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Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
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Matthew Henry |
L U K E.
CHAP. XI.
In this chapter,
I. Christ teaches his disciples to pray, and quickens and encourages
them to be frequent, instant, and importunate in prayer,
II. He fully answers the blasphemous imputation of the Pharisees, who
charged him with casting out devils by virtue of a compact and
confederacy with Beelzebub, the prince of the devils, and shows the
absurdity and wickedness of it,
III. He shows the honour of obedient disciples to be greater than that
of his own mother,
IV. He upbraids the men of that generation for their infidelity and
obstinacy, notwithstanding all the means of conviction offered to them,
V. He severely reproves the Pharisees and consciences of those that
submitted to them, and their hating and persecuting those that
witnessed against their wickedness,
| The Disciples Taught to Pray. |
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1 And it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a certain
place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord,
teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.
2 And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father which
art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will
be done, as in heaven, so in earth.
3 Give us day by day our daily bread.
4 And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that
is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver
us from evil.
5 And he said unto them, Which of you shall have a friend, and
shall go unto him at midnight, and say unto him, Friend, lend me
three loaves;
6 For a friend of mine in his journey is come to me, and I have
nothing to set before him?
7 And he from within shall answer and say, Trouble me not: the
door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot
rise and give thee.
8 I say unto you, Though he will not rise and give him, because
he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and
give him as many as he needeth.
9 And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and
ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.
10 For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh
findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.
11 If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father,
will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a
fish give him a serpent?
12 Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion?
13 If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto
your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give
the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?
Prayer is one of the great laws of natural religion. That man is a
brute, is a monster, that never prays, that never gives glory to his
Maker, nor feels his favour, nor owns his dependence upon him. One
great design therefore of Christianity is to assist us in
prayer, to enforce the duty upon us, to instruct us in it, and
encourage us to expect advantage by it. Now here,
I. We find Christ himself praying in a certain place, probably
where he used to pray,
v. 1.
As God, he was prayed to; as man, he prayed; and, though
he was a Son, yet learned he this obedience. This evangelist has taken
particular notice of Christ’s praying often, more than any other
of the evangelists: when he was baptized
(ch. iii. 21),
he was praying; he withdrew into the wilderness, and
prayed
(ch. v. 16);
he went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in
prayer
(ch. vi. 12);
he was alone praying
(ch. ix. 18);
soon after, he went up into a mountain to pray, and as he
prayed he was transfigured
and here he was praying in a certain place. Thus, like a genuine
son of David, he gave himself unto prayer,
Ps. cix. 4.
Whether Christ was now alone praying, and the disciples only
knew that he was so, or whether he prayed with them, is uncertain; it
is most probable that they were joining with him.
II. His disciples applied themselves to him for direction in prayer.
When he was praying, they asked, Lord, teach us to pray. Note,
The gifts and graces of others should excite us to covet earnestly the
same. Their zeal should provoke us to a holy imitation and emulation;
why should not we do as well as they? Observe, They came to him with
this request, when he ceased; for they would not disturb him
when he was at prayer, no, not with this good motion. Every thing is
beautiful in its season. One of his disciples, in the name of
the rest, and perhaps by their appointment, said, Lord, teach
us. Note, Though Christ is apt to teach, yet he will for
this be enquired of, and his disciples must attend him for
instruction.
Now,
1. Their request is, “Lord, teach us to pray; give us a rule or
model by which to go in praying, and put words into our mouths.” Note,
It becomes the disciples of Christ to apply themselves to him for
instruction in prayer. Lord, teach us to pray, is itself a good
prayer, and a very needful one, for it is a hard thing to pray
well and it is Jesus Christ only that can teach us, by his
word and Spirit, how to pray. “Lord, teach me what it is to
pray; Lord, excite and quicken me to the duty; Lord, direct me what to
pray for; Lord, give me praying graces, that I may serve God acceptably
in prayer; Lord, teach me to pray in proper words; give me a mouth and
wisdom in prayer, that I may speak as I ought; teach me what I shall
say.“
2. Their plea is, “As John also taught his disciples. He took
care to instruct his disciples in this necessary duty, and we would be
taught as they were, for we have a better Master than they had.” Dr.
Lightfoot’s notion of this is, That whereas the Jews’ prayers were
generally adorations, and praises of God, and doxologies, John taught
his disciples such prayers as were more filled up with petitions and
requests; for it is said of them that they did deeseis
poiountai—make prayers,
ch. v. 33.
The word signifies such prayers as are properly petitionary. “Now,
Lord, teach us this, to be added to those benedictions of the name of
God which we have been accustomed to from our childhood.” According to
this sense, Christ did there teach them a prayer consisting wholly of
petitions, and even omitting the doxology which had been affixed; and
the Amen, which was usually said in the giving of thanks
and in the Psalms, is added to doxologies only. This disciple needed
not to have urged John Baptist’s example: Christ was more ready to
teach than ever John Baptist was, and particularly taught to pray
better than John did, or could, teach his disciples.
III. Christ gave them direction, much the same as he had given them
before in his sermon upon the mount,
&c. We cannot think that they had forgotten it, but they ought to have
had further and fuller instructions, and he did not, as yet, think fit
to give them any; when the Spirit should be poured out upon them from
on high, they would find all their requests couched in these few words,
and would be able, in words of their own, to expatiate and enlarge upon
them. In Matthew he had directed them to pray after this manner;
here, When ye pray, say; which intimates that the Lord’s prayer
was intended to be used both as a form of prayer and a directory.
1. There are some differences between the Lord’s prayer in Matthew and
Luke, by which it appears that it was not the design of Christ that we
should be tied up to these very words, for then there would have
been no variation. Here is one difference in the translation only,
which ought not to have been, when there is none in the original, and
that is in the third petition: As in heaven, so in earth;
whereas the words are the very same, and in the same order, as in
Matthew. But there is a difference in the fourth petition. In Matthew
we pray, “Give us daily bread this day:” here, “Give it us
day by day“–kath hemeran. Day by day; that
is, “Give us each day the bread which our bodies require, as
they call for it:” not, “Give us this day bread for many days to
come;” but as the Israelites had manna, “Let us have bread
to-day for to-day, and to-morrow for
to-morrow;” for thus we may be kept in a continual
dependence upon God, as children upon their parents, and may have
our mercies fresh from his hand daily, and may find ourselves under
fresh obligations to do the work of every day in the day,
according as the duty of the day requires, because we have from
God the supplies of every day in the day, according as the necessity
of the day requires. Here is likewise some difference in the fifth
petition. In Matthew it is, Forgive us our debts, as we forgive:
here it is, Forgive us our sins; which proves that our sins are
our debts. For we forgive; not that our forgiving those that
have offended us can merit pardon from God, or be an inducement
to him to forgive us (he forgives for his own name’s sake, and his
Son’s sake); but this is a very necessary qualification for
forgiveness, and, if God have wrought it in us, we may plead that work
of his grace for the enforcing of our petitions for the pardon of our
sins: “Lord, forgive us, for thou hast thyself inclined us to forgive
others.” There is another addition here; we plead not only in general,
We forgive our debtors, but in particular, “We profess to
forgive every one that is indebted to us, without exception. We so
forgive our debtors as not to bear malice or ill-will to any,
but true love to all, without any exception whatsoever.” Here also the
doxology in the close is wholly omitted, and the Amen; for
Christ would leave them at liberty to use that or any other doxology
fetched out of David’s psalms; or, rather, he left a vacuum here, to be
filled up by a doxology more peculiar to the Christian institutes,
ascribing glory to Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
2. Yet it is, for substance, the same; and we shall therefore here only
gather up some general lessons from it.
