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Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
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Matthew Henry |
M A T T H E W.
CHAP. XXIII.
In the foregoing chapter, we had our Saviour’s discourses with the
scribes and Pharisees; here we have his discourse concerning them, or
rather against them.
I. He allows their office,
II. He warns his disciples not to imitate their hypocrisy and pride,
III. He exhibits a charge against them for divers high crimes and
misdemeanors, corrupting the law, opposing the gospel, and treacherous
dealing both with God and man; and to each article he prefixes a woe,
IV. He passes sentence upon Jerusalem, and foretels the ruin of the
city and temple, especially for the sin of persecution,
| The Scribes and Pharisees Condemned; Cautions against Pride. |
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1 Then spake Jesus to the multitude, and to his disciples,
2 Saying, The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat:
3 All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe
and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do
not.
4 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.
5 But all their works they do for to be seen of men: they make
broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their
garments,
6 And love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats
in the synagogues,
7 And greetings in the markets, and to be called of men, Rabbi,
Rabbi.
8 But be not ye called Rabbi: for one is your Master, even
Christ; and all ye are brethren.
9 And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your
Father, which is in heaven.
10 Neither be ye called masters: for one is your Master, even
Christ.
11 But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant.
12 And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he
that shall humble himself shall be exalted.
We find not Christ, in all his preaching, so severe upon any sort of
people as upon these scribes and Pharisees; for the truth is,
nothing is more directly opposite to the spirit of the gospel than the
temper and practice of that generation of men, who were made up of
pride, worldliness, and tyranny, under a cloak and pretence of
religion; yet these were the idols and darlings of the people, who
thought, if but two men went to heaven, one would be a Pharisee. Now
Christ directs his discourse here to the multitude, and to his
disciples
(v. 1)
to rectify their mistakes concerning these scribes and Pharisees, by
painting them out in their true colours, and so to take off the
prejudice which some of the multitude had conceived against Christ and
his doctrine, because it was opposed by those men of their church, that
called themselves the people’s guides. Note, It is good to know the
true characters of men, that we may not be imposed upon by great and
mighty names, titles, and pretensions to power. People must be told of
the wolves
the dogs
(Phil. iii. 2),
the deceitful workers
that they may know here to stand upon their guard. And not only the
mixed multitude, but even the disciples, need these cautions; for good
men are apt to have their eyes dazzled with worldly pomp.
Now, in this discourse,
I. Christ allows their office as expositors of the law; The scribes
and Pharisees (that is, the whole Sanhedrim, who sat at the helm of
church government, who were all called scribes, and were some of
them Pharisees), they sit in Moses’ seat
(v. 2),
as public teachers and interpreters of the law; and, the law of Moses
being the municipal law of their state, they were as judges, or a bench
of justices; teaching and judging seem to be equivalent, comparing
2 Chron. xvii. 7, 9, with 2 Chron. xix. 5, 6, 8.
They were not the itinerant judges that rode the circuit, but the
standing bench, that determined on appeals, special verdicts, or writs
of error by the law; they sat in Moses’s seat, not as he was Mediator
between God and Israel, but only as he was chief justice,
Or, we may apply it, not to the Sanhedrim, but to the other Pharisees
and scribes, that expounded the law, and taught the people how to apply
it to particular cases. The pulpit of wood, such as was made for
Ezra, that ready scribe in the law of God
(Neh. viii. 4),
is here called Moses’s seat, because Moses had those in every
city (so the expression is,
who in those pulpits preached him; this was their office, and it was
just and honourable; it was requisite that there should be some at
whose mouth the people might enquire the law,
Mal. ii. 7.
Note,
1. Many a good place is filled with bad men; it is no new thing for
the vilest men to be exalted even to Moses’s seat
(Ps. xii. 8);
and, when it is so, the men are not so much honoured by the seat as the
seat is dishonoured by the men. Now they that sat in Moses’s seat were
so wretchedly degenerated, that it was time for the great Prophet to
arise, like unto Moses, to erect another seat.
2. Good and useful offices and powers are not therefore to be
condemned and abolished, because they fall sometimes into the hands of
bad men, who abuse them. We must not therefore pull down Moses’s
seat, because scribes and Pharisees have got possession of it; rather
than so, let both grow together until the harvest,
ch. xiii. 30.
Hence he infers
(v. 3),
“Whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do As far as
they sit in Moses’s seat, that is, read and preach the law that
was given by Moses” (which, as yet, continued in full force, power, and
virtue), “and judge according to that law, so far you must hearken to
them, as remembrances to you of the written word.” The scribes and
Pharisees made it their business to study the scripture, and were well
acquainted with the language, history, and customs of it, and its style
and phraseology. Now Christ would have the people to make use of the
helps they gave them for the understanding of the scripture, and do
accordingly. As long as their comments did illustrate the text and not
pervert it; did make plain, and not make void, the commandment of
God; so far they must be observed and obeyed, but with caution and
a judgment of discretion. Note, We must not think the worse of good
truths for their being preached by bad ministers; nor of good laws for
their being executed by bad magistrates. Though it is most desirable to
have our food brought by angels, yet, if God send it to us by ravens,
if it be good and wholesome, we must take it, and thank God for it. Our
Lord Jesus promiseth this, to prevent the cavil which some would be apt
to make at this following discourse; as if, by condemning the scribes
and Pharisees, he designed to bring the law of Moses into contempt, and
to draw people off from it; whereas he came not to destroy, but to
fulfil. Note, It is wisdom to obviate the exceptions which may be
taken at just reproofs, especially when there is occasion to
distinguish between officers and their offices, that the ministry be
not blamed when the ministers are.
II. He condemns the men. He had ordered the multitude to do as they
taught; but here he annexeth a caution not to do as they did, to beware
of their leaven; Do not ye after their works. Their traditions
were their works, were their idols, the works of their fancy. Or, “Do
not according to their example.” Doctrines and practices are spirits
that must be tried, and where there is occasion, must be carefully
separated and distinguished; and as we must not swallow corrupt
doctrines for the sake of any laudable practices of those that teach
them, so we must not imitate any bad examples for the sake of the
plausible doctrines of those that set them. The scribes and Pharisees
boasted as much of the goodness of their works as of the orthodoxy of
their teaching, and hoped to be justified by them; it was the plea they
put in
and yet these things, which they valued themselves so much upon, were
an abomination in the sight of God.
Our Saviour
here, and in the following verses,
specifies divers particulars of their works, wherein we must not
imitate them. In general, they are charged with hypocrisy,
dissimulation, or double-dealing in religion; a crime which cannot be
enquired of at men’s bar, because we can only judge according to
outward appearance; but God, who searcheth the heart, can convict of
hypocrisy; and nothing is more displeasing to him, for he desireth
truth.
Four things are in
charged upon them.
1. Their saying and doing were two things.
Their practice was no way agreeable either to their preaching or to
their profession; for they say, and do not; they teach out of
the law that which is good, but their conversation gives them the lie;
and they seem to have found another way to heaven for themselves than
what they show to others. See this illustrated and charged home upon
them,
Those are of all sinners most inexcusable that allow themselves in the
sins they condemn in others, or in worse. This doth especially touch
wicked ministers, who will be sure to have their portion appointed them
with hypocrites
(ch. xxiv. 51);
for what greater hypocrisy can there be, than to press that upon
others, to be believed and done, which they themselves disbelieve and
disobey; pulling down in their practice what they build up in their
preaching; when in the pulpit, preaching so well that it is a pity they
should ever come out; but, when out of the pulpit, living so ill that
it is a pity they should ever come in; like bells, that call others to
church, but hang out of it themselves; or Mercurial posts, that point
the way to others, but stand still themselves? Such will be judged
out of their own mouths. It is applicable to all others that say,
and do not; that make a plausible profession of religion, but do not
live up to that profession; that make fair promises, but do not perform
their promises; are full of good discourse, and can lay down the law to
all about them, but are empty of good works; great talkers, but little
doers; the voice is Jacob’s voice, but the hands are the hands of
Esau. Vox et præterea nihil–mere sound. They speak fair,
I go, sir; but there is no trusting them, for there are seven
abominations in their heart.
2. They were very severe in imposing upon others those things which
they were not themselves willing to submit to the burthen of
(v. 4);
They bind heavy burthens, and grievous to be borne; not only
insisting upon the minute circumstances of the law, which is called
a yoke
(Acts xv. 10),
and pressing the observation of them with more strictness and severity
than God himself did (whereas the maxim of the lawyers, is Apices
juris son sunt jura–Mere points of law are not law), but by adding
to his words, and imposing their own inventions and traditions, under
the highest penalties. They loved to show their authority and to
exercise their domineering faculty, lording it over God’s heritage, and
saying to men’s souls, Bow down, that we may go over; witness
their many additions to the law of the fourth commandment, by which
they made the sabbath a burthen on men’s shoulders, which was designed
to be the joy of their hearts. Thus with force and cruelty did those
shepherds rule the flock, as of old,
But see their hypocrisy; They themselves will not move them with one
of their fingers.
(1.) They would not exercise themselves in those things which they
imposed upon others; they pressed upon the people a strictness in
religion which they themselves would not be bound by; but secretly
transgressed their own traditions, which they publicly enforced. They
indulged their pride in giving law to others; but consulted their ease
in their own practice. Thus it has been said, to the reproach of the
popish priests, that they fast with wine and sweetmeats, while they
force the people to fast with bread and water; and decline the penances
they enjoin the laity.
