SECTION XVII.

THE GREAT CONTEST OF THE MESSIAH WITH THE FALSE DIGNITARIES OF HIS KINGDOM IN THE PRECINCTS OF THE TEMPLE: HIS SPIRITUAL VICTORY AND HIS OUTWARD RETREAT.

(Matt. xxi. 17-xxiv. 2.)

Our Lord's antagonists felt it as an insufferable triumph over their hostile attacks, that He now openly taught and wrought in the temple; and that, on their first taking exception to His procedure, He had left them after having so sensibly reprimanded and corrected them. They therefore plotted His ruin in this very position. The day after the purification of the temple was appointed for the execution of their plot.

On this day, then, the judgment on the people of Israel was to be decided in the obdurate rejection of their Messiah by their representatives. Jesus from the beginning went in and out of the temple with an anticipatory feeling of this judgment. Under this feeling took place the cursing of the barren fig-tree (on the morning of the day previous). As He was on His way to the city early in the morning (after His first return to Bethany), He hungered. So little attention was paid by the people to providing viands for this King in the days of His glorification, and so intent was He upon the duties of His office at break of day, that He could forget the morning meal. When He saw a fig-tree in the way. He went to it; but He found nothing on it except leaves. He then uttered the sentence, 'Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward for ever.' And presently the fig-tree withered away. The disciples observed this change upon the fig-tree as soon as they saw it again, namely, on the morning of the decisive day which had now begun.¹ They expressed to the Lord their astonishment that the fig-tree had so soon withered away. Jesus answered them, and said, 'Verily I say unto you, If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is done to the fig-tree, but also, if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea, it shall be done. And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.'

Thus our Lord made the curse, with which the tree was already smitten, become a symbolic sign to the disciples that now the judgment of His people (the tree rich in leaves, but bearing no fruit) should be made manifest by their rejection of Him. But at the same time He intimated to them that this judgment would serve for the furtherance of His cause and of their future calling.² They should hereafter, through faith, remove the mountain of hindrances which the Jewish hierarchy formed on their apostolic path.

As soon as they again entered the temple, our Lord's anticipations were confirmed. His enemies immediately began to assail Him with violence. They first attempted to drive Him from His position with the weapons of authority and power.

For, when our Lord began His teaching again, He was interrupted by the chief priests and the elders of the people (a deputation from the Sanhedrim, no doubt). They put to Him the question, 'By what authority doest Thou these things? and who gave Thee this authority? 'They asked for His theocratic authorization. Jesus replied to them, 'I also will ask you one thing, which if ye tell me, I in likewise will tell you by what authority I do these things. The baptism of John, whence was it? from heaven (as a divine mission), or of men (as unadvised fanaticism)? 'This counter-question of Christ was a pertinent and conclusive reply, because John the Baptist had distinctly pointed out Christ as the Messiah to the Sanhedrim, and because they had previously, in presence of the people, put on the appearance as if they acknowledged the divine mission of John. They felt the difficulty in which this question of Jesus involved them. They reasoned with themselves thus: If we shall say, From heaven, He will say unto us, Why did ye not then believe Him (especially in regard to his introduction of the Messiah)? But if we shall say. Of men, we fear the people; for all hold John as a prophet. Thus they were in a dilemma, which forced from them the despairing utterance, 'We cannot tell.'

From the circumstance that they resolved upon a false avowal of ignorance in reference to the great theocratic question of the day — that they could make this avowal to the hated Prophet of Nazareth in the precincts of the temple, before the ears of the people, — from this we say, it may be inferred how conscious they were of the conclusions which Jesus could draw from the acknowledging of the Baptist, and how much they feared them. But now, since they put the authority of John in question, and gave up their own, neither could Jesus any more acknowledge them as a theocratic authority to which He was bound to answer the questions they put to Him; and He plainly told them sg 'Neither tell I you by what authority I do these things.'

