Outline of the Gospel of Matthew - Part 4
The Bible Treasury, New Series
Volume 13 (1920)
Then follows another incident,
which equally
proves that the Spirit of God is
not here reciting
the facts in their natural
succession; for it is
assuredly not at this moment
historically that the
‘Lord goes into the house of
Peter, sees there his
wife’s mother laid sick of a
fever, touches her hand, and raises her up, so that she
ministers unto them
at once. In this we have another
striking illustration of the same principle,
because this miracle,
in point of fact, was wrought
long before the healing
of the centurion’s servant, or
even of the leper.
This, too, we ascertain from
Mark i., where there
are clear marks of the time. The
Lord was in
Capernaum, where Peter lived;
and on a certain
Sabbath-day, after the call of
Peter, wrought in
the synagogue mighty deeds,
which are here,
recorded, and by Luke also.
Verse 29 gives us
strict time. “And forthwith when
they were
come out of the synagogue they
entered into the
house of Simon and Andrew, with
James and
John; but Simon's wife’s mother
was sick of a
fever, and anon they tell Him of
her. And He
came and took her by the hand,
and lifted her
up, and immediately the fever
left her, and she
ministered unto them.” It would
require the
credulity of a sceptic to
believe that this is mot
the self-same fact that we have
before us in
Matthew viii, I feel sure that
no Christian
harbours a doubt about it. But
if this be so
there is here absolute certainty
that our Lord,
on the very Sabbath in which He
cast out the
unclean spirit from the man in
the synagogue
of Capernaum, immediately after
quitting the
synagogue, entered the house of
Peter, and that
there and then He healed Peter’s
wife’s mother
of the fever. Subsequent,
considerably, to this
was the case of the centurion’s
servant, preceded
a good while before by the
cleansing of the leper. How are we to account for a
selection so marked,
an elimination of time so
complete? Surely not
by inaccuracy; surely not by
indifference to order,
bat contrariwise by divine
wisdom that arranged
the facts with a view to a
purpose worthy of
itself: God’s arrangement of all
things—more
particularly in this part of
Matthew—to give us
an adequate manifestation of the
Messiah; and,
as we have seen, first, what He
was to the appeal
of the Jew; next what He was and
would be to
Gentile faith, in still richer
form and fulness. So
now we have, in the healing of
Peter's mother-in-law, another fact containing
a principle of
great value,—that His grace
towards the Gentile
does not in the least degree
blunt His heart to
the claims of relationship after
the flesh. It
was clearly a question of
connection with the
apostle of the circumcision (i.e,
Peter’s wife's
mother). We have the natural tie
here brought
into prominence; and this was a
claim that
Christ slighted not. For He
loved Peter—felt
for him, and his wife’s mother
was precious in
His sight. This sets forth not a tall the way in
which the Christian stands
related to Christ;
for even though we had known Him
after the
flesh, henceforth know we Him no
more. But
it is expressly the pattern
after which He was to
deal, and will deal, with
Israel. Zion may say of
the Lord who laboured in vain,
whom the nation
abhorred, “The Lord hath
forsaken me, and my
Lord hath forgotten me.” Not so.
“Can a
woman forget her sucking child?
yea, they may
forget, yet will not I forget
thee. Behold, I have
graven thee upon the palms of my
hands.” Thus
it is shown that, though we have
rich grace to the
Gentile, there is the
remembrance of natural
relationship still. In the evening multitudes are
brought, taking
advantage of the power that had
so shown itself
publicly in the synagogue, and
privately in the
house of Peter; and the Lord
accomplished the
words of Isaiah liii. 4: ‘
Himself,” it is said “took
our infirmities, and bare our
sicknesses,” an oracle
we might do well to consider in
the light of its
application here. In what sense
did Jesus, our
Lord, take their infirmities,
and bear their sicknesses? In this, as I believe,
that He never
employed the virtue that was in
Him to meet
sickness or infirmity as a
matter of mere power, but
in deep compassionate feeling He
entered into the
whole reality of the case. He
healed, and bore its
burden on His heart before God,
as truly as He took
it away from men. It was
precisely because He was
Himself untouchable by sickness
and infirmity, that
He was free so to take up each
consequence of sin
thus, Therefore it was not a
mere simple fact that
He banished sickness or
infirmity, but He carried,
them in His spirit before God.