(2.) They would not ease the people in these things, nor put a finger
to lighten their burthen, when they saw it pinched them. They could
find out loose constructions to put upon God’s law, and could dispense
with that, but would not bate an ace of their own impositions, nor
dispense with a failure in the least punctilio of them. They allowed no
chancery to relieve the extremity of their common law. How contrary to
this was the practice of Christ’s apostles, who would allow to others
that use of Christian liberty which, for the peace and edification of
the church, they would deny themselves in! They would lay no other
burthen than necessary things, and those easy,
How carefully doth Paul spare those to whom he writes!
3. They were all for show, and nothing for substance, in religion
(v. 5);
All their works they do, to be seen of men. We must do such good
works, that they who see them may glorify God; but we must not proclaim
our good works, with design that others may see them, and glorify us;
which our Saviour here chargeth upon the Pharisees in general, as he
had done before in the particular instances of prayer and giving of
alms. All their end was to be praised of men, and therefore all their
endeavour was to be seen of men, to make a fair show in the
flesh. In those duties of religion which fall under the eye of men,
none ere so constant and abundant as they; but in what lies between God
and their souls, in the retirement of their closets, and the recesses
of their hearts, they desire to be excused. The form of
godliness will get them a name to live, which is all they aim at, and
therefore they trouble not themselves with the power of it,
which is essential to a life indeed. He that does all to be seen does
nothing to the purpose.
He specifies two things which they did to be seen of men.
(1.) They made broad their phylacteries. Those were little
scrolls of paper or parchment, wherein were written, with great
niceness, these four paragraphs of the law,
Exod. xiii. 2-11; xiii. 11-16;
Deut. vi. 4-9; xi. 13-21.
These were sewn up in leather, and worn upon their foreheads and left
arms. It was a tradition of the elders, which had reference to
and
where the expressions seem to be figurative, intimating no more than
that we should bear the things of God in our minds as carefully as if
we had them bound between our eyes. Now the Pharisees made broad these
phylacteries, that they might be thought more holy, and strict, and
zealous for the law, than others. It is a gracious ambition to covet to
be really more holy than others, but it is a proud ambition to covet to
appear so. It is good to excel in real piety, but not to exceed in
outward shows; for overdoing is justly suspected of design,
It is the guise of hypocrisy to make more ado than needs in external
service, more than is needful either to prove, or to improve,
the good affections and dispositions of the soul.
(2.) They enlarged the borders of their garments. God appointed
the Jews to make borders or fringes upon their garments
(Num. xv. 38),
to distinguish them from other nations, and to be a memorandum to them
of their being a peculiar people; but the Pharisees were not content to
have these borders like other people’s, which might serve God’s design
in appointing them; but they must be larger than ordinary, to answer
their design of making themselves to be taken notice of; as if they
were more religious than others. But those who thus enlarge their
phylacteries, and the borders of their garments, while their hearts are
straitened, and destitute of the love of God and their neighbour,
though they may now deceive others, will in the end deceive
themselves.
4. They much affected pre-eminence and superiority, and prided
themselves extremely in it. Pride was the darling reigning sin of the
Pharisees, the sin that did most easily beset them and which our
Lord Jesus takes all occasions to witness against.
(1.) He describes their pride,
They courted, and coveted,
[1.] Places of honour and respect. In all public appearances, as at
feasts, and in the synagogues, they expected, and had, to their
hearts’ delight, the uppermost rooms, and the chief seats. They
took place of all others, and precedency was adjudged to them, as
persons of the greatest note and merit; and it is easy to imagine what
a complacency they took in it; they loved to have the
preeminence,
3 John 9.
It is not possessing the uppermost rooms, nor sitting in the chief
seats, that is condemned (somebody must sit uppermost), but
loving them; for men to value such a little piece of ceremony as
sitting highest, going first, taking the wall, or the better hand, and
to value themselves upon it, to seek it, and to feel resentment if they
have it not; what is that but making an idol of ourselves, and then
falling down and worshipping it–the worst kind of idolatry! It is bad
any where, but especially in the synagogues. There to seek
honour to ourselves, where we appear in order to give glory to God, and
to humble ourselves before him, is indeed to mock God instead of
serving him. David would willingly lie at the threshold in God’s house;
so far was he from coveting the chief seat there,
It savours much of pride and hypocrisy, when people do not care for
going to church, unless they can look fine and make a figure there.
[2.] Titles of honour and respect. They loved greetings in the
markets, loved to have people put off their hats to them, and show
them respect when they met them in the streets. O how it pleased them,
and fed their vain humour, digito monstrari et dicier, Hic est–to be
pointed out, and to have it said, This be he, to have way made for
them in the crowd of market people; “Stand off, here is a Pharisee
coming!” and to be complimented with the high and pompous title of
Rabbi, Rabbi! This was meat and drink and dainties to them; and
they took as great a satisfaction in it as Nebuchadnezzar did in his
palace, when he said, Is not this great Babylon that I have
built? The greetings would not have done them half so much
good, if they had not been in the markets, where every body might see
how much they were respected, and how high they stood in the opinion of
the people. It was but a little before Christ’s time, that the Jewish
teachers, the masters of Israel, had assumed the title of Rabbi,
Rab, or Rabban, which signifies great or much; and
was construed as Doctor, or My lord. And they laid such a
stress upon it, that they gave it for a maxim that “he who salutes his
teacher, and does not call him Rabbi, provokes the divine Majesty to
depart from Israel;” so much religion did they place in that which was
but a piece of good manners! For him that is taught in the word to give
respect to him that teaches is commendable enough in him that gives it;
but for him that teaches to love it, and demand it, and affect it, to
be puffed up with it, and to be displeased if it be omitted, is sinful
and abominable; and, instead of teaching, he has need to learn the
first lesson in the school of Christ, which is humility.
(2.) He cautions his disciples against being herein like them; herein
they must not do after their works; “But be not ye called so, for ye
shall not be of such a spirit,”
v. 8,
&c.
Here is,
[1.] A prohibition of pride. They are here forbidden,
First, To challenge titles of honour and dominion to themselves,
It is repeated twice; Be not called Rabbi, neither be ye called
Master or Guide: not that it is unlawful to give civil respect to
those that are over us in the Lord, nay, it is an instance of
the honour and esteem which it is our duty to show them; but,
1. Christ’s ministers must not affect the name of Rabbi or
Master, by way of distinction from other people; it is not
agreeable to the simplicity of the gospel, for them to covet or accept
the honour which they have that are in kings’ palaces.
2. They must not assume the authority and dominion implied in those
names; they must not be magisterial, nor domineer over their brethren,
or over God’s heritage, as if they had dominion over the faith of
Christians: what they received of the Lord, all must receive from them;
but in other things they must not make their opinions and wills a rule
and standard to all other people, to be admitted with an implicit
obedience. The reasons for this prohibition are,
(1.) One is your Master, even Christ,
v. 8, and again, v. 10.
Note,
[1.] Christ is our Master, our Teacher, our Guide. Mr. George Herbert,
when he named the name of Christ, usually added, My
Master.
[2.] Christ only is our Master, ministers are but ushers in the school.
Christ only is the Master, the great Prophet, whom we must hear, and be
ruled and overruled by; whose word must be an oracle and a law to us;
Verily I say unto you, must be enough to us. And if he only be
our Master, then for his ministers to set up for dictators, and to
pretend to a supremacy and an infallibility, is a daring usurpation of
that honour of Christ which he will not give to another.
(2.) All ye are brethren. Ministers are brethren not only to one
another, but to the people; and therefore it ill becomes them to be
masters, when there are none for them to master it over but their
brethren; yea, and we are all younger brethren, otherwise the eldest
might claim an excellency of dignity and power,
Gen. xlix. 3.
But, to preclude that, Christ himself is the first-born among many
brethren,
Rom. viii. 29.
Ye are brethren, as ye are all disciples of the same Master.
School-fellows are brethren, and, as such, should help one another in
getting their lesson; but it will by no means be allowed that one of
the scholars step into the master’s seat, and give law to the school.
If we are all brethren, we must not be many masters.
Jam. iii. 1.
Secondly, They are forbidden to ascribe such titles to others
(v. 9);
“Call no man your father upon the earth; constitute no man the
father of your religion, that is, the founder, author, director, and
governor, of it.” The fathers of our flesh must be called
fathers, and as such we must give them reverence; but God
only must be allowed as the Father of our spirits,
Heb. xii. 9.
Our religion must not be derived from, or made to depend upon, any man.
We are born again to the spiritual and divine life, not of
corruptible seed, but by the word of God; not of the will of the flesh,
or the will of man, but of God. Now the will of man, not being the
rise of our religion, must not be the rule of it. We must not jurare
in verba magistri–swear to the dictates of any creature, not the
wisest or best, nor pin our faith on any man’s sleeve, because we know
not whither he will carry it. St. Paul calls himself a Father to
those whose conversion he had been an instrument of
but he pretends to no dominion over them, and uses that title to
denote, not authority, but affection: therefore he calls them not his
obliged, but his beloved, sons,
The reason given is, One is your Father, who is in heaven. God
is our Father, and is All in all in our religion. He is the Fountain of
it, and its Founder; the Life of it, and its Lord; from whom alone, as
the Original, our spiritual life is derived, and on whom it depends. He
is the Father of all lights
(Jam. i. 17),
that one Father, from whom are all things, and we in him,
Eph. iv. 6.