(1.) That in prayer we ought to come to God as children to a
Father, a common Father to us and all mankind, but in a
peculiar manner a Father to all the disciples of Jesus Christ. Let us
therefore in our requests both for others and for ourselves, come to
him with a humble boldness, confiding in his power and goodness.
(2.) That at the same time, and in the same petitions, which we address
to God for ourselves, we should take in with us all the
children of men, as God’s creatures and our fellow-creatures. A
rooted principle of catholic charity, and of Christian
sanctified humanity, should go along with us, and dictate to us
throughout this prayer, which is so worded as to be accommodated to
that noble principle.
(3.) That in order to the confirming of the habit of
heavenly-mindedness in us, which ought to actuate and govern us in the
whole course of our conversation, we should, in all our devotions, with
an eye of faith look heavenward, and view the God we pray to as
our Father in heaven, that we may make the upper world
more familiar to us, and may ourselves become better prepared for the
future state.
(4.) That in prayer, as well as in the tenour of our lives, we must
seek first the kingdom of God and the righteousness thereof, by
ascribing honour to his name, his holy name, and power to his
government, both that of his providence in the world and that of his
grace in the church. O that both the one and the other may be more
manifested, and we and others more manifestly brought into subjection
to both!
(5.) That the principles and practices of the
upper world, the unseen world (which therefore by
faith only we are apprized of), are the great
original–the archetypon, to which we should desire
that the principles and practices of this lower world, both in
others and in ourselves, may be more conformable. Those words, As in
heaven, so on earth, refer to all the first three petitions:
“Father, let thy name be sanctified and glorified, and
thy kingdom prevail, and thy will be done on this earth that is now
alienated from thy service, as it is in yonder heaven that is entirely
devoted to thy service.”
(6.) That those who faithfully and sincerely mind the kingdom of God,
and the righteousness thereof, may humbly hope that all other
things, as far as to Infinite Wisdom seems good, shall be added
to them, and they may in faith pray for them. If our first chief
desire and care be that God’s name may be sanctified, his kingdom come,
and his will be done, we may then come boldly to the throne of grace
for our daily bread, which will then be sanctified to us
when we are sanctified to God, and God is sanctified by us.
(7.) That in our prayers for temporal blessings we must moderate
our desires, and confine them to a competency. The expression
here used of day by day is the very same with our daily
bread; and therefore some think that we must look for another
signification of the word epiousios than that of
daily, which we give it, and that it means our necessary
bread, that bread that is suited to the craving of our nature,
the fruit that is brought out of the earth for our bodies that are made
of the earth and are earthly,
(8.) That sins are debts which we are daily contracting, and which
therefore we should every day pray for the forgiveness of. We are not
only going behind with our rent every day by omissions of duty
and in duty, but are daily incurring the penalty of the law, as well as
the forfeiture of our bond, by our commissions. Every day adds
to the score of our guilt, and it is a miracle of mercy that we have so
much encouragement given us to come every day to the throne of grace,
to pray for the pardon of our sins of daily infirmity. God
multiplies to pardon beyond seventy times seven.
(9.) That we have no reason to expect, nor can with any confidence
pray, that God would forgive our sins against him, if we do not
sincerely, and from a truly Christian principle of
charity, forgive those that have at any time affronted us or
been injurious to us. Though the words of our mouth be even
this prayer to God, if the meditation of our heart at the same
time be, as often it is, malice and revenge to our brethren, we are not
accepted, nor can we expect an answer of peace.
(10.) That temptations to sin should be as much dreaded and deprecated
by us as ruin by sin; and it should be as much our care and prayer to
get the power of sin broken in us as to get the guilt of sin removed
from us; and though temptation may be a charming, fawning, flattering
thing, we must be as earnest with God that we may not be led into it as
that we may not be led by that to sin, and by sin to ruin.
(11.) That God is to be depended upon, and sought unto, for our
deliverance from all evil; and we should pray, not only that we
may not be left to ourselves to run into evil, but that we may not be
left to Satan to bring evil upon us. Dr. Lightfoot understands it of
being delivered from the evil one, that is, the devil, and
suggests that we should pray particularly against the apparitions of
the devil and his possessions. The disciples were employed to cast
out devils, and therefore were concerned to pray that they might be
guarded against the particular spite he would always be sure to have
against them.
IV. He stirs up and encourages importunity, fervency, and constancy, in
prayer, by showing,
1. That importunity will go far in our dealings with men,
Suppose a man, upon a sudden emergency, goes to borrow a loaf or two of
bread of a neighbour, at an unseasonable time of night, not for
himself, but for his friend that came unexpectedly to him. His
neighbour will be loth to accommodate him, for he has wakened him with
his knocking, and put him out of humour, and he has a great deal to say
in his excuse. The door is shut and locked, his children are asleep in
bed, in the same room with him, and, if he make a noise, he shall
disturb them. His servants are asleep, and he cannot make them hear;
and, for his own part, he shall catch cold if he rise to give him. But
his neighbour will have no nay, and therefore he continues
knocking still, and tells him he will do so till he has what he
comes for; so that he must give it to him, to be rid of him: He will
rise, and give him as many as he needs, because of his importunity.
He speaks this parable with the same intent that he speaks that in
That men ought always to pray, and not to faint. Not that God
can be wrought upon by importunity; we cannot be troublesome to him,
nor by being so change his counsels. We prevail with men by importunity
because they are displeased with it, but with God because he is
pleased with it. Now this similitude may be of use to us,
(1.) To direct us in prayer.
[1.] We must come to God with boldness and confidence for
what we need, as a man does to the house of his neighbour or friend,
who, he knows, loves him, and is inclined to be kind to him.
[2.] We must come for bread, for that which is needful,
and which we cannot be without.
[3.] We must come to him by prayer for others as well as for
ourselves. This man did not come for bread for himself, but for his
friend. The Lord accepted Job, when he prayed for his friends,
We cannot come to God upon a more pleasing errand than when we come to
him for grace to enable us to do good, to feed many with our
lips, to entertain and edify those that come to us.
[4.] We may come with the more boldness to God in a strait, if it be a
strait that we have not brought ourselves into by our own folly and
carelessness, but Providence has led us into it. This man would not
have wanted bread if his friend had not come in unexpectedly.
The care which Providence casts upon us, we may with cheerfulness cast
back upon Providence.
[5.] We ought to continue instant in prayer, and watch in the
same with all perseverance.
(2.) To encourage us in prayer. If importunity could prevail
thus with a man who was angry at it, much more with a God who is
infinitely more kind and ready to do good to us than we are
to one another, and is not angry at our importunity, but accepts
it, especially when it is for spiritual mercies that we are
importunate. If he do not answer our prayers presently, yet he will in
due time, if we continue to pray.
2. That God has promised to give us what we ask of him. We have not
only the goodness of nature to take comfort from, but the word which he
has spoken
(v. 9, 10):
“Ask, and it shall be given you; either the thing itself you
shall ask or that which is equivalent; either the thorn in the flesh
removed, or grace sufficient given in.”–We had this before,
I say unto you. We have it from Christ’s own mouth, who knows
his Father’s mind, and in whom all promises are yea and amen. We must
not only ask, but we must seek, in the use of means, must
second our prayers with our endeavours; and, in asking and
seeking, we must continue pressing, still knocking at the
same door, and we shall at length prevail, not only by our prayers in
concert, but by our particular prayers: Every one that asketh
receiveth, even the meanest saint that asks in faith. This poor
man cried, and the Lord heard him,
Ps. xxxiv. 6.