To my mind, the
depth of such grace only
enhances the beauty of
Jesus, and is the very last
possible ground that justifies man in thinking
lightly of the Saviour. After this our Lord sees great
multitudes following Him, and gives commandment
to go to the other
side. Here again is found a
fresh case of the same
remarkable principle of
selection of events to form
a complete picture, which I have
maintained to be
the true key of all. The Spirit
of God has been
pleased to cull and class facts
otherwise unconnected; for here follow
conversations that took
place a long time after any of
the events we have
been occupied with. When do you
suppose these
conversations actually occurred,
if we go to the
question of their date? Take
notice of the care
with which the Spirit of God
here omits all
reference to this: “And a
certain scribe came.”
There is no note of the time
when he came, but
simply the fact that he did
come. It was really
after the transfiguration
recorded in chapter xvii. of
our Gospel. Subsequently to
that, the scribe offered
to follow Jesus whithersoever He
went. We know
this by comparing it with the
Gospel of Luke. And,
so with the other conversation:
“Lord, suffer me
first to go and bury my father;
” it was after the
glory of Christ had been
witnessed on the holy
mount, when man’s selfishness of
heart shewed
itself in contrast to the grace
of God. Next, the storm follows. “There
arose a great
tempest in the sea, insomuch
that the ship was’
covered with the waves; but he
was asleep.” When
did this take place, if we
enquire into it merely as a
matter of historical fact? On
the evening of the
day when He delivered the seven
parables given in
Matthew xiii. The truth of this
is apparent, if we
compare the Gospel of Mark.
Thus, the fourth
chapter of Mark coincides,
marked with such data
as can leave no doubt. We have,
first, the sower
sowing the word, Then, after the
parable of the
mustard seed (ver. 33), it is
added, “And with many
such parables spake he the word
unto them . . . .
and when they were alone, he
expounded all things
to his disciples fin both the
parables and the explanations alluding to what we
possess in Matthew
xiii.]. And the same day, when
the even was come’
he saith unto them, Let us pass
over unto the other
side. [There is what I call a
clear, unmistakable
note of time]. And when they had
sent away the
multitude, they took Him even as
he was in the
ship. And there were also with
him other little
ships. And there arose a great
storm of wind, and
the waves beat into the ship, so
that it was now
full, And he was in the hinder
part of the ship.
asleep on a pillow: and they
awake him, and say
unto him, Master, carest thou
not that we perish?
And he arose, and rebuked the
wind, and said unto
the sea, Peace, be still. And
the wind ceased, and
there was a great calm. And he
said unto them,
Why are ye so fearful? how is
it that ye have no,
faith? And they feared
exceedingly, and said one
to another, What manner of man
is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”
After this (what
makes it still more
unquestionable) comes the case
of the demoniac. It is true, we
have only one:
Mark, as in Luke; whereas in
our Gospel we have
two, Nothing can be simpler.
There were two;
but the Spirit of God chose out,
in Mark and Luke,
the more remarkable of the two,
and traces for us
his history, a history of no
small interest and importance, as we may feel when we
come to Mark; but it
was of equal moment for the
Gospel of Matthew
that the two demoniacs should be
mentioned here,
although one of them was in
himself, as I gather, a
far more strikingly desperate
case than the other,
The reason I consider to be
plain; and the same
principle applies to various
other parts of our Gospel where we have two cases
mentioned, where
in the other Gospels we have
only one. The key
to it is this, that Matthew was
led by the Holy
Ghost to keep in view adequate
testimony to the
Jewish people; it was the
tender goodness of God
that would meet them in a manner
that was
suitable under the law. Now, it
was an established
principle, that in the mouth of
two or three witnesses
every word should’ be
established. This, then, I
apprehend to be the reason why
we find two’
demoniacs mentioned; whereas,
in Mark or Luke
for other purposes, the Spirit
of God only draws
attention to one of the two, A
Gentile (indeed,
any mind not under any kind of
legal prejudice or
difficulty) would be far more
moved by a detailed
account of what was more
conspicuous. The
fact of two without the personal
details would not
powerfully tell upon mere
Gentiles perhaps, though
to a Jew it might be for some
ends necessary.