Christ having taught us to say, Our Father, who art in heaven;
let us call no man Father upon earth; no man, because man is
a worm, and the son of man is a worm, hewn out of the same rock
with us; especially not upon earth, for man upon earth is a sinful
worm; there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and
sinneth not, and therefore no one is fit to be called
Father.
[2.] Here is a precept of humility and mutual subjection
(v. 11);
He that is greatest among you shall be your servant; not only
call himself so (we know of one who styles himself Servus servorum
Dei–Servant of the servants of God, but acts as Rabbi, and father,
and master, and Dominus Deus noster–The Lord our God, and what
not), but he shall be so. Take it as a promise; “He shall be
accounted greatest, and stand highest in the favour of God, that is
most submissive and serviceable;” or as a precept; “He that is advanced
to any place of dignity, trust, and honour, in the church, let him
be your servant” (some copies read esto for
estai), “let him not think that his patent of honour is a
writ of ease; no; he that is greatest is not a lord, but a
minister.” St. Paul, who knew his privilege as well as duty, though
free from all, yet made himself servant unto all
and our Master frequently pressed it upon his disciples to be humble
and self-denying, mild and condescending, and to abound in all offices
of Christian love, though mean, and to the meanest; and of this he hath
set us an example.
[3.] Here is a good reason for all this,
Consider,
First, The punishment intended for the proud; Whosoever shall
exalt himself shall be abased. If God give them repentance, they
will be abased in their own eyes, and will abhor themselves for it; if
they repent not, sooner or later they will be abased before the world.
Nebuchadnezzar, in the height of his pride, was turned to be a
fellow-commoner with the beasts; Herod, to be a feast for the worms;
and Babylon, that sat as a queen, to be the scorn of nations. God made
the proud and aspiring priests contemptible and base
(Mal. ii. 9),
and the lying prophet to be the tail,
Isa. ix. 15.
But if proud men have not marks of humiliation set upon them in this
world, there is a day coming, when they shall rise to everlasting
shame and contempt
(Dan. xii. 2);
so plentifully will he reward the proud doer!
Ps. xxxi. 23.
Secondly, The preferment intended for the humble; He that
shall humble himself shall be exalted. Humility is that ornament
which is in the sight of God of great price. In this world the
humble have the honour of being accepted with the holy God, and
respected by all wise and good men; of being qualified for, and often
called out to, the most honourable services; for honour is like the
shadow, which flees from those that pursue it, and grasp at it, but
follows those that flee from it. However, in the other world, they that
have humbled themselves in contrition for their sin, in compliance with
their God, and in condescension to their brethren, shall be exalted to
inherit the throne of glory; shall be not only owned, but crowned,
before angels and men.
| The Crimes of the Pharisees. |
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13 But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye
shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in
yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in.
14 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye
devour widows’ houses, and for a pretence make long prayer:
therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation.
15 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye
compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made,
ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.
16 Woe unto you, ye blind guides, which say, Whosoever shall
swear by the temple, it is nothing; but whosoever shall swear by
the gold of the temple, he is a debtor!
17 Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gold, or
the temple that sanctifieth the gold?
18 And, Whosoever shall swear by the altar, it is nothing; but
whosoever sweareth by the gift that is upon it, he is guilty.
19 Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gift, or
the altar that sanctifieth the gift?
20 Whoso therefore shall swear by the altar, sweareth by it,
and by all things thereon.
21 And whoso shall swear by the temple, sweareth by it, and by
him that dwelleth therein.
22 And he that shall swear by heaven, sweareth by the throne of
God, and by him that sitteth thereon.
23 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, mercy, and faith: these
ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.
24 Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a
camel.
25 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.
26 Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within
the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also.
27 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are
like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful
outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all
uncleanness.
28 Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but
within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.
29 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye
build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of
the righteous,
30 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.
31 Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the
children of them which killed the prophets.
32 Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers.
33 Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape
the damnation of hell?
In these verses we have eight woes levelled directly against the
scribes and Pharisees by our Lord Jesus Christ, like so many claps of
thunder, or flashes of lightning, from mount Sinai. Three woes
are made to look very dreadful
but here are eight woes, in opposition to the eight beatitudes,
The gospel has its woes as well as the law, and gospel curses are of
all curses the heaviest. These woes are the more remarkable, not only
because of the authority, but because of the meekness and gentleness,
of him that denounced them. He came to bless, and loved to bless; but,
if his wrath be kindled, there is surely cause for it: and who shall
entreat for him that the great Intercessor pleads against? A woe from
Christ is a remediless woe.
This is here the burthen of the song, and it is a heavy burthen; Woe
unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. Note,
1. The scribes and Pharisees were hypocrites; that is it in which all
the rest of their bad characters are summed up; it was the leaven which
gave the relish to all they said and did. A hypocrite is a stage-player
in religion (that is the primary signification of the word); he
personates or acts the part of one that he neither is nor may be, or
perhaps the he neither is nor would be.
2. That hypocrites are in a woeful state and condition. Woe to
hypocrites; so he said whose saying that their case is
miserable makes it so: while they live, their religion is vain; when
they die, their ruin is great.
Now each of these woes against the scribes and Pharisees has a reason
annexed to it containing a separate crime charged upon them, proving
their hypocrisy, and justifying the judgment of Christ upon them; for
his woes, his curses, are never causeless.
I. They were sworn enemies to the gospel of Christ, and consequently to
the salvation of the souls of men
(v. 13);
They shut up the kingdom of heaven against men, that is, they
did all they could to keep people from believing in Christ, and so
entering into his kingdom. Christ came to open the kingdom of
heaven, that is, to lay open for us a new and living way
into it, to bring men to be subjects of that kingdom. Now the scribes
and Pharisees, who sat in Moses’s seat, and pretended to the key of
knowledge, ought to have contributed their assistance herein, by
opening those scriptures of the Old Testament which pointed at the
Messiah and his kingdom, in their true and proper sense; they that
undertook to expound Moses and the prophets should have showed the
people how they testified of Christ; that Daniel’s weeks were expiring,
the sceptre was departed from Judah, and therefore now was the
time for the Messiah’s appearing. Thus they might have facilitated
that great work, and have helped thousands to heaven; but, instead of
this, they shut up the kingdom of heaven; they made it their business
to press the ceremonial law, which was now in the vanishing, to
suppress the prophecies, which were now in the accomplishing, and to
beget and nourish up in the minds of the people prejudices against
Christ and his doctrine.
1. They would not go in themselves; Have any of the rulers, or
of the Pharisees, believed on him?
John vii. 48.
No; they were to proud to stoop to his meanness, too formal to be
reconciled to his plainness; they did not like a religion which
insisted so much on humility, self-denial, contempt of the world, and
spiritual worship. Repentance was the door of admission into this
kingdom, and nothing could be more disagreeable to the Pharisees, who
justified and admired themselves, than to repent, that is, to accuse
and abase and abhor themselves; therefore they went not in
themselves; but that was not all.
2. They would not suffer them that were entering to go in. It is
bad to keep away from Christ ourselves, but it is worse to keep others
from him; yet that is commonly the way of hypocrites; they do not love
that any should go beyond them in religion, or be better than they.
Their not going in themselves was a hindrance to many; for, they having
so great an interest in the people, multitudes rejected the gospel only
because their leaders did; but, besides that, they opposed both
Christ’s entertaining of sinners
(Luke vii. 39),
and sinners’ entertaining of Christ; they perverted his doctrine,
confronted his miracles, quarrelled with his disciples, and represented
him, and his institutes and economy, to the people in the most
disingenuous, disadvantageous manner imaginable; they thundered out
their excommunications against those that confessed him, and used all
their wit and power to serve their malice against him; and thus they
shut up the kingdom of heaven, so that they who would
enter into it must suffer violence
(ch. xi. 12),
and press into it
(Luke xvi. 16),
through a crowd of scribes and Pharisees, and all the obstructions and
difficulties they could contrive to lay in their way. How well is it
for us that our salvation is not entrusted in the hands of any man or
company of men in the world! If it were, we should be undone. They that
shut out of the church would shut out of heaven if they could; but the
malice of men cannot make the promise of God to his chosen of
no effect; blessed be God, it cannot.
II. They made religion and the form of godliness a cloak and
stalking-horse to their covetous practices and desires,
Observe here,
1. What their wicked practices were; they devoured widows’
houses, either by quartering themselves and their attendants upon
them for entertainment, which must be of the best for men of their
figure; or by insinuating themselves into their affections, and so
getting to be the trustees of their estates, which they could make an
easy prey of; for who could presume to call such as they were to an
account? The thing they aimed at was to enrich themselves; and, this
being their chief and highest end, all considerations of justice and
equity were laid aside, and even widows’ houses were sacrificed to
this. Widows are of the weaker sex in its weakest state, easily imposed
upon; and therefore they fastened on them, to make a prey of. They
devoured those whom, by the law of God, they were particularly obliged
to protect, patronise, and relieve. There is a woe in the Old Testament
to those that made widows their prey
(Isa. x. 1, 2);
and Christ here seconded it with his woe. God is the judge of the
widows; they are his peculiar care, he establisheth their border
(Prov. xv. 25),
and espouseth their cause
yet these were they whose houses the Pharisees devoured by wholesale;
so greedy were they to get their bellies filled with the treasures
of wickedness! Their devouring denotes not only covetousness, but
cruelty in their oppression, described
They eat the flesh, and flay off the skin. And doubtless they
did all this under colour of law; for they did it so artfully that it
passed uncensured, and did not at all lessen the people’s veneration
for them.