When we ask of God those things which Christ has here directed us to
ask, that his name may be sanctified, that his kingdom may come, and
his will be done, in these requests we must be importunate, must
never hold our peace day or night; we must not keep
silence, nor give God any rest, until he establish, until he
make Jerusalem a praise in the earth,
Isa. lxii. 6, 7.
V. He gives us both instruction and encouragement in prayer from the
consideration of our relation to God as a Father. Here is,
1. An appeal to the bowels of earthly fathers:
“Let any of you that is a father, and knows the heart of a
father, a father’s affection to a child and care for a child, tell me,
if his son ask bread for his breakfast, will he give him a
stone to breakfast on? If he ask a fish for his dinner (when
it may be a fish-day), will he for a fish give him a serpent,
that will poison and sting him? Or, if he shall ask an egg for
his supper (an egg and to bed), will he offer him a scorpion?
You know you could not be so unnatural to your own children,”
2. An application of this to the blessings of our
heavenly Father
(v. 13):
If ye then, being evil, give, and know how to give, good
gifts to your children, much more shall God give you the Spirit. He
shall give good things; so it is in Matthew. Observe,
(1.) The direction he gives us what to pray for. We must ask for
the Holy Spirit, not only a necessary in order to our praying
well, but as inclusive of all the good things we are to pray for;
we need no more to make us happy, for the Spirit is the worker of
spiritual life, and the earnest of eternal life. Note, The gift of the
Holy Ghost is a gift we are every one of us concerned earnestly and
constantly to pray for.
(2.) The encouragement he gives us to hope that we shall speed
in this prayer: Your heavenly Father will give. It is in his
power to give the Spirit; he has all good things to bestow, wrapped
up in that one; but that is not all, it is in his promise, the
gift of the Holy Ghost is in the covenant,
and it is here inferred from parents’ readiness to supply their
children’s needs, and gratify their desires, when
they are natural and proper. If the child ask for a serpent, or
a scorpion, the father, in kindness, will deny him, but not if
he ask for what is needful, and will be nourishing. When
God’s children ask for the Spirit, they do, in effect, ask for
bread; for the Spirit is the staff of life; nay, he is the
Author of the soul’s life. If our earthly parents, though evil,
be yet so kind, if they, though weak, be yet so knowing,
that they not only give, but give with discretion, give what is best,
in the best manner and time, much more will our heavenly Father,
who infinitely excels the fathers of our flesh both in wisdom and
goodness, give us his Holy Spirit. If earthly parents be willing
to lay out for the education of their children, to whom they design to
leave their estates, much more will our heavenly Father give the spirit
of sons to all those whom he has predestinated to the inheritance of
sons.
| Christ Accused of Leaguing with Satan; Watchfulness Inculcated. |
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14 And he was casting out a devil, and it was dumb. And it came
to pass, when the devil was gone out, the dumb spake; and the
people wondered.
15 But some of them said, He casteth out devils through
Beelzebub the chief of the devils.
16 And others, tempting him, sought of him a sign from
heaven.
17 But he, knowing their thoughts, said unto them, Every
kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and a
house divided against a house falleth.
18 If Satan also be divided against himself, how shall his
kingdom stand? because ye say that I cast out devils through
Beelzebub.
19 And if I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your sons
cast them out? therefore shall they be your judges.
20 But if I with the finger of God cast out devils, no doubt
the kingdom of God is come upon you.
21 When a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in
peace:
22 But when a stronger than he shall come upon him, and
overcome him, he taketh from him all his armour wherein he
trusted, and divideth his spoils.
23 He that is not with me is against me: and he that gathereth
not with me scattereth.
24 When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh
through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, he saith, I
will return unto my house whence I came out.
25 And when he cometh, he findeth it swept and garnished.
26 Then goeth he, and taketh to him seven other spirits more
wicked than himself; and they enter in, and dwell there: and the
last state of that man is worse than the first.
The substance of these verses we had in
&c. Christ is here giving a general proof of his divine mission, by a
particular proof of his power over Satan, his conquest of whom was an
indication of his great design in coming into the world, which was, to
destroy the works of the devil. Here too he gives an earnest of
the success of that undertaking. He is here casting out a devil
that made the poor possessed man dumb: in Matthew we are told
that he was blind and dumb. When the devil was forced out
by the word of Christ, the dumb spoke immediately, echoed to
Christ’s word, and the lips were opened to show forth his praise.
Now,
I. Some were affected with this miracle. The people
wondered; they admired the power of God, and especially that it
should be exerted by the hand of one who made so small a figure, that
one who did the work of the Messiah should have so little of that pomp
of the Messiah which they expected.
II. Others were offended at it, and, to justify their
infidelity, suggested that it was by virtue of a league with Beelzebub,
the prince of the devils, that he did this,
It seems, in the devil’s kingdom there are chiefs, which supposes that
there are subalterns. Now they would have it thought, or
said at least, that there was a correspondence settled between
Christ and the devil, that the devil should have the advantage in the
main and be victorious at last, but that in order hereto, in particular
instances, he should yield Christ the advantage and retire by consent.
Some, to corroborate this suggestion, and confront the
evidence of Christ’s miraculous power, challenged him to give them a
sign from heaven
(v. 16),
to confirm his doctrine by some appearance in the clouds, such
as was upon mount Sinai when the law was given; as if a sign from
heaven, not disprovable by any sagacity of theirs, could not have
been given them as well by a compact and collusion with the prince
of the power of the air, who works with power and lying wonders, as
the casting out of a devil; nay, that would not have been any
present prejudice to his interest, which this manifestly was. Note,
Obstinate infidelity will never be at a loss for something to say in
its own excuse, though ever so frivolous and absurd. Now Christ here
returns a full and direct answer to this cavil of theirs; in which he
shows,
1. That it can by no means be imagined that such a subtle prince as
Satan is should ever agree to measures that had such a direct tendency
to his own overthrow, and the undermining of his own kingdom,
What they objected they kept to themselves, afraid to speak it, lest it
should be answered and baffled; but Jesus knew their thoughts,
even when they industriously thought to conceal them, and he said, “You
yourselves cannot but see the groundlessness, and consequently the
spitefulness, of this charge; for it is an allowed maxim, confirmed by
every day’s experience, that no interest can stand that is divided
against itself; not the more public interest of a
kingdom, nor the private interest of a house or family;
if either the one or the other be divided against itself, it
cannot stand. Satan would herein act against himself; not only by the
miracle which turned him out of possession of the bodies of people, but
much more in the doctrine for the explication and confirmation of which
the miracle was wrought, which had a direct tendency to the ruin of
Satan’s interest in the minds of men, by mortifying sin, and turning
men to the service of God. Now, if Satan should thus be divided
against himself, he would hasten his own overthrow, which you
cannot suppose an enemy to do that acts so subtlely for his own
establishment, and is so solicitous to have his kingdom stand.”