And now He began more and more powerfully to assail themselves in their obduracy against the truth. He did this in three parables, which are definitely progressive. The first told them that they had fallen below the publicans and harlots among their people. The second announced to them that they would proceed to the utmost, and kill the heir of their Lord's vineyard; and that thereby they would incur the heaviest judgment, while the kingdom of God should pass to the Gentiles. The third set forth still more strongly this judgment of rejection, and the approaching calling of the Gentiles into the kingdom of God; and also gave them to understand, that in this no partiality for the heathen obtained, but that the Spirit of holiness would exercise judicial rule also over that new Church.

The first parable bore reference to the great question before them, the acknowledging of John. 'But what think ye? A certain man had two sons; and he came to the first, and said, Son, so work today in ray vineyard. And he answered and said, I will not; but afterwards he repented, and went. And he came to the second, and said likewise. And he answered and said, I go, sir; and went not.' Christ then made themselves pronounce sentence by asking them, 'Whether of them twain did the will of his father? 'They say unto Him, 'The first.' Then He followed with the application; 'Verily I say unto you. That the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you. For John came unto you in the way of righteousness (as a legitimate messenger of God) and ye believed him not; but the publicans and the harlots believed him: and ye, when ye had seen it, repented not afterward, that ye might believe him.'

First, they have heard that they are worse than the publicans and harlots; He will now show them that they are worse than the heathen. Hear another parable: 'There was a certain householder, who planted a vineyard, and hedged it round about, and digged a wine-press in it, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country; and when the time of the fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the husbandmen, that they might receive the fruits of it. And the husbandmen took his servants, and beat one, and killed another, and stoned another. Again, he sent other servants more than the first; and they did unto them likewise. But last of all he sent unto them his son, saying. They will reverence my son. But when the husbandmen saw the son, they said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance. And they caught him, and cast him out of the vineyard, and slew him.'

After He had thus shown them their image in the parable, He made themselves again pronounce sentence. 'When the lord therefore of the vineyard cometh, what,' asked He them, 'will he do unto those husbandmen?' They really (with the utmost audacity) gave Him the right answer by declaring, 'He will miserably destroy those wicked men, and will let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen, who shall render him the fruits in their seasons.'

Their hypocritically assumed ingenuousness was, no doubt, intended to say to the Lord, that naturally the parable could not refer to them. But that such could really be said of them, He shows them now by the words, 'Did ye never read in the Scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous (something unheard-of) in our eyes? (Ps. cxviii. 22, 23). Therefore say I unto you. The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof.' He then gave them the warning intimation, that that despised stone which had in the Psalmist's eyes become the head of the corner, was the same mysterious stone of which Isaiah had prophesied, that whosoever should fall on it would be broken to pieces (Isa. viii. 14, 15), and which Daniel too had seen in spirit as a stone which would grind to powder all on which it fell (Dan. ii. 34, 45).

Our Lord's antagonists saw clearly that these parables referred to them. Hence they would gladly have seized Him to institute a process against Him. They were now so embittered, that they anew thought of doing so. But they were restrained by fear of the people, who honoured the Lord as a prophet, and protectingly surrounded Him. Hence they were obliged to let Him add a third parable, the strongest of all.

'The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, who made a marriage for his son, and sent forth his servants to call them that were (already) bidden to the wedding: and they would not come. Again, he sent forth other servants, saying. Tell them who are bidden, Behold, I have prepared my dinner; my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready; come unto the marriage. But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise; and the remnant took his servants, and entreated them spitefully, and slew them. But when the king heard thereof, he was wroth; and sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city. Then saith he to his servants. The wedding is ready, but they who were bidden were not worthy. Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage. So those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together all, as many as they found, both bad and good; and the wedding was furnished with guests. And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man who had not on a wedding-garment; and he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither, not having a wedding-garment? And he was speechless. Then said the king to the servants. Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness.'