2. What was the cloak with which they covered this wicked practice;
For a pretence they made long prayers; very long indeed, if it
be true which some of the Jewish writers tell us, that they spent three
hours at a time in the formalities of meditation and prayer, and did it
thrice every day, which is more than an upright soul, that makes a
conscience of being inward with God in the duty, dares pretend
ordinarily to do; but to the Pharisees it was easy enough, who never
made a business of the duty, and always made a trade of the outside of
it. By this craft they got their wealth, and maintained their grandeur.
It is not probable that these long prayers were extemporary, for then
(as Mr. Baxter observes) the Pharisees had much more the gift of prayer
than Christ’s disciples had; but rather that they were stated forms of
words in use among them, which they said over by tale, as the papists
drop their beads. Christ doth not here condemn long prayers, as in
themselves hypocritical; nay if there were not a great appearance of
good in them, they would not have been used for a pretence; and the
cloak must be very thick which was used to cover such wicked practices.
Christ himself continued all night in prayer to God, and we are
commanded to pray without ceasing too soon; where there are many
sins to be confessed, and many wants to pray for the supply of, and
many mercies to give thanks for, there is occasion for long prayers.
But the Pharisees’ long prayers were made up of vain repetitions, and
(which was the end of them) they were for a pretence; by them
they got the reputation of pious devout men, that loved prayer, and
were the favourites of Heaven; and by this means people were made to
believe it was not possible that such men as they should cheat them;,
and, therefore, happy the widow that could get a Pharisee for her
trustee, and guardian to her children! Thus, while they seemed to soar
heaven-ward, upon the wings of prayer, their eye, like the kite’s, was
all the while upon their prey on the earth, some widow’s house or other
that lay convenient for them. Thus circumcision was the cloak of the
Shechemites’ covetousness
the payment of a vow in Hebron the cover of Absalom’s rebellion
(2 Sam. xv. 7),
a fast in Jezreel must patronise Naboth’s murder, and the extirpation
of Baal is the footstool of Jehu’s ambition. Popish priests, under
pretence of long prayers for the dead, masses and dirges, and I know
not what, enrich themselves by devouring the house of the widows and
fatherless. Note, It is no new thing for the show and form of godliness
to be made a cloak to the greatest enormities. But dissembled piety,
however it passeth now, will be reckoned for as double iniquity, in
the day when God shall judge the secrets of men.
3. The doom passed upon them for this; Therefore ye shall receive
the greater damnation. Note,
(1.) There are degrees of damnation; there are some whose sin is more
inexcusable, and whose ruin will therefore be more intolerable.
(2.) The pretences of religion, with which hypocrites disguise or
excuse their sin now, will aggravate their condemnation shortly. Such
is the deceitfulness of sin, that the very thing by which sinners hope
to expiate and atone for their sins will come against them, and make
their sins more exceedingly sinful. But it is sad for the criminal,
when his defence proves his offence, and his pleas (We
have prophesied in thy name, and in thy name made long prayers)
heightens the charge against him.
III. While they were such enemies to the conversion of souls to
Christianity, they were very industrious in the perversion of them to
their faction. They shut up the kingdom of heaven against those that
would turn to Christ, but at the same time compassed sea and land to
make proselytes to themselves,
Observe here,
1. Their commendable industry in making proselytes to the Jewish
religion, not only proselytes of the gate, who obliged
themselves to no more than the observance of the seven precepts of the
sons of Noah, but proselytes of righteousness, who addicted
themselves wholly to all the rites of the Jewish religion, for that was
the game they flew at; for this, for one such, though but one, they
compass sea and land, had many a cunning reach, and laid many a plot,
rode and run, and sent and wrote, and laboured unweariedly. And what
did they aim at? Not the glory of God, and the good of souls; but that
they might have the credit of making them proselytes, and the advantage
of making a prey of them when they were made. Note,
(1.) The making of proselytes, if it be to the truth and serious
godliness, and be done with a good design, is a good work, well worthy
of the utmost care and pains. Such is the value of souls, that nothing
must be thought too much to do, to save a soul from death. The industry
of the Pharisees herein may show the negligence of many who would be
thought to act from better principles, but will be at no pains or cost
to propagate the gospel.
(2.) To make a proselyte, sea and land must be compassed; all ways and
means must be tried; first one way, and then another, must be tried,
all little enough; but all well paid, if the point be gained.
(3.) Carnal hearts seldom shrink from the pains necessary to carry on
their carnal purposes; when a proselyte is to be made to serve a turn
for themselves, they will compass sea and land to make him, rather than
be disappointed.
2. Their cursed impiety in abusing their proselytes when they were
made; “Ye make him the disciple of a Pharisee presently, and he sucks
in all a Pharisee’s notions; and so ye make him twofold more the
child of hell than yourselves.” Note,
(1.) Hypocrites, while they fancy themselves heirs of heaven, are, in
the judgment of Christ, the children of hell. The rise of their
hypocrisy is from hell, for the devil is the father of lies; and the
tendency of their hypocrisy is toward hell, that is the country they
belong to, the inheritance they are heirs to; they are called
children of hell, because of their rooted enmity to the kingdom
of heaven, which was the principle and genius of Pharisaism.
(2.) Though all that maliciously oppose the gospel are children of
hell, yet some are twofold more so than others, more furious and
bigoted and malignant.
(3.) Perverted proselytes are commonly the greatest bigots; the
scholars outdid their masters,
[1.] In fondness of ceremony; the Pharisees themselves saw the folly of
their own impositions, and in their hearts smiled at the obsequiousness
of those that conformed to them; but their proselytes were eager for
them. Note, Weak heads commonly admire those shows and ceremonies which
wise men (however for public ends they countenance them) cannot but
think meanly of.
[2.] In fury against Christianity; the proselytes readily imbibed the
principles which their crafty leaders were not wanting to possess them
with, and so became extremely hot against the truth. The most bitter
enemies the apostles met with in all places were the Hellenist Jews,
who were mostly proselytes,
xiv. 2-19; xvii. 5; xviii. 6.
Paul, a disciple of the Pharisees, was exceedingly mad against the
Christians
when his master, Gamaliel, seems to have been more moderate.
IV. Their seeking their own worldly gain and honour more than God’s
glory put them upon coining false and unwarrantable distinction, with
which they led the people into dangerous mistakes, particularly in the
matter of oaths; which, as an evidence of a universal sense of
religion, have been by all nations accounted sacred
(v. 16);
Ye blind guides. Note,
1. It is sad to think how many are under the guidance of such as are
themselves blind, who undertake to show others that way which they are
themselves willingly ignorant of. His watchmen are blind
(Isa. lvi. 10);
and too often the people love to have it so, and say to the seers,
See not. But the case is bad, when the leaders of the people
cause them to err,
Isa. ix. 16.
2. Though the condition of those whose guides are blind is very sad,
yet that of the blind guides themselves is yet more woeful. Christ
denounces a woe to the blind guides that have the blood of so many
souls to answer for.
Now, to prove their blindness, he specifies the matter of swearing, and
shows what corrupt casuists they were.
(1.) He lays down the doctrine they taught.
[1.] They allowed swearing by creatures, provided they were consecrated
to the service of God, and stood in any special relation to him. They
allowed swearing by the temple and the altar, though they were the work
of men’s hands, intended to be the servants of God’s honour, not
sharers in it. An oath is an appeal to God, to his omniscience and
justice; and to make this appeal to any creature is to put that
creature in the place of God. See
[2.] They distinguished between an oath by the temple and an
oath by the gold of the temple; an oath by the altar and
an oath by the gift upon the altar; making the latter binding,
but not the former. Here was a double wickedness; First, That
there were some oaths which they dispensed with, and made light of, and
reckoned a man was not bound by to assert the truth, or perform a
promise. They ought not to have sworn by the temple or the altar; but,
when they had so sworn, they were taken in the words of their mouth.
That doctrine cannot be of the God of truth which gives countenance to
the breach of faith in any case whatsoever. Oaths are edge-tools and
are not to be jested with. Secondly, That they preferred the
gold before the temple, and the gift before the altar, to encourage
people to bring gifts to the altar, and gold to the treasures of the
temple, which they hoped to be gainers by. Those who had made gold
their hope, and whose eyes were blinded by gifts in secret, were great
friends to the Corban; and, gain being their godliness, by a thousand
artifices they made religion truckle to their worldly interests.
Corrupt church-guides make things to be sin or not sin as it serves
their purposes, and lay a much greater stress on that which concerns
their own gain than on that which is for God’s glory and the good of
souls.
(2.) He shows the folly and absurdity of this distinction
(v. 17-19);
Ye fools, and blind. It was in the way of a necessary reproof,
not an angry reproach, that Christ called them fools. Let it
suffice us from the word of wisdom to show the folly of sinful opinions
and practices: but, for the fastening of the character upon particular
persons, leave that to Christ, who knows what is in man, and has
forbidden us to say, Thou fool.