2. That was a very partial ill-natured thing for them to impute that in
him to a compact with Satan which yet they applauded and admired in
others that were of their own nation
(v. 19):
“By whom do your sons cast them out? Some of your own
kindred, as Jews, nay, and some of your own followers, as
Pharisees, have undertaken, in the name of the God of Israel, to cast
out devils, and they were never charged with such a hellish combination
as I am charged with.” Note, It is gross hypocrisy to condemn
that in those who reprove us which yet we allow in those
that flatter us.
3. That, in opposing the conviction of this miracle, they were enemies
to themselves, stood in their own light, and put a bar in their own
door, for they thrust from them the kingdom of God
(v. 20):
“If I with the finger of God cast out devils, as you may assure
yourselves I do, no doubt the kingdom of God is come upon you,
the kingdom of the Messiah offers itself and all its advantages to you,
and, if you receive it not, it is at your peril.” In Matthew it is
by the Spirit of God, here by the finger of God; the
Spirit is the arm of the Lord,
Isa. liii. 1.
His greatest and most mighty works were wrought by his Spirit;
but, if the Spirit in this work is said to be the finger of the
Lord, it perhaps may intimate how easily Christ did and
could conquer Satan, even with the finger of God, the exerting
of the divine power in a less and lower degree than in many other
instances. He needed not make bare his everlasting arm; that
roaring lion, when he pleases, is crushed, like a moth, with a
touch of a finger. Perhaps here is an allusion to the
acknowledgment of Pharaoh’s magicians, when they were run aground
This is the finger of God. “Now if the kingdom of God be
herein come to you, and you be found by those cavils and
blasphemies fighting against it, it will come upon you as a
victorious force which you cannot stand before.”
4. That his casting out devils was really the destroying of them and
their power, for it confirmed a doctrine which had a direct tendency to
the ruining of his kingdom,
Perhaps there had been some who had cast out the inferior devils by
compact with Beelzebub their chief, but that was without any real
damage or prejudice to Satan and his kingdom, what he lost one way he
gained another. The devil and such exorcists played booty, as we
say, and, while the forlorn hope of his army gave ground, the
main body thereby gained ground; the interest of Satan in the
souls of men was not weakened by it in the least. But, when Christ cast
out devils, he needed not do it by any compact with them, for he was
stronger than they, and could do it by force, and did it
so as to ruin Satan’s power and blast his great design by that doctrine
and that grace which break the power of sin, and so rout Satan’s main
body, take from him all his armour, and divide his
spoils, which no one devil ever did to another or ever will. Now
this is applicable to Christ’s victories over Satan both in the world
and in the hearts of particular persons, by that power which went along
with the preaching of his gospel, and does still. And so we may
observe here,
(1.) The miserable condition of an unconverted sinner. In his heart,
which was fitted to be a habitation of God, the devil has his palace;
and all the powers and the faculties of the soul, being employed by him
in the service of sin, are his goods. Note,
[1.] The heart of every unconverted sinner is the devil’s
palace, where he resides and where he rules; he
works in the children of disobedience. The heart is a
palace, a noble dwelling; but the unsanctified heart is the
devil’s palace. His will is obeyed, his interests are served,
and the militia is in his hands; he usurps the throne in the
soul.
[2.] The devil, as a strong man armed, keeps this palace, does
all he can to secure it to himself, and to fortify it against Christ.
All the prejudices with which he hardens men’s hearts against truth and
holiness are the strong-holds which he erects for the keeping
of his palace; this palace is his garrison.
[3.] There is a kind of peace in the palace of an unconverted
soul, while the devil, as a strong man armed, keeps it. The
sinner has a good opinion of himself, is very secure and merry, has no
doubt concerning the goodness of his state nor any dread of the
judgment to come; he flatters himself in his own eyes, and cries peace
to himself. Before Christ appeared, all was quiet, because all went
one way; but the preaching of the gospel disturbed the peace of the
devil’s palace.
(2.) The wonderful change that is made in conversion, which is Christ’s
victory over this usurper. Satan is a strong man armed;
but our Lord Jesus is stronger than he, as God, as Mediator.
If we speak of strength, he is strong: more are with us
than against us. Observe,
[1.] The manner of this victory: He comes upon him by surprise,
when his goods are in peace and the devil thinks it is all
his own for ever, and overcomes him. Note, The conversion
of a soul to God is Christ’s victory over the devil and his power in
that soul, restoring the soul to its liberty, and recovering his own
interest in it and dominion over it.
[2.] The evidences of this victory. First, He takes from him
all his armour wherein he trusted. The devil is a confident
adversary; he trusts to his armour, as Pharaoh to his
rivers
but Christ disarms him. When the power of sin and corruption in the
soul is broken, when the mistakes are rectified, the eyes opened, the
heart humbled and changed, and made serious and spiritual, then Satan’s
armour is taken away. Secondly, He divides the
spoils; he takes possession of them for himself. All the
endowments of mind and body, the estate, power, interest, which before
were made use of in the service of sin and Satan, are now converted to
Christ’s service and employed for him; yet this is not all; he makes
a distribution of them among his followers, and, and having
conquered Satan, gives to all believers the benefit of that victory.
Hence Christ infers that, since the whole drift of his doctrine and
miracles was to break the power of the devil, that great enemy of
mankind, it was the duty of all to join with him and to follow his
guidance, to receive his gospel and come heartily into the interests of
it; for otherwise they would justly be reckoned as siding with the
enemy
(v. 23):
He that is not with me is against me. Those therefore who
rejected the doctrine of Christ, and slighted his miracles, were looked
upon as adversaries to him, and in the devil’s interest.
5. That there was a vast difference between the devil’s going
out by compact and his being cast out by compulsion. Those
out of whom Christ cast him he never entered into again, for so
was Christ’s charge
(Mark ix. 25);
whereas, if he had gone out, whenever he saw fit he would have
made a re-entry, for that is the way of the unclean spirit, when he
voluntarily and with design goes out of a man,
v. 24-26.
The prince of the devils may give leave, nay, may give
order, to his forces to retreat, or make a feint, to draw the poor
deluded soul into an ambush; but Christ, as he gives a
total, so he gives a final, defeat to the enemy. In this
part of the argument he has a further intention, which is to represent
the state of those who have had fair offers made them,–among whom, and
in whom, God has begun to break the devil’s power and overthrow his
kingdom,–but they reject his counsel against themselves, and relapse
into a state of subjection to Satan. Here we have,
(1.) The condition of a formal hypocrite, his bright side
and his dark side. His heart still remains the devil’s
house; he calls it his own, and he retains his interest in it; and
yet,
[1.] The unclean spirit is gone out. He was not driven
out by the power of converting grace; there was none of that
violence which the kingdom of heaven suffers; but he went
out, withdrew for a time, so that the man seemed not to be under
the power of Satan as formerly, nor so followed with his temptations.
Satan is gone, or has turned himself into an angel of
light.
[2.] The house is swept from common pollutions, by a forced
confession of sin, as Pharaoh’s–a feigned contrition for it, as
Ahab’s,–and a partial reformation, as Herod’s. There are those that
have escaped the pollutions of the world, and yet are still
under the power of the god of this world,
2 Pet. ii. 20.
The house is swept, but it is not washed; and Christ hath
said, If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me; the house
must be washed, or it is none of his. Sweeping takes off
only the loose dirt, while the sin that besets the sinner, the
beloved sin, is untouched. It is swept from the filth that lies open to
the eye of the world, but it is not searched and ransacked for secret
filthiness,
It is swept, but the leprosy is in the wall, and will be
till something more be done.