Our Lord explains this allusion to the place of torment by the added clause, by which He often designated that place, 'There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.' He then summed up His sentence on the whole conduct of mankind, especially of His people, in respect to the invitation into the kingdom of heaven, in the words, 'For many are called, but few are chosen.'

In the last parable Christ had very sharply characterized the conduct of the Jews towards the invitation of their God to the marriage of His Son: the indifference of the greater number, the fanatical embitterment of the rulers of the people against the hero of the feast, and against the servants who should bid them to His feast.³ This expressed, beyond a doubt, not only the approaching crucifixion of Christ, but also, and further, the persecution of His disciples. With equal distinctness had He announced to His antagonists the judgment in which they, the murderers, would perish (by the Roman armies as hosts who were in His service), and their holy city be burnt up. And He had also told them with strong expressions that God would call the most despised men on the highways of the world, the heathen consequently from all the world, to His marriage feast in their stead. Their pride revolted against such an announcement. He ventured to announce to them, in very transparent parables, the heaviest judgments, in the hearing of the people, and in the middle of the temple. And yet they durst not lay hands on Him. He had frustrated their efforts of authority and power. Hence in their perplexity they now resolved to overcome Him by efforts of cunning. They therefore assumed the aspect of acknowledging Him as the theocratic Anointed of God who ruled upon Zion, and proposed to Him, as the arbitrator in Israel, a series of captious questions, in order to draw from Him some expression or other of which they might make a crime, either in the eyes of the Roman government or of the Jewish people.

The party of the Pharisees undertook to make the first attempt. In doing so, they united themselves with the party of the Herodians, with whom they sympathized in their dislike to the Roman dominion. Both parties were represented in the deputation which they sent to our Lord. The preface to what they meant to propose was as follows, 'Master, we know that Thou art true, and teachest the way of God in truth, neither carest Thou for any man; for Thou regardest not the person of men.' It has been rightly observed that falsehood must here, even against its will, acknowledge the truth. They bestow on Him the praises which in the Old Testament are predicated of just judges, and of Jehovah Himself. They then propose their captious question: 'Tell us therefore, What thinkest thou? Is it lawful to give tribute unto Caesar, or not? 'But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, 'Why tempt ye Me, ye hypocrites? Show Me the tribute-money.' And they brought Him a penny (a denarius). And He saith unto them, 'Whose is this image and superscription? 'They say unto Him, 'Caesar's.' Then saith He unto them, 'Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are God's.'

They had expected that He would have given them an answer by which they could either denounce Him to the Romans as an instigator of rebellion, or to the Jews as a traitor to His native land. His glorious saying swept like a sword through the toils in which. they sought to entangle Him. It was conformable not only to divine law, but also to the maxims of the Rabbis, who taught, that he who is designated lord of the coin is sovereign of the land. Our Lord's saying was so confounding to His enemies, that, as it appears, they abandoned their rûle: marvelling, disconcerted, and confounded, they left Him and went their way.