I do not pretend to say this was
the only purpose
served; far be it from me to
think of restraining
the Spirit of God within the
narrow bounds of our
vision. Let none suppose that,
in giving my own
convictions, I have the
presumptuous thought of
putting these forward as if they
were the sole
motives in God’s mind. It is
enough to meet a
difficulty which many feel, by
the simple plea that
the reason assigned is in my
judgment a valid
explanation, and in itself a
sufficient solution of
the apparent discrepancy. If it
be so, it is surely
a ground of thankfulness to God;
for it turns a
stumbling-block into an evidence
of the perfection
of Scripture. Reviewing, then, these closing
incidents of the
chapter (ver. 19-22), we find
first of all the utter
worthlessness of the flesh’s
readiness to follow Jesus.
The motives of the natural heart
are laid bare, Does
this scribe offer to follow
Jesus? He was not
called. Such is the perversity
of man, that he
who is not called thinks he can
follow Jesus whithersoever He goes. The Lord hints
at what the man’s
real desires were—not Christ,
not heaven, not
eternity, but present things. If
he were willing
to follow the Lord, it was for
what he could get.
The scribe had no heart for the
hidden glory.
Surely, had he seen this,
everything was there;
but he saw it not, and so the
Lord spread out His
actual portion, as it literally
was, without one word
about the unseen and eternal.
“The foxes,”
says He, “have holes, and the
birds of the air
have nests; but the Son of man
hath not where to
lay his head.” He takes
accordingly the title of
the “‘ Son of man” for the first
time in this Gospel.
He has His rejection before His
eyes, as well as the
presumptuous unbelief of this
sordid, and self-confident, would-be-follower.
Again, when we listen to another
(and now it is
one of His disciples), at once
faith shows its feebleness. “Suffer me first,” he
says, “to go and bury
my father.” The man that was not
called promises
to go anywhere in his own
strength; but the man
that was called feels the
difficulty, and pleads a
natural duty before following
Jesus. Oh, what a
heart is ours! but what a heart
was His! In the next scene, then, we have
the disciples as a
whole tried by a sudden danger
to which their
sleeping Master paid no heed.
This tested their
thoughts of the glory of Jesus.
No doubt the
tempest was great; but what
harm could it do to
Jesus? No doubt the ship was
covered with the
waves; but how could that
imperil the Lord of
all? They forgot His glory in
their own anxiety
and selfishness. They measured
Jesus by their
own impotence. A great tempest
and a sinking
ship are serious difficulties to
a man. “Lord,
save us; we perish,” cried they,
as they awoke
Him; and He arose and rebuked
the winds and
the sea. Little faith leaves us
as fearful for
ourselves as dim witnesses of
His glory whom the
most unruly elements obey. In what follows we have that
which is necessary
to complete the picture of the
other side. The
Lord works in delivering power;
but withal the
power of Satan fills and carries
away the unclean
to their own destruction. Yet
man, in face of all,
is so deceived of the enemy,
that he prefers to be
left with the demons rather than
enjoy the presence
of the Deliverer. Such was and
is man. But the
future is in view also. The
delivered demoniacs
are, to my mind, clearly the
foreshadow of the
Lord’s grace in the latter
days, separating a remnant
to Himself, and banishing the
power of Satan from
this small but sufficient
witness of His salvation. The evil spirits asked leave to
pass into the herd
of swine, which thus typify the
final condition of the
defiled, apostate mass of
Israel; their presumptuous and impenitent unbelief
reduces them to
that deep degradation—not merely
the unclean,
but the unclean filled with the
power of Satan,
and carried down to swift
destruction. It is a just prefiguration of what will be in
the close of the age
—the mass of the unbelieving
Jews, now impure,
but then also given up to the
devil, and so to evident
perdition. Thus, in the chapter before us,
we have a very
comprehensive sketch of the
Lord’s manifestation
from that time, and in type
going on to the end of
the age. In the chapter that
follows we have a
companion picture, carrying on,
no doubt, the
Lord’s presentation to Israel,
but from a different
point of view; for in chapter
ix. it is not merely
the people tried, but more
especially the religious
leaders, till all closes in
blasphemy against the
Holy Ghost. This was testing
matters more
closely. Had there been a single
thing good in
Israel, their choicest guides
would have stood that
test. The people might have
failed; but, surely,
there were some
differences—surely those that
were honoured and valued could not be
so depraved!