[3.] The house is garnished with common gifts and graces. It is
not furnished with any true grace, but garnished with the
pictures of all graces. Simon Magus was garnished with faith,
Balaam with good desires, Herod with a respect for John, the Pharisees
with many external performances. It is garnished, but it is like a
potsherd covered with silver dross, it is all paint and varnish,
not real, not lasting. The house is garnished, but the property
is not altered; it was never surrendered to Christ, nor inhabited by
the Spirit. Let us therefore take heed of resting in that which a man
may have and yet come short.
(2.) Here is the condition of a final apostate, into whom the
devil returns after he had gone out: Then goes he, and takes seven
other spirits more wicked than himself
(v. 26);
a certain number for an uncertain, as seven devils are said to
be cast out of Mary Magdalene. Seven wicked spirits are opposed
to the seven spirits of God,
Rev. iii. 1.
These are said to be more wicked than himself. It seems, even devils
are not all alike wicked; probably, the degrees of their wickedness,
now that they are fallen, are as the degrees of their holiness
were while they stood. When the devil would do mischief most
effectually, he employs those that are more mischievous than himself.
These enter in without any difficulty or opposition; they are
welcomed, and they dwell there; there they work, there
they rule; and the last state of that man is worse than the
first. Note,
[1.] Hypocrisy is the high road to apostasy. If the heart remains in
the interest of sin and Satan, the shows and shadows will come to
nothing; those that have not set that right will not long be
stedfast. Where secret haunts of sin are kept up, under the cloak of a
visible profession, conscience is debauched, God is provoked to
withdraw his restraining grace, and the close hypocrite commonly
proves an open apostate,
[2.] The last state of such is worse than the first, in respect
both of sin and punishment. Apostates are usually the worst of men, the
most vain and profligate, the most bold and daring; their consciences
are seared, and their sins of all others the most aggravated. God often
sets marks of his displeasure upon them in this world, and in
the other world they will receive the greater damnation. Let us
therefore hear, and fear, and hold fast our integrity.
| Praise and a Blessing. |
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|
27 And it came to pass, as he spake these things, a certain
woman of the company lifted up her voice, and said unto him,
Blessed is the womb that bare thee, and the paps which thou
hast sucked.
28 But he said, Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the
word of God, and keep it.
We had not this passage in the other evangelists, nor can we tack it,
as Dr. Hammond does, to that of Christ’s mother and brethren desiring
to speak with him (for this evangelist also has related that in
but it contains an interruption much like that, and, like that,
occasion is taken from it for instruction.
1. The applause which an affectionate, honest, well-meaning woman gave
to our Lord Jesus, upon hearing his excellent discourses. While the
scribes and Pharisees despised and blasphemed them, this good woman
(and probably she was a person of some quality) admired them, and the
wisdom and power with which he spoke: As he spoke these things
(v. 27),
with a convincing force and evidence, a certain woman of the
company was so pleased to hear how he had confounded the Pharisees,
and conquered them, and put them to shame, and cleared himself from
their vile insinuations, that she could not forbear crying out,
“Blessed is the womb that bore thee. What an admirable, what an
excellent man is this! Surely never was there a greater or better born
of a woman: happy the woman that has him for her son. I should have
thought myself very happy to have been the mother of one that speaks
as never man spoke, that has so much of the grace of heaven in him,
and is so great a blessing to this earth.” This was well said,
as it expressed her high esteem of Christ, and that for the sake of his
doctrine; and it was not amiss that it reflected honour upon the virgin
Mary his mother, for it agreed with what she herself had said
(ch. i. 48),
All generations shall call me blessed; some even of this
generation, bad as it was. Note, To all that believe the word of Christ
the person of Christ is precious, and he is an honour,
1 Pet. ii. 7.
Yet we must be careful, lest, as this good woman, we too much magnify
the honour of his natural kindred, and so know him after the
flesh, whereas we must now henceforth know him so no
more.
2. The occasion which Christ took from this to pronounce them
more happy who are his faithful and obedient followers than she was who
bore and nursed him. He does not deny what this woman said, nor refuse
her respect to him and his mother; but leads her from this to that
which was of higher consideration, and which more concerned her:
Yea, rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep
it,
v. 28.
He thinks them so; and his saying that they are so makes them so, and
should make us of his mind. This is intended partly as a check
to her, for doting so much upon his bodily presence and his human
nature, partly as an encouragement to her to hope that she might
be as happy as his own mother, whose happiness she was ready to envy,
if she would hear the word of God and keep it. Note, Though it
is a great privilege to hear the word of God, yet those only are truly
blessed, that is, blessed of the Lord, that hear it and keep it,
that keep it in memory, and keep to it as their way and rule.
| The Sign of the Prophet Jonah. |
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29 And when the people were gathered thick together, he began
to say, This is an evil generation: they seek a sign; and there
shall no sign be given it, but the sign of Jonas the prophet.
30 For as Jonas was a sign unto the Ninevites, so shall also
the Son of man be to this generation.
31 The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with
the men of this generation, and condemn them: for she came from
the utmost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and,
behold, a greater than Solomon is here.
32 The men of Nineve shall rise up in the judgment with this
generation, and shall condemn it: for they repented at the
preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here.
33 No man, when he hath lighted a candle, putteth it in a
secret place, neither under a bushel, but on a candlestick, that
they which come in may see the light.
34 The light of the body is the eye: therefore when thine eye
is single, thy whole body also is full of light; but when thine
eye is evil, thy body also is full of darkness.
35 Take heed therefore that the light which is in thee be not
darkness.
36 If thy whole body therefore be full of light, having no
part dark, the whole shall be full of light, as when the bright
shining of a candle doth give thee light.
Christ’s discourse in these verses shows two things:–
I. What is the sign we may expect from God for the
confirmation of our faith. The great and most convincing
proof of Christ’s being sent of God, and which they were yet to wait
for, after the many signs that had been given them, was the
resurrection of Christ from the dead. Here is,
1. A reproof to the people for demanding other signs than what had
already been given them in great plenty: The people were gathered
thickly together
(v. 29),
a vast crowd of them, expecting not so much to have their consciences
informed by the doctrine of Christ as to have their curiosity gratified
by his miracles. Christ knew what brought such a multitude together;
they came seeking a sign, they came to gaze, to have something
to talk of when they went home; and it is an evil generation
which nothing will awaken and convince, no, not the most sensible
demonstrations of divine power and goodness.
2. A promise that yet there should be one sign more given them,
different from any that had yet been given them, even the sign of
Jonas the prophet, which in Matthew is explained as meaning the
resurrection of Christ. As Jonas being cast into the sea, and
lying there three days, and then coming up alive and preaching
repentance to the Ninevites, was a sign to them, upon which they turned
from their evil way, so shall the death and resurrection of Christ, and
the preaching of his gospel immediately after to the Gentile world, be
the last warning to the Jewish nation. If they be provoked to a holy
jealousy by this, well and good; but, if this do not work upon
them, let them look for nothing but utter ruin: The Son of Man shall
be a sign to this generation
(v. 30),
a sign speaking to them, though a sign spoken against by them.
3. A warning to them to improve this sign; for it was at their peril if
they did not.
(1.) The queen of Sheba would rise up in judgment against
them, and condemn their unbelief,
v. 31.
