death, burdened with every event of God’s providence as it occurs. These also are among the weary and heavy laden, and to them Jesus of Nazareth repeats His invitation in every one of the means of grace, every dispensation of His world-ruling providence.

II. Let us advance another step. You feel the burden. You have learned, at least, to see that ignorance is not bliss in matters of life and death. You do look on the past, and see it like a dark wave, mountain high, coming on your frail bark to overwhelm it. You do look on the future, as much as you dare; you see in it matter for desperation, rather than for hope. Such a state is just the most critical one in which any man can be placed. If the penitent listens to the suggestions of the tempter, the balance turns for death; the brimming pool, which has paused and rippled with the breath of the Spirit towards the bright light of God’s morning, bursts at once over the dark hillside, and plunges downward into the gloom. But come to Christ when he will or when he can—whether the awakening be an easy one, from the lighter slumber of youth’s thoughtless-ness; or a hard and painful one, from the deep and deadly sleep of years—the Lord’s promise to the sinner is the same: "Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."

H. Alford, Quebec Chapel Sermons, vol. iii., p. 100.

In this text Christ has made two classes out of those to whom Me speaks—those that labour, and those that are heavy laden. Both are sufferers; but the one class is composed of the active, and the other of the passive sufferers—a description which exactly answers to the reality of daily life. We are all under active or passive discipline.

I. Look at the offered gift. It is clear that there are two ways in which God might deal with and relieve the mind that labours and is heavy laden. He might remove the cause, and so exempt the man from its effects; or He might leave the evil, but impart something which would entirely neutralize it. Of these two methods, the first is the obvious one, and therefore we call that man’s way,—man is always trying to remove evil. The second is much deeper and much better, and therefore it is God’s way.

II. A believer’s rest is threefold. (1) First there comes the rest of a sense of pardon. "We which believe have entered into rest." We "cease from our own works, as God did from His." The chief cause of the restlessness of the world is that it has not yet rested in God. (2) Sin, after it is pardoned, struggles, and often prevails; and it cannot be quite rest to a Christian so long as what he hates gets such a mastery over him. Therefore he wants a rest like that rest to Israel, when they settled down in Canaan,—their enemies not all destroyed, but all conquered and held down. So it comes to pass. The higher power of the new nature in the man gradually prevails over the old inhabitants. They are there, but they are kept under. Holiness increases, and holiness is rest. The heart becomes more one, the counter-tides are not so violent, the aim of the man is single, the whole man is gathered up to a point, and that is rest. That is the rest of santification. (3) Far on, however, after this, and unto the very gate of heaven, sin lives, we feel it lives, but it does not reign. It is not perfect rest; that rest remaineth. But it is coming, it is very near—perfect rest, when we shall rest from the presence of sin. Sin will be nothing but a memory, a memory of a forgiven thing, and every memory will exalt Him. That will be the rest of glory.

J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 6th series, p. 126.

Mat 11:28

I. Sin always imposes burdens upon the sinner.

II. The burdens of the sinner are a continual appeal to the affection and power of Jesus Christ.

III. Jesus Christ, in offering rest to burdened souls, asserted His claim to be regarded as God.

IV. A double action is indicated in the offer. Come—give. Come with your burdens, and in the very act of coming the burden will be taken away.

R. A. Bertram, City Temple, vol. i., p. 11.

References: Mat 11:28.—Spurgeon, My Sermon Notes: Gospels and Acts, p. 39; Ibid., Sermons, vol. xxviii., No. 1,691; Ibid., Morning by Morning, p. 351; J. N. Norton, Every Sunday, p. 182; Homiletic Quarterly, vol. ii., p. 530; vol. x., p. 268; H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit, vol. vi., p. 423; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. viii., p. 18; H. J. Wilmot-Buxton, The Children’s Bread, p. 18; B. F. Westcott, The Historic Faith, p. 229; J. Keble, Sermons for Holy Week, p. 224; Bishop Temple, Rugby Sermons, 1st series, p. 45; E. V. Hall, Sermons in Worcester Cathedral, p. 50; G. Huntington, Sermons for Holy Seasons, vol. ii., p. 11.

Mat 11:28-29

One does not know whether tenderness or majesty is pre dominant in these wonderful words—a Divine penetration into man’s true condition, and a Divine pity, are expressed in them. Jesus looks with clear-sighted compassion into the inmost history of all hearts, and sees the toil and the sorrow which weigh on every soul. And no less remarkable is the Divine consciousness of power to succour and to help which speaks in them.

I. Consider the twofold designation here of the persons addressed. "Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden." The one word expresses effort and toil, the other a burden and endurance. The one speaks of the active, the other of the passive side of human misery and evil. Toil is work which is distasteful in itself, or which is beyond our faculties. Such toil, some time or other, more or less, sooner or later, is the lot of every man. All work becomes labour, and all labour, some time or other, becomes toil. Toil is a curse; work is a blessing. But all our work darkens into toil; and the invitation, "Come unto Me, all ye that labour," reaches to the utmost verge of humanity, and includes every soul.

II. Look at the twofold invitation that is here. "Come unto Me"—"Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me." In these words, which come so familiarly to most of our memories that they have almost ceased to present sharp meanings, there is not only the merciful summons to the initial act, but the description of the continual life of which that act is the introduction.

III. Look, lastly, at the twofold promise which is here. "I will give you rest"—"Ye shall find rest." There is rest in coming to Christ; the rest of a quiet conscience, which gnaws no more; the rest of a conscious friendship and union with God, in whom alone is our soul’s home, harbour, and repose; the rest of fears dispelled; the rest of forgiveness received into the heart. There is rest in faith. The very act of confidence is repose. There is a further rest in obedience, and emphatically and most blessedly there is a rest in Christlikeness.

A. Maclaren, Christian Commonwealth, April 1st, 1886.

References: Mat 11:28, Mat 11:29.—A. B. Bruce, Expositor, 1st series, vol. vi., p. 142; W. J. Knox-Little, Characteristics of the Christian Life, p. 223.

Mat 11:28-30

In the little word "come" is folded up the whole morality of the sentence, the very ethics of the Gospel.

I. "Come unto Me;" wherefore the all-important question is, How are we to come? We hear the call, we kindle into fervour at the Divine promise; but what are we to do? how are we to come? Faith is the hand that toucheth the hem of our Saviour’s garment; or faith is the tongue which responds to the invitation, and saith, Lord, I come; faith is that which appropriates the merits of our Lord, and secures, through His righteousness, our justification. But this is not the coming. The coming is something additional to this. We come to the Lord whenever (aware that we can only be made righteous through the sanctifying influences of His Holy Spirit, and seeking for pardon and grace, for life and light) we exert ourselves to break off habits of sin; and a further step we take when saying, Lord, be merciful to me a sinner. We endeavour deliberately to form habits of good. Step by step we draw nearer and more near unto the Lord, as we advance from one degree of holiness to another.

II. Exertion on our part is implied through the whole Christian scheme. We are regenerated, renovated, sanctified, by the Spirit of Christ; but to receive that gift we must come by an endeavour to remove all those impediments to grace which His all-searching eye may detect in our moral nature, to eradicate whatever there may be in us of evil, and to cultivate whatever of good the Holy Ghost may have already imparted to the soul.

W. F. Hook, Parish Sermons, p. 294.

Notice:—

I. That Christ has what He promises to give. Rest was the boon which the wandering Jew coveted, and which every wandering man covets now, but not rest from activity. The rest which we want is the rest of being fitted for our sphere. Give us this, and we can say, "Return, my soul, unto thy rest." We can do without all our happiness if we have this repose of inward faculty, and if we can retire from the world into ourselves, and find ourselves redeemed in God, and to be the temples of the Holy Ghost. (1) We are restless because our outward condition is not such as we deem compatible with our nature and temperament. Our deepest discontent, however, is not because there is a winter without, with many storms and shrivelling winds, but because there are wrong and frailty within. Christ was at rest with His own conscience. Men found no fault with Him; He found no fault with Himself. (2) Our unrest is deepened by our suspicions, if not by our certainties, of something beyond and above our life. Christ was strangely calm as He looked up and beyond, whether to the past or to the future. He was at rest in rest, at rest in action, and at rest in death, at rest with himself and with God.

II. He can give this rest under the conditions He imposes. His conditions are comprised in coming to Him, taking His yoke, and learning of Him. They are nothing more, when divested of figure, than that men are to submit trustfully to whatever influence He has to exert on them. The highest influence which is ever experienced in life is the influence of that indefinable thing called character. The unknown thing in character is being, life, consciousness; and we come to this at last, that it is by life that our life is moved and moulded. We find rest unto our souls through learning of Christ, and by being baptized into His great soul in our communion with Him. He will perform the offices of a Divine friend by us, and through His friendship we enter into the rest that remaineth for the people of God; and as we enter into the "peace of God, which passeth all understanding," we learn how, by the elevation of our consciousness, to pardon ourselves, and to relinquish our old because we need our hands to take the new.

J. O. Davies, Sunrise on the Soul, p. 211.

I. To come to Christ is to approach Him in the exercise of faith, for deliverance from sin and condemnation.

II. Coining to Christ has regard to the future as well as to the past. He who comes to Christ truly comes to be Christ’s. To come to Christ is not only to trust Him to deliver us from the consequences of our past transgressions; it is also, in all the future, to submit ourselves to His control and government. Christ Himself teaches this in our text, "Take My yoke upon you." From the earliest ages the yoke has been the instrument by which oxen have been subjected to man, and compelled to toil in his service; and hence it has always been the symbol of the subjection into which men are sometimes brought to their fellowmen. So that what Christ invites and commands us to do is to submit ourselves absolutely to Him.

III. Whoever comes to Christ truly comes to be made like Christ. It is our nature to imitate. Every man has some model whom He strives to resemble. Now Christ says to us, "Make Me your model; strive to be like Me; become, like Me, meek and lowly in heart."

R. A. Bertram, Christian World Pulpit, vol. vii., p. 248.

References: Mat 11:28-30.—S. Leathes, Truth and Life, p. 219; Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. v., No. 265; vol. xvii., No. 969; vol. xxii., No. 1322; Ibid., My Sermon Notes: Gospels and Acts, p. 36; H. W. Beecher, Plymouth Pulpit Sermons, 10th series, p. 141; Ibid., Christian World Pulpit, vol. x., p. 309; vol. xii., p. 220; E. Johnson, Ibid., vol. xv., p. 264; T. M. Morris, Ibid., vol. xx., p. 309; H. Platten, Ibid., vol. xxxi., p. 273; A. M. Mackay, Ibid., vol. xxxii., p. 134; Fergus Ferguson, Ibid., p. 329; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. i., p. 115; G. Matheson, Expositor, 1st series, vol. xi., p. 101; C. Girdlestone, Twenty Parochial Sermons, 2nd series, p. 163.

Mat 11:29-30

I. Let us set it down as a first principle in religion that all of us must come to Christ, in some sense or other, through things naturally unpleasant to us; it may be even through bodily suffering, or it may be nothing more than the subduing of our natural infirmities and the sacrifice of our natural wishes; it may be pain greater or less, on a public stage or a private one; but till the words "yoke" and "cross" can stand for something pleasant, the bearing of our yoke and cross is something not pleasant; and though rest is promised as our reward, yet the way to rest must lie through discomfort and distress of heart.

II. If you call to mind some of the traits of that special religious character to which we are called, you will readily understand how both it, and the discipline by which it is formed in us, are not naturally pleasant to us. That character is described in the text as meekness and lowliness; for we are told to "learn" of Him who was meek and lowly in heart. The same character is presented to us at greater length in our Saviour’s Sermon on the Mount, in which seven notes of a Christian are given to us, in themselves of a painful and humbling character, but joyful, because they are blessed by Him.

III. Nothing short of suffering, except in rare cases, makes us what we should be—gentle instead of harsh, meek instead of violent, conceding instead of arrogant, lowly instead of proud, pure-hearted instead of sensual, sensitive of sin instead of carnal. Never fancy that the true Christian character can coalesce with the world’s character, or is the world’s character improved—merely a superior kind of worldly character. No, it is a new character, or, as St. Paul words it, "a new creation." There is but one cross and one character of mind formed by it, and nothing can be farther from it than those tempers and dispositions in which the greater part of men called Christians live.

J. H. Newman, Parochial and Plain Sermons, vol. vii., p. 182.

References: Mat 11:29.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xix., No. 1105; H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit, vol. ix., p. 84; vol. xxix., p. 30; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. vi., p. 37; W. Morrison, Three Hundred Outlines on the New Testament, p. 18; W. Gresley, Practical Sermons, p. 199; G. Huntington, Sermons for Holy Seasons, vol. i., p. 63.

Mat 11:30

This passage has in it some far-reaching things, which do not strike us on a mere cursory reading. (1) It sets before us very clearly the Saviour’s constant attitude of invitation. (2) It reminds us that we become learners in Christ’s school only through the process of obedience. (3) It teaches us that there are degrees of rest in the experience of the Christian disciple. Consider especially the words of the text. Christ does not mean to allege that the cross which we are to take up is not a real cross, or that the self-renunciation to which He calls us is but a nominal thing. Still less does He design to show the superiority of His religion to the systems of heathenism which so enslaved their votaries. His words are absolute, and not comparative; and therefore, admitting to the full all the tribulations and unpleasantnesses, all the sacrifices and afflictions, which his very adherence to Jesus entails upon every Christian disciple, let us see if we can discover anything which may justify the assertion that His yoke is easy, and His burden light.

I. The yoke of Christ is easy, and His burden light, because we bear it with the approbation of conscience. The yoke which is borne by a good conscience is always light; the burden which does not consist of sin is never heavy.

II. This yoke is easy because it is borne in love. Love lightens labour, lessens adversity, sweetens care, and is unconscious of a yoke which otherwise would be heavy. When we are murmuring within ourselves at the cost of our Christianity, it is because we have not yet realized the value of Christ.

III. Christ’s yoke is easy, and His burden light, because it is borne with the help of the Spirit of God.

IV. Christ’s words are true because His burden becomes lighter the longer it is borne. That which required effort at first is at length done with ease and enjoyment. Nobody will believe that until he has experienced it. But every Christian knows that it is true.

V. Christ’s yoke is easy, and His burden light, because we are sustained under it by a good hope. Heaven and endless happiness are before us, and the assurance that they are reserved for us, while we are kept for them, steadies us beneath a weight which else might bear us down.

W. M. Taylor, Christian at Work, March 20th, 1879.

References: Mat 11:30.—A. P. Peabody, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xii., p. 142; Three Hundred Outlines on the New Testament, p. 19. Matt 11—H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xix., p. 294.

The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Subdivision 3. (Mat 11:1-30.)

The Separation of a Remnant.

We have now the separation of a remnant to Himself, while the mass are going on to complete rejection. This we see through all this manifestation of Himself; the snore fully He is manifested, the more this rejection of Him appears: for it is just His divine glory which they refuse most utterly. But it is this also which brings out the faith of those divinely taught, the babes, conscious of their own nothingness, to whom the things of God can be declared. These are wisdom’s children who justify wisdom, even in ways that seem most opposite; while the rest reject alike whatever God may please to use in the way of witness to them. In the Lord’s words to those who listen to Him the coming grace begins to be more distinctly seen.

1. (1) First of all, we have brought before us the sufficiency and unity of the manifestation made. And this is emphasized in a message to the Baptist, who from Herod’s prison in which he is shut up, sends by his disciples to the Lord, to ask if He is indeed the Coming One, the One they had been expecting; or were they still to look for another.

It is evident that, in some measure at least, doubt was assailing the mind of the Baptist. Indeed, with regard to such a matter as this, the smallest question unanswered is an agony. No doubt, he had expected in the One to whom he had borne witness, conduct in some way different from that which he had since heard of Him. It is generally and naturally said that he expected, as the mass of the nation certainly did, the Kingdom to be established in power which would put down all opposition; and yet here was he, the messenger to prepare His way, languishing in the power of an immoral usurper of the Kingdom that was Christ’s alone. But John had proclaimed Him as the Lamb of God, and evidently the Lamb of sacrifice, - nay, as taking away the sin of the world (Joh 1:29). How, but by suffering and death? taking he not have understood, then, that this might involve suffering for His disciples also, even as the Lord had spoken of days to come in which the Bridegroom would be taken away from them, and that then they would fast?

Perhaps the reserve the Lord had hitherto maintained as to His Messiahship, and for which we may find reason in the carnal views held by the people as to it, may have, at least, prompted the desire that He would explicitly declare Himself. This seems the simplest account of the question put through his disciples. It was from the Lord Himself he sought the answer: and if he could not put this and that together, the Lord would know how to help him, and to have compassion on him.

The Lord answers by referring the messengers to what they heard and saw. The signs spoken of by Isaiah (Isa 35:5-6) were being given before them: the blind were receiving sight, and the lame were walking; more than that, the lepers (whose uncleanness cast them out from man and from the house of God, and which only God could heal) were being cleansed, and the deaf heard - a blessed thing, when now there was so much to hear, - these were such things as the prophet had spoken of, to be fulfilled in Messiah’s days.