The anointed priests in the
house of God—
would not they at least receive
their own Messiah?
This question is accordingly put
to the proof in
the ninth chapter. To the end
the events are put
together, just as in chap.
viii., without regard
to the point of time when they
occurred. “And he entered into a ship, and
passed over, and came into his own city.”
Having left Nazareth, as we saw, He takes up His
abode in Capernaum, which was henceforth “his
own city.”
To the proud inhabitant of
Jerusalem, both one
and the other were but a choice
and change within a
land of darkness, But it was for
a land of darkness
and sin and death that Jesus
came from heaven—the Messiah, not according to
their thoughts, but
the Lord and Saviour, the
God-man. So in this
case there was brought to Him a
paralytic man,
lying upon a bed, “and Jesus
seeing their faith, said unto the sick of the palsy,
Son, be of good
cheer; thy sins be forgiven
thee.” Most clearly
it is not so much a question of
sin in the aspect of
uncleanness (typifying deeper
things, but still
connected with the ceremonial
requirements of
Israel, as we find from what our
Lord said in the
chapter to the cleansed leper).
It is more particularly
sin, viewed as guilt, and
consequently as that which
absolutely breaks and destroys
all power in the
soul towards both God and man.
Hence, here
‘it is a question not merely of
cleansing, but of
forgiveness, and forgiveness,
too, as that which
precedes power manifested before
men. There
never can be strength in the
soul till forgiveness is
known. There may be desires,
there may be the
working of the Spirit of God,
but there can be
no power to walk before men and
to glorify God
thus till there is forgiveness
possessed and enjoyed
in the heart. This was the very
blessing that
aroused, above all, the hatred
of the scribes. The
Priest, in chap. viii, could not
deny what was
done in the case of the leper.
who showed himself
duly, and brought his offering,
according to the
law, to the altar. Though a
testimony to them,
still it was in the result a
recognition of what Moses
commanded. But here pardon
dispensed on earth
arouses the pride of the
religious leaders to the
quick, and implacably.
Nevertheless, the Lord
did not withhold the infinite
boon, though He knew
two well their thoughts; He
spoke the word of
forgiveness, though He read
their evil heart that
counted it blasphemy, This
utter, growing rejection of’ Jesus was coming out
now—rejection, at
first allowed and whispered in
the heart, soon to
be pronounced in words like
drawn swords. “And behold, certain of the
scribes said within
themselves, This man
blasphemeth.” Jesus
blessedly answered their
thoughts, had there only
been a conscience to hear the
word of power and
grace, which brings out His
glory the more, “That
ye may know,” He says, “‘ that
the Son of man hath
power on earth to forgive sins,”
etc. He now
takes His place of rejection;
for Him it is manifest
even now by their inmost
thoughts of Him though
not revealed, “This man
blasphemeth,” Yet is He
the Son of man who hath power on
earth to forgive
sins; and He uses His authority.
“That ye may
know ” it (then saith he to the
sick of the palsy),
Arise, take up thy bed, and go
unto thy house.”
The man’s walk before them
testifies to the reality
of his forgiveness before God.
It ought to be so
with every forgiven soul. This
as yet draws out
wonder, at least from the
witnessing multitudes,
that God had given such power
unto men. They
glorified God. On this the Lord proceeds to
take a step further,
and makes a deeper inroad, if
possible, upon Jewish
prejudice. He is not here sought
as by the leper,
the centurion, the friends of
the palsied man; He
Himself calls Matthew, a
publican—just the one
to write the gospel of the’
despised Jesus of
Nazareth. What instrument so
suitable? It was
a scorned Messiah who, when
rejected of His
own people, Israel, turned to
the Gentiles by the
will of God: it was One who
could look upon publicans and sinners anywhere.