To convict them of folly, he appeals to themselves, Whether is
greater, the gold (the golden vessels and ornaments, or the gold in
the treasury) or the temple that sanctifies the gold; the gift, or
the altar that sanctifies the gift? Any one will own, Propter
quod aliquid est tale, id est magis tale–That, on account of which any
thing is qualified in a particular way, must itself be much more
qualified in the same way. They that sware by the gold of the
temple had an eye to it as holy; but what was it that made it holy but
the holiness of the temple, to the service of which it was
appropriated? And therefore the temple cannot be less holy than the
gold, but must be more so; for the less is blessed and sanctified of
the better,
The temple and altar were dedicated to God fixedly, the gold and gift
but secondarily. Christ is our altar
our temple
(John ii. 21);
for it is he that sanctifies all our gifts, and puts an acceptableness
in them,
Those that put their own works into the place of Christ’s righteousness
in justification are guilty of the Pharisees’ absurdity, who preferred
the gift before the altar. Every true Christian is a living temple; and
by virtue thereof common things are sanctified to him; unto the pure
all things are pure
(Tit. i. 15),
and the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the believing
wife,
1 Cor. vii. 14.
(3.) He rectifies the mistake
(v. 20-22),
by reducing all the oaths they had invented to the true intent of an
oath, which is, By the name of the Lord: so that though an oath by the
temple, or the altar, or heaven, be formally bad, yet it is binding.
Quod fieri non debuit, factum valet–Engagements which ought not to
have been made, are yet, when made, binding. A man shall never take
advantage of his own fault.
[1.] He that swears by the altar, let him not think to shake off the
obligation of it by saying, “The altar is but wood, and stone, and
brass;” for his oath shall be construed most strongly against himself;
because he was culpable, and so as that the obligation of it may be
preserved, ut res potius valeat quam pereat–the obligation being
hereby strengthened rather than destroyed. And therefore an oath by
the altar shall be interpreted by it and by all things thereon; for the
appurtenances pass with the principal. And, the things thereon being
offered up to God, to swear by it and them was, in effect, to call God
himself to witness: for it was the altar of God; and he that went to
that, went to God,
[2.] He that swears by the temple, if he understand what he does,
cannot but apprehend that the ground of such a respect to it, is, not
because it is a fine house, but because it is the house of God,
dedicated to his service, the place which he has chosen to put his name
there; and therefore he swears by it, and by him that dwells
therein; there he was pleased in a peculiar manner to manifest
himself, and give tokens of his presence; so that whoso swears by it,
swears by him who had said, This is my rest, here will I dwell.
Good Christians are God’s temples, and the Spirit of God dwells in them
and God takes what is done to them as done to himself; he that grieves
a gracious soul, grieves it and the Spirit that dwells in it.
[3.] If a man swears by heaven, he sins
(ch. v. 34);
yet he shall not therefore be discharged from the obligation of his
oath; no, God will make him know that the heaven he swears by, is his
throne
(Isa. lxvi. 1);
and he that swears by the throne, appeals to him that sits upon it;
who, as he resents the affront done to him in the form of the oath, so
he will certainly revenge the greater affront done to him by the
violation of it. Christ will not countenance the evasion of a solemn
oath, though ever so plausible.
V. They were very strict and precise in the smaller matters of the law,
but as careless and loose in the weightier matters,
They were partial in the law
(Mal. ii. 9),
would pick and choose their duty, according as they were interested or
stood affected. Sincere obedience is universal, and he that from a
right principle obeys any of God’s precepts, will have respect to them
all,
But hypocrites, who act in religion for themselves, and not for God,
will do no more in religion than they can serve a turn by for
themselves. The partiality of the scribes and Pharisees appears here,
in two instances.
1. They observed smaller duties, but omitted greater; they were very
exact in paying tithes, till it came to mint, anise, and
cummin, their exactness in tithing of which would not cost them
much, but would be cried up, and they should buy reputation cheap. The
Pharisee boasted of this, I give tithes of all that I possess,
Luke xviii. 12.
But it is probable that they had ends of their own to serve, and would
find their own account in it; for the priests and Levites, to whom the
tithes were paid, were in their interests, and knew how to return their
kindness. Paying tithes was their duty, and what the law required;
Christ tells them they ought not to leave it undone. Note, All ought in
their places to contribute to the support and maintenance of a standing
ministry: withholding tithes is called robbing God,
Mal. ii. 8-10.
They that are taught in the word, and do not communicate to
them that teach them that love a cheap gospel, come short of the
Pharisee.
But that which Christ here condemns them for, is, that they omitted
the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith; and
their niceness in paying tithes, was, if not to atone before God, yet
at least to excuse end palliate to men the omission of those. All the
things of God’s law are weighty, but those are most weighty, which are
most expressive of inward holiness in the heart; the instances of
self-denial, contempt of the world, and resignation to God, in which
lies the life of religion. Judgment and mercy toward men, and faith
toward God, are the weightier matters of the law, the good
things which the Lord our God requires
(Mic. vi. 8);
to do justly, and love mercy, and humble ourselves by faith to walk
with God. This is the obedience which is better than sacrifice or
tithe; judgment is preferred before sacrifice,
To be just to the priests in their tithe, and yet to cheat and defraud
every body else, is but to mock God, and deceive ourselves. Mercy also
is preferred before sacrifice,
To feed those who made themselves fat with the offering of the
Lord, and at the same time to shut up the bowels of compassion from
a brother or a sister that is naked, and destitute of daily food, to
pay tithe-mint to the priest, and to deny a crumb to Lazarus, is to lie
open to that judgment without mercy, which is awarded to those who
pretended to judgment, and showed no mercy; nor will judgment and mercy
serve without faith in divine revelation; for God will be honoured in
his truths as well as in his laws.
2. They avoided lesser sins, but committed greater
(v. 24);
Ye blind guides; so he had called them before
(v. 16),
for their corrupt teaching; here he calls them so for their corrupt
living, for their example was leading as well as their doctrine; and in
this also they were blind and partial; they strained at a gnat, and
swallowed a camel. In their doctrine they strained at gnats, warned
people against every the least violation of the tradition of the
elders. In their practice they strained at gnats, heaved at them, with
a seeming dread, as if they had a great abhorrence of sin, and were
afraid of it in the least instance; but they made no difficulty of
those sins which, in comparison with them, were as a camel to a gnat;
when they devoured widows’ houses, they did indeed swallow a
camel; when they gave Judas the price of innocent blood, and yet
scrupled to put the returned money into the treasury
(ch. xxvii. 6);
when they would not go into the judgment-hall, for fear of being
defiled, and yet would stand at the door, and cry out against the holy
Jesus
when they quarrelled with the disciples for eating with unwashen hands,
and yet, for the filling of the Corban, taught people to break the
fifth commandment, they strained at gnats, or lesser things, and yet
swallowed camels. It is not the scrupling of a little sin that Christ
here reproves; if it be a sin, though but a gnat, it must be strained
at, but the doing of that, and then swallowing a camel. In the smaller
matters of the law to be superstitious, and to be profane in the
greater, is the hypocrisy here condemned.
VI. They were all for the outside, and not at all for the inside, of
religion. They were more desirous and solicitous to appear pious to men
than to approve themselves so toward God. This is illustrated by two
similitudes.
1. They are compared to a vessel that is clean washed on the outside,
but all dirt within,
The Pharisees placed religion in that which at best was but a point of
decency–the washing of cups,
Mark vii. 4.
They were in care to eat their meat in clean cups and platters, but
made no conscience of getting their meat by extortion, and using it to
excess. Now what a foolish thing would it be for a man to wash only the
outside of a cup, which is to be looked at, and to leave the inside
dirty, which is to be used; so they do who only avoid scandalous sins,
that would spoil their reputation with men, but allow themselves in
heart-wickedness, which renders them odious to the pure and holy God.
In reference to his, observe,
(1.) The practice of the Pharisees; they made clean the outside. In
those things which fell under the observation of their neighbours, they
seemed very exact, and carried on their wicked intrigues with so much
artifice, that their wickedness was not suspected; people generally
took them for very good men. But within, in the recesses of their
hearts and the close retirements of their lives, they were full of
extortion and excess; of violence and incontinence (so Dr.
Hammond); that is, of injustice and intemperance. While they would seem
to be godly, they were neither sober nor righteous. Their inward
part was very wickedness
(Ps. v. 9);
and that we are really, which we are inwardly.
(2.) The rule Christ gives, in opposition to this practice,
It is addressed to the blind Pharisees. They thought themselves the
seers of the land, but
Christ calls them blind. Note, those are blind, in Christ’s
account who (how quick-sighted soever they are in other things) are
strangers, and no enemies, to the wickedness of their own hearts; who
see not, and hate not, the secret sin that lodgeth there.
Self-ignorance is the most shameful and hurtful ignorance,
The rule is, Cleanse first that which is within. Note, the
principal care of every one of us should be to wash our hearts from
wickedness,
The main business of a Christian lies within, to get cleansed from the
filthiness of the spirit. Corrupt affections and inclinations,
the secret lusts that lurk in the soul, unseen and unobserved, these
must first be mortified and subdued. Those sins must be conscientiously
abstained from, which the eye of God only is a witness to, who
searcheth the heart.