But more, the dead were being raised: - the sign which marked out Christ as "Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness."* For, although prophets had done this before, yet never as the seal of such a testimony as His, that "as the Father raiseth up the dead and quickeneth them, even so the Son quickeneth whom He will" (Joh 5:21). Thus now there was indeed "good news" for the poor: we may say "gospel," for it is the same word; only we must understand that the gospel, as we think of it now, is a very different thing. Then it was that "the Son of man had power on earth to forgive sins;" now it is the precious "blood of Jesus Christ His Son" that "cleanseth from all sin" (1Jn 1:7). The blood shed was the emphatic sign of His rejection by the world, as it is for us that by which we are brought to God. That death of His was not, therefore, yet preached; He was not preaching it: and though He had indeed spoken to His disciples of taking up their cross, it was only after this that He began to speak to them of His own; to the consternation of all, and to be "rebuked" by Peter for it (Mat 16:22). When His death came, though they had been then fully warned of it, it seemed the collapse of all their hopes; and when the women declared His resurrection, "their words seemed to them as idle tales, and they believed them not" (Luk 24:11).

{*Rom 1:4: where it should read, "by resurrection of dead persons," and cannot be limited therefore to His own resurrection, as the common version is taken to mean.}

Yet how sweet this gospel preached to them by the Son of God among them, and confirmed by the abundant signs of divine power working far and wide. "To the poor" also - poor in every sense - He proclaimed it; to "publicans and sinners," as we know: One come to seek and save the "lost" - though that is not quite what we have reached yet, and as yet He is acting as "Minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made to the fathers" (Rom 15:8). Israel’s rejection of Him, without being able to destroy this as the final purpose of His love, was soon to bring about the revelation of purposes still more glorious, the display of which would be, characteristically, among sinners of the Gentiles.

The Lord adds therefore, as admonition for John, but in the gentlest terms, "And blessed is he who shall not be stumbled by Me." His reserve as to taking His title as Messiah was already the foreshadow of the blessing passing. in the meantime, from the people with whom all the Scriptures had connected it - to whom belonged "the adoption; and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service, and the promises" (Rom 9:4) - heart-break enough for a Jew, that! And He had already spoken of "days in which the Bridegroom should be taken away from them!" Here was danger, indeed, of stumbling over the stumbling-stone. The exercise as to this John could not escape: it was forced upon him by his own circumstances. But then this new beatitude was to be his also. And every honest exercise, if it be for the time an agony, will be found in the end the travail-pain of a new beatitude.

(2) But thus now it is the Lord whom we find bearing witness to John, instead of John bearing witness to Him. His own words are fulfilled, "I receive not testimony from man" (Joh 5:34). Right and meet it is that He should be His own sufficient witness; and blessed it is to see now how, where John had brought his own testimony into question; the Lord comes forward on his behalf. What was it that the multitudes had gone out into the wilderness to look upon? in fact it was what John was that had largely drawn them out to him. Had they been thus moved by a mere reed, to be shaken by the wind? No, spite of all seeming now, they knew better. Was it a soft luxurious man that they saw in the wilderness? It was the wrong place in which to find such. Had they not rather believed him to be a prophet? And they were not mistaken: he was that and more. For, indeed, among those merely born of women; there had not arisen a greater than this man with his strange baptism; and yet, the Lord adds emphatically, "the one comparatively little in the Kingdom of heaven is greater than he."

He does not say, "the least," nor does the expression seem the equivalent of this and we must first of all consider in what this greatness which the Lord ascribes to John consists, before we can properly estimate the force of His words.

Plainly, it cannot be that even the little one in the Kingdom of heaven can be greater morally than. John the Baptist; but then it can hardly be thought that John himself was greater in this respect than all the men that had preceded him. That is not the point of comparison: it is in the place given to him as the predicted messenger who was to prepare the way before Messiah. Certainly spiritual greatness could not be wanting in one put in such a position; but that is another thing. "All the prophets and the law prophesied until John:" they all pointed onward to the time of which John was able to say, "It is just at hand." It was for him to change the whole character of testimony hitherto, and to sound the note of Jubilee which announced a Kingdom not of earth but of heaven, and the King Himself even at the door. And, this being his greatness, it is easy to understand that he would be in the greater position, who was in the Kingdom itself, and could say in the language of the psalmist anticipating,. this, "As we have heard, so have we seen, in the city of Jehovah of hosts, in the city of our God" (Psa 48:8).

The Lord’s words are commonly taken indeed to refer to the Kingdom in its present Christian and parenthetic character; and no one would deny that such an application could be made. But the testimony as to this was not that given by the Baptist, nor was it yet given when these words were spoken. The Kingdom in this form only began to be spoken of, and in parabolic utterance, when once it was clear that Israel had indeed rejected Him. And that time was now close at hand, and of course foreseen by the Speaker here, but not yet made definitely plain, even to disciples. Every thing would indicate to us that the Lord is declaring the blessedness of that of which all the prophets prophesied, and which John himself had announced, and when Israel will be lifted up to a greatness, which has never yet been paralleled in all the history of that favored nation. That they then put it away from them does not in the least affect this application which relieves all difficulties at once, and yet leaves room for another application. This must, however, as I believe, be a secondary one.

The next words of the Lord have more real difficulty than those preceding them. They have been taken in opposite ways: the "violent," who seize upon the Kingdom having been thought to refer to the opposition of the scribes and Pharisees, as if they were forcibly taking possession of it but this is hardly possible as the meaning of the words. "Seize upon it" they could not, though they could obstruct the way of those who were seeking to enter. But their opposition compelled men to violence who would possess themselves of it. As yet, indeed, it was only preached, or presented in the person of the King, and not set up; but the adversaries and those who laid hold of it as thus proclaimed were being distinguished. Until John there had only been the prophesying of what was yet at a distance; John was in fact, if men would receive him, the Elias who was to come. Elias then had come and gone: his "days" could be spoken of as past already. So urgent was the call, then: he that had ears at all must now give ear.

2. The Lord goes on to speak of the way in which, in fact, the senseless generation to which God had thus been speaking had treated the divine appeal that had been made to them. They were merely like children in the midst of the serious business going on around them, idling away their time in mocking the realities of life. They trifled in their pleasure, they trifled with sorrow, even with that which was upon man for his sins, and carried him away from both his pleasures and his sorrows. They would have had John dance to their piping, and Jesus and his disciples beat their breasts to their idle dirge. The ways of God never suited them; if John came in the way of righteousness and so with his call to repentance, they said he had a demon - would drive us among the tombs. If the grace of God in Christ came among them as not shunning contact, but eating and drinking even with the sinners whom it had come after to win them to the Giver of all good they knew not, then they reviled it as licentiousness, and the Saviour as fit company for those whose need had brought Him to their help. No way would suit them that divine love could take; while wisdom’s children justified her in all her ways.

So then they but turned the mercies shown them into occasions of judgment and self degradation. Tyre and Sidon would have repented, had they seen the glorious things which Chorazin and Bethsaida had beheld unmoved. Sodom would have remained to that day, if it had had the privileges of favored Capernaum. But therefore the judgment of Tyre and Sidon and of Sodom would be lighter in the day of judgment, than that of Israel’s cities. Capernaum, the city of His choice, had come near to heaven by the Presence which indeed makes heaven for those that have received His grace. It would sink down under the weight of its rejection of Him to a mere abode of death and desolation.* And such it has long been; whether the identification of its site be correct or not.

{*To Hades, "the unseen," the region of departed spirits; not "hell" or Gehenna.}

3. The Lord turns from it all, to approve, spite of the sorrow that filled His heart, the Father’s perfect ways. It was right to hide from the world’s wise and prudent what to babes He could reveal. This is not hiding anything from men as men, but from men that cleave to their own wisdom, - are wise enough to judge God, but not to judge themselves. In that condition it is impossible that He and they should come together. It is a first necessity that God should have His place - should be God; and therefore man be the puny creature that he is, a babe indeed before Him. If there be true wisdom, he will find it no hardship to take his place as this before the Lord of heaven and earth: and here is the condition of all true blessing.

Here, then, was the Son of the Father; Himself the Repository of all blessing: all things in His hand, whose very Person was to man an inscrutable mystery, before which all the pride of man must humble itself; but a mystery of grace in which as nowhere else God is revealed. The Son makes known the Father, - He, and He alone. We find here, beyond all that had been predicted as to Messiah, the glory which is not, so to speak, officially, but personally His. It passes knowledge, and yet it is for us to know: it is not God shrouded in the darkness, but the glory of the Light; inaccessible, though most accessible; an infinite fullness, in which we are filled up. Here we need but capacity to receive; emptiness in ourselves, not fullness; the "babe’s" capacity to draw from and live upon Another, and to such need it is that He wills to reveal Himself, and in revealing Himself to reveal God - Lord of heaven and earth, and yet the Father, for the "babe" to call upon as such.

Practically rejected already by the people to whom He came, He appeals, then; to these needy ones wherever they may be - to those who have found the world but a weary place, in which those laboring" after satisfaction only find, in proportion to the eagerness of search, the heavier weight of disappointment - He appeals to these to come away from this fruitless labor to Himself for rest. He will give rest. The responsibility of fully satisfying them shall be His own.

In this way, He is practically outside of Israel: for wants of this kind are not the birth-right privileges of the chosen nation. He, too, is more and higher than a mere King of the Jews; as His call and offer show, by the character of those invited and by the freeness of the gift, that it is not law but grace that He is declaring. But He is a King; and in submission to Him all hope for man is found. He gives rest, but not to those going on in rebellion. Seeking and following one’s own will, no rest is practicable it would be rest in sin. "Take My yoke upon you," He says, "and learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls."

What an example for our imitation! When God raised up a leader for His people of old, to bring them out of Egypt and into the land, He gave them one after this pattern: "the man Moses was very meek above all men that were on the face of the earth" (Num 12:3). That was God’s choice for a ruler of His people. But now here is the One to whom all things are delivered, and how perfectly does He exemplify this character! Maker and Lord of all, He has come down among men as one that serveth: doing, throughout, His Father’s will, and learning what obedience is, in a strange path of human suffering. Well may we learn such a lesson from such a Teacher! and, submitting ourselves to such a yoke as He will impose, find rest from the unrest of our own self-will!

Some think of His yoke here, as if it were a yoke He had borne that He gave us, or as if we shared it with Him. But the "red heifer" is His picture, "upon which never came yoke" (Num 19:2): the doing of His Father’s will was never that to Him. For a yoke implies restraint; and then there must be something to be restrained: and this for us is true, as for Him it could not be. He speaks both of a yoke and of a burden; but the yoke is not that of the law, but a gentle as well as salutary one; and His burden is light.

F. W. Grant, The Numerical Bible (4th ed., 1903) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Chapter 10

The Shadow of the Cross - Matt. 11 & 12

I-DISCOURAGEMENTS. {Matt. 11}

HITHERTO almost everything has been hopeful and encouraging in our Evangelists record of the Saviours ministry. It began like daybreak on the shores of the sea of Galilee. Great multitudes followed Him wherever He went; and those whom He called to be with Him cheerfully responded to the summons. When He preached the Gospel of the kingdom, the people were astonished at His doctrine, and recognised that He "taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes." His works of healing were warmly welcomed, and to a large extent appreciated by the people generally, though already it was apparent that those whose selfish interests were touched by the progress of the truth were ready to cavil and complain. Notwithstanding this, the work has grown upon Him so that He has found it necessary to arm His twelve disciples with powers like His own, and send them forth as heralds of His kingdom through the land.

But the path of the King is not to be a triumphal progress. It is to be a via dolorosa, leading to a cross and a grave. Many prophecies had been already fulfilled, as our Evangelist has shown again and again: but there are others of a different sort which can as little fail of their fulfilment, -like that which speaks of the Messiah as "despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief." It is not at all to be wondered at, then, that the Evangelist should now give his readers some idea of the discouragements which met the King in the setting up of His kingdom on the earth. The first of these which he mentions comes from a quarter from which least of all it might have been expected.

1. John in doubt. {Mat_11:1-15}

It was, indeed, not at all unnatural that John should be in doubt. Think of his character: stern, uncompromising, severe, and bold to rashness. Think of his circumstances: languishing in prison for the truths sake, without any prospect of rescue; -after all, was Jesus King, or Herod? Remember, too, in what terms he had predicted the coming One: "Now also the axe is laid unto the roots of the trees"; "He that cometh after me is mightier than I"; "Whose fan is in His hand, and He will throughly purge His floor, and gather His wheat into the garner; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire." Did not this betoken a work which would be swift, severe, thorough, -very different from anything of which he could hear in his prison cell? The coming of the kingdom was too gentle and too slow for the stern, impatient Baptist. Accordingly, "offended" (see Mat_11:6, R.V: "finding occasion of stumbling") in his Master, he sends this message, in the hope possibly that it may constrain Him to avow Himself and to bring matters to a crisis: "Art thou He that should come, or do we look for another?"

Though it was natural enough that John should doubt, it was none the less trying to Jesus. The disciples were only children yet. Not one of them could enter into full sympathy with Him. John, the forerunner, was the one strong man, on whom He had reason thoroughly to rely, who had been tried again and again, and always found brave and true. Yet it is he who sends the doubting message. What a shock it must have been to the sensitive heart, what a trial to the faith, of the Man Christ Jesus!

The message must have been a very disturbing and disconcerting one, and fitted, if widely known, to neutralise to a large degree in the minds of the people the witness John had borne to Jesus. It is the last thing the Evangelist would have thought of mentioning, if he had been actuated in the selection of his material by motives of policy; and the fact that this incident is published in two of the Gospels is a striking illustration of what is manifest throughout-the perfect simplicity and candour of the sacred historians.

Have we not reason to be most thankful that they did record it? To the truly thoughtful mind it is no weakening of the testimony of John; while it is full of comfort for the honest doubter, giving him the assurance that even when the most serious questions trouble him-even though the very foundations of his faith seem to be shaken-"there hath no temptation taken" him "but such as is common to man," such as even a brave and true soul like John had to face; full of encouragement also to do just as he did, -go straight to the Master Himself with the doubts, and let Him deal with them-wisely, faithfully, tenderly-as He does here.

How, then, does He deal with them? By a miracle, opening the prison doors, and so making it perfectly plain to him that not Herod, but Jesus, is King? By a sudden outburst of vengeance, destroying hosts of unrepentant sinners and alarming all the country side, and so satisfying the sternest thoughts of the Baptist in his cell? Not at all. He deals with them as He intends to deal with doubters always: points him quietly to the many tokens of His Divine mission-not in the way of judgment wrought on sinners nor of any grand demonstration which will astonish the nation, but in the quiet progress of His helpful, healing, comforting work: "Go, and show John again those things which ye do hear and see: the blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them." Then He encourages him to hold fast the beginning of his confidence firm unto the end, by adding the significant words, "Blessed is he, whosoever shall find none occasion of stumbling in Me" (R.V). It was far better for John himself that he should be allowed to rally, than that anything special should be done to meet his doubts. He did rally; he did secure the blessing his Master set before him; he was satisfied without any open demonstration, satisfied to wait on and suffer in faith and patience, till at last he sealed the testimony of his magnificent life by a martyrs death.

Those are in some respects to be envied who in childlike simplicity believe without doubt or question; but there is a special blessing for those who by the very force of their nature must wrestle with doubt:, yet in the trying hour find no occasion of stumbling in Him. They come out of the conflict more than conquerors through Him that loved them.

The answer sent to John was kind; but there was no flattery in it-not even a word of commendation of his heroic endurance. The Master knew the strength of His disciple, and He dealt with him accordingly. But as soon as the messengers are gone He tells the people what He thinks of him. He in effect deprecates the thought of judging John by a message sent in an hour of weakness and despondency. "Do not imagine for a moment," He seems to say, "that the man you went out into the wilderness to see is feeble as a reed, or soft as a courtier. He is all, and more than all, you took him to be. He is a prophet indeed; and much more, for He is a herald of the heavenly King. Among them that are born of woman there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist; and though he has not the advantages of even the little ones in the kingdom of heaven, inasmuch as he belongs to the old dispensation, yet, as herald of the new, he occupies a peculiarly honoured place-he stands between the old and the new; for all the prophets and the law prophesied until John; while from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven is preached, and men are pressing into it. He is, in fact, if only you had ears to hear, if only your minds were open to read the Scriptures according to the spirit of them, that very Elijah whose coming your prophet has taught you to expect" {Mat_11:7-14}.

So far we have followed what seems to be the drift of our Saviours words in regard to John; but there is more than this in them. He is contrasting the feebleness and fickleness of the multitude with the strength and stability of John. There is before His mind, throughout, the thought of the transcendent importance of the events of the time as compared with the thoughtlessness of the people of the time. The question "What went ye out for to see?" was intended not merely to bring into relief the greatness of John, but to search their hearts. The important events of the time had circled first around John the Baptist, then around Himself. The people had not the least idea of the transcendent greatness of John and still less of the infinite greatness Of Him to Whom he had borne witness. Jesus did not wish as yet fully to assert His own claims, yet He desired to bring the inconsiderate multitudes to some conception of the things which their eyes saw, to rebuke and, if possible, to correct their thoughtlessness and indifference.