The Sadducees, too, now came to meet Him as enemies.⁴ The Evangelist relates in a significant manner the way in which they came. 'The same day,' says he, 'came to Him the Sadducees, who say that there is no resurrection, and proposed a question to Him.' This question was quite in keeping with their system. It was probably their aim to involve Him in a contradiction with the law of Moses. This question of the Sadducees was as clumsy as that of the Pharisees had been cunningly calculated. They took as their point of departure the following precept of Moses regarding the socalled levirate law (Deut. xxv. 5): If a man die, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother. They then set before Him an illustrative case, which was in the highest degree improbable. 'Now there were with us,' continued they, 'seven brethren; and the first, when he had married a wife, deceased, and, having no issue, left his wife unto his brother: likewise the second also, and the third, unto the seventh. And last of all the woman died also.' They then put the question meant to confound our Lord: 'Therefore, in the resurrection, whose wife shall she be of the seven? for they all had her.' Jesus answered the clumsy and superficial questioners sharply, as they deserved: 'Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God.' They made pretensions to both; He must deny both to them. 'For in the resurrection,' said He in continuation, 'they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven. But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you⁵ by God, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? 'Then He continued, 'God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.' Thus He showed them that the highest and strongest ground for the resurrection of the dead was quite consonant with the legislation they referred to. God as the personal God makes a covenant with men, and names Himself after them: they must therefore be eternal, since they can become covenant children of the Eternal God. Our Lord at the same time incidentally inculcated on the Sadducees, with calm superiority, the doctrine of angels, which they likewise denied. This conclusive dealing with the Sadducees made so much the greater impression upon the people, that the doctrines of the Sadducees were not popular with them. They were amazed at His doctrine. It seemed to give even the Pharisees a malignant joy over the opposite party that He had put the Sadducees to silence (' stopped their mouth '). But neither this movement of a passing sympathy for the scripture-understanding and scripture-believing Galilean, nor the recent defeat of their antagonists, restrained them from again entering into contest with Him. One of them, a teacher of the law, was commissioned to put to Him a captious question. The one he chose was, 'Master, which is the great commandment in the law? 'The Rabbis possibly had come to discover that the commandment of the love of God in the law (Deut. vi. 5), at bottom, comprehended all the other commandments, and therefore was, in the mystical sense, the great commandment, the commandment of all commandments; and possibly they were very proud of the discovery. But they had not surmised how perfectly Christ, from His unique experience, knew the royal uniqueness of this commandment. But in this case, irrespective of His own knowledge, He scarce needed to do more than repeat the answer which a scribe had once given Him to the question, what direction for inheriting eternal life he found in the law (see Luke x. 27; comp. above, ii. 453). Christ indeed brought a new order, a new light, into that answer, by setting the commandment of love to God and that of love to our neighbour in the right relation to each other. His answer was, 'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it. Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments,' added He, 'hang (in brief) all the law and the prophets.' Thus He gave the Rabbis more answer than they desired, by pointing out and explaining the three great enigmas of the law. The first is, that there is one great commandment which rises preeminent over the others, without obscuring one of them, because it comprehends them all. The second is, that there is a second commandment which is entirely subordinated to the first, and yet perfectly like to it. The third is, that there are two commandments which may be considered as the central points in which the whole revelation of the Old Covenant is summed up.

As our Lord's opponents had in this manner expended in vain all their cunning in order to entrap Him with their questions, it was now His turn to put, with His clear mind, a great counter-question to them. They were assembled around Him in great number, when He asked them, 'What think ye of Christ? Whose son is He? 'They answered, 'The son of David.' He asked in return, 'How then doth David in spirit call Him Lord, saying. The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit Thou on My right hand, till I make Thine enemies Thy footstool? (Ps. ex.) If David then called Him Lord, how is He his son? 'By this question He touched the diseased spot of their whole theological theory. They would not hear of a Messiah who could surpass David, or the old theocracy, or the Old Testament, but only of such a one as was ready to subordinate himself to them as the representatives of the Old Testament. But Jesus showed them that David himself, as organ of the Holy Ghost, placed the Messiah above himself, and called Him his Lord. This pointed to His higher descent, to His divinity. He put it closely to them at the same time, that David had declared that Jehovah would cast down all the enemies of the Messiah, and make them the footstool of His feet.

The Pharisees did not answer this question of Christ's. He had touched their evil conscience in its core, and condemned it. The Evangelist tells us the significance of this question of Christ's, and of the silence of His opponents: 'And no man,' says he, 'was able to answer Him a word; neither durst any man from that day forth ask Him any more questions '(see above, vol. iii. p. 65).