Thus Matthew,
called at the very receipt of
custom, follows Jesus,
and makes a feast for Him. This
furnishes occasion
to the Pharisees to vent their
unbelief: to them
nothing is so offensive as
grace, either in doctrine
or in practice. The scribes, at
the beginning of
the chapter, could not hide from
the Lord their
bitter rejection of His glory as
man on earth
entitled, as His humiliation and
cross would prove
to forgive. Here, too, these
Pharisees question
and reproach His grace, when
they see the Lord
sitting at ease in the presence
of publicans and
sinners, who came and sat down
with Him in
Matthew’s house. They said to
His disciples,
“Why eateth your Master with
publicans and,
sinners?” The Lord shows that
such unbelief
justly and necessarily excludes
itself, but not
others, from blessing To heal
was the work, for
which He was come. It was not
for the whole
the Physician was needed. How
little they had
learnt the divine lesson of
grace, not ordinances!
“T will have mercy, and not
sacrifice,” Jesus was
there to call, not righteous
men, but sinners. Nor was the unbelief confined to
these religionists
of letter and form; for next
(verse 14) the
question comes from John’s
disciples: “Why do
we and the Pharisees fast oft,
but thy disciples fast
not?” Throughout it is the
religious kind that
are tested and found wanting.
The Lord pleads
the cause of the disciples. “Can
the children of
the bride-chamber mourn as long as
the bridegroom
is with them? ” Fasting, indeed,
would follow when
the Bridegroom was taken from
them. Thus He
points out the utter moral
incongruity of fasting at
that moment, and intimates that
it was not
merely the fact that He was
going to be rejected,
but that to conciliate His
teaching and His will
with the old thing was hopeless.
What He was
introducing could not mix with
Judaism. Thus it was not merely that there was
an evil heart of unbelief in the Jew
particularly, but law and grace cannot be yoked together. “No
man putteth
a piece of new cloth unto an old
garment; for that which is put in to fill it up
taketh from the garment, and the rent is made worse.” Nor
was it only a
difference in the forms the
truth took; but the vital principle which Christ was
diffusing could not be so maintained. “Neither
do men put new wine into old bottles, else
the bottles break, and the wine runneth out, and
the bottles perish; but they put new wine into new
bottles, and both are preserved.” The spirit, as
well as the form, was alien, But at the same time it is
plain, although bore the consciousness of the
vast change He
was introducing, and expressed
it thus fully and
early in the history, nothing
turned away His heart from Israel. The very next
scene, the case of Jairus, the ruler shows it. “My
daughter is even now dead, but come and lay thy
hand upon her, and
she shall live.” The details,
found elsewhere, of
her being at the point of
death—then, before
teaching the house, the news
that she was dead,
are not here. Whatever the time
may have been,
whatever the incidents added by
others, the account:
is given here for the purpose of
showing, that as
Israel’s case was desperate,
even unto death, so He,
the Messiah, was the giver of
life, when all humanly
speaking, was over. He was then
present, a
man despised, yet with title to
forgive sins, proved
by immediate power to heal. If
those who trusted
in themselves that they were
wise and righteous
would not have Him, He would
call even a publican
‘on the spot to be among the
most honoured of
His followers, and would not
disdain to be their joy
when they desired His honour in
the exercise of
His grace. Sorrow would come
full soon when
He, the Bridegroom of His
people, should be taken
away; and then should they
fast. Nevertheless, His ear was open
to the call on
behalf of Israel perishing,
dying, dead. He had
been preparing them for the new
things, and the
impossibility of making them
coalesce with the
old. But none the less do we
find His affection
engaged for the help of the
helpless. He goes to
raise the dead, and the woman
with the issue of
blood touches Him by the way. No
matter what
the great purpose might be, He
was there for faith.
Far different this was from the
errand on which
He was intent; but He was there
for faith. It was
His meat to do the will of God.