Observe the method prescribed; Cleanse first that which is
within not that only, but that first; because, if due
care be taken concerning that, the outside will be clean also. External
motives and inducements may keep the outside clean, while the inside is
filthy; but if renewing, sanctifying grace make clean the inside, that
will have an influence upon the outside, for the commanding principle
is within. If the heart be well kept, all is well, for out of it are
the issues of life; the eruptions will vanish of course. If the
heart and spirit be made new, there will be a newness of life; here
therefore we must begin with ourselves; first cleanse that which is
within; we then make sure work, when this is our first work.
2. They are compared to whited sepulchres,
v. 27, 28.
(1.) They were fair without, like sepulchres, which appear beautiful
outward. Some make it to refer to the custom of the Jews to whiten
graves, only for the notifying of them, especially if they were in
unusual places, that people might avoid them, because of the ceremonial
pollution contracted by the touch of a grave,
And it was part of the charge of the overseers of the highways, to
repair that whitening when it was decayed. Sepulchres were thus made
remarkable,
The formality of hypocrites, by which they study to recommend
themselves to the world, doth but make all wise and good men the more
careful to avoid them, for fear of being defiled by them. Beware of
the scribes,
Luke xx. 46.
It rather alludes to the custom of whitening the sepulchres of eminent
persons, for the beautifying of them. It is said here
(v. 29),
that they garnished the sepulchres of the righteous; as it is
usual with us to erect monuments upon the graves of great persons, and
to strew flowers on the graves of dear friends. Now the righteousness
of the scribes and Pharisees was like the ornaments of a grave, or the
dressing up of a dead body, only for show. The top of their ambition
was to appear righteous before men, and to be applauded and had
in admiration by them. But,
(2.) They were foul within, like sepulchres, full of dead
men’s bones, and all uncleanness: so vile are our bodies, when the
soul has deserted them! Thus were they full of hypocrisy and iniquity.
Hypocrisy is the worst iniquity of all other. Note, It is possible for
those that have their hearts full of sin, to have their lives free from
blame, and to appear very good. But what will it avail us, to have the
good word of our fellow-servants, if our Master doth not say, Well
done? When all other graves are opened, these whited sepulchres
will be looked into, and the dead men’s bones, and all the uncleanness,
shall be brought out, and be spread before all the host of
heaven,
Jer. viii. 1, 2.
For it is the day when God shall judge, not the shows, but the secrets,
of men. And it will then be small comfort to them who shall have their
portion with hypocrites, to remember how creditably and plausibly they
went to hell, applauded by all their neighbours.
VII. They pretended a deal of kindness for the memory of the prophets
that were dead and gone, while they hated and persecuted those that
were present with them. This is put last, because it was the blackest
part of their character. God is jealous for his honour in his laws and
ordinances, and resents it if they be profaned and abused; but he has
often expressed an equal jealousy for his honour in his prophets and
ministers, and resents it worse if they be wronged and persecuted: and
therefore, when our Lord Jesus comes to this head, he speaks more fully
than upon any of the other
(v. 29-37);
for that toucheth his ministers, toucheth his Anointed, and
toucheth the apple of his eye. Observe here,
1. The respect which the scribes and Pharisees pretend for the prophets
that were gone,
This was the varnish, and that in which they outwardly appeared
righteous.
(1.) They honoured the relics of the prophets, they built their tombs,
and garnished their sepulchres. It seems, the places of their burial
were known, David’s sepulchre was with them,
There was a title upon the sepulchre of the man of God
and Josiah thought it respect enough not to move his bones,
v. 18.
But they would do more, rebuild and beautify them. Now consider this,
[1.] As an instance of honour done to deceased prophets, who, while
they lived, were counted as the off-scouring of all things, and had all
manner of evil spoken against them falsely. Note, God can extort, even
from bad men, an acknowledgment of the honour of piety and holiness.
Them that honour God he will honour, and sometimes with those from whom
contempt is expected,
The memory of the just is blessed, when the names of those that
hated and persecuted them shall be covered with shame. The honour of
constancy and resolution in the way of duty will be a lasting honour;
and those that are manifest to God, will be manifest in the consciences
of those about them.
[2.] As an instance of the hypocrisy of the scribes and Pharisees, who
paid their respect to them. Note, Carnal people can easily honour the
memories of faithful ministers that are dead and gone, because they do
not reprove them, nor disturb them, in their sins. Dead prophets are
seers that see not, and those they can bear well enough; they do
not torment them, as the living witnesses do, that bear their testimony
viva voce–with a living voice,
Rev. xi. 10.
They can pay respect to the writings of the dead prophets, which tell
them what they should be; but not the reproofs of the living
prophets, which tell them what they are. Sit divus, modo non
sit vivus–Let there be saints; but let them not be living here.
The extravagant respect which the church of Rome pays to the memory of
saints departed, especially the martyrs, dedicating days and places to
their names, enshrining their relics, praying to them, and offering to
their images, while they make themselves drunk with the blood of the
saints of their own day, is a manifest proof that they not only
succeed, but exceed, the scribes and Pharisees in a
counterfeit hypocritical religion, which builds the prophets’ tombs,
but hates the prophets’ doctrine.
(2.) They protested against the murder of them
(v. 30);
If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been
partakers with them. They would never have consented to the
silencing of Amos, and the imprisonment of Micaiah, to the putting of
Hanani in the stocks, and Jeremiah in the dungeon, to the stoning of
Zechariah, the mocking of all the messengers of the Lord, and the
abuses put upon his prophets; no, not they, they would sooner have lost
their right hands than have done any such thing. What, is thy
servant a dog? And yet they were at this time plotting to murder
Christ, to whom all the prophets bore witness. They think, if
they had lived in the days of the prophets, they would have heard them
gladly and obeyed; and yet they rebelled against the light that Christ
brought into the world. But it is certain, a Herod and an Herodias to
John the Baptist, would have been an Ahab and a Jezebel to Elijah.
Note, The deceitfulness of sinners’ hearts appears very much in this,
that, while they go down the stream of the sins of their own day, they
fancy they should have swum against the stream of the sins of the
former days; that, if they had had other people’s opportunities, they
should have improved them more faithfully; if they had been in other
people’s temptations, they should have resisted them more vigorously;
when yet they improve not the opportunities they have, nor resist the
temptations they are in. We are sometimes thinking, if we had lived
when Christ was upon earth, how constantly we would have followed him;
we would not have despised and rejected him, as they then did; and yet
Christ in his Spirit, in his word, in his ministers, is still no better
treated.
2. Their enmity and opposition to Christ and his gospel,
notwithstanding, and the ruin they were bringing upon themselves and
upon that generation thereby,
Observe here,
(1.) The indictment proved; Ye are witnesses against yourselves.
Note, Sinners cannot hope to escape the judgment of Christ for want of
proof against them, when it is easy to find them witnesses against
themselves; and their very pleas will not only be overruled, but turned
to their conviction, and their own tongues shall be made to
fall upon them,
Ps. lxiv. 8.
[1.] By their own confession, it was the great wickedness of their
forefathers, to kill the prophets; so that they knew the fault of it,
and yet were themselves guilty of the same fact. Note, They who condemn
sin in others, and yet allow the same or worse in themselves, are of
all others most inexcusable,
They knew they ought not to have been partakers with persecutors, and
yet were the followers of them. Such self-contradictions now will
amount to self-condemnations in the great day. Christ puts another
construction upon their building of the tombs of the prophets than what
they intended; as if by beautifying their graves they justified their
murderers
(Luke xi. 48),
for they persisted in the sin.
[2.] By their own confession, these notorious persecutors were their
ancestors; Ye are the children of them. They meant no more than
that they were their children by blood and nature; but Christ turns it
upon them;, that they were so by spirit and disposition; You are of
those fathers, and their lusts you will do. They are, as you say,
your fathers, and you patrizare–take after your fathers;
it is the sin that runs in the blood among you. As your fathers did,
so do ye,
Acts vii. 51.
They came of a persecuting race, were a seed of evil doers
(Isa. i. 4),
risen up in their fathers’ stead,
Num. xxxii. 14.
Malice, envy, and cruelty, were bred in the bone with them, and they
had formerly espoused it for a principle, to do as their fathers
did,
Jer. xliv. 17.
And it is observable here
(v. 30)
how careful they are to mention the relation; “They were our
fathers, that killed the prophets, and they were men in honour and
power, whose sons and successors we are.” If they had detested the
wickedness of their ancestors, as they ought to have done, they would
not have been so fond to call them their fathers; for it is no
credit to be akin to persecutors, though they have ever so much dignity
and dominion.
(2.) The sentence passed upon them. Christ here proceeds,
[1.] To give them up to sin as irreclaimable
(v. 32);
Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers. If Ephraim be
joined to idols, and hate to be reformed, let him alone. He that is
filthy, let him be filthy still. Christ knew they were now
contriving his death, and in a few days would accomplish it; “Well,”
saith he, “go on with your plot, take your curse, walk in the way of
your heart and in the sight of your eyes, and see what will come of it.
What thou doest, do quickly. You will but fill up the measure of
guilt, which will then overflow in a deluge of wrath.” Note,
First, There is a measure of sin to be filled up, before utter
ruin comes upon persons and families, churches and nations. God will
bear long, but the time will come when he can no longer forbear,
Jer. xliv. 22.