It is to the presence of this underlying thought that some forms of expression are due which otherwise are difficult to understand. This applies in particular to

2. The Unreasonableness of the People. {Mat_11:16-19}

Unable to recognise the true significance of the events of the time, with deaf ears to the heavenly message which first the herald and then the King had brought them, they fastened their attention on that which was merely incidental: the asceticism of John, the social friendliness of Jesus. Of the first they complained, because it was not like the second; of the second they complained, because it was not like the first. Any excuse for a complaint; no ear to hear nor soul to appreciate the message of either. To what can He liken them? To a set of children, sitting in the market-place indeed, but with no thought of business in their heads: they are there only to amuse themselves: and even in their games they are as unreasonable as they can be. One set proposes to play a wedding, and the rest say, "No, we want a funeral"; then, when the others take it up and start the game of funeral, they change their tune, and say, "No, we prefer a wedding." Nothing will please those who have no intention to be satisfied. Caring nothing for the kingdom which John heralded, the multitude only noticed the peculiarity of his garb, and the stern solitariness of his life, and said he must be a lunatic. When the King Himself comes with no such peculiarity, but mingling on familiar and friendly terms with the people, still caring nothing for the kingdom which He preached, they and fault with Him for the very qualities the absence of which they deprecated in John. If they had acted, not as foolish children, but as wise men, they would have recognised that both were right, inasmuch as each was true to himself and to the position he filled. It was right and fitting that the last of the old prophets should be rugged and stern and solitary, even as the great Elijah, in whose spirit and power he came. It was no less right and fit that the Saviour-King of men should set out on new lines and introduce the new dispensation in a manner suited to its distinctive features of freedom and familiar friendliness. Thus, in the one case, and in the other, "wisdom is justified of her children."

3. The Unbelief of the Cities. {Mat_11:20-24}

Though the multitudes which had flocked to hear John might be fickle and thoughtless, surely better things might be expected of those favoured towns by the lake of Galilee, where the signs of the kingdom had been so abundantly exhibited and the truth of the kingdom so earnestly and frequently preached. But no: even they "repented not." They would bring their sick in crowds to get them healed; but they hid as it were their faces from Him. They had not indeed treated Him as the people of Nazareth had done; for Nazareth had cast Him out, and Capernaum had taken Him in. Yet His lamentation is not over Nazareth, but over Capernaum. We can readily see why. What He suffered at Nazareth was a personal indignity. He was so summarily ejected that He had not time or opportunity to set before them the signs of the kingdom. But in Capernaum the time and opportunity had been ample. The truth had been fully told; the signs had been fully wrought. The people had seemed to listen; and all betokened a happy issue. We can imagine the Saviour waiting and hoping and longing (for again, let it be remembered that He was very man, and that this experience discouraged Him as it would discourage any of us), and then tasting all the bitterness of hope deferred, ending in crushing disappointment.

For a long time He continues silent, bearing the heavy burden in His heart, till the fountain of grief could be pent up no longer: "Then began He to upbraid the cities wherein most of His mighty works were done, because they repented not." The words He speaks are very awful; but it is in the last resort. Love and mercy have been His theme from day to day; and it is only because these are obstinately rejected that wrath and judgment must now find a voice. It is not a wrathful voice: there are tears in it. What must it have cost Him to speak these awful words about Capernaums impending doom! To think that those who were nearest His heart of all, to whom He devoted the freshness of His first days of service, the dew of His youth, so to speak-that they would have none of Him, but preferred to remain in sin with all the woe it necessarily entailed, -oh! it must have been torture to that loving heart. And we may be sure there was no less pathos in this last appeal to Bethsaida, Chorazin, and Capernaum, than there was in the later lamentation over the city of the South.

How does the Saviour bear Himself under these repeated discouragements? The passage which follows will show {Mat_11:25-30}. Some have found a difficulty in the word "answered," because there appears no question with which it is connected. But did not these discouragements require an answer? As we read, first of the doubts of John, then of the thoughtlessness of the multitudes, and then of the impenitence of the favoured cities by the lake, is there not a question in our hearts, becoming more and more urgent as each new discouragement appears, What will He say to this? What can He answer? Thus our minds are well prepared for that which immediately follows: "At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank Thee, O Father." Is it to be a thanksgiving, then, after such a series of disappointments and vexations? Even so. As He has looked to the cities of the plain, His voice has been a wail; now that He looks up to His Father, wailing ceases, and thanksgiving takes its place. So will it always be to faith which is genuine and deep enough. It is only when we look below and around that we are depressed. When we look up we are strong. "I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the Lord Who made heaven and earth." Was it the remembrance of this passage at the time of need which suggested the form of His thanksgiving: "I thank Thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth"?

Surely we have here the living original of that grand apostolic word. "In everything give thanks"; for if "at that season" (R.V) the Saviour of men found occasion for thanksgiving, we may well believe that at any season, however dark, we may find something to stir our hearts to gratitude; and the very exercise of thanksgiving will bring a deep spiritual joy to set against the bitterest sorrow, even as it was with our Lord, Who. as St. Luke informs us, "rejoiced in spirit" as He lifted up His soul in thanks to God that day.

What, then, does He find to be thankful for? First, He discovers a cause for gratitude in the very limitation which occasions His sorest disappointments: "I thank Thee, because Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes." There is of course the cheering thought that amid the general unbelief and rejection there are some childlike souls who have welcomed the truth. Some are fain to make this the sole cause of thankfulness, as if He meant to say, "I thank Thee, that though Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, Thou hast revealed them unto babes." But there is no authority for introducing this little word. The Saviour gives thanks, not merely in spite of this hiding, but because of it. It is true, indeed, that He uses the language of resignation, "Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in Thy sight," which makes it evident that the fact that so many of the wise and intelligent rejected His gospel presented a real difficulty to His mind, as it has done to earnest souls in all ages. But while it was no doubt enough for Him to feel sure that it was right in the sight of God, we are not without indication in what follows, that His faith not only led to resignation, but enabled Him to see for Himself that it was wisely ordered. For what is the great object of the Gospel? Is it not to dethrone itself and enthrone God in the hearts of men? It is clear, then, that, if it had in any way appealed to pride and self-sufficiency, it would have defeated its own end. Suppose the revealing of things had been to the wise and prudent as such, what would have been the result? The kingdom of heaven would have become a mere scholarship prize. And however good a thing scholarship may be, and however important that it be encouraged, this is not the work of the Christ of God. His Gospel is for all; so it is addressed not to the great in intellect, which would confine it to the few, but to the lowly in heart, which brings it within reach of all, -for the very wisest and greatest in intellect may be, and ought to be, meek and lowly in heart.

Indeed, is it not to the meek and lowly heart that even the truths of science are disclosed? A man who approaches nature with a preconceived theory, about which his mind is already made up, is sure to miss the mark. To enter into its secrets, prejudices and prepossessions must be laid aside, and things observed with open mind and simple receptiveness. In this connection one sees the special appropriateness of the reference to "the Lord of heaven and earth." The principle is one which is not restricted in its range: it runs all through nature. Still more appropriate is the appeal to the fatherhood of God. It is not for the Father to be partial to his clever children, and leave the less favoured ones to shift for themselves. To Him they are all "babes"; and to them He must be not examiner, nor prize-giver, but above all Father, if they would understand and feel His love. So the more one thinks of it, the more in every point of view does it seem good and necessary that these things should not be made known to the "wise and understanding" (R.V) as such, but should be revealed to "babes," and to those of childlike spirit. It is well. The wisest and most learned may join in the thanksgiving, for it is far better for them to take their places with the rest, as many happily do, and receive the same loving welcome; and those of us who cannot call ourselves wise and learned should surely be most devoutly thankful that, however impossible it may be to compete with these highly favoured ones in Obtaining the prizes of earth, we are at no disadvantage in striving for "the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus."

The next great thought which comes to the relief of the Saviour in His discouragement is that, while there are barriers in the heart of man, there is no barrier in the heart of God, no limit whatever to the outpouring of Divine love and grace: "All things are delivered unto Me of My Father." Even at the time when it is borne in upon Him that men will have none of Him, He exults in the thought that He has everything for them. If only they could see it! If only they knew the boundless treasure there was for them in God! If only they knew that God had put all within their reach by sending them His Son! But the Son is unknown except to the Father, who sent Him; and the Father is unknown except to the Son, Who has come to reveal Him. But He has come to reveal Him; and with the revealing the way will be opened for all good things to follow. As He thinks of it His heart yearns over the orphaned children of men, and He exults in the thought that He has for them the revelation of the Fathers heart and home, with enough and to spare for all His children. {Mat_11:27}

Then follows such an outpouring of heart as there never has been before. He knows that only in the Father can the children of men find rest, and so He says "Come unto Me," and I will lead you to the Father, Who alone knows Me, as I alone know Him; and you, finding Him in Me, shall know Him too, and your hearts shall be at rest.

It is beautiful and most touching to observe how our Lord is, as it were, compelled to make His appeal more personal than He has ever done before. We look in vain through His previous utterances as reported in this Gospel for such reduplication of the personal pronouns as there is here. What is the reason of it? We can see it when we read between the lines. Hitherto His great subject has been the kingdom of heaven. This kingdom He has been preaching through all the country-side, setting forth its purity and blessedness, unfolding its unspeakable riches, and entreating all to enter in by the strait gate, which He has thrown open to receive them. But they will not enter. These things, in spite of all He can say, are hid from them. Well He knows what is the difficulty: it is the hardness of their hearts. If He could only get at these hearts! How can He do it? It can only be by the opening out of all His heart to them; so He will make His pleading, a personal entreaty now. Hence the peculiarly winning form His invitation now assumes. It is no longer "Enter ye in at the strait gate"; it is not even, "I have come to call sinners to repentance"; it is the cry of a loving, yearning heart, "Come unto Me." And how tenderly He thinks of them!-no more upbraiding now, no more reproof. He will try to reach the conscience through the heart, and so He does not even think of them as sinners now-He forgets everything but their weariness and woe: "Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will rest you."

We shall not, however, dwell on the precious words with which this chapter ends. They are as rich and suggestive as they are simple and heart-thrilling; but for this very reason we must not attempt to do more than place them in their setting, which is often missed, for the words themselves have attracted so much attention, and so filled the minds and hearts of those who have looked at them that too little has been made of their surroundings. Observe only how nobly the Son of Man comes out of this ordeal of disappointment and discouragement. See the grandeur of His faith. "At that season," when we should expect to see Him in the depths, He rises to the very height of His dignity and majesty. This passage above all others has been cited as an example of the self-assertion of Jesus-say rather His sublime consciousness of Divine dignity, prerogative, and power; yet so entirely natural and unassuming is it all, that in the very same breath He can say, without conveying to the most thoughtful mind the least feeling of incongruity: "I am meek and lowly in heart." Then behold what manner of love! These chilling blasts of doubt, indifference, and unbelief only fan it into a warmer, steadier flame. The sweetest of all His invitations, the most touching of all His appeals, comes from a heart which has just been wounded in its tenderest place, and has tasted the bitterness of cruel disappointment. Who can measure the patient love which "at that season" finds such utterance?

II-THE CONTRADICTION OF SINNERS. {Matt. 12}

The darkness deepens on the Saviours path. He has now to encounter direct antagonism. There have been, indeed, signs of opposition before. When the man sick of the palsy was forgiven, "certain of the scribes said within themselves, This man blasphemeth"; {Mat_9:3} but it was only "within themselves," they did not venture to speak out. Again, after the feast in the house of Levi, the Pharisees complained, but not to Christ Himself; "they said unto His disciples, Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners?" {Mat_9:11} And when the dumb demoniac was cured, the Pharisees muttered, "He casteth out devils through the prince of the devils," {Mat_9:34} but did not yet say it to His face. But now they are emboldened to attack Him directly. Possibly they saw as clearly as any the discouraging aspect of affairs for the new kingdom. They had, in all probability, heard of the doubts of John, had taken note of the fault-findings of the people (if, indeed, these had not been first suggested by themselves), had observed that even "the cities where most of His mighty works were done repented not"; {Mat_11:20} and having therefore less occasion to fear consequences, they might think it safe to attack one who stood for a rapidly failing cause.

1. Observe, first, the spirit in which our Lord meets the repeated attacks of which the record is given in this chapter. There are four in close succession. The first is the charge of Sabbath-breaking made against the disciples, because they rubbed a few ears of corn in their hands as they passed through the fields on the Sabbath day; and following it, the entangling question put to the Master in the synagogue. Then there is the accusation founded on the healing of the blind and dumb demoniac: "This man doth not cast out devils, but by Beelzebub the prince of the devils." {Mat_12:24} The third attack is the hypocritical application, "Master, we would see a sign from Thee," {Mat_12:38} the word "Master" being evidently used in mockery, and the request for "a sign" a scornful way of suggesting that all the signs He was giving were worth nothing. These three attacks were made by the Pharisees, and were most irritating and vexatious, each in its own way. The first was annoying on account of its pettiness, the second because of its bitter malice, while the third was a studied insult; and yet, galling as these repeated attacks must have been, we may well suppose that the keenest wound of all to the gentle spirit of the Son of man would be the last, inflicted by the members of His own family, who seemed at this time as unsympathetic and unbelieving as the Pharisees themselves; for the untimely interruption recorded at the close of the chapter was intended, as we loam from the account in the second gospel, to put Him under restraint as a madman. This last interruption, in which even His mother joined, must have been gall and wormword to that tender heart.

Now "consider Him that endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself." {Heb_12:3} How does He bear Himself through these storms of calumny and insult? He bears Himself so that out of this dark chapter of His history there comes to us one of the loveliest portraits of Him to be found anywhere. It had been sketched by one of the old masters as an ideal portrait, and is now at last matched in real life: "Behold My Servant, Whom I have chosen; My Beloved, in Whom My soul is well pleased: I will put My spirit upon Him, and He shall show judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not strive, nor cry; neither shall any man hear His voice in the streets. A bruised reed shall He not break, and smoking flax shall He not quench, till He send forth judgment unto victory. And in His name shall the Gentiles trust" {Mat_12:18-21}. What gentleness and tenderness, yet what strength and majesty!-for, though "He strives not," nor lifts up His voice in angry altercation, while He will not break the bruised reed, nor quench the smoking flax, He will nevertheless declare judgment, and secure victory, and make His name such a power in the earth, that the Gentiles shall hope in Him and the world go after Him. We can fancy the glow on the Evangelists face as he pauses in the midst of the sad record of these cruel assaults, to look at, and show to us, that lovely portrait of the Son of man. And is. it not all the lovelier that it shines out from such a background? Does it not give new significance to the tender words which linger in our ears from the chapter of discouragement before: "Learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls"?

2. It would have been a great thing if our Lord had only borne in dignified silence these repeated provocations; but He is too good and kind to leave these misguided people to their own devices without an effort to enlighten their dark minds and arouse their sleeping consciences. How patiently He reasons with them! We may glance at each attack in succession as an illustration of this.

On the charge of Sabbath-breaking He endeavours to set them right by citing appropriate scriptures {Mat_12:3-4}; appealing to the law itself; {Mat_12:5} furnishing them with a great principle laid down by one of the prophets, the key of the whole position; {Mat_12:7} and concludes by an illustrative act, accompanied by a simple and telling argument, which appeals to the universal conscience and heart {Mat_12:9-13}. Again, how patiently He answers the malicious charge of collusion with Satan, showing them in the clearest manner, and with amazing power, how far they are astray, and what a dangerous path they are treading {Mat_12:25-37}. So, too, in meeting the third attack: though He cannot but sternly rebuke the hypocritical application for "a sign," He yet does it in such a way as to prepare for them in due time, when perhaps they may be ready to appreciate it, a new sign-His death and resurrection-overcoming the difficulty arising from the fact that He could not yet speak of it in plain terms (for it was at a later period than this that He began to speak plainly of it even to His disciples) by veiling it under the figure of "the sign of the prophet Jonas": a way of putting it which had the advantage of being memorable, and at the same time enigmatical enough to veil its meaning till the event should lighten it all up, and bring out its deep suggestiveness; and while thus preparing them for the new sign when it should come, He warns them against that evil state of mind and heart which threatened to render even it of no avail {Mat_12:38-45}). And then, with what marvellous readiness does He use the painful interruption with which the chapter ends for the teaching of truth of the highest and purest and tenderest quality! What patience, what long-suffering, what meekness of wisdom, what faithfulness, what strength and tenderness! Every line of the likeness drawn by the inspired hand of the old master is more than justified {Mat_12:46-50}.

3. Observe, further, that in all His dealings with His bitterest foes He never in the least degree lowers His dignity, but rather asserts it in the boldest and strongest terms. It may be questioned, indeed, if there is any chapter in all the history in which this is more marked. This, again: may be illustrated from all the four occasions.