She was a stranger to the commonwealth of Israel, and yet so readily
gave credit to the report she heard of the glories of a king of Israel,
that, notwithstanding the prejudices we are apt to conceive against
foreigners, she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear
his wisdom, not only to satisfy her curiosity, but to inform her
mind, especially in the knowledge of the true God and his worship,
which is upon record, to her honour; and, behold, a greater than
Solomon in here, pleion Solomontos—more than a
Solomon is here; that is, says Dr. Hammond, more of wisdom and more
heavenly divine doctrine than ever was in all Solomon’s words or
writings; and yet these wretched Jews will give no manner of regard to
what Christ says to them, though he be in the midst of them.
(2.) The Ninevites would rise up in judgment against them, and condemn
their impenitency
(v. 32):
They repented at the preaching of Jonas; but here is preaching
which far exceeds that of Jonas, is more powerful and awakening, and
threatens a much sorer ruin than that of Nineveh, and yet none are
startled by it, to turn from their evil way, as the Ninevites
did.
II. What is the sign that God expects from us for the
evidencing of our faith, and that is the serious practice of
that religion which we profess to believe, and a readiness to entertain
all divine truths, when brought to us in their proper evidence. Now
observe,
1. They had the light with all the advantage they could desire.
For God, having lighted the candle of the gospel, did not put it
in a secret place, or under a bushel; Christ did not
preach in corners. The apostles were ordered to preach the gospel to
every creature; and both Christ and his ministers, Wisdom and her
maidens, cry in the chief places of concourse,
v. 33.
It is a great privilege that the light of the gospel is put on a
candlestick, so that all that come in may see it, and may
see by it where they are and whither they are going, and what is
the true, and sure, and only way to happiness.
2. Having the light, their concern was to have the sight,
or else to what purpose had they the light? Be the object ever
so clear, if the organ be not right, we are never
the better: The light of the body is the eye
(v. 34),
which receives the light of the candle when it is brought into the
room. So the light of the soul is the understanding and judgment, and
its power of discerning between good and evil, truth and falsehood.
Now, according as this is, so the light of divine revelation is to us,
and our benefit by it; it is a savour of life unto life, or of death
unto death.
(1.) If this eye of the soul be single, if it see clear,
see things as they are, and judge impartially concerning them, if it
aim at truth only, and seek it for its own sake, and have not
any sinister by–looks and intentions, the whole body, that is,
the whole soul, is full of light, it receives and entertains the
gospel, which will bring along with it into the soul both
knowledge and joy. This denotes the same thing with that
of the good ground, receiving the word and understanding
it. If our understanding admits the gospel in its full light, it fills
the soul, and it has enough to fill it. And if the soul be thus
filled with the light of the gospel, having no part
dark,–if all its powers and faculties be subjected to the
government and influence of the gospel, and none left
unsanctified,–then the whole soul shall be full of light, full
of holiness and comfort. It was darkness itself, but now light
in the Lord, as when the bright shining of a candle doth give thee
light,
v. 36.
Note, The gospel will come into those souls whose doors and windows are
thrown open to receive it; and where it comes it will bring light with
it. But,
(2.) If the eye of the soul be evil,–if the judgment be
bribed and biassed by the corrupt and vicious
dispositions of the mind, by pride and envy, by the love of the world
and sensual pleasures,–if the understanding be prejudiced
against divine truths, and resolved not to admit them, though brought
with ever so convincing an evidence,–it is no wonder that the whole
body, the whole soul, should be full of darkness,
v. 34.
How can they have instruction, information, direction, or comfort, from
the gospel, that wilfully shut their eyes against it? and what hope is
there of such? what remedy for them? The inference hence therefore is,
Take heed that the light which is in thee be not darkness,
v. 35.
Take heed that the eye of the mind be not blinded by partiality, and
prejudice, and sinful aims. Be sincere in your enquiries after truth,
and ready to receive it in the light, and love, and power of it; and
not as the men of this generation to whom Christ preached, who
never sincerely desired to know God’s will, nor designed
to do it, and therefore no wonder that they walked on in
darkness, wandered endlessly, and perished
eternally.
| Woes Denounced on That Generation; The Pharisees and Lawyers Reproved. |
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37 And as he spake, a certain Pharisee besought him to dine
with him: and he went in, and sat down to meat.
38 And when the Pharisee saw it, he marvelled that he had not
first washed before dinner.
39 And the Lord said unto him, Now do ye Pharisees make clean
the outside of the cup and the platter; but your inward part is
full of ravening and wickedness.
40 Ye fools, did not he that made that which is without make
that which is within also?
41 But rather give alms of such things as ye have; and, behold,
all things are clean unto you.
42 But woe unto you, Pharisees! for ye tithe mint and rue and
all manner of herbs, and pass over judgment and the love of God:
these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.
43 Woe unto you, Pharisees! for ye love the uppermost seats in
the synagogues, and greetings in the markets.
44 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are
as graves which appear not, and the men that walk over them are
not aware of them.
45 Then answered one of the lawyers, and said unto him, Master,
thus saying thou reproachest us also.
46 And he said, Woe unto you also, ye lawyers! for ye lade
men with burdens grievous to be borne, and ye yourselves touch
not the burdens with one of your fingers.
47 Woe unto you! for ye build the sepulchres of the prophets,
and your fathers killed them.
48 Truly ye bear witness that ye allow the deeds of your
fathers: for they indeed killed them, and ye build their
sepulchres.
49 Therefore also said the wisdom of God, I will send them
prophets and apostles, and some of them they shall slay and
persecute:
50 That the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the
foundation of the world, may be required of this generation;
51 From the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, which
perished between the altar and the temple: verily I say unto you,
It shall be required of this generation.
52 Woe unto you, lawyers! for ye have taken away the key of
knowledge: ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were
entering in ye hindered.
53 And as he said these things unto them, the scribes and the
Pharisees began to urge him vehemently, and to provoke him to
speak of many things:
54 Laying wait for him, and seeking to catch something out of
his mouth, that they might accuse him.
Christ here says many of those things to a Pharisee and his guests, in
a private conversation at table, which he afterwards said in a
public discourse in the temple
(Matt. xxiii.);
for what he said in public and private was of a piece. He would
not say that in a corner which he durst not repeat and stand to in the
great congregation; nor would he give those reproofs to any sort of
sinners in general which he durst not apply to them in particular as he
met with them; for he was, and is, the faithful Witness. Here
is,
I. Christ’s going to dine with a Pharisee that very civilly invited him
to his house
(v. 37);
As he spoke, even while he was speaking, a certain
Pharisee interrupted him with a request to him to come and dine
with him, to come forthwith, for it was dinner-time. We are
willing to hope that the Pharisee was so well pleased with his
discourse that he was willing to show him respect, and desirous to have
more of his company, and therefore gave him this invitation and bade
him truly welcome; and yet we have some cause to suspect that it was
with an ill design, to break off his discourse to the people,
and to have an opportunity of ensnaring him and getting something out
of him which might serve for matter of accusation or reproach,
We know not the mind of this Pharisee; but, whatever it was, Christ
knew it: if he meant ill, he shall know Christ does not fear him; if
well, he shall know Christ is willing to do him good: so he went in,
and sat down to meat. Note, Christ’s disciples must learn of him to
be conversable, and not morose. Though we have need to be
cautious what company we keep, yet we need not be rigid,
nor must we therefore go out of the world.