He was there for
the express purpose of
glorifying God. Power and _
love were come for any one to
draw on. If there
were, so to speak,
a justification of circumcision
by
faith, undoubtedly there was
also’ the justification
of uncircumcision through their
faith. The question
was not who or what came in the
way; whoever
appealed to Him, there He was
for them. And
He was Jesus, Emmanuel. When He
reaches the
house, minstrels were there, and
people, making a
noise: the expression, if of
woe, certainly of impotent despair. They mock the
calm utterance of
Him who chooses things that are
not; and the
Lord turns out the unbelievers,
and demonstrates
the glorious truth that the maid
was not dead, but
living. Nor is this all. He gives sight
to the blind,
“And when Jesus departed
thence, two blind men
followed Him, crying and saying,
Thou Son of —
David, have mercy on us.” It was
necessary to
complete the picture. Life had
been imparted to
the sleeping maid of Zion—the
blind men call on
Him as the Son of David, and not
in vain. They
confess their faith, and He
touches their eyes.
Thus, whatever the peculiarity
of the new blessings,
the old thing could be taken up,
though upon new grounds, and, of course, on the
confession that
Jesus is Lord, to the glory of
God the Father. Two
blind mea called upon Him as the
Son of David
a sample this of what will be in
the end, when the
heart of Israel turns to the
Lord, and the vail is
done away. “According to your
faith be it done
unto you.” It is not enough that Israel be
awakened from
the sleep of death, and see
aright. There must be
the mouth to praise the Lord,
and speak of the
glorious honour of His majesty,
as well as eyes to
wait on Him. So we have a
farther scene. Israel
must give full testimony in the
bright day of His
coming. Accordingly, here we
have a witness of it,
and a witness so much the
sweeter, because the
present total rejection that was
filling, the heart
of the leaders surely testified
to the Lord’s heart
of that which was at hand. But
nothing turned
aside the purpose of God, or the
activity of His
grace. “As they went out,
behold, they brought
to Him a dumb man possessed with
a devil. And
when the devil was come out, the
dumb spake:
and the multitudes marveled,
saying, It was never
so seen in Israel.” (See Matt.
ix. 32, 33). The
Pharisees were ‘enraged at a
power they could
not deny, which rebuked
themselves so much
the more on account of its
persistent grace; but
Jesus passes by all blasphemy as
yet, and goes
on His way—nothing hinders His
course of love.
He “went about all the cities
and villages, teaching
in their synagogues, and
preaching the gospel of
the kingdom, and healing every
sickness and every
disease among the people.” The
faithful and true
witness, it was His to display
that power in goodness which shall be put forth
fully in the world to
come, the great day when the
Lord will manifest
Himself to every eye as Son of
David, and Son of
man too. At the close of this chapter
ix., in His deep compassion He bids the disciples
pray the Lord of the
Harvest to send forth labourers
into His harvest.
At the beginning of chapter x.
He Himself sends
forth themselves as labourers.
He is the Lord
of the harvest. It was a grave
step this, and in
view of His rejection now. In
our gospel. we have
not seen the apostles called and
ordained. Matthew
gives no such details, but call
and mission are
together here. But, as I have
stated, the choice
and ordination of the twelve
apostles had really
taken place before the sermon on
the mount,
though not mentioned in Matthew,
but in Mark and
Luke. (Compare Mark iii. 13-19,
and vi. 7-11;
Luke vi. and ix). The mission of
the apostles
did not take place till
afterwards. In Matthew
we have no distinction of their
call from their
mission. But the mission is
given here in strict
accordance with what the gospel
demands. It
is a summons from the King to
His people Israel.
So thoroughly is it in view of
Israel, that our
Lord does not say one word here
about the Church
‘or the intervening condition of
Christendom.
He speaks of Israel then, and of
Israel before
He comes into glory, but He
entirely omits any
notice of the circumstances
which were to come
in by the way. He tells them
that they
should not have gone over (or
finished)
fs cities of Israel till the Son
of man be
come. Not that His own rejection
was not
before His spirit, but here He
looks not beyond that
land and people; and, as far as
the twelve were
concerned, He sends them on a
mission which goes
on to the end of the age. Thus,
the present
dealings of God in grace, the
actual shape taken
by the kingdom of heaven, the
calling of the
Gentiles, the formation of the
Church, are all
passed completely over. We shall
find something
of these mysteries later on in
this gospel; but
here it is simply a Jewish
testimony of Jehovah-Messiah in His unwearied love,
through His
twelve heralds, and in spite of
rising unbelief,
maintaining to the end what His
grace had in
view for Israel. He would send
fit messengers,
nor would the work be done till
the rejected
Messiah, the Son of man, came.