In the argument on the Sabbath question hear Him as He draws Himself up, in presence of His accusers, and says: "In this place is One greater than the temple"; {Mat_12:6} and again: "The Son of man is Lord even of the Sabbath day." {Mat_12:8} Must there not have been something heavenly majestic in His look and bearing when words like these were allowed to pass unchallenged by such men? This consciousness of dignity appears no less in the argument by which the second charge is met. In proof of this we may point to verses 28 and 30 {Mat_12:28; Mat_12:30}; and the same impression is produced by the solemnly repeated "I say unto you" {Mat_12:31; Mat_12:36}, in each case introducing one of those declarations of judgment to which reference is made in the passage quoted from the prophet {Mat_12:18-20}. Quite as conspicuous is the same feature in the third remonstrance, in which He asserts His superiority to the great ones of the old covenant in language which acquires, from the connection in which it occurs, a strength far beyond the mere terms employed: "Behold, a greater than Jonas, behold, a greater than Solomon, is here" {Mat_12:41-42}. And in the last of the four sad encounters the same lofty consciousness of peerless dignity is manifest. Son of Mary is He? brother of James and Joses? See Him lift His eyes to heaven, and speak of "My Father," and look down the ages, and out to the uttermost bounds of earth, and say, "Whosoever shall do the will of My Father which is in heaven, the same is My brother, and sister, and mother." {Mat_12:50}

4. We have seen how kindly and patiently the Saviour deals with these cavillers, so as to give them every opportunity of seeing their folly and wickedness, and the beauty and excellence of the truth they are resisting. But He does much more than this. He speaks not only so as to meet their objections, and give them the opportunity of being set right, but so as to provide instruction, warning, and encouragement for all succeeding ages. To show in any satisfactory way how this is done would require separate treatment for each of the four instances; but it may be possible in a very brief way to suggest it.

The first attack gave Him the opportunity of speaking on the Sabbath law. As we have seen, He began to treat the subject from the strictly Jewish standpoint, using the example of David and the ritual of the Temple to correct the misapprehensions and misrepresentations of those with whom in the first instance He had to do. But He does not leave it as a mere Jewish question; He broadens His view, and shows that the day of rest is for humanity at large-not, however, as a burden, but as a blessing, the principle which underlies it being "mercy, and not sacrifice." Thus, out of this conflict there has come to us the Magna Charta of the peoples Sabbath, the full text of which is given in the corresponding passage of the second gospel: "The Sabbath was made for man, and not man For the Sabbath: therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath." Here we have, on the one hand, the vindication of our rights against those who would deprive us of the day of rest, as if the privilege had been intended only for the Jews, and was abolished when the dispensation closed; and, on the other, the assertion of our liberty against those who, by their petty regulations and restrictions, would make Gods precious gift a burden instead of a blessing. And how wisely and beautifully does He confirm to us our privileges by following the charter with an argument which, though coming still under the head of the great principle ("Mercy, and not sacrifice"), is no mere repetition, but illustrates the wider aspect just unfolded, by its freedom from Jewish colour, and its appeal to the conscience and heart of mankind at large: "What man shall there be among you, that shall have one sheep, and if it fall into a pit on the Sabbath day, will he not lay hold on it, and lift it out? How much, then, is a man better than a sheep?" {Mat_12:11-12}.

The second attack gave Him the opportunity of bringing out with great distinctness and vividness the witness of the Spirit of God to His work as Saviour of mankind. These Pharisees regarded His miracles as mere displays of power, apart altogether from the spirit of purity, mercy, and grace so manifest in them all. It was only this narrowness of view that made it possible for them to imagine that the Spirit of evil, to whom of course no one could deny a certain measure of mere power, was behind them. How completely He answers their blasphemous suggestion by showing that the works He did, judged, not by the mere power they displayed, but by their whole spirit and tendency, were at the very opposite pole from the works of Satan, we plainly see; but the point now is the permanent value of His reasoning. At first sight it may seem to be quite out of date. Whoever dreams now of disposing Of the works of Christ by attributing them to Satan? Let us not be over-hasty, however, in concluding that old objections are out of date. If we look closely at those regarded as the newest, we may find that they are but old ones in a new dress. What of the position taken by some intelligent men in our day, who candidly admit the power of Christianity to elevate and sanctify men, and yet set it down as false?

As an illustration of this, we cannot do better than refer to a recent production of the Agnostic School, in which there is the most emphatic testimony to the blessed power of Christianity in particular instances, followed by these most candid and generous words: "What needs admitting, or rather proclaiming, by agnostics who would be just, is that the Christian doctrine has the power of elevating and developing saintliness, which has had no equal in any other creed or philosophy." Yet the book in which that sentence occurs assumes throughout that this doctrine, which has had no equal in producing saintliness-a quality which in another place is described as "so lofty, so pure, so attractive, that it ravishes mens souls"-is untrue! Is, then, the argument of our Lord out of date? and is it too late to ask the old question, "Can Satan cast out Satan?"

It does not always follow, of course, that that which is good in its effects in particular cases, is thereby proved to be true. Truth and falsehood are to be determined fundamentally on other grounds than those of proved utility-this applies alike to truth and duty; there is an absolute truth and falsehood quite irrespective of utility, and there is an absolute right and wrong quite irrespective of utility, -but though we cannot in particular cases prove that to be true which appears to be beneficial, yet we cannot but believe that in the end, the true, the good, and the beautiful will be found to coincide; and we maintain that, seeing the effects of genuine Christianity on human character have been tested for nearly two thousand years, and have been found to "make for righteousness," nobility, purity, all that is good and gracious, high and holy, it is too late in the day to set it down to the father of lies. We may be mistaken in our passing judgments, may be misled into accepting as eternally true and right some measure or doctrine which has not yet had time to develop its real nature and character, which may produce good results at first, and then by degrees develop other results of quite a contrary kind-take the history of Monasticism as a case in point; but when there have been ample time and opportunity for testing the fruits of a system, as there has been in the case of Christianity; when we observe that the gospel of Christ has had these wonderful effects through eighteen successive centuries among all ranks and classes, nations and races of men-it ought surely to require something stronger than Agnosticism (which at the worst can only say, "I do not know") to make us believe the outrageously improbable supposition that it is false, and therefore presumably of the kingdom of lies and of unclean things. There have been too many devils cast out of human hearts to make it at all doubtful that in very deed "the kingdom of God has come" among us. {Mat_12:28} There has been too much spoiling of "the strong mans goods" to make it at all doubtful that "a stronger than he" has mastered him and is spoiling his house. "The Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil"; {1Jn_3:8} and wherever He has been admitted into human hearts He has done it, setting up His kingdom of "righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost." The argument is as fresh to-day as the day it was propounded; and it has now all the added strength of centuries of confirmation.

The third attack gave our Lord the opportunity of laying bare the root of unbelief, and setting forth the important truth that, when the heart is estranged from God, mere signs are unavailing. The signs He had given in abundance should have been enough, especially when the only way of evading their force the ingenuity of scepticism could devise had been closed by the powerful argument just delivered. Besides this there was the crowning sign of the resurrection still to come; yet He knew that even that would fail to satisfy-not for reasons intellectual, but because of the spirit of the age, as He points out in that striking and powerful parable (Mat_12:43-45), and hints in the suggestive term, "an evil and adulterous generation," {Mat_12:39} the word "adulterous" referring to the well-known, and at that time thoroughly understood, language of the Old Testament, according to which estrangement of heart from God is branded as spiritual adultery. {See Jer. 3, Ho. 1, 2., and many other passages.}

Herein we see a sufficient explanation of the widespread unbelief of the age in which we live. It is because the heart of this generation is so far estranged from God, so wedded to the earthly and material, so taken up with selfish aggrandisement and the multiplication of the luxuries of life. In many cases of unbelief the individual is not so much to blame as the spirit of the age of which he is the representative. Observe that the Lord does not say, "Ye evil Pharisees," but, "An evil and adulterous generation," thus making it evident that the spirit of scepticism was not peculiar to themselves, but a something diffused throughout society. Hence it comes that many men, of blameless lives-of whom it would be a breach of charity to say that they loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil-nevertheless declare themselves unsatisfied with the signs of the divine mission of Christ our Lord. Why is this? It is because they are infected with the spirit of the age, engrossed with the material, the sensible, the secular; while their hearts, "swept and garnished" though they be, are "empty" of God: "The god of this world hath blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, Who is the image of God, should not dawn upon them." {2Co_4:4, R.V}

Such persons not only cannot recognise the signs of the kingdom of heaven, but are in a state of heart and mind to which no sign can possibly be given. We are indebted to the fine candour of the late Mr. Darwin for a striking illustration of this. In his Life there is an interesting correspondence with Professor Asa Gray, the great botanist, who, wondering how Darwin could remain unconvinced by the innumerable evidences of design in nature, took the liberty of asking him if he could think of any possible proof which he would consider sufficient. To this Mr. Darwin replied: "Your question, What would convince me? is a poser. If I saw an angel come down to teach us so, and I was convinced, from others seeing him, that I was not mad, I should believe." If he had left it there, it might have been pertinent to ask him whether Christ is not just such an angel come down from heaven to teach us, and whether a sufficient number of persons did not see Him in the flesh, to say nothing of the multitudes who know Him in the spirit, to convince us that we are not mad in believing it. He did not, however, leave it there, but went on to say: "If man was made of brass and iron, and in no way connected with any other organism which had ever lived, I should perhaps be convinced." Nothing could be more candid, or more in keeping with the transparent honesty of this great man. But what an acknowledgment! Man must cease to be man, and become a metal machine, and the universe must cease to be a harmonious-whole, before there can be evidence enough for so simple and elementary a principle as design in the universe; and then only a "perhaps!" If all this were done for me, "I should perhaps be convinced." Is our Lords answer to the seekers after a sign out of date? "Verily I say unto you, There shall no sign be given unto this generation." {Mar_8:12} How could there be?

What will He make of the distressing interruption caused by the interference of His mother and brethren? Knowing their motives and intentions as He did, He could not for a moment yield; and how was it possible to deal with them without a public rebuke, from which, seeing that His mother was involved in it, His heart would instinctively shrink? It was a most painful position; and the more we think of it, and try to imagine possible ways of extrication, the more we must admire the wisdom and kindness shown in the way in which He confronted the difficulty. He makes use of the opportunity for giving a new and most winning view of the kingdom of heaven as a happy family, united each to Him, self, and all to the Father by the holiest bonds; thus opening out the paradise of a perfect home to all who choose to enter it, taking the sacred ties involved in the sweet words "brother" and "sister" and "mother," and giving them a range, a dignity, and a permanence they never had before.

In all this there was no word of direct censure; yet the sadly mistaken conduct of His kindred did not pass without implied rebuke; for the effect of His words was to make it clear that, sacred as were, in His eyes, the ties of earth, their only hope of permanence was in alliance with the higher ties of heaven. He has come in the loving Fathers name to gather in His wandering children; and if His mother and brethren according to the flesh attempt to hinder Him, He cannot listen to them for a moment, but must steel His heart against their blind appeals, and that, not only for His works sake, but for theirs also. They are slow to believe; but the east likely way to bring them to faith would be to yield to their unbelief. He will prosecute the path of duty, though it involve the sacrifice of all that cheers and comforts His heart; He must set His face as a flint to finish the work His Father has given Him to do, and they will understand Him by-and-by. There is no doubt they would go home with sore hearts that day; but no very long time would elapse till they would all be most grateful that their foolish, however well-meant, interference had failed of its intent.

The course of events in later times has proved that the gentle rebuke involved in our Lords reception of the message from His mother was not only necessary at the time and for her, but for the ages to come as well. We have seen that, in each of the attacks recorded before, our Saviour replies in such a way that His words not only meet the objection of the moment, but continue of permanent value to meet similar objections and gainsayings in ages to come. So is it here. It certainly is no fault of Mary herself, whose name should ever be held in the highest respect by all who love the Lord, that a corrupt Church, reversing all the teaching of the Churchs Head, not only elevated the earthly relationship far above the spiritual, but in virtue of this relationship put the mother in the place of the Son, and taught an ignorant people to worship her and trust in her as a mediator. But the fact that this was done, and is persisted in to this day, shows that when our Lord set aside the mere earthly relationship as one that must be merged in the spiritual, He was correcting not only a pardonable error of Mary, but a most unpardonable error that afterwards, without any encouragement whatever from her, should be committed in her name.

After all, however, it is not the setting aside of the claims of Mary and the lowering of the earthly relationship m comparison with the heavenly, which is the great thing in the passage; but the Gospel of the Family of God. We have had the Gospel of the Kingdom of God, and glad tidings it has been indeed; but have we not here something even better? It is much to be permitted to hail the Son of God as our King; is it not better still to be encouraged to hail Him as a Brother, to know that all that is sweetest and tenderest in the dear words "brother," "sister," "mother," can be imported into our relation to Him? How it endears the heavenly relationship, and hallows the earthly!

Again, how it rebukes all sectarianism! He "stretches out His hand towards His disciples," and then to all the world by that word "whosoever." And it is not the mere promise of salvation with which this "whosoever" is connected. There are Christians in the present day who can scarcely allow themselves to be sectarian enough to deny that there is salvation out of the Church to which they happen to belong: they are good enough to think that these people who do not follow with them may somehow or other be saved; but the idea of fraternising with them! that is quite another thing. Now listen to the Saviour Himself: "Whosoever shall do the will of My Father which is in heaven (no question) of what Church he belongs to, or anything of that sort, the same is My brother, and sister, and mother." No arms-length recognition there; He takes all true disciples to His heart.

Observe, moreover, the emphasis on doing. with which we are already familiar. In setting forth the Gospel of the Kingdom, our Lord was careful to warn His hearers: "Not every one that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of My Father"; {Mat_7:21} and now that He is setting forth the Gospel of the Family the emphasis is still in the same place. It is not "Whosoever shall connect himself with this church or that church"; it is not "Whosoever shall be baptised, and take the sacrament"; it is "Whosoever shall do the will of My Father in heaven." This emphasis on doing, in connection with these endearing relations, is most significant. There must be love among the members of the family: and what else than love is the characteristic of the family ties? But how is love to be shown? How are we to distinguish it from mere sentiment? Our Saviour is careful to teach us; and never is He more careful than in those passages where tender feeling is most prominent-as, for example, in His parting words in the upper room, where again and again He reminds His disciples that obedience is the only sure test of love: "If ye love Me, keep My commandments; He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them. he it is that loveth Me." {Joh_14:15; Joh_14:21} For the same reason obedience is here set forth as the only certain mark of the true disciple: "Whosoever shall do the will of My Father which is in heaven, the same is My brother, and sister, and mother."

William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.

Mat 11:1. Ἐτέλεσεν, concluded) Our Lord did nothing abruptly. See Gnomon on ch. Mat 26:1; and Luk 7:1.—κηρύσσειν, to preach) sc. everywhere. Cf. Joh 3:2, etc.[507]—αὐτῶν, of them) the Israelites [the people, namely, who were deserving of His ‘compassion,’ ch. Mat 9:36.—V. g.]

[507] The verb διδάσκειν implies private instruction, as κηρύσσειν implies public instruction.—V. g.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Mat_11:1. Ἐκεῖθεν] from where the sending out of the apostles took place. It is impossible to define the locality further; at all events Capernaum is not intended, but some open space (Mat_9:36) on the road, along which Jesus was at that time prosecuting His journey through Galilee (Mat_9:35). Whilst the Twelve were out on their missionary tour, Jesus continued His labours by Himself; and it was during this interval also that He was visited by the messengers from the Baptist. Where these latter happened to find Him, it is impossible to say. For the return of the Twelve, see note on Mat_11:25.

αὐτῶν] in the towns of those to whom He came (the Galileans). Comp. Mat_4:23, Mat_9:35, Mat_12:9. Fritzsche refers αὐτῶν to the apostles: in which the apostles had already published the knowledge of the kingdom. Incorrectly, for the μετέβη, κ.τ.λ., follows at once and immediately upon the conclusion of the instructions to the Twelve.

On the following section, see Wieseler in the Göttingen Vierteljahrschr. 1845, p. 197 ff.; Gams, Joh. d. T. im Gefängn. 1853; Gademann, in d. Luth. Zeitschr. 1852, 4; Grote, ibid. 1857, 3, p. 518 ff. Comp. also Erlang. Zeitschr. 1857, p. 167 ff.; Keim, II. p. 355 ff.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Mat 11:1 . ὅτε ἐτέλεσεν διατάσσων . The participle here with a verb signifying to cease as often with verbs signifying to begin, continue, persevere, etc., vide Goodwin, § 879. ἐκεῖθεν , from that place, the place where the mission was given to the Twelve. Where that was we do not know; probably in some place of retirement (dans la retraite, Lutteroth). πόλεσιν αὐτῶν : the pronoun does not refer to the disciples ( μαθηταῖς ) as Fritzsche thinks, but to the people of Galilee. While He sent out the Twelve to preach, He continued preaching Himself, only avoiding the places they visited, “giving room to them and time to do their work, for, with Him present and healing, no one would have cared to go near them,” Chrysos., Hom. 36.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

11:1. ἐκεῖθεν] No fixed locality is assigned to the foregoing discourse. It was not delivered at Capernaum, but on a journey, see ch. 9:35. αὐτῶν is also indeterminate, as in ch. 4:23; 9:35.