II. The offence which the Pharisee took at Christ, as those of that
sort had sometimes done at the disciples of Christ, for not washing
before dinner,
v. 38.
He wondered that a man of his sanctity, a prophet, a man of so much
devotion, and such a strict conversation, should sit down to meat, and
not first wash his hands, especially being newly come out of a
mixed company, and there being in the Pharisee’s dining-room, no doubt,
all accommodations set ready for it, so that he need not fear being
troublesome; and the Pharisee himself and all his guests, no
doubt, washing, so that he could not be singular; what,
and yet not wash? What harm had it been if he had washed? Was it not
strictly commanded by the canons of their church? It was so, and
therefore Christ would not do it, because he would witness
against their assuming a power to impose that as a matter of religion
which God commanded them not. The ceremonial law consisted in
divers washings, but this was none of them, and therefore Christ
would not practise it, no not in complaisance to the Pharisee
who invited him, nor though he knew that offence would be taken at his
omitting it.
III. The sharp reproof which Christ, upon this occasion, gave to the
Pharisees, without begging pardon even of the Pharisee whose guest he
now was; for we must not flatter our best friends in any evil
thing.
1. He reproves them for placing religion so much in those instances of
it which are only external, and fall under the eye of man, while those
were not only postponed, but quite expunged, which
respect the soul, and fall under the eye of God,
Now observe here,
(1.) The absurdity they were guilty of: “You Pharisees make clean
the outside only, you wash your hands with water, but do not
wash your hearts from wickedness; these are full of covetousness
and malice, covetousness of men’s goods, and malice against good
men.” Those can never be reckoned cleanly servants that wash
only the outside of the cup out of which their master drinks, or
the platter out of which he eats, and take no care to make clean
the inside, the filth of which immediately affects the
meat or drink. The frame or temper of the mind in every religious
service is as the inside of the cup and platter; the impurity of
this infects the services, and therefore to keep ourselves free
from scandalous enormities, and yet to live under the dominion of
spiritual wickedness, is as great an affront to God as it would be for
a servant to give the cup into his master’s hand, clean wiped from all
the dust on the outside, but within full of cobwebs and spiders.
Ravening and wickedness, that is, reigning worldliness
and reigning spitefulness, which men think they can find some
cloak and cover for, are the dangerous damning sins of many who have
made the outside of the cup clean from the more gross, and
scandalous, and inexcusable sins of whoredom and drunkenness.
(2.) A particular instance of the absurdity of it: “Ye fools, did
not he that made that which is without make that which is within
also?
v. 40.
Did not that God who in the law of Moses appointed divers ceremonial
washings, with which you justify yourselves in these practices and
impositions, appoint also that you should cleanse and purify your
hearts? He who made laws for that which is without, did not he
even in those laws further intend something within, and by other laws
show how little he regarded the purifying of the flesh, and the
putting away of the filth of that, if the heart be not made
clean?” Or, it may have regard to God not only as a Lawgiver,
but (which the words seem rather to import) as a Creator. Did not God,
who made us these bodies (and they are fearfully and wonderfully
made), make us these souls also, which are more fearfully
and wonderfully made? Now, if he made both, he justly expects we should
take care of both; and therefore not only wash the body, which
he is the former of, and make the hands clean in honour of his
work, but wash the spirit, which he is the Father of, and get the
leprosy in the heart cleansed.
To this he subjoins a rule for making our creature-comforts clean to us
(v. 41):
“Instead of washing your hands before you go to meat, give
alms of such things as you have” (ta enonta—of
such things as are set before you, and present with you); “let the
poor have their share out of them, and then all things are clean to
you, and you may use them comfortably.” Here is a plain allusion to
the law of Moses, by which it was provided that certain portions of the
increase of their land should be given to the Levite, the stranger,
the fatherless, and the widow; and, when that was done, what was
reserved for their own use was clean to them, and they could in
faith pray for a blessing upon it,
Then we can with comfort enjoy the gifts of God’s bounty
ourselves when we send portions to them for whom nothing is
prepared,
Neh. viii. 10.
Job ate not his morsel alone, but the fatherless ate
thereof, and so it was clean to him
(Job xxxi. 17);
clean, that is, permitted and allowed to be used, and then only
can it be used comfortably. Note, What we have is not our own, unless
God have his dues out of it; and it is by liberality to the poor
that we clear up to ourselves our liberty to make use of our
creature-comforts.
2. He reproves them for laying stress upon trifles, and neglecting the
weighty matters of the law,
(1.) Those laws which related only to the means of religion they
were very exact in the observance of, as particularly those concerning
the maintenance of the priests: Ye pay tithe of mint and rue,
pay it in kind and to the full, and will not put off the priests with a
modus decimandi or compound for it. By this they would
gain reputation with the people as strict observers of the law, and
would make an interest in the priests, in whose power it was many a
time to do them a kindness; and no wonder if the priests and the
Pharisees contrived how to strengthen one another’s hands. Now Christ
does not condemn them for being so exact in paying tithes (these
things ought ye to have done), but to think that this would atone
for the neglect of their greater duties; for,
(2.) Those laws which relate to the essentials of religion they
made nothing of: You pass over judgment and the love of God, you
make no conscience of giving men their dues and God your
hearts.
3. He reproves them for their pride and vanity, and affectations of
precedency and praise of men
(v. 43):
“Ye love the uppermost seats in the synagogues” (or consistories
where the elders met for government); “if you have not those seats, you
are ambitious of them; if you have, you are proud of them; and you
love greetings in the markets, to be complimented by the people and
to have their cap and knee.” It is not sitting uppermost, or being
greeted, that is reproved, but loving it.
4. He reproves them for their hypocrisy, and their colouring over the
wickedness of their hearts and lives with specious pretences
(v. 44):
“You are as graves overgrown with grass, which therefore
appear not, and the men that walk over them are not aware of
them, and so they contract the ceremonial pollution which by the
law arose from the touch of a grave.” These Pharisees were
within full of abominations, as a grave of putrefaction;
full of covetousness, envy, and malice; and yet they concealed it so
artfully with a profession of devotion, that it did not appear, so that
they who conversed with them, and followed their doctrine, were defiled
with sin, infected with their corruptions and ill morals, and yet, they
making a show of piety, suspected no danger by them. The contagion
insinuated itself, and was insensibly caught, and those
that caught it thought themselves never the worse.
IV. The testimony which he bore also against the lawyers or scribes,
who made it their business to expound the law according to the
tradition of the elders, as the Pharisees did to observe the law
according to that tradition.
1. There was one of that profession who resented what he said against
the Pharisees
(v. 45):
“Master, thus saying thou reproachest us also, for we are
scribes; and we are therefore hypocrites?” Note, It is a common thing
for unhumbled sinners to call and count reproofs reproaches. It is the
wisdom of those who desire to have their sin mortified to make a
good use of reproaches that come from ill will, and to
turn them into reproofs. If we can in this way hear of our faults, and
amend them, it is well: but it is the folly of those who are wedded to
their sins, and resolved not to part with them, to make an ill
use of the faithful and friendly admonitions given them, which come
from love, and to have their passions provoked by them as if they were
intended for reproaches, and therefore fly in the face of their
reprovers, and justify themselves in rejecting the reproof. Thus the
prophet complained
(Jer. vi. 10):
The word of the Lord is to them a reproach; they have no delight in
it. This lawyer espoused the Pharisee’s cause, and so made himself
partaker of his sins.