But the silence of the Pharisees signified also that they positively refused to know and acknowledge the Lord. It indicated their determined obduracy. So now the time was come when He must give them up. He therefore pronounced against them His comminations which had gradually ripened in His spirit through the whole experience of His public life. He spoke them out free and open before all the people, in the hearing of His disciples, in the precincts of the temple,

'The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat: all therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not. For they bind heavy burdens, and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers. But all their works they do in order to be seen of men: they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the (theocratic) borders of their garments, and love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues, and greetings (reverential bows) in the markets, and to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi. But be ye not (with reference to the founding of the Church) called Rabbi: for One is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren (amongst yourselves⁶). And (with reference to the ruling of the Church) call no man your father upon the earth (in the stated order of a spiritual society); for One is your Father, which is in heaven. Neither call ye (on occasion of the reformation of the Church) men spiritual leaders (founders, heads of sects, or confessions); for One is your spiritual leader, even Christ. But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant. And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.'

Thus our Lord exhorted the multitude and the disciples first to fidelity in the Israelite duty of obedience to those placed over them; but next He as emphatically warned them against following the deadly example of their ambitious hierarchic doings. He then turned to the Pharisees themselves, and the long-pent-up thunder of His holy indignation broke forth in mighty peals.

'Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men (when they are just about to enter it); for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in.'

'Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows' houses, and for a pretence make long prayers; therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation.'

'Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass (περιάγετε) sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.'

'Woe unto you, ye blind guides, who say, Whosoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing; but whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor (bound by his oath)! Ye fools and blind! for whether is greater, the gold, or the temple that sanctifieth the gold?⁷ And, Whosoever shall swear by the altar, it is nothing; but whosoever sweareth by the gift that is upon it, he is guilty (bound). Ye fools and blind! for whether is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifieth the gift? Whoso therefore shall swear by the altar, sweareth by it, and by all things thereon. And whoso shall swear by the temple, sweareth by it, and by Him that dwelleth therein. And he that shall swear by heaven, sweareth by the throne of God, and by Him that sitteth thereon! 'Thus all oaths are, mediately, oaths by God, and so in the highest degree binding.

'Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint, and anise, and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment (right strictness), mercy (right leniency), and faith (the right source of right conduct): these ought ye to have done, and (also) not to leave the other undone. Ye blind guides, who strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel.'

'Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter (acquisition and enjoyment), that the outside of them (the relation of the enjoyment to the Levitical Church) may be clean also.'

'Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful (ὡραῖοι) outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness.⁸ Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.'

These are the seven comminations in which we see the dark contrasts to the seven beatitudes of the Sermon on the Mount (see above, vol. iii. p. 72). Our Lord concludes with an eighth:

'Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous, and say. If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them who killed the prophets. Fill ye then the measure of your fathers. Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell? Wherefore (says He, in the consciousness of the judicially ruling righteousness of God, in the name of the Eternal Wisdom [see Luke xi. 49]⁹), behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes; and some of them ye shall kill and crucify, and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city; that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, the son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar (the altar of burnt-offering in the front court)'¹⁰

Thus He had pronounced the decree of judicial righteousness, as if in an ecstasy of divine judicial feeling, like the voice of a spirit from above. Then He added, again taking the standpoint of mercy acting in their midst: 'Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation.' This eighth commination corresponds to the eighth beatitude: Blessed are they who are persecuted for righteousness' sake; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

But the last beatitude of the kingdom of heaven was this: Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for My sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad; for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets who were before you!

And what is the last commination which corresponds to this last beatitude? Instead of a ninth commination, our Lord breaks out into these words: 'O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house (the temple) is left unto you desolate (a spiritual ruin deserted by its divinity). For I say unto you, Ye shall not see Me henceforth, till ye shall say. Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord! '

Our Lord could not conclude this announcement of judgment without pointing to the distant dawn of salvation for His poor people. Then Jesus went out and departed from the temple. His disciples seemed to feel the importance of the moment, and came around Him to point out to Him the (massive) buildings of the temple (which was still in building). It was as if they wished to intercede with Him for the temple. But Jesus said unto them, 'See ye not all these things? (are they not really there?) Verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down (displaced and broken).'

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