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

(E) 11:1. And it came to pass, when Jesus finished charging His twelve disciples, He departed thence to teach and to preach in their cities.] For this formula at the end of five long discourses, cf. Introduction, p. lxiv. For ἐκεῖθεν, cf. on 4:21.—τοῦ διδάσκειν] Mt. has τοῦ with inf. 7 times. The present tense emphasises the continuance of the action; cf. 13:3, and contrast 2:13, 3:13. See Blass, pp. 196 ff.; Abbott, Johannine Grammar, 2496.

C. (5) Survey of His ministry, 11:2-30.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The disciples’ cities, that is to say, in Galilee, where many of them were born, Acts 2:7.

Christ showeth by his works, that he is the promised Messiah.

Of instructing them with precepts.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

The first verse of this chapter some join to the foregoing chapter, and make it (not unfitly) the close of that.

1. The ordination sermon which Christ preached to his disciples in the foregoing chapter is here called his commanding them. Note, Christ's commissions imply commands. Their preaching of the gospel was not only permitted them, but it was enjoined them. It was not a thing respecting which they were left at their liberty, but necessity was laid upon them, Co1 9:16. The promises he made them are included in these commands, for the covenant of grace is a word which he hath commanded, Psa 105:8. He made an end of commanding, etelesendiatassōn. Note, The instructions Christ gives are full instructions. He goes through with his work.

2. When Christ had said what he had to say to his disciples, he departed thence. It should seem they were very loth to leave their Master, till he departed and separated himself from them; as the nurse withdraws the hand, that the child may learn to go by itself. Christ would now teach them how to live, and how to work, without his bodily presence. It was expedient for them, that Christ should thus go away for awhile, that they might be prepared for his long departure, and that, by the help of the Spirit, their own hands might be sufficient for them (Deu 33:7), and they might not be always children. We have little account of what they did now pursuant to their commission. They went abroad, no doubt; probably into Judea (for in Galilee the gospel had been mostly preached hitherto), publishing the doctrine of Christ, and working miracles in his name: but still in a more immediate dependence upon him, and not being long from him; and thus they were trained up, by degrees, for their great work.

3. Christ departed, to teach and preach in the cities whither he sent his disciples before him to work miracles (Mat 10:1-8), and so to raise people's expectations, and to make way for his entertainment. Thus was the way of the Lord prepared; John prepared it by bringing people to repentance, but he did no miracles. The disciples go further, they work miracles for confirmation. Note, Repentance and faith prepare people for the blessings of the kingdom of heaven, which Christ gives. Observe, When Christ empowered them to work miracles, he employed himself in teaching and preaching, as if that were the more honourable of the two. That was but in order to do this. Healing the sick was the saving of bodies, but preaching the gospel was to the saving of souls. Christ had directed his disciples to preach (Mat 10:7), yet he did not leave off preaching himself. He set them to work, not for his own ease, but for the ease of the country, and was not the less busy for employing them. How unlike are they to Christ, who yoke others only that they may themselves be idle! Note, the increase and multitude of labourers in the Lord's work should be made not an excuse for our negligence, but an encouragement to our diligence. The more busy others are, the more busy we should be, and all little enough, so much work is there to be done. Observe, he went to preach in their cities, which were populous places; he cast the net of the gospel where there were most fish to be enclosed. Wisdom cries in the cities (Pro 1:21), at the entry of the city (Pro 8:3), in the cities of the Jews, even of them who made light of him, who notwithstanding had the first offer.

What he preached we are not told, but it was probably to the same purpose with his sermon on the mount. But here is next recorded a message which John Baptist sent to Christ, and his return to it, Mat 11:2-6. We heard before that Jesus heard of John's sufferings, Mat 4:12. Now we are told that John, in prison, hears of Christ's doings. He heard in the prison the works of Christ; and no doubt he was glad to hear of them, for he was a true friend of the Bridegroom, Joh 3:29. Note, When one useful instrument is laid aside, God knows how to raise up many others in the stead of it. The work went on, though John was in prison, and it added no affliction, but a great deal of consolation, to his bonds. Nothing more comfortable to God's people in distress, than to hear of the works of Christ; especially to experience them in their own souls. This turns a prison into a palace. Some way or other Christ will convey the notices of his love to those that are in trouble for conscience sake. John could not see the works of Christ, but he heard of them with pleasure. And blessed are they who have not seen, but only heard, and yet have believed.

Now John Baptist, hearing of Christ's works, sent two of his disciples to him; and what passed between them and him we have here an account of. Here is,

I. The question they had to propose to him: Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another? This was a serious and important question; Art thou the Messiah promised, or not? Art thou the Christ? Tell us. 1. It is taken for granted that the Messiah should come. It was one of the names by which he was known to the Old Testament saints, he that cometh or shall come, Psa 118:26. He is now come, but there is another coming of his which we still expect. 2. They intimate, that if this be not he, they would look for another. Note, We must not be weary of looking for him that is to come, nor ever say, we will not more expect him till we come to enjoy him. Though he tarry, wait for him, for he that shall come will come, though not in our time. 3. They intimate likewise, that if they be convinced that this is he, they will not be sceptics, they will be satisfied, and will look for no other. 4. They therefore ask, Art thou he? John had said for his part, I am not the Christ, Joh 1:20. Now, (1.) Some think that John sent this question for his own satisfaction. It is true he had borne a noble testimony to Christ; he had declared him to be the Son of God (Joh 1:34), the Lamb of God (Joh 1:29), and he that should baptize with the Holy Ghost (Joh 1:33), and sent of God (Joh 3:34), which were great things. But he desired to be further and more fully assured, that he was the Messiah that had been so long promised and expected. Note, In matters relating to Christ and our salvation by him, it is good to be sure. Christ appeared not in that external pomp and power in which it was expected he should appear; his own disciples stumbled at this, and perhaps John did so; Christ saw something of this at the bottom of this enquiry, when he said, blessed is he who shall not be offended in me. Note, It is hard, even for good men, to bear up against vulgar errors. (2.) John's doubt might arise from his own present circumstances. He was a prisoner, and might be tempted to think, if Jesus be indeed the Messiah, whence is it that I, his friend and forerunner, am brought into this trouble, and am left to be so long in it, and he never looks after me, never visits me, nor sends to me, enquires not after me, does nothing either to sweeten my imprisonment or hasten my enlargement? Doubtless there was a good reason why our Lord Jesus did not go to John in prison, lest there should seem to have been a compact between them: but John construed it into a neglect, and it was perhaps a shock to his faith in Christ. Note, [1.] Where there is true faith, yet there may be a mixture of unbelief. The best are not always alike strong. [2.] Troubles for Christ, especially when they continue long unrelieved, are such trials of faith as sometimes prove too hard to be borne up against. [3.] The remaining unbelief of good men may sometimes, in an hour of temptation, strike at the root, and call in question the most fundamental truths which were thought to be well settled. Will the Lord cast off for ever? But we will hope that John's faith did not fail in this matter, only he desired to have it strengthened and confirmed. Note, The best saints have need of the best helps they can get for the strengthening of their faith, and the arming of themselves against temptations to infidelity. Abraham believed, and yet desired a sign (Gen 15:6, Gen 15:8), so did Gideon, Jdg 6:36. But, (3.) Others think that John sent his disciples to Christ with this question, not so much for his own satisfaction as for theirs. Observe, Though he was a prisoner they adhered to him, attended on him, and were ready to receive instructions from him; they loved him, and would not leave him. Now, [1.] They were weak in knowledge, and wavering in their faith, and needed instruction and confirmation; and in this matter they were somewhat prejudiced; being jealous for their master, they were jealous of our Master; they were loth to acknowledge Jesus to be the Messiah, because he eclipsed John, and are loth to believe their own master when they think he speaks against himself and them. Good men are apt to have their judgments blessed by their interest. Now John would have their mistakes rectified, and wished them to be as well satisfied as he himself was. Note, The strong ought to consider the infirmities of the weak, and to do what they can to help them: and such as we cannot help ourselves we should send to those that can. When thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren. [2.] John was all along industrious to turn over his disciples to Christ, as from the grammar-school to the academy. Perhaps he foresaw his death approaching, and therefore would bring his disciples to be better acquainted with Christ, under whose guardianship he must leave them. Note, Ministers' business is to direct every body to Christ. And those who would know the certainty of the doctrine of Christ, must apply themselves to him, who is come to give an understanding. They who would grow in grace must be inquisitive.

II. Here is Christ's answer to this question, Mat 11:4-6. It was not so direct and express, as when he said, I that speak unto thee am he; but it was a real answer, an answer in fact. Christ will have us to spell out the convincing evidences of gospel truths, and to take pains in digging for knowledge.

1. He points them to what they heard and saw, which they must tell John, that he might from thence take occasion the more fully to instruct and convince them out of their own mouths. Go and tell him what you hear and see. Note, Our senses may and ought to be appealed to in those things that are their proper objects. Therefore the popish doctrine of the real presence agrees not with the truth as it is in Jesus; for Christ refers us to the things we hear and see. Go and tell John,

(1.) What you see of the power of Christ's miracles; you see how, by the word of Jesus, the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, etc. Christ's miracles were done openly, and in the view of all; for they feared not the strongest and most impartial scrutiny. Veritas no quaerit angulos - Truth seeks not concealment. They are to be considered, [1.] As the acts of a divine power. None but the God of nature could thus overrule and outdo the power of nature. It is particularly spoken of as God's prerogative to open the eyes of the blind, Psa 146:8. Miracles are therefore the broad seal of heaven, and the doctrine they are affixed to must be of God, for his power will never contradict his truth; nor can it be imagined that he should set his seal to a lie; however lying wonders may be vouched for in proof of false doctrines, true miracles evince a divine commission; such Christ's were, and they leave no room to doubt that he was sent of God, and that his doctrine was his that sent him. [2.] As the accomplishment of a divine prediction. It was foretold (Isa 35:5, Isa 35:6), that our God should come, and that then the eyes of the blind should be opened. Now if the works of Christ agree with the words of the prophet, as it is plain they do, then no doubt but this is our God whom we have waited for, who shall come with a recompence; this is he who is so much wanted.

(2.) Tell him what you hear of the preaching of his gospel, which accompanies his miracles. Faith, though confirmed by seeing, comes by hearing. Tell him, [1.] That the poor preach the gospel; so some read it. It proves Christ's divine mission, that those whom he employed in founding his kingdom were poor men, destitute of all secular advantages, who, therefore, could never have carried their point, if they had not been carried on by a divine power. [2.] That the poor have the gospel preached to them. Christ's auditory is made up of such as the scribes and Pharisees despised, and looked upon with contempt, and the rabbies would not instruct, because they were notable to pay them. The Old Testament prophets were sent mostly to kings and princes, but Christ preached to the congregations of the poor. It was foretold that the poor of the flock should wait upon him, Zac 11:11. Note, Christ's gracious condescensions and compassions to the poor, are an evidence that it was he that should bring to the world the tender mercies of our God. It was foretold that the Son of David should be the poor man's King, Psa 72:2, Psa 72:4, Psa 72:12, Psa 72:13. Or we may understand it, not so much of the poor of the world, as the poor in spirit, and so that scripture is fulfilled, Isa 61:1, He hath anointed me to preach glad tidings to the meek. Note, It is a proof of Christ's divine mission that his doctrine is gospel indeed; good news to those who are truly humbled in sorrow for their sins, and truly humble in the denial of self; to them it is accommodated, for whom God always declared he had mercy in store. [3.] That the poor receive the gospel, and are wrought upon by it, they are evangelized, they receive and entertain the gospel, are leavened by it, and delivered into it as into a mould. Note, The wonderful efficacy of the gospel is a proof of its divine original. The poor are wrought upon by it. The prophets complained of the poor, that they knew not the way of the Lord, Jer 5:4. They could do no good upon them; but the gospel of Christ made its way into their untutored minds.

2. He pronounces a blessing on those that were not offended in him, Mat 11:6. So clear are these evidences of Christ's mission, that they who are not wilfully prejudiced against him, and scandalized in him (so the word is), cannot but receive his doctrine, and so be blessed in him. Note, (1.) There are many things in Christ which they who are ignorant and unthinking are apt to be offended at, some circumstances for the sake of which they reject the substance of his gospel. The meanness of his appearance, his education at Nazareth, the poverty of his life, the despicableness of his followers, the slights which the great men put upon him, the strictness of his doctrine, the contradiction it gives to flesh and blood, and the sufferings that attend the profession of his name; these are things that keep many from him, who otherwise cannot but see much of God in him. Thus he is set for the fall of many, even in Israel (Luk 2:34), a Rock of offence, Pe1 2:8. (2.) They are happy who get over these offences. Blessed are they. The expression intimates, that it is a difficult thing to conquer these prejudices, and a dangerous thing not to conquer them; but as to those, who, notwithstanding this opposition, to believe in Christ, their faith will be found so much the more, to praise, and honour, and glory.

Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

CHAPTER XI.

Christ, having finished his instructions to his disciples,

departs to preach in different cities, 1.

John sends two of his disciples to him to inquire whether he

were the Christ, 2-6.

Christ's testimony concerning John, 7-15.

He upbraids the Jews with their capriciousness, 16-19.

The condemnation of Chorazin, and Bethsaida, and Capernaum, for

their unbelief and impenitence, 20-24.

Praises the Divine wisdom for revealing the Gospel to the

simple-hearted, 25, 26.

Shows that none can know God but by the revelation of his Son,

27.

Invites the distressed to come unto him, and gives them the

promise of rest for their souls, 29-30.

NOTES ON CHAP. XI.

Verse 1. This verse properly belongs to the preceding chapter, from which it should on no account be separated; as with that it has the strictest connection, but with this it has none.

To teach and to preach] To teach, to give private instructions to as many as came unto him; and to preach, to proclaim publicly, that the kingdom of God is at hand; two grand parts of the duty of a Gospel minister.

Their cities] The cities of the Jews.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

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 Mat_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 return is narrated, or at least implied, in Mat_11:25, and hence we must infer that the messengers of the Baptist arrived while He was carrying on His work without them. Their cities might seem grammatically to point to the towns where the Twelve had been, or to which they belonged; but it is probable that it was used here vaguely for the cities of Galilee in general.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1 And it came to pass, when Jesus had made an end of commanding his twelve disciples, he departed thence to teach and to preach in their cities.

Ver. 1. He departed thence to teach, &c.] Never out of action: the end of one good work was with our Saviour the beginning of another. So must it be with ministers: let them never look to rest till they come to heaven; but (as St Paul, that insatiabilis Dei cultor, as Chrysostom called him) teach God’s people publicly and from house to house, incessantly warning every one night and day with tears, Act 20:20; Act 20:31. Dr Taylor, martyr, preached not only every Sabbath day and holy day, but whensoever else he could get the people together. So did Bishop Ridley, Bishop Jewel, &c. So did not their successors, once a year was fair with many of them (like the high priest in the law), as if they had concurred in opinion with that Popish bishop, that said, It was too much for any man to preach every Sunday, and that bishops were not ordained to preach, but to sing mass sometimes, leaving all other offices to their suffragans. It is as rare a thing at Rome, said Dr Bassinet, to hear a bishop preach as to see an ass fly. Oh what will these slow bellies do when Christ riseth up? and when he visiteth, how will they answer him? Job 31:14.

To preach in their cities] That is, in the cities of his twelve disciples, in the coasts of Galilee, while they were doing the same in Jewry. Maldonate the Jesuit will not have this to be the sense of this text, and only quia, inquit, est hereticorum, because it is the sense that the heretics (as he calls the Protestants) set on it. A goodly thing he holds it to dissent from them, though in a manifest truth. So George, Duke of Saxony, was heard to say, Though I am not ignorant that heresies and abuses are crept into the Church, yet I will never obey the gospel that Luther preacheth. For hatred to the man he would not hearken to the truth he taught. This is to have the faith of Christ "in respect of persons," Jas 2:1.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And it came to pass ... - The directions to the apostles were given in the vicinity of Capernaum. The Saviour went from thence to preach in their cities; that is, in the cities in the vicinity of Capernaum, or in Galilee. He did not yet go into Judea.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

We never find our Saviour idle, but continually going up and down doing good, and we find him most intent upon preaching and teaching, which doubtless is the great work of the ministers of the gospel; of what quality soever they be, they call pretend to no higher than Christ’s. Nor did our Saviour think it enough to send others in his stead, as his curates, he went himself. Luke notes, Luk 10:1, that he sent the seventy, two by two, into every city whither himself was to follow; so as it seems he did not judge it enough that one proclamation of the gospel should be made to them. For those that think there is a distinction to be made between preaching and teaching, κηρυσσειν and διδασκειν, they may learn from this text, that they are both the work of Christ’s ministers, if they be bound to take example from their Master, and not think the servant is above his Lord. Those that under value preaching, as the least part of the ministerial work, do both forget this text, and what Paul said, that Christ sent him not to baptize, but to preach the gospel; that is, not so much to baptize as to preach. If any think that people are now so instructed that there is no such need of preaching, they should do well to question their people a little, and they may discover their own great mistakes. Besides that experience teacheth us, that those who are best instructed are most desirous of that which deserveth the name of preaching; which lets us know that there is yet something further to be known, or that we had need have our remembrance stirred up, or at least our affections quickened.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

The Disciples of the Baptist

1. Tours of Jesus after dismissing His apostles. The apostles started on their mission about five weeks before the second Passover of the ministry (28 a.d.) and were away about a month. Jesus spent the interval partly in Galilee and partly in Jerusalem, whither he went to keep the Feast of Purim at the beginning of March (Joh_5:1). He rejoined the Twelve shortly before the Passover (Joh_6:4), and immediately afterwards fed the five thousand (Mar_6:30; Luk_9:10). St. Matthew does not mention the return of the Twelve, nor does he adhere to the chronological order of events.