2. Our Lord Jesus thereupon took them to task
(v. 46):
Woe unto you also, ye lawyers; and again
(v. 52):
Woe unto you lawyers. They blessed themselves in the reputation
they had among the people, who thought them happy men, because they
studied the law, and were always conversant with that, and had the
honour of instructing the people in the knowledge of that; but Christ
denounced woes against them, for he sees not as man sees. This
was just upon him for taking the Pharisee’s part, and quarrelling with
Christ because he reproved them. Note, Those who quarrel with the
reproofs of others, and suspect them to be reproaches to them, do but
get woes of their own by so doing.
(1.) The lawyers are reproved for making the services of religion more
burdensome to others, but more easy to themselves, than
God had made them
(v. 46):
“You lade men with burdens grievous to be borne, by your
traditions, which bind them out from many liberties God has
allowed them, and bind them up to many slaveries which God never
enjoined them, to show your authority, and to keep people in awe;
but you yourselves touch them not with one of your fingers;”
that is,
[1.] “You will not burden yourselves with them, nor be
yourselves bound by those restraints with which you hamper others.”
They would seem, by the hedges they pretended to make about the law, to
be very strict for the observance of the law; but, if you could see
their practices, you would find that they not only make nothing of
those hedges themselves, but make nothing of the law itself neither:
thus the confessors of the Romish church are said to do with their
penitents.
[2.] “You will not lighten them to those you have power over;
you will not touch them, that is, either to repeal them or to
dispense with them when you find them to be burdensome and grievous to
the people.” They would come in with both hands to dispense with
a command of God, but not with a finger to mitigate the rigour
of any of the traditions of the elders.
(2.) They are reproved for pretending a veneration for the memory of
the prophets whom their fathers killed, when yet they hated and
persecuted those in their own day who were sent to them on the same
errand, to call them to repentance, and direct them to Christ,
[1.] These hypocrites, among other pretences of piety, built the
sepulchres of the prophets; that is, they erected monuments over
their graves, in honour of them, probably with large inscriptions
containing high encomiums of them. They were not so superstitious as to
enshrine their relics, or to think their devotions the more acceptable
to God for being offered at the tombs of the martyrs; they did
not burn incense or pray to them, or plead their merits with God; they
did not add that iniquity to their hypocrisy; but, as if they owned
themselves the children of the prophets, their heirs and
executors, they repaired and beautified the monuments
sacred to their pious memory.
[2.] Notwithstanding this, they had an inveterate enmity to
those in their own day that came to them in the spirit
and power of those prophets; and, though they had not yet had an
opportunity of carrying it far, yet they would soon do it, for the
Wisdom of God said, that is, Christ himself would so
order it, and did now foretel it, that they would
slay and persecute the prophets and apostles that should
be sent them. The Wisdom of God would thus make trial of them,
and discover their odious hypocrisy, by sending them prophets, to
reprove them for their sins and warn them of the judgments of God.
Those prophets should prove themselves apostles, or messengers sent
from heaven, by signs, and wonders, and gifts of the Holy Ghost. Or,
“I will send them prophets under the style and title of
apostles, who yet shall produce as good an authority as any of the old
prophets did; and these they shall not only contradict and oppose, but
slay and persecute, and put to death.” Christ foresaw
this, and yet did not otherwise than as became the Wisdom of God
in sending them, for he knew how to bring glory to himself in the
issue, by the recompences reserved both for the persecutors and
the persecuted in the future state.
[3.] That therefore God will justly put another construction upon their
building the tombs of the prophets than what they would
be thought to intend, and it shall be interpreted their allowing the
deeds of their fathers
(v. 45);
for, since by their present actions it appeared that they had no true
value for their prophets, the building of their sepulchres shall
have this sense put upon it, that they resolved to keep them in their
graves whom their fathers had hurried thither. Josiah, who had a real
value for prophets, thought it enough not to disturb the grave of the
man of God at Bethel: Let no man move his bones,
2 Kings xxiii. 17, 18.
If these lawyers will carry the matter further, and will build their
sepulchres, it is such a piece of over-doing as gives cause
to suspect an ill design in it, and that it is meant as a cover for
some design against prophecy itself, like the kiss of a traitor, as
he that blesseth his friend with a loud voice, rising early in the
morning, it shall be counted a curse to him,
Prov. xxvii. 14.
[4.] That they must expect no other than to be reckoned with, as the
fillers up of the measure of persecution,
They keep up the trade as it were in succession, and therefore are
responsible for the debts of the company, even those it has been
contracting all along from the blood of Abel, when the
world began, to that of Zacharias, and so forward to the end of the
Jewish state; it shall all be required of this generation, this
last generation of the Jews, whose sin in persecuting Christ’s apostles
would exceed any of the sins of that kind that their fathers were
guilty of, and so would bring wrath upon them to the
uttermost,
1 Thess. ii. 15, 16.
Their destruction by the Romans was so terrible that it might well be
reckoned the completing of God’s vengeance upon that persecuting
nation.
(3.) They are reproved for opposing the gospel of Christ, and doing all
they could to obstruct the progress and success of it,
[1.] They had not, according to the duty of their place, faithfully
expounded to the people those scriptures of the Old Testament which
pointed at the Messiah, which if they had been led into the right
understanding of by the lawyers, they would readily have embraced him
and his doctrine: but, instead of that, they had perverted those texts,
and had cast a mist before the eyes of the people, by their corrupt
glosses upon them, and this is called taking away the key of
knowledge; instead of using that key for the people, and
helping them to use it aright, they hid it from them; this is
called, in Matthew, shutting up the kingdom of heaven against
men,
Matt. xxiii. 13.
Note, those who take away the key of knowledge shut up the kingdom
of heaven.
[2.] They themselves did not embrace the gospel of Christ, though by
their acquaintance with the Old Testament they could not but know that
the time was fulfilled, and the kingdom of God was at
hand; they saw the prophecies accomplished in that kingdom which
our Lord Jesus was about to set up, and yet would not themselves
enter into it. Nay,
[3.] Them that without any guidance or assistance of theirs were
entering in they did all they could to hinder and
discourage, by threatening to cast them out of the synagogue,
and otherwise terrifying them. It is bad for people to be averse to
revelation, but much worse to be adverse to it.
Lastly, In the close of the chapter we are told how spitefully
and maliciously the scribes and Pharisees contrived to draw him
into a snare,
They could not bear those cutting reproofs which they must own to be
just; but what he had said against them in particular would not bear
an action, nor could they ground upon it any criminal
accusation, and therefore, as if, because his reproofs were warm, they
hoped to stir him up to some intemperate heat and passion, so as to put
him off his guard, they began to urge him vehemently, to be very
fierce upon him, and to provoke him to speak of many things, to
propose dangerous questions to him, laying wait for something
which might serve the design they had of making him either
odious to the people, or obnoxious to the government, or
both. Thus did they seek occasion against him, like David’s enemies
that did every day wrest his words,
Ps. lvi. 5.
Evil men dig up mischief. Note, Faithful reprovers of sin must
expect to have many enemies, and have need to set a watch before the
door of their lips, because of their observers that watch for
their halting. The prophet complains of those in his time who make
a man an offender for a word, and lay a snare for him that reproveth in
the gate,
Isa. xxix. 21.
That we may bear trials of this kind with patience, and get through
them with prudence, let us consider him who endured such
contradiction of sinners against himself.
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