We read of the measure of the Amorites that was to be filled
(Gen. xv. 16),
of the harvest of the earth being ripe for the sickle
and of sinners making an end to deal treacherously, arriving at
a full stature in treachery,
Secondly, Children fill up the measure of their fathers’ sins
whey they are gone, if they persist in the same or the like. That
national guilt which brings national ruin is made up of the sin of many
in several ages, and in the successions of societies there is a score
going on; for God justly visits the iniquity of the fathers upon the
children that tread in the steps of it. Thirdly, Persecuting
Christ, and his people and ministers, is a sin that fills the measure
of a nation’s guilt sooner than any other. This was it that brought
wrath without remedy upon the fathers
and wrath to the utmost upon the children too,
This was that fourth transgression, of which, when added to the other
three, the Lord would not turn away the punishment,
Amos i. 3, 6, 9, 11, 13.
Fourthly, It is just with God to give those up to their own
heart’s lusts, who obstinately persist in the gratification of them.
Those who will run headlong to ruin, let the reins be laid on their
neck, and it is the saddest condition a man can be in on this side
hell.
[2.] He proceeds to give them up to ruin as irrecoverable, to a
personal ruin in the other world
(v. 33);
Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the
damnation of hell? These are strange words to come from the mouth
of Christ, into whose lips grace was poured. But he can and will speak
terror, and in these words he explains and sums up the eight
woes he had denounced against the scribes and Pharisees.
Here is, First, Their description; Ye serpents. Doth
Christ call names? Yes, but this doth not warrant us to do so. He
infallibly knew what was in man, and knew them to be subtle as
serpents, cleaving to the earth, feeding on dust; they had a specious
outside, but were within malignant, had poison under their tongues, the
seed of the old serpent. They were a generation of vipers; they
and those that went before them, they and those that joined with them,
were a generation of envenomed, enraged, spiteful adversaries to Christ
and his gospel. They loved to be called of men, Rabbi, rabbi,
but Christ calls them serpents and vipers; for he gives
men their true characters, and delights to put contempt upon the
proud.
Secondly, Their doom. He represents their condition as very sad,
and in a manner desperate; How can ye escape the damnation of
hell? Christ himself preached hell and damnation, for which his
ministers have often been reproached by those that care not to hear of
it. Note,
1. The damnation of hell will be the fearful end of all impenitent
sinners. This doom coming from Christ, was more terrible than coming
from all the prophets and ministers that ever were, for he is the
Judge, into whose hands the keys of hell and death are put, and his
saying they were damned, made them so.
2. There is a way of escaping this damnation, this is implied here;
some are delivered from the wrath to come.
3. Of all sinners, those who are of the spirit of the scribes and
Pharisees, are least likely to escape this damnation; for repentance
and faith are necessary to that escape; and how will they be
brought to these, who are so conceited of themselves, and so prejudiced
against Christ and his gospel, as they were? How could they be healed
and saved, who could not bear to have their wound searched, nor the
balm of Gilead applied to it? Publicans and harlots, who were sensible
of their disease and applied themselves to the Physician, were more
likely to escape the damnation of hell than those who, though they were
in the high road to it, were confident they were in the way to
heaven.
| The Doom of the Pharisees; The Guilt and Doom of Jerusalem. |
|
|
34 Wherefore, 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:
35 That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the
earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of
Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and
the altar.
36 Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this
generation.
37 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets,
and stonest them which 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!
38 Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.
39 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.
We have left the blind leaders fallen into the ditch, under Christ’s
sentence, into the damnation of hell; let us see what will become of
the blind followers, of the body of the Jewish church, and particularly
Jerusalem.
I. Jesus Christ designs yet to try them with the means of grace; I
send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes. The connection
is strange; “You are a generation of vipers, not likely to
escape the damnation of hell;” one would think it should follow,
“Therefore you shall never have a prophet sent to you any more;” but
no, “Therefore I will send unto you prophets, to see if you will
yet at length be wrought upon, or else to leave you inexcusable, and to
justify God in your ruin.” It is therefore ushered in with a note of
admiration, behold! Observe,
1. It is Christ that sends them; I send. By this he avows
himself to be God, having power to gift and commission prophets. It is
an act of kingly office; he sends them as ambassadors to treat with us
about the concerns of our souls. After his resurrection, he made this
word good, when he said, So send I you,
John xx. 21.
Though now he appeared mean, yet he was entrusted with this great
authority.
2. He sends them to the Jews first; “I send them to you.” They
began at Jerusalem; and, wherever they went, they observed this rule,
to make the first tender of gospel grace to the Jews,
Acts xiii. 46.
3. Those he sends are called prophets, wise men, and
scribes, Old-Testament names for New-Testament officers; to show
that the ministers sent to them now should not be inferior to the
prophets of the Old Testament, to Solomon the wise, or Ezra the scribe.
The extraordinary ministers, who in the first ages were divinely
inspired, were as the prophets commissioned immediately from heaven;
the ordinary settled ministers, who were then, and continue in the
church still, and will do to the end of time, are as the wise men and
scribes, to guide and instruct the people in the things of God. Or, we
may take the apostles and evangelists for the prophets and wise men,
and the pastors and teachers for the scribes, instructed to the
kingdom of heaven
(ch. xiii. 52);
for the office of a scribe was honourable till the men dishonoured
it.
II. He foresees and foretels the ill usage that his messengers would
meet with among them; “Some of them ye shall kill and crucify,
and yet I will send them.” Christ knows beforehand how ill his servants
will be treated, and yet sends them, and appoints them their measure of
sufferings; yet he loves them never the less for his thus exposing
them, for he designs to glorify himself by their sufferings, and them
after them; he will counter-balance them, though not prevent them.
Observe,
1. The cruelty of these persecutors; Ye shall kill and crucify
them. It is no less than the blood, the life-blood, that they
thirst after; their lust is not satisfied with any thing short of their
destruction,
They killed the two James’s, crucified Simon the son of Cleophas, and
scourged Peter and John; thus did the members partake of the sufferings
of the Head, he was killed and crucified, and so were they. Christians
must expect to resist unto blood.
2. Their unwearied industry; Ye shall persecute them from city to
city. As the apostles went from city to city, to preach the gospel,
the Jews dodged them, and haunted them, and stirred up persecution
against them,
They that did not believe in Judea were more bitter enemies to
the gospel than any other unbelievers,
3. The pretence of religion in this; they scourged them in their
synagogues, their place of worship, where they kept their
ecclesiastical courts; so that they did it as a piece of service to the
church; cast them out, and said, Let the Lord be glorified,
Isa. lxvi. 5; John xvi. 2.
III. He imputes the sin of their fathers to them, because they imitated
it; That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the
earth,
v. 35, 36.
Though God bear long with a persecuting generation, he will not bear
always; and patience abused, turns into the greatest wrath. The longer
sinners have been heaping up treasures of wickedness, the deeper and
fuller will the treasures of wrath be; and the breaking of them up will
be like breaking up the fountains of the great deep.
Observe,
1. The extent of this imputation; it takes in all the righteous
blood shed upon the earth, that is, the blood shed for
righteousness’ sake, which has all been laid up in God’s treasury, and
not a drop of it lost, for it is precious.
Ps. lxxii. 14.
He dates the account from the blood of righteous Abel, thence
this æra martyrum–age of martyrs–commences; he is
called righteous Abel, for he obtained witness from heaven, that
he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts. How early did
martyrdom come into the world! The first that died, died for his
religion, and, being dead, he yet speaketh. His blood not only
cried against Cain, but continues to cry against all that walk in the
way of Cain, and hate and persecute their brother, because their
works are righteous. He extends it to the blood of Zacharias,
the son of Barachias
(v. 36),
not Zecharias the prophet (as some would have it), though he was the
son of Barachias
nor Zecharias the father of John Baptist, as others say; but, as is
most probable, Zechariah the son of Jehoiada, who was slain
in the court of the Lord’s house,
2 Chron. xxiv. 20, 21.
His father is called Barachias, which signifies much the same
with Jehoiada; and it was usual among the Jews for the same person to
have two names; whom ye slew, ye of this nation, though not of
this generation. This is specified, because the requiring of that is
particularly spoken of
as that of Abel’s is. The Jews imagined that the captivity had
sufficiently atoned for the guilt; but Christ lets them know that it
was not yet fully accounted for, but remained upon the score. And some
think that this is mentioned with a prophetical hint, for there was one
Zecharias, the son of Baruch, whom Josephus speaks of (War
4. 335), who was a just and good man, who was killed in the temple a
little before it was destroyed by the Romans. Archbishop Tillotson
thinks that Christ both alludes to the history of the former Zecharias
in Chronicles, and foretels the death of this latter in
Josephus. Though the latter was not yet slain, yet, before this
destruction comes, it would be true that they had slain him; so that
all shall be put together from first to last.
2. The effect of it; All these things shall come; all the guilt
of this blood, all the punishment of it, it shall all come upon this
generation. The misery and ruin that are coming upon them, shall be
so very great, that, though, considering the evil of their own sins, it
was less that even those deserved; yet, comparing it with other
judgments, it will seem to be a general reckoning for all the
wickedness of their ancestors, especially their persecutions, to all
which God declared this ruin to have special reference and relation.