2-6. Deputation from the Baptist (Luk_7:18). John, knowing that his end was near, and that many of his disciples were jealous of the success of the new teacher, and disbelieved His claims, sent certain of them to Jesus, that by seeing His works and hearing His words they might be convinced of His Messiahship. The objections which the disciples of John brought against Jesus (besides the want of strictness in His life), were (1) that He did not openly proclaim Himself the Messiah, (2) that He did not work the mighty signs and wonders which were generally expected of the Messiah. The importance of the occasion, and the obvious sincerity of the enquirers, induced Jesus to depart somewhat from His ordinary policy of reticence. By a reference to Isa_6:1, He declared plainly enough, and yet not too plainly, that He was the Messiah, He worked a number of miracles in their presence in proof of His Messianic claims (Luk_7:21), and finally sent them back to John with a message in which He expressly mentioned His miracles, and promised a blessing to those who should attach themselves to Him. The spectacle of Christ's miracles must have been particularly impressive to the disciples of John, who worked no miracles (Joh_10:41).

It is very generally held by recent writers that John himself, as well as his disciples, was doubtful about our Lord's Messiahship. This is not impossible. The ideals of Jesus diverged so widely from those of John, that the Baptist, hearing of them only by report, would have a difficulty in understanding them. We must allow, moreover, for the depressing effect of a long and rigorous imprisonment. On the other hand, it must be remembered that the NT. always represents not John himself, but his disciples, as doubtful about the claims of Jesus, and that Jesus makes this deputation the occasion of one of the strongest eulogies upon John that the NT. contains.

2. Sent two of his disciples] RV 'sent by his disciples' Only St. Luke gives the number.

5. See Isa_61:1 and Isa_35:5. The dead are raised up] This implies a larger number of such miracles than the three mentioned in the Gospels. St. Luke appropriately places the deputation immediately after the raising of the widow's son. The poor have the gospel, etc.] Some translate this 'the poor preach,' as if Christ alluded to the poverty of the apostles.

6. Blessed is he who, in spite of all hindrances, shall find himself able to believe in me as the Messiah.

7-19. The praise of John the Baptist (Luk_7:24). Lest the purpose of the question of John, 'Art thou he that should come?' should be misunderstood, Jesus hastens to assure the people that John is no reed shaken by the wind, who does not know his own mind, but a prophet, and more than a prophet. He then deplores the blindness of 'this generation,' i.e. the party of the scribes and Pharisees, who can discern the greatness neither of John nor of Himself.

8. John was no sycophant or flatterer, making friends with the great and wealthy for the sake of sharing their luxury and ostentation.

9. RV 'But wherefore went ye out? To see a prophet?' More than a prophet] John was more than a prophet, (1) because of his personal relation to Jesus as His Forerunner; (2) because he actually pointed out and baptised Jesus; (3) because his teaching was a nearer approach to the teaching of Jesus than that of any of the prophets.

10. Before thy face] In the original of Mal_3:1, from which these words are taken, Jehovah Himself speaks of His own coming, 'Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me.' All the evangelists change this into an address of Jehovah to the Messiah, 'shall prepare thy way before thee' (Mar_1:2; Luk_1:76; Luk_7:27), Which shows that they borrowed it not directly from Malachi, but from some common source in which the change or paraphrase had already been made.

11. He that is least] Jesus means that the meanest and least endowed Christian is greater in privilege than the greatest men of the Old Dispensation. The Baptist, though so near the kingdom, was not within it.

12, 13. St. Luke introduces these vv. in a quite different connexion: see Luk_16:16 (a rebuke to the Pharisees).

12. From the days of John] Jesus gives John the credit for the multitudes of repentant sinners who are now crowding into the kingdom, and in their eagerness to enter may be compared to soldiers attempting to storm a town.

13. The preparatory dispensation of the Law and the Prophets lasted till John. John first announced the kingdom as something present.

14. Jesus states, as again in Mat_17:12 (cp. Luk_1:17), that John was the Elijah whom the Jews expected in accordance with Mal_4:5. He hints that they may be unwilling to believe it, partly because of the position in which John now is, but more particularly because they expected a personal return of Elijah himself, and not another prophet with similar authority: see on Mat_17:10.

15. He that hath ears] A frequent observation of Jesus, indicating that only those whose hearts are prepared can receive spiritual truth (Mat_13:9; Luk_8:8; Rev_2:7, etc.).

16-18. Jesus rebukes 'this generation,' i.e. the Pharisees and scribes (see Lk), who are pleased with neither John nor Himself, by comparing them to children in the streets playing at weddings and funerals, and falling out over their play. Like the children the Pharisees are only playing—playing at religion with empty ceremonies which no earnest man can take seriously. Like the children they are also peevish and irritable, unable to agree as to what they really do want from a religious leader. The asceticism of John, which corresponds to the wailing in the game, did not please them, nor does the joyous, full, human life of Jesus, which corresponds to the piping for the dance. Since they are not in earnest themselves, nothing that is really earnest can please them.

19. But wisdom is (or, 'was') justified of her children] i.e. the superiority of the religion of the Baptist and of Jesus is proved by the lives of their disciples, which show more signs of genuine piety than those of the Pharisees. 'Wisdom' is here the religion of John and of Christ. 'Her children' are their disciples, who have been mentioned (Mat_11:12) as crowding into the Kingdom of Heaven, while the Pharisees remained outside. (See Lk.) RY reads, 'Wisdom is justified by her works,' but the meaning is the same. 'Her works' are the holy lives of Christ's and John's disciples.

20-24. The woes upon Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum(Luk_10:12 cp. Mat_10:15). These were the cities in which 'most of His mighty works were done,' and yet nothing is said in the Gospels of any ministry at Chorazin, and of Bethsaida we only know that the five thousand were fed there. Chorazin lay 4 m. NE. of Capernaum, inland, but not far from the lake. There are said to have been two Bethsaidas, one E. of Jordan near the head of the lake, where the five thousand were fed, generally called Bethsaida Julias, the other near Capernaum, W. of the lake. The latter is mentioned Mar_6:45 (cp. Joh_6:17), and probably in Joh_1:44; Joh_12:21

23. And thou, Capernaum] Jesus adapts to Capernaum the prophecy of Isaiah (Isa_14:13) upon Babylon and its king. Shalt be brought down to hell] (lit. 'Hades'). In themselves the words might simply mean that Capernaum shall cease to be a city and become desolate, as it is at present; but the context suggests that the condemnation of its unbelieving inhabitants in the Day of Judgment is also alluded to.

24. See on Mat_10:15.

25-30. Christ's relation to the Father and to mankind (Luk_10:21). A sublime utterance, this 'pearl of the sayings of Jesus' (Keim), 'one of the purest and most genuine,' 'one of Johannean splendour' (Meyer), 'an aërolite from the Johannean heaven' (Hase). As a rule in the synoptists the relation of Jesus to mankind is the theme of the discourses, but here the divine Sonship of Jesus is affirmed in terms which cover the whole doctrine of the Fourth Gospel. 'This passage,' says Prof. Sanday, 'is one of the best authenticated in the Synoptic Gospels. It is.. part of that “collection of discourses,” in all probability the composition of the apostle St. Matthew, which many critics believe to be the oldest of all the Evangelical documents. And yet once grant the authenticity of this passage, and there is nothing in the Johannean Christology that it does not cover. Even the doctrine of preëxistence seems to be implicitly contained in it.'

25. At that time] Since St. Luke connects this utterance with the return of the Seventy, which he alone records, it is probable that St. Matthew intends to connect it with the return of the Twelve, which, however, he does not mention. Yet he implies it, for at the beginning of the next chapter the Twelve are again introduced.

Hast hid (RV 'didst hide') these things] Jesus thanks God that the simple gospel which the Twelve have preached has been understood and gladly received by the simple and unlearned people (babes) of the villages and towns through which they had passed, but has been misunderstood and rejected by the 'wise and prudent' (RV 'wise and understanding'), i.e. by the scribes and Pharisees who think themselves such. Jesus is glad that the scribes and Pharisees have not declared themselves disciples. He does not wish to enrol them among His followers until they have given up their arrogance, and become as babes.

27. All things are (or 'were,' or 'have been') delivered unto me of my Father] Having just called the Father 'Lord of heaven and earth' (Mat_11:25), He now declares that the same authority belongs to Himself, because all created things have been committed to Him by God. This supreme authority over the universe which was committed to Him at the creation, was exercised by Him in some degree even during the humiliation of His life on earth (Joh_3:35; Joh_13:3; Joh_17:2), and was fully restored at His resurrection (Mat_28:18) with all the glory pertaining to it. Such power could not be committed to a creature, and the possession of it by Christ can only be explained by assuming that He is, as the Fourth Gospel and the Epistles represent Him as being, the creator and sustainer of the universe.

No man (RV 'no one') knoweth the Son, but (RV 'save') the Father] lit. 'fully knoweth.' Men can know other men, but only God Hiniself can know Jesus. 'None but the Almighty Father has full, entire possession of the mystery of the Person and Office of the Son: it is a depth hidden from all being but His, whose purposes are evolved in and by it' (Alford).

Haraack in his 'What is Christianity?' says: 'Here two observations are to be made: Jesus is convinced that he knows God in a way in which no one ever knew Him before, and he knows that it is his vocation to communicate this knowledge of God to others by word and by deed—and with it the knowledge that men are God's children.'

Neither (fully) knoweth any man (RV 'any one') the Father, save the Son] Not only does Jesus alone fully know the Father, but He alone can reveal Him: cp. Joh_1:18; Joh_6:46; Joh_10:15.

28-30. Jesus invites to Himself all who feel the burden of sin, and who find their lives and even their religion a toil to them. He will release them from the yoke of mechanical religion, make them humble and meek like Himself, and give them pardon and peace.

28. Come unto me] He does not say 'unto God,' but 'unto Me,' making Himself the dispenser of grace and the centre of Christian devotion. That labour] that find life a toil to them. Are heavy laden] with the burden of sin, from which they can find no relief in the unspiritual and burdensome ordinances of Judaism and Pharisaism: cp. Act_13:39; Rom_3:28; Rom_8:4; Heb_7:19. I will give you rest] Again not 'God,' but 'I' will give you rest—rest in this world and in the next—rest that comes from peace with God and pardon for sin, which I am empowered to give (Mat_9:6).

29. Take my yoke upon you] My yoke does not consist of a multitude of burdensome ordinances like that of the Law and of the Pharisees. It can hardly be called a yoke at all, it is so light. True, there are certain ordinances which every Christian must observe, but they are few and simple. The essence of My religion is that men should be humble, and meek and loving and tender-hearted as I am, not hard and proud like the Pharisees. Practise these things, and you will find your lives easy, your religion a joy, and your souls at rest.

The 'Yoke of the Law' was a common phrase among the rabbis to express the burdensome nature of its ordinances: cp. Act_15:10. 'Why tempt ye God, that ye should put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?'

I am meek] Jesus says this while making Himself the object of the religious devotion of the whole human race. Obviously, therefore, His claim to be meek and lowly can only be justified, if He be truly divine.

J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1. Jesus had made an end of commanding — This verse properly belongs to the close of the preceding chapter, upon which see the closing note. It informs us how Jesus was engaged during the trial mission of his apostles; while each couple took their own way, the Master himself was upon his Father’s business.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Matthew only. And it came to pass, when Jesus had made an end. The same formula recurs in Mat_7:28 Mat_13:53 Mat_19:1 Mat_26:1. In all five cases it marks the end of important speeches.

(1) The sermon on the mount; (Mt 5-7:27)

(2) the charge to the disciples; (Mat_10:5-42)

(3) the parables; (Mat_13:1-52)

(4) discourses to the disciples; (Mt 18)

(5) prophecies about the end of the world, etc. (Mat 24:, Mat_24:25)

(Cf. Introduction, p. 3). For the bearing that this has upon the sources of the Gospel. Of commanding his twelve disciples, he departed thence. Whence? We have no knowledge. Perhaps the place had been named in the original context, from which the discourse was derived. Mat_9:35 suggests that it was some place on his journey (cf. Alford), hut our verse in itself implies rather some fixed centre of work, e.g. Capernaum. To teach and to preach in their cities. If he ceases to speak at length, it is that he may begin more aggressive work. (cf. Mat_7:28, 29 13:53, 54) Their. It is hardly by accident that the word recurs, with the same reference, as it seems, to the Jews generally, in the passages just quoted. (cf. Mat_12:9, note)

Vers. 1-6. The message of John.

I His QUESTION.

1. Its cause. He had heard the works of Christ. He was in prison, in the gloomy fortress of Machaerus. He had been there six months at least, perhaps much longer. But he was not kept wholly without knowledge of the outer world; his disciples were allowed access to him; they related to him the mighty works of the great Prophet of Galilee. Nothing could interest John more deeply. The works were the works of the Christ, the Messiah; such as were attributed to him by the prophets, They would naturally fill the thoughts of the Baptist, and form the great subject of conversation between him and his disciples.

2. Its meaning. "Art thou he that should come, or are we to look for another?" What could the Baptist mean? He had witnessed the descent of the Holy Spirit upon our Lord; he had borne witness that he was the Son of God, the heavenly Bridegroom; he had pointed him out to his own disciples as the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world: how could he have any doubt about his Messiahship? Probably he was not the man he had been. The long imprisonment had told upon him. It must have been especially irksome to one who had been so long accustomed to the tree open life of the wilderness. Confinement, enforced inactivity, with no work, no employment for his ardent energies, tamed the spirit that had been so strong. Perhaps he sank at times into seasons of melancholy like Elijah his prototype. It may well have been so: he was a high saint of God, very bold and full of strength, but he was human; and human nature has, and must have, its inconsistencies and weaknesses. No man lives at all times up to his highest level; and it has been often noticed that God"s saints fail sometimes in that very grace which is their most striking characteristic; Elijah, for instance, in courage, Moses in meekness, Peter in steadfastness. John had heard in the prison the works of Christ; but he had heard also from his disciples how he sat at meat with publicans and sinners; he had heard that his apostles had not adopted the ascetic life; he had heard that he had not publicly announced himself as the Messiah. It may be that he was somewhat; disappointed. He longed for something decisive; he longed, perhaps, to see the wrath of God manifested against the profligacy of Herod, against the hollow hypocrisy of the Pharisees. He wished, perhaps, to urge Jesus to declare himself openly, to use his Divine power to put down sin and to introduce the reign of righteousness; he wished to accelerate the march of the Divine purpose, tie had waited long; and now he had been a whole winter, perhaps more, cooped up in prison. It is no wonder if he became sometimes impatient; no wonder if the reports (somewhat coloured, it may be, by the prejudices of his disciples) which he heard of the teaching and actions of Jesus, so holy, and yet in some respects so unlike his own, disappointed and perplexed him. He would have been more than human if, under such circumstances, his faith had never failed him. Holy Scripture presents to us men as they really were. It does not draw ideal pictures; it exhibits the imperfections as well as the graces of holy men. We should be very thankful for this. It is one of the secondary evidences of the simple truthfulness of God"s Word, and it offers to us a more interesting study, a more encouraging lesson. An ideal character.has far less human interest than the actual portrait of a real man; and the thought that the saints of the Bible, who conquered in the fight and won the crown of life, were partakers of our sins and weaknesses is full of encouragement and help to us. Doubtless the result of the message tended to strengthen the Faith of the messengers; but to suppose that this was the one object of the message seems to introduce an element of unreality into the Baptist"s conduct. "Art thou he that should come?" There is a wavering sometimes, an agonizing doubt in the hearts of the best of God"s servants. It comes from the temptations of the evil one; it arises sometimes, as perhaps in the case of the Baptist, partly from physical causes. The mortal body weigheth down the mind; it is to good men the most distressing of trials. The Baptist sent to the Lord in his difficulties; he put the question to him clearly and plainly. So we must come direct to Christ when we are troubled with the like perplexities. He will be gracious unto us, as he was to John, as he was to Thomas. He will give us peace in believing, helping us to persevere, like the Baptist, steadfast unto the end. Are we to look for another?" No; there is none other Saviour, no other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. We look only for him, for fuller manifestations of his grace; we look for his coming, when he shall make this body of our humiliation like unto the body of his glory.

II THE LORD"S ANSWER.