The apostles
were then sent thus, no doubt,
forerunners of those
whom the Lord will raise up for
the latter day.
‘Time would fail now to dwell on
this chapter,
interesting as it is. My object,
of course is to
point out as clearly as possible
the structure of
the gospel, and to explain
according to my measure
why there are these strong
differences between the
gospels of Matthew and the rest,
as compared
with one another. The ignorance
is wholly
on our side: all they say or
omit was owing to
the far-reaching and gracious
wisdom of Him who
inspired them. The eleventh chapter,
exceedingly critical for
Israel, and of surpassing
beauty, as it is, must not
be passed over without some few
words. Here
we find our Lord after sending
out the chosen
witnesses of the truth (co
momentous to Israel,
above all) of His own
Messiahship, realizing His
utter rejection, yet rejoicing
withal in God the
Father's counsels of glory and
grace, while the
real secret in the chapter, as
in fact, was His
being not Messiah only, nor Son
of man, but
the Son of the Father, whose
person none knows
but Himself. But, from first to
last, what a trial
of spirit, and what triumph!
Some consider that
John the Baptist enquired solely
for the sake of
his disciples. But I see no
sufficient reason to
refuse the impression that John
found it hard
to reconcile his continued
imprisonment with a
present Messiah; nor do I
discern a sound judgment of the case, or a profound
knowledge of the
heart, in those who thus raise
doubts as to John’s
sincerity, any more than they
appear to me to
exalt the character of this
honoured man of God,
by supposing him to play a part
which really
belonged to others. What can be
simpler than
that John put the question
through his disciples,
because he (not they only) had a
question in the
mind? It probably was no more
than a grave
though passing difficulty, which
he desired to have
cleared up with all fulness for
their sakes, as well a
his own. In short, he had a
question because he
was a man. It is not for us
surely to think this
impossible. Have we, spite of
superior privileges,
such unwavering faith, that we
can afford to treat
the matter as incredible in
John, and therefore
only capable of solution in his
staggering disciples?
Let those who have so little
experience of what
man is, even in the regenerate,
beware lest they
impute to, the Baptist, such an
acting of a part
as shocks us, when Jerome
imputed it to Peter
and Paul in the censure of Gal.
ii, The Lord,
no doubt, knew the heart of His
servant, and
could feel for him in the effect
that circumstances
took upon him. When He uttered
the words,
“Blessed is he whosoever shall
not be offended
in me,” it is to me evident that
there was an
allusion to the wavering, let it
be but for a moment,
of John’s soul. The fact is,
beloved brethren,
there is but one Jesus; and
whoever it may
be, whether John the Baptist, or
the greatest in
the kingdom of heaven, after all
it is divinely given faith which alone
sustains: else man has
to learn painfully somewhat of
himself; and what
is he to be accounted of? Our Lord then answers, with
perfect dignity, as
well as grace; He puts before
the disciples of John
the real state of the case; He
furnishes them with
plain, positive facts, that
could leave nothing to be
desired by John’s mind when he
weighed all as a
testimony from God. This done,
with a word
for the conscience appended, He
takes up and
pleads the cause of John. It
ought to have been
Join’s place to have proclaimed
the glory of
Jesus; but all things in this
world are the reverse
of what they ought to be, and of
what will be when
Jesus takes the throne, coming
in power and
glory. But when the Lord was
here, no matter
what the unbelief of others, it
was only an opportunity for the grace of Jesus to
shine out. So
it was here; and our Lord turns
to eternal account,
in His own goodness, the
shortcoming of John
the Baptist, the greatest of
women-born. Fat
from lowering the position of
His servant, He
declares there was none greater’
among mortal
men. The failure of this
greatest of women-born
only gives Him the just occasion
to show the
total change at hand, when it
should not be a
question of man, but of God,
yea, of the kingdom
of heaven, the least in which
new state should
be greater than John.
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