The destruction shall be so dreadful, as if God had once for all
arraigned them for all the righteous blood shed in the world. It shall
come upon this generation; which intimates, that it shall come
quickly; some here shall live to see it. Note, The sorer and nearer the
punishment of sin is, the louder is the call to repentance and
reformation.
IV. He laments the wickedness of Jerusalem, and justly upbraids them
with the many kind offers he had made them,
See with what concern he speaks of that city; O Jerusalem,
Jerusalem! The repetition is emphatical, and bespeaks abundance of
commiseration. A day or two before Christ had wept over Jerusalem, now
he sighed and groaned over it. Jerusalem, the vision of peace
(so it signifies), must now be the seat of war and confusion.
Jerusalem, that had been the joy of the whole earth, must now be
a hissing, and an astonishment, and a by-word; Jerusalem, that
has been a city compact together, shall now be shattered and
ruined by its own intestine broils. Jerusalem, the place that God
has chosen to put his name there, shall now be abandoned to the
spoil and the robbers,
But wherefore will the Lord do all this to Jerusalem? Why? Jerusalem
hath grievously sinned,
Lam. i. 8.
1. She persecuted God’s messengers; Thou that killest the prophets,
and stonest them that are sent unto thee. This sin is especially
charged upon Jerusalem; because there the Sanhedrim, or great council,
sat, who took cognizance of church matters, and therefore a prophet
could not perish but in Jerusalem,
It is true, they had not now a power to put any man to death, but they
killed the prophets in popular tumults, mobbed them, as Stephen, and
put the Roman powers on to kill them. At Jerusalem, where the gospel
was first preached, it was first persecuted
(Acts viii. 1),
and that place was the head-quarters of the persecutors; thence
warrants were issued out to other cities, and thither the saints were
brought bound,
Thou stonest them: that was a capital punishment, in use only
among the Jews. By the law, false prophets and seducers were to be
stoned
under colour of which law, they put the true prophets to death. Note,
It has often been the artifice of Satan, to turn that artillery against
the church, which was originally planted in the defence of it. Brand
the true prophets as seducers, and the true professors of religion as
heretics and schismatics, and then it will be easy to persecute them.
There was abundance of other wickedness in Jerusalem; but this was the
sin that made the loudest cry, and which God had an eye to more than
any other, in bringing that ruin upon them, as
2 Kings xxiv. 4; 2 Chron. xxxvi. 16.
Observe, Christ speaks in the present tense; Thou killest, and
stonest; for all they had done, and all they would do, was present
to Christ’s notice.
2. She refused and rejected Christ, and gospel offers. The former was a
sin without remedy, this against the remedy. Here is,
(1.) The wonderful grace and favour of Jesus Christ toward them; How
often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen gathers her
chickens under her wings! Thus kind and condescending are the
offers of gospel grace, even to Jerusalem’s children, bad as she is,
the inhabitants, the little ones not excepted.
[1.] The favour proposed was the gathering of them. Christ’s design is
to gather poor souls, gather them in from their wanderings, gather them
home to himself, as the Centre of unity; for to him must the
gathering of the people be. He would have taken the whole body of
the Jewish nation into the church, and so gathered them all (as the
Jews used to speak of proselytes) under the wings of the Divine
Majesty. It is here illustrated by a humble similitude; as a
hen clucks her chickens together. Christ would have gathered
them, First, With such a tenderness of affection as the hen
does, which has, by instinct, a peculiar concern for her young ones.
Christ’s gathering of souls, comes from his love,
Secondly, For the same end. The hen gathered her chickens
under her wings, for protection and safety, and for warmth and
comfort; poor souls have in Christ both refuge and refreshment. The
chickens naturally run to the hen for shelter, when they are threatened
by the birds of prey; perhaps Christ refers to that promise
(Ps. xci. 4),
He shall cover thee with his feathers. There is healing under
Christ’s wings
(Mal. iv. 2);
that is more than the hen has for her chickens.
[2.] The forwardness of Christ to confer this favour. His offers are,
First, Very free; I would have done it. Jesus Christ is
truly willing to receive and save poor souls that come to him. He
desires not their ruin, he delights in their repentance.
Secondly, Very frequent; How often! Christ often came up
to Jerusalem, preached, and wrought miracles there; and the meaning of
all this, was, he would have gathered them. He keeps account how often
his calls have been repeated. As often as we have heard the sound of
the gospel, as often as we have felt the strivings of the Spirit, so
often Christ would have gathered us.
[3.] Their wilful refusal of this grace and favour; Ye would
not. How emphatically is their obstinacy opposed to Christ’s mercy!
I would, and ye would not. He was willing to save them, but they
were not willing to be saved by him. Note, It is wholly owing to the
wicked wills of sinners, that they are not gathered under the wings of
the Lord Jesus. They did not like the terms upon which Christ proposed
to gather them; they loved their sins, and yet trusted to their
righteousness; they would not submit either to the grace of Christ or
to his government, and so the bargain broke off.
V. He reads Jerusalem’s doom
(v. 38, 39);
Therefore behold your house is left unto you desolate. Both the
city and the temple, God’s house and their own, all shall be laid
waste. But it is especially meant of the temple, which they boasted of,
and trusted to; that holy mountain because of which they were so
haughty. Note, they that will not be gathered by the love and grace of
Christ shall be consumed and scattered by his wrath; I would, and
you would not. Israel would none of me, so I gave them up,
Ps. lxxxi. 11, 12.
1. Their house shall be deserted; It is left unto you. Christ
was now departing from the temple, and never came into it again, but by
this word abandoned it to ruin. They doated on it, would have it to
themselves; Christ must have no room or interest there. “Well,” saith
Christ, “it is left to you; take it, and make your best of it; I will
never have any thing more to do with it.” They had made it a house
of merchandise, and a den of thieves, and so it is left to them.
Not long after this, the voice was heard in the temple, “Let us depart
hence.” When Christ went, Ichabod, the glory departed. Their
city also was left to them, destitute of God’s presence and grace; he
was no longer a wall of fire about them, nor the glory in the
midst of them.
2. It shall be desolate; It is left unto you desolate; it is
left eremos—a wilderness.
(1.) It was immediately, when Christ left it, in the eyes of all that
understood themselves, a very dismal melancholy place. Christ’s
departure makes the best furnished, best replenished place a
wilderness, though it be the temple, the chief place of concourse; for
what comfort can there be where Christ is not? Though there may be a
crowd of other contentments, yet, if Christ’s special spiritual
presence be withdrawn, that soul, that place, is become a
wilderness, a land of darkness, as darkness itself. This comes of
men’s rejecting Christ, and driving him away from them.
(2.) It was, not long after, destroyed and ruined, and not one stone
left upon another. The lot of Jerusalem’s enemies will now become
Jerusalem’s lot, to be made of a city a heap, of a defenced city a
ruin
(Isa. xxv. 2),
a lofty city laid low, even to the ground,
Isa. xxvi. 5.
The temple, that holy and beautiful house, became desolate. When God
goes out, all enemies break in.
Lastly, Here is the final farewell that Christ took of them and
their temple; Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say,
Blessed is he that cometh. This bespeaks,
1. His departure from them. The time was at hand, when he should
leave the world, to go to his Father, and be seen no more. After
his resurrection, he was seen only by a few chosen witnesses, and
they saw him not long, but he soon removed to the invisible world, and
there will be till the time of the restitution of all things,
when his welcome at his first coming will be repeated with loud
acclamations; Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.
Christ will not be seen again till he come in the clouds, and every
eye shall see him
(Rev. i. 7);
and then, even they, who, when time was, rejected and pierced him, will
be glad to come in among his adorers; then every knee shall bow to him,
even those that had bowed to Baal; and even the workers of iniquity
will then cry, Lord, Lord, and will own, when his wrath is
kindled, that blessed are all they that put their trust in him.
Would we have our lot in that day with those that say, Blessed is he
that cometh? let us be with them now, with them that truly worship,
and truly welcome, Jesus Christ.
2. Their continued blindness and obstinacy; Ye shall not see me,
that is, not see me to be the Messiah (for otherwise they did see him
upon the cross), not see the light of the truth concerning me, nor
the things that belong to your peace, till ye shall say, Blessed is
he that cometh. They will never be convinced, till Christ’s second
coming convince them, when it will be too late to make an interest in
him, and nothing will remain but a fearful looking for of
judgment. Note,
(1.) Wilful blindness is often punished with judicial blindness. If
they will not see, they shall not see. With this word he
concludes his public preaching. After his resurrection, which
was the sign of the prophet Jonas, they should have no other
sign given them, till they should see the sign of the Son of
man,
ch. xxiv. 30.
(2.) When the Lord comes with ten thousand of his saints, he
will convince all, and will force acknowledgments from the proudest of
his enemies, of his being the Messiah, and even they shall be found
liars to him. They that would not now come at his call, shall then
be forced to depart with his curse. The chief priests and scribes were
displeased with the children for crying hosanna to Christ; but
the day is coming, when proud persecutors would gladly be found in the
condition of the meanest and poorest they now trample upon. They who
now reproach and ridicule the hosannas of the saints will be of another
mind shortly; it were therefore better to be of that mind now. Some
make this to refer to the conversion of the Jews to the faith of
Christ; then they shall see him, and own him, and say, Blessed is he
that cometh; but it seems rather to look further, for the complete
manifestation of Christ, and conviction of sinners, are reserved to be
the glory of the last day.
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