1. He directs the messengers to his works. He does not affirm his Messiahship in words; he did so to the woman of Samaria; he did so to the man born blind; now he points to his works. The Lord adapts his teaching to the circumstances of each case, to the different characters, the varying spiritual needs of his disciples. Deeds are more convincing than words. If we would convince others of the deep reality of the experiences of personal religion, we must show its power in our lives. Words, glowing descriptions, will not convince; we must exhibit in the quiet, humble life of holiness the power of the Lord working in our hearts. The lives of God"s saints are the best evidence to unbelievers of the strength of Christian motives, and of the reality of the promised help of the Holy Spirit; they are the facts which prove the presence and the energy of the great Cause.

2. What those works were.

(1) they were the works of the Christ, his proper works, the works attributed to him by the prophets. They proved that Jesus was the Christ; they were signs, evidences of his Divine origin, of his sacred office. John"s disciples had now seen some of these great works with their own eyes; they were to report to their master the things which riley had seen and heard. There is no evidence like that of an eye-witness. Such is the evidence of the apostles: "That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you." It is the best evidence which we can give to others of the power of the Christ now: "We know it, we have felt it;" but only those whose lives are pure and holy can give that most convincing proof.

(2) They were works of mercy; they were wonders, such as might be expected from the Son of God. The presence of God in the world could not be without some attestation; it must bring with it accompanying miracles. The Incarnation, the most mysterious of miracles, seems to necessitate a train of lesser miracles; it could not stand alone; an event of such overwhelming magnitude must imply momentous issues, and must be surrounded by stupendous circumstances.

(3) But among these miracles of power there is one miracle of grace. "The poor have the gospel preached to them." It was a strange thing then a thing unheard of. The Gentile teachers despised the poor and ignorant; so did the Jewish rabbis. (Joh_7:49) It was Christianity that first taught men to care for the poor, Christ who first set the holy example. It was a change, a miraculous change wrought among the nations by the power of Christ"s religion. Isaiah had mentioned it as one of the works of the Christ. (Isa_61:1) And still to care really for the poor, to teach them, to preach Christ to them, is one of the marks of genuine piety and love of Christ. These were the appointed works of the Christ. They had been wrought by the Lord Jesus. He was the Christ: there was no room for doubt.

3. The blessedness of simple faith. Some were offended. They found stumbling-blocks in our Lord"s humility, in the lowliness of his earthly surroundings, in his tenderness to outcasts and sinners, in his long-suffering patience, in his delay to execute judgment. Perhaps John the Baptist himself found for a time a stumbling-block in some of these things. Blessed is he who is not offended in Christ; who recognizes Christ"s spiritual greatness, Christ"s infinite goodness, Christ"s deep and holy love. Blessed is he who sees nothing in Christ to repel, but everything to attract and to convince. He is blessed, for he will find in Christ all that he needs peace, comfort, hope, rest for his soul. Such blessedness, we may be sure, the holy Baptist found, even if he wavered for a moment through that human frailty which belonged even to his exalted character.

LESSONS.

1. God"s saints are not perfect; follow them, but as they followed Christ.

2. Trials of faith will come; be steadfast, looking unto Jesus.

3. Go straight to him in all your difficulties.

4. Meditate much on his holy life; it is one of the greatest helps to faith.

HOMILIES BY MARCUS DODS Vers. 1-11. John"s inquiry.

I THE MOTIVE OF THIS INQUIRY OF JOHN"S is not at once apparent. What was causing him perplexity, if not disappointment, about our Lord? He was disappointed because the works he heard of were not the kind of works he had himself expected the Messiah to perform. His own work had been to denounce prevailing iniquities, and to predict the advent of One who should cleanse with fire where he cleansed with water; who would come in the same spirit as himself, but with a mightier manifestation of it; One who would lay the axe to the root of the tree of evil, and quickly execute judgment in Israel. His whole soul went forth with expectation, and there was nothing to meet it. He had learned how short a time would be given to any one who was resolved to root out evil from the land. Why, then, this passive inactivity on the part of Jesus? Why was he content to go about in villages, helping beggars, speaking with uninfluential sinners, while the nation groaned under foreign tyranny and cried for its king? From this doubting inquiry of John"s we may learn several things, as:

1. How entirely Jesus had to depend on himself. What must have been the clearness of aim and stability of purpose which could put aside not only the popular expectation, but the grave judgments and suggestions of men like John?

2. John"s state of mind shows how apt people are to allow their own distresses to distort their views of Providence. When things go against us, and the despotic laws of the world move on and pay no respect to our prayers or our piety, we are apt to admit doubts where all was plain and sure to us.

3. When we ourselves are not used in God"s work, we are tempted to think he is doing nothing. If a religious movement goes on without us, we think of it critically and with suspicion.

4. We see here how insignificant the effects of the gospel always seem.John saw only what he thought a good doctor could rival.

II THE ANSWER SENT BY JESUS TO JOHN becomes at once intelligible so soon as the nature of the inquiry is understood. The important item in the report was the preaching of the gospel to the poor. it had always been recognized as characteristic of the Messiah that the poor were to be gladdened when he came. He would not overlook those whom all other governors overlooked. This was equivalent to saying that no human necessities were beyond the relief he brought. He was to bring in a religion available for all men for those who had nothing but humanity to recommend, aid, or support them. Until his kingdom was fully established this could only be a proclamation of good news, and so works of beneficence went hand in hand with the preaching, to show that the promise was not mere word. The miracles were thus actual proclamations. To the report of what they saw and heard the messengers were to add the words, "Blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in me." As if he would say, "I have chosen my methods of action. Blessed is he who understands the characteristic features of the kingdom and can rejoice in them. Blessed is he who does not take offence at the Saviour of the world because he comes with mercy and not with judgment. Blessed is he who understands that the most penetrating, lastingly efficacious powers in the world are forgiveness, tenderness, and pitiful ministering to the common wants." This word of warning applies to several kinds of misapprehension.

1. There are those to whom it seems unintelligible that Christ"s work is so slow, that he is so tardy in making any marked impression on the world, that things should go on so much as if he had no power in heaven or on earth. In times of need they are tempted to ask, "Art thou he that should come?" But blessed are ye who, thus tempted, are able to accept Christ"s way, not in sullen resignation, but believing that it is unintelligible to you only because his aim is higher than yours, his love greater, his wisdom more unclouded, his methods more radical. He will not always explain; he expects you will trust him warmly and lovingly, and so grow to understand his spirit; he will trust you for coming at last to see as he sees, and he leaves with you this loving word.

2. Christ here shows in what spirit he meets honest doubt about his Personand work. He knew that beneath that question of John"s, which so shocked the bystanders, there was a heart more capable of loyalty to him than was to be found in any of those who gave their easy assent to claims they scarcely understood. That question of John"s was of more value to him than the unreasoning hosannas of thoughtless followers; for through that question he saw a man in terrible earnest, to whom the answer was eternal life or eternal darkness. Nothing can be more contemptible than the doubts which are paraded, as if to doubt were an intellectual achievement, as if the man who lives in doubt were in a more advanced stage than he who has found the truth. Of such doubters, who question truth not that they may be answered, but for the sake of display, we have more than enough in these days. But there are also doubters, like the Baptist, whose doubt is wrung from an agonized heart, whose whole happiness is bound up in the question they put, and who, if Jesus be not the Christ, will sink in infinite despair. They try to fit in Christ"s Word and salvation to what they actually find in their own life; they try to make Christ"s rule as real as their own worldly business, and find themselves forced to wonder whether Christ is indeed meaning to rule on earth. Then Christ shows them that the power he desires on earth is just that power he is actually and all round putting forth, in bringing light to darkened souls, life to the dead. This is the real work he came to do, and by doing which he proves his claim. If anything were needed to prove the absence of resentment with which our Lord viewed John"s question, it is his defence of John from the reflections of the people. He points out to them that he had never been a man with whom the idea of weakness could be associated a reed shaken with the wind. He was the very last whose opinion would be moulded by his position. But it was of small moment what they thought of John as a man compared to their right understanding of the comparative value of the preaching of John and the preaching of the kingdom of the difference between the reformation urged by John and the regeneration proclaimed by himself. In order sharply to mark this he says, "Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist: notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he." He was a true prophet, yea, more than the greatest prophet bad been, but all his zeal for righteousness, for the unflinching application of the Law, bad, as it now appeared, unfitted him to appreciate the temper and spirit of the new era. Any one in the kingdom animated by the characteristic spirit of love is greater than he. It is not so much a comparison of any individual with John as of the new era with the outgoing era. It is rather the instrument than the man that is spoken of. John could point out a thousand wrongs that needed to be redressed, a thousand sins that must be abandoned; but Jesus, without much denunciation of sin, gave men a love for himself that ejected the love of sin. John put the righteousness of God in the front of his teaching; Jesus put the love of God. And he who has the smallest tincture of the spirit of Jesus has more influence than one who has the inflexible righteousness of John. D.

HOMILIES BY J.A. MACDONALD Vers. 1-6. The credentials of Messiah.

The precepts of the charge which Jesus had given to his disciples are here called his commands. Christ"s commissions are commands. (cf. Psa_105:8 1Co_9:16) He "made an end of commanding." The instructions of Christ are complete. Then "he departed to teach," more privately, "and preach," publicly, "in their cities." His ministry leaves men without excuse. "Now when John had heard in prison," etc. We have here

I THE INQUIRY OF JOHN.

1. As to its occasion.

(1) Jesus wrought the works of the Christ. Miracles were expected of Messiah. (see Joh_7:31)

(2) He wrought them in the cities of Galilee. The cities of Galilee were the cities of the disciples. (cf. ver. 20, etc.; Act_2:7) Jesus took care of their cities while they visited others perhaps the cities of Judaea. He does not allow the interests of those who do his work to suffer. The remotest connection with Christ is attended with blessing. Even the ungodly enjoy civilizing influences where the religion of Jesus is in the air.

(3) The fame of the Messianic works reached John in his prison. It was carried to him there by his own disciples. (see Luk_7:18) So John saw with gladness the fulfilment of his own words, "He must increase, but I must decrease". (Joh_3:30) He was truly "the friend of the Bridegroom.

2. As to the matter.

(1) It had respect to the Coming One. This was one of the titles of Messiah. (see Psa_118:26 Mat_21:9 Mat_23:39)

(2) It concerned his identity. Jesus met the general expectation as to his lineage. He was "of the house and lineage of David". (cf. Psa_132:11 Jer_23:5 Luk_2:4 Joh_7:42) As to the place of his manifestation. His birth was at Bethlehem . (see Mic_5:2) His ministry chiefly in Galilee. (see Isa_9:1, Isa_9:2) As to the time. It was approaching the completion of Daniel"s seventy weeks, viz. of years. (Dan_9:24, etc.) Moreover, Jesus did the works of the Christ, as we have seen.

(3) Yet the inquiry is raised, "Do we look for another?" Many prophecies describe the coming of Messiah in glory; but Jesus came in humiliation. For this reason, overlooking the fact that many likewise describe his coming in humiliation, Jesus was rejected by the Jews, and they still indeed "look for another.

(4) The imprisoned John, who was yet to be beheaded, was the fitting forerunner of the Christ in his advent in suffering and death. (see Mat_17:12) Elijah, in full form, who cannot be imprisoned, will herald the second advent of Jesus in power.

3. As to the reason.

(1) Was it that John doubted? His prophetic impulses, taken together with his repeated testimonies, forbid this supposition. (cf. Joh_1:6-8, 33-36 3:26 5:32, 33) The confidence of John was not shaken by his sufferings. He was not "a reed shaken by the wind" (ver. 7). John knew that the works, of which he had heard in the prison, were "the works of the Christ.

(2) It was rather that the disciples of John questioned. Like the majority of their countrymen, they might have stumbled at the meanness of the birth of Jesus and the humility of his station (see ver. 6). They might also have questioned as to why, if Jesus were the Christ, he did not deliver their master from prison. Doubters may ever find occasions.

(3) But why did John send his doubting disciples to Jesus? He judged that to be the true way to fix their wavering minds. All doubters should take the hint. Instead of conversing with Voltaire, let them converse with Jesus. Let them honestly study his Word. By earnest prayer let them seek the light of his Spirit upon it.

II THE ANSWER OF JESUS.

1. It was indirect, yet decisive.

(1) It differed in form from his express answers upon other occasions. To the woman of Samaria he said, "I that speak unto thee am he." To the man who had been born blind he said, "Thou hast both seen him, and he it is that speaketh with thee." To the high priest, when adjured, he said, "I am the Christ, the Son of the Blessed: and ye shall see the Son of man sitting at the right hand of power, and coming with the clouds of heaven". (Mat_26:63, 64 Mar_14:61, 62Jo 4:26 9:37)

(2) The form of the answer on the present occasion was suited to the temper of the questioners. It was an appeal to evidence. Jesus encourages the use of reason in religion. He recognizes the province of private judgment.

2. It was an appeal to testimony.

(1) "Go and tell John the things which ye do hear." They were now in the region in which "most of his mighty works were done" (ver. 20). They had the best opportunity for examining witnesses.

(2) They could take evidence respecting the raising of the daughter of Jairus; and they had the report of the raising of the son of the widow of Nain. (see Mat_9:25, 26 Luk_7:17, Luk_7:18, etc. ) The rabbins held that "in the land where the dead should arise, the kingdom of the Messiah should commence.

3. It was also an appeal to sense.

(1) "Go and tell John the things which ye do see". (cf. Isa_35:5, 6 42:7) For Jesus doubtless wrought miracles before them.

(2) Certainly they heard the gospel preached to the poor. This was a new thing. The scribes, like the heathen philosophers, courted the rich, and treated the poor and ignorant with contempt. (Joh_7:49) To preach the gospel to the lowly was a Messianic mark. (cf. Isa_61:1 with Luk_4:18; also Zep_3:12 Zec_11:11) The Son of David was to be the poor man"s King. (see Psa_72:2, Psa_72:4, Psa_72:12, Psa_72:13)

4. The Messianic miracles were parabolic works.

(1) The blind receiving sight was not only a proof that Jesus was the Christ, but also a specimen of the power which Messiah claimed to enlighten the prejudiced and error-blinded mind. In both senses, the opening of the eyes of the blind is God"s prerogative.

(2) He that made the lame to walk can give steadiness and consistency to the limping and irregular life.

(3) The cleansing of the leper set forth the power of Christ to purify the soul from the corruption of sin.

(4) Making the deaf to hear, he evinced his power to reduce to obedience the most obstinate.

(5) In raising the dead, he proved himself the source of spiritual life also to the "dead in trespasses and sins.

5. It was an appeal to experience.

(1) To be offended in Christ, after appealing to us with such convincing evidence, would be a great unhappiness. How melancholy has been the history of the unbelieving Jew! That many should be offended is an actual mark of Messiah. (see Isa_52:14)

(2) Happy is he who is not offended with the lowliness of Jesus. Whether in his Person or in his disciples. To rise above such offences is to many a difficult lesson.

(3) Those who drink into the spirit of the humiliation and sufferings of Jesus will also share in his future glory. J.A.M.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

In their cities - The other cities of Israel.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

John the Baptist’s Deputation to Jesus.

Jesus returns to His prophetical work:

v. 1. And it came to pass, when Jesus had made an end of commanding’ His twelve disciples, He departed thence to teach and to preach in their cities.

The Lord had commissioned the twelve apostles, giving them complete instructions as to every part of their ministry. But while they were engaged in this important work, Luk 9:6, Jesus Himself was not idle. When He had ceased giving His orders, He went away from that place, most likely to some place of retirement, where He had had the opportunity of being undisturbed with His disciples, and began a new preaching and teaching tour among the towns of Galilee, accompanied, as before, by temporary and permanent followers, the Twelve apparently returning to Him from time to time.

Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Our blessed Saviour having sent forth his twelve apostles in the foregoing chapter, to plant and progagate the gospel, we find him, in this chapter, following them himself in that great and necessary work; He departed to teach and to preach in their cities. Christ, the great Bishop and Shepherd of souls, sent not forth the apostles as his curates, to labour and sweat in the vineyard, whilst he took his ease at home; but he followed them himself: his word of command to them was, Praite sequar; Go ye before, I will follow after.

Note, 1. That preaching of the gospel is a great and necessary work, incumbent upon all the ministers of Christ, let their dignity and pre-eminence in the church be what it will. None of the servants are above their Lord.

2. That if there be a distinction betwixt teaching and preaching, as some apprehend, they are both the work of Christ’s ministers, who are obliged from their master’s example to perform both: teaching is in order to the conversion of sinners, and preaching in order to the edification of saints.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

J. W. McGarvey's The Fourfold Gospel [LXI. Third Circuit of Galilee].

LXI. THIRD CIRCUIT OF GALILEE. THE TWELVE INSTRUCTED AND SENT FORTH. aMATT. IX. 35-38; X. 1, 5-42; XI. 1; bMARK VI. 6-13; cLUKE IX. 1-6.

b6 And he aJesus bwent about aall the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner sickness and all manner of sickness. [In the first circuit of Galilee some of the twelve accompanied Jesus as disciples (see Mar_16:15). As Jesus himself was sent only to the Jews, so during his days on earth he sent his disciples only to them.] 7 As ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. [It was set up about a year later, on the day of Pentecost, under the direction of the Holy Spirit-- Act_2:1-4.] 8 Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons: freely ye received, freely give. [Here is the true rule of giving. Paul repeats it at 1Co_16:2. If we would obey this rule, we would make this a happy world.] c3 And he said unto them, Take nothing for your journey, a9 Get you no gold, nor silver, cnor money; anor brass in your purses; cneither staff, nor wallet, afor your journey, cnor bread, neither have two coats. anor shoes, nor staff: for the workman is worthy of his food. [The prohibition is against securing these things before starting, and at their own expense. It is not that they would have no need for the articles mentioned, but that "the laborer is worthy of his food," and they were to depend on the people for whose benefit they labored, to furnish what they might need. This passage is alluded to by Paul ( 1Co_9:14). To rightly understand this prohibition we must remember that the apostles were to make but a brief tour of a few weeks, and that it was among their own countrymen, among a people habitually given to hospitality; moreover, that the apostles were imbued with powers which would win for them the respect of the religious and the gratitude of the well-to-do. The special and temporary commission was, therefore, never intended as a rule under which we are to act in preaching the gospel in other ages and in other lands.] b10 And he said unto them a11 And into whatsoever city or village ye shall enter, search out who in it is worthy; and there abide till ye go forth. [The customs of the East gave rise to this rule. The ceremonies and forms with which a guest was received were tedious and time-consuming vanities, while the mission of the apostles required haste.] 12 And as ye enter [364] come into an house, salute it. 13 And if the house be worthy, let your peace come upon it: but if it be not worthy, let your peace return to you. [The form of salutation on entering a house was, "Peace to this house." The apostles are told to salute each house, and are assured that the peace prayed for shall return to them if the house is not worthy; that is, they shall receive, in this case, the blessing pronounced on the house.] bWheresoever ye enter into a house, there abide till ye depart thence. c4 And into whatsoever house ye enter, there abide, and thence depart. b11 And whatsoever place shall not receive you, and they hear you not [Jesus here warns them that their experiences would not always be pleasant], a14 And whosoever cas many as ashall creceive you not, anor hear your words, bas ye go forth thence, aout of that house or that city [The word "house" indicates a partial and the word "city" a complete rejection], { cwhen you depart from that city, bshake off the dust that is under your feet aof your feet. cfrom your feet bfor a testimony unto them. cagainst them. [The dust of heathen lands as compared with the land of Israel was regarded as polluted and unholy ( Amo_2:7, Eze_27:30). The Jew, therefore, considered himself defiled by such dust. For the apostles, therefore, to shake off the dust of any city of Israel from their clothes or feet was to place that city on a level with the cities of the heathen, and to renounce all further intercourse with it.] a15 Verily I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment, than for that city. [For comment on similar remarks, see 2Sa_12:20, Mat_6:16, Mat_6:17). When an apostle stood over a sick man to heal him by a touch or a word, he was about to send him out of his sick chamber, and just before the word was spoken, the oil was applied. It was, therefore, no more than a token or symbol that the man was restored to his liberty, and was from that moment to be confined to his chamber no longer. Comp. Jam_5:14. This practice bears about the same relation to the Romish practice of extreme unction as the Lord's Supper does to the mass, or as a true baptism does to the sprinkling of an infant.]

[FFG 362-369]

J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Matthew Chapter 11

From that hour we find the definitive judgment of the nation, not indeed as yet openly declared (that is in chapter 12), nor by the cessation of Christ’s ministry, which wrought, notwithstanding the opposition of the nation, in gathering out the remnant, and in the still more important effect of the manifestation of Emmanuel; but it is unfolded in the character of His discourses, in the positive declarations which describe the condition of the people, and in the Lord’s conduct amid circumstances which gave rise to the expression of the relations in which He stood towards them.

Having sent His disciples away to preach, He continues the exercise of His own ministry. The report of the works of Christ reaches John in prison. He, in whose heart, notwithstanding his prophetic gift, there still remained something of Jewish thoughts and hopes, sends by his disciples to ask Jesus if He is the One who should come, or if they were still to look for another. [30] God allowed this question in order to put everything in its place. Christ, being the Word of God ought to be His own witness. He ought to bear testimony to Himself as well as to John, and not to receive testimony from the latter; and this He did in the presence of John’s disciples He healed all the diseases of men, and preached the gospel to the poor; and John’s messengers were to set before him this true testimony of what Jesus was. John was to receive it. It was by these things men were tested. Blessed was he who should not be offended at the lowly exterior of the King of Israel. God manifest in the flesh did not come to seek the pomp of royalty, although it was His due, but the deliverance of suffering men. His work revealed a character much more profoundly divine, which had a spring of action far more glorious than that which depended on the possession of the throne of avid-than a deliverance which would have set John at liberty, and put an end to the tyranny that had imprisoned him.

To undertake this ministry, to go down into the scene of its exercise, to bear the sorrows and the burdens of His people might be an occasion of stumbling to a carnal heart that was looking for the appearance of a glorious kingdom which would satisfy the pride of Israel. But was it not more truly divine more necessary to the condition of the people as seen of God? The heart of each one therefore would be thus tested, to shew whether he belonged to that repentant remnant, who discerned the ways of God, or to the proud multitude, who only sought their own glory, possessing neither a conscience exercised before God, nor a sense of their need and misery.

Having set John under the responsibility of receiving this testimony, which put all Israel to the test, and distinguished the remnant from the nation in general, the Lord then bears witness to John himself, addressing the multitude, and reminding them how they had followed the preaching of John. He shews them the exact point to which Israel had come in the ways of God. The introduction, in testimony, of the kingdom made the difference between that which preceded and that which followed. Among all that are born of women there had been none greater than John the Baptist, none who had been so near Jehovah, sent before His face, none who had rendered Him a more exact and complete testimony, who had been so separate from all evil by the power of the Spirit of God-a separation proper to the fulfilment of such a mission among the people of God. Still he had not been in the kingdom: it was not yet established; and to be in the presence of Christ in His kingdom, enjoying the result of the establishment of His glory, [31] was a greater thing than all testimony to the coming of the kingdom.

Nevertheless from the time of John the Baptist there was a notable change. From that time the kingdom was announced. It was not established, but it was preached. This was a very different thing from the prophecies that spoke of the kingdom for a yet distant period, while recalling the people to the law as given by Moses. The Baptist went before the King, announcing the nearness of the kingdom, and commanding the Jews to repent that they might enter into it; Thus the law and the prophets spake on God’s part until John. The law was the rule; the prophets, maintaining the rule, strengthened the hopes and the faith of the remnant. Now, the energy of the Spirit impelled men to force their way through every difficulty and all the opposition of the leaders of the nation and of a blinded people, that they might at all costs attain the kingdom of a King rejected by the blind unbelief of those who should have received Him. It needed-seeing that the King had come in humiliation, and that He had been rejected-it needed this violence to enter the kingdom. The strait gate was the only entrance.

If faith could really penetrate the mind of God therein, John was the Elias who should come. He that had ears to hear, let him hear. It was in fact for those only.

Had the kingdom appeared in the glory and in the power of its Head, violence would not have been necessary; it would have been possessed as the certain effect of that power; but it was the will of God that they should morally be tested It was thus also that they ought to have received Elias in spirit.

The result is given in the Lord’s words which follow, that is, the true character of this generation, and the ways of God in relation to the Person of Jesus, manifested by His rejection itself. As a generation the threatenings of justice, and the attractions of grace were equally lost upon them. The children of wisdom, those whose consciences were taught of God, acknowledged the truth of John’s testimony, as against themselves, and the grace, so necessary to the guilty, of the ways of Jesus.

John, separate from the iniquity of the nation, had, in their eyes, a devil. Jesus, kind to the most wretched, they accused of falling in with evil ways. Yet the evidence was powerful enough to have subdued the heart of a Tyre or Sodom; and the righteous rebuke of the Lord warns the perverse and unbelieving nation of a more terrible judgment than that which awaited the pride of Tyre or the corruption of Sodom.

But this was a test for the most favoured of mankind. It might have been said, Why was the message not sent to Tyre, ready to hearken? Why not to Sodom, that that city might have escaped the fire that consumed it? It is that man must be tested in every way; that the perfect counsels of God may be developed. If Tyre or Sodom had abused the advantages which a God of creation and of providence had heaped upon them, the Jews were to manifest what was in the heart of man, when possessing all the promises and made the depositaries of all the oracles of God.

They boasted of the gift, and departed from the Giver. Their blinded heart acknowledged not and even rejected their God.

The Lord felt the contempt of His people whom He loved; but, as the obedient man on earth, He submitted to the will of His Father, who, acting in sovereignty, the Lord of heaven and earth, manifested, in the exercise of this sovereignty, divine wisdom, and the perfection of His character. Jesus accepts the will of His Father in its effects, and, thus subject, sees its perfection.

It was befitting that God should reveal to the lowly all the gifts of His grace in Jesus, this Emmanuel on earth; and that He should hide them from the pride that sought to scrutinise and to judge them. But this opens the door to the glory of God’s counsels in it.

The truth was, that His Person was too glorious to be fathomed or understood by man, although His words and His works left the nation without excuse, in their refusal to come unto Him that they might know the Father.

Jesus, subject to His Father’s will, although thoroughly sensible of all that was painful to His heart in its effects, sees the whole extent of the glory that should follow His rejection. All things were delivered unto Him of His Father. It is the Son who is revealed to our faith, the veil that covered His glory being taken away now that He is rejected as Messiah. No one knoweth Him but the Father. Who among the proud could fathom what He was? He who from all eternity was one with the Father, become man, surpassed, in the deep mystery of His being, all knowledge save that of the Father Himself. The impossibility of knowing Him who had emptied Himself to become man, maintained the certainty, the reality, of His divinity, which this self-renunciation might have hidden from the eyes of unbelief. The incomprehensibility of a being in a finite form revealed the infinite which was therein. His divinity was guaranteed to faith, against the effect of His humanity on the mind of man. But if no one knew the Son, except the Father only, the Son, who is truly God, was able to reveal the Father. No man has ever seen God. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, has revealed Him. No one knows the Father but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal Him. Wretched ignorance that in its pride rejects Him! It was thus according to the good pleasure of the Son that this revelation was made. Distinctive attribute of divine perfection! He came for this purpose; He did it according to His own wisdom. Such was the truth of man’s relations with Him, although He submitted to the painful humiliation of being rejected by His own people, as the final test of their, of man’s state.

Observe also here, that this principle, this truth, with regard to Christ, opens the door to the Gentiles, to all who should be called. He reveals the Father to whomsoever He will. He always seeks the glory of His Father. He alone can reveal Him-He to whomthe Father, the Lord of heaven and earth, has delivered all things; The Gentiles are included in the rights conferred by this title, even every family in heaven and earth. Christ exercises these rights in grace, calling whom He will to the knowledge of the Father.

Thus we find here the perverse and faithless generation; a remnant of the nation justifying the wisdom of God as manifested in John and in Jesus in judgment and in grace; the sentence of judgment on the unbelievers; the rejection of Jesus in the character in which He had presented Himself to the nation; and His perfect submission, as man, to the will of His Father in this rejection, giving occasion for the manifestation to His soul of the glory proper to Him as Son of God-a glory which no man could know, even as He alone could reveal that of the Father. So that the world who refused Him was in total ignorance, save at the good pleasure of Him who delights in revealing the Father.

We should also remark here, that the mission of the disciples to Israel who rejected Christ continues (if Israel be in the land) until He comes as the Son of man, His title of judgment and of glory as heir of all things (that is to say, until the judgment by which He takes possession of the land of Canaan, in a power that leaves no room for His enemies). This, His title of judgment and glory as heir of all things, is mentioned in Joh 5:1-47, Dan 7:1-28, Psa 8:1-9; Psa 80:1-19.

Observe too, that in chapter 11, the perverseness of the generation that had rejected John’s testimony, and that of the Son of man come in grace and associating Himself in grace with the Jews, opens the door to the testimony of the glory of the Son of God, and to the revelation of the Father by Him in sovereign grace-a grace that could make Him known as efficaciously to a poor Gentile as to a Jew. It was no longer a question of responsibility to receive, but of sovereign grace that imparted to whomsoever it would. Jesus knew man, the world, the generation which had enjoyed the greatest advantages of all that were in the world. There was no place for the foot to rest on in the miry slough of that which had departed from God. In the midst of a world of evil Jesus remained the sole revealer of the Father, the source of all good. Whom does He call? What does He bestow on those who come? Only source of blessing and revealer of the Father, He calls all those who are weary and heavy laden. Perhaps they did not know the spring of all misery, namely, separation from God, sin. He knew, and He alone could heal them. If it was the sense of sin which burdened them, so much the better. Every way the world no longer satisfied their hearts; they were miserable, and therefore the objects of the heart of Jesus. Moreover He would give them rest; He does not here explain by what means; He simply announces the fact. The love of the Father, which in grace, in the Person of the Son, sought out the wretched, would bestow rest (not merely alleviation or sympathy, but rest) on every one that came to Jesus. It was the perfect revelation of the Father’s name to the heart of those that needed it; and that by the Son;-peace, peace with God. They had but to come to Christ: He undertook all and gave rest. But there is a second element in rest. There is more than peace through the knowledge of the Father in Jesus. And more than that is needed; for, even when the soul is perfectly at peace with God, this world presents many causes of trouble to the heart. In these cases it is a question of submission or of self-will. Christ, in the consciousness of His rejection, in the deep sorrow caused by the unbelief of the cities in which He had wrought so many miracles, had just manifested the most entire submission to His Father, and had found therein perfect rest to His soul. To this He calls all that heard Him, all that felt the need of rest to their own souls. “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me,” that is to say, the yoke of entire submission to His Father’s will, learning of Him how to meet the troubles of life; for He was “meek and lowly in heart,” content to be in the lowest place at the will of His God. In fact nothing can overthrow one who is there. It is the place of perfect rest to the heart.

Footnotes for Matthew Chapter 11

30: His sending to Jesus shews full confidence in His word as a prophet but ignorance as to His Person; and this is what is brought out here in its full light.

31: This is not God’s assembly; but the rights of the King as manifested in glory being established, the foundation being laid, Christians are in the kingdom and the patience of Jesus Christ, who is glorified but hidden in God. They share the destiny of the King, and will share His glory when He reigns.

John Nelson Darby — Synopsis of the Books of the Bible: the New Testament (c. 1857–1862) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

General Information:

This is the beginning of a new part of the story where Matthew tells of how Jesus responded to disciples of John the Baptist. (See: Introduction of a New Event)

It came about that when

This phrase shifts the story from Jesus' teachings to what happened next. AT: "Then" or "After"

had finished instructing

"had finished teaching" or "had finished commanding."

his twelve disciples

This refers to the twelve chosen apostles of Jesus. (See: Numbers)

in their cities

Here "their" refers to all the Jews in general.

Now

This word is used here to mark a break in the main story line. Here Matthew starts to tell a new part of the story.

when John heard in the prison about

"When John, who was in prison, heard about" or "When someone told John, who was in prison, about." Even though Matthew has not yet told the readers that King Herod put John the Baptist in jail, the original audience would have been familiar with the story and understood the implicit information here. Matthew will give more information later about John the Baptist, so it is probably best not to make it explicit here.

he sent a message by his disciples

John the Baptist sent his own disciples with a message to Jesus.

said to him

The pronoun "him" refers to Jesus.

Are you the one who is coming

"Are you the one whom we are expecting to come." This is another way to refer to the Messiah or Christ.

should we look for another

"should we be expecting someone else." The pronoun "we" refers to all Jews, not only John's disciples.

translationWords

Jesus

instruct

disciple

preach

John (the Baptist)

prison

works

Christ

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

1. JESUS PREACHES THE GOSPEL, PROBABLY UNACCOMPANIED BY THE TWELVE

1. καὶ ἐγένετο. A translation of a Hebrew transitional formula; the verb which follows (1) is sometimes connected with καί, as ch. Mat 9:10, καὶ ἐγένετο αὐτοῦ ἀνακειμένου … καὶ ἰδού, (2) sometimes, as here, has no connecting particle; (3) sometimes the infinitive is used, as καὶ ἐγένετο παραπορεύεσθαι αὐτόν, Mar 2:23. This formula varied by ἐγένετο δὲ is especially frequent in St Luke, and does not occur in St John. The particular phrase καὶ ἐγένετο, ὅτε ἐτέλεσεν, is confined to St Matthew; see ch. Mat 7:28 (συνετ.), Mat 13:53, Mat 19:1, Mat 26:1. (Winer, p. 406 c, and p. 760 e, and note 2.)

ἐκεῖθεν. The place where Jesus delivered the charge to the Apostles is not named.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Commanding [διατασσων] . The preposition dia has a distributive force : giving to each his appropriate charge.

Their cities [αυτων] . The towns of those to whom he came - the Galilaeans. Compare Mt 4:23.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.