that speak ye in the light--for when ye go forth all will be ready.
and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops--Give free and fearless utterance to all that I have taught you while yet with you. Objection: But this may cost us our life? Answer: It may, but there their power ends:
28. And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul--In [Lu 12:4], "and after that have no more that they can do."
but rather fear him--In Luke ([Lu 12:5]) this is peculiarly solemn, "I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear," even Him
which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell--A decisive proof this that there is a hell for the body as well as the soul in the eternal world; in other words, that the torment that awaits the lost will have elements of suffering adapted to the material as well as the spiritual part of our nature, both of which, we are assured, will exist for ever. In the corresponding warning contained in Luke ([Lu 12:4]), Jesus calls His disciples "My friends," as if He had felt that such sufferings constituted a bond of peculiar tenderness between Him and them.
29. Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing?--In Luke ([Lu 12:6]) it is "five sparrows for two farthings"; so that, if the purchaser took two farthings' worth, he got one in addition--of such small value were they.
and one of them shall not fall on the ground--exhausted or killed
without your Father--"Not one of them is forgotten before God," as it is in Luke ([Lu 12:6]).
30. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered--See [Lu 21:18] (and compare for the language [1Sa 14:45]; [Ac 27:34]).
31. Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows--Was ever language of such simplicity felt to carry such weight as this does? But here lies much of the charm and power of our Lord's teaching.
32. Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men--despising the shame.
him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven--I will not be ashamed of him, but will own him before the most august of all assemblies.
33. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven--before that same assembly: "He shall have from Me his own treatment of Me on the earth." (But see on [Mt 16:27]).
34. Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword--strife, discord, conflict; deadly opposition between eternally hostile principles, penetrating into and rending asunder the dearest ties.
35. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law--(See on [Lu 12:51-53]).
36. And a man's foes shall be they of his own household--This saying, which is quoted, as is the whole verse, from [Mi 7:6], is but an extension of the Psalmist's complaint ([Psa 41:9]; [55:12-14]), which had its most affecting illustration in the treason of Judas against our Lord Himself ([Joh 13:18]; [Mt 26:48-50]). Hence would arise the necessity of a choice between Christ and the nearest relations, which would put them to the severest test.
37. He that loveth father or mother more than me, is not worthy of me; and he that loveth son or daughter more than me, is not worthy of me--(Compare [De 33:9]). As the preference of the one would, in the case supposed, necessitate the abandonment of the other, our Lord here, with a sublime, yet awful self-respect, asserts His own claims to supreme affection.
38. And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me--a saying which our Lord once and again emphatically reiterates ([Mt 16:24]; [Lu 9:23]; ). We have become so accustomed to this expression--"taking up one's cross"--in the sense of "being prepared for trials in general for Christ's sake," that we are apt to lose sight of its primary and proper sense here--"a preparedness to go forth even to crucifixion," as when our Lord had to bear His own cross on His way to Calvary--a saying the more remarkable as our Lord had not as yet given a hint that He would die this death, nor was crucifixion a Jewish mode of capital punishment.
39. He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it--another of those pregnant sayings which our Lord so often reiterates ([Mt 16:25]; [Lu 17:33]; [Joh 12:25]). The pith of such paradoxical maxims depends on the double sense attached to the word "life"--a lower and a higher, the natural and the spiritual, the temporal and eternal. An entire sacrifice of the lower, with all its relationships and interests--or, a willingness to make it which is the same thing--is indispensable to the preservation of the higher life; and he who cannot bring himself to surrender the one for the sake of the other shall eventually lose both.
40. He that receiveth you--entertaineth you,
receiveth me; and he that receiveth me, receiveth him that sent me--As the treatment which an ambassador receives is understood and regarded as expressing the light in which he that sends him is viewed, so, says our Lord here, "Your authority is Mine, as Mine is My Father's."
41. He that receiveth a prophet--one divinely commissioned to deliver a message from heaven. Predicting future events was no necessary part of a prophet's office, especially as the word is used in the New Testament.
in the name of a prophet--for his office's sake and love to his master. (See [2Ki 4:9] and see on [2Ki 4:10]).
shall receive a prophet's reward--What an encouragement to those who are not prophets! (See [Joh 3:5-8]).
and he that receiveth a righteous man in the name of a righteous man--from sympathy with his character and esteem for himself as such
shall receive a righteous man's reward--for he must himself have the seed of righteousness who has any real sympathy with it and complacency in him who possesses it.
42. And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones--Beautiful epithet! Originally taken from [Zec 13:7]. The reference is to their lowliness in spirit, their littleness in the eyes of an undiscerning world, while high in Heaven's esteem.
a cup of cold water only--meaning, the smallest service.
in the name of a disciple--or, as it is in Mark ([Mr 9:41]), because ye are Christ's: from love to Me, and to him from his connection with Me.
verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward--There is here a descending climax--"a prophet," "a righteous man," "a little one"; signifying that however low we come down in our services to those that are Christ's, all that is done for His sake, and that bears the stamp of love to His blessed name, shall be divinely appreciated and owned and rewarded.
Chapter 11
Mt 11:1-19. The Imprisoned Baptist's Message to His Master--The Reply, and Discourse, on the Departure of the Messengers, Regarding John and His Mission. ( = Lu 7:18-35)
1. And it came to pass, when Jesus had made an end of commanding his twelve disciple--rather, "the twelve disciples,"
he departed thence to teach and to preach in their cities--This was scarcely a fourth circuit--if we may judge from the less formal way in which it was expressed--but, perhaps, a set of visits paid to certain places, either not reached at all before, or too rapidly passed through, in order to fill up the time till the return of the Twelve. As to their labors, nothing is said of them by our Evangelist. But Luke ([Lu 9:6]) says, "They departed, and went through, the towns," or "villages," "preaching the Gospel, and healing everywhere." Mark ([Mr 6:12], ), as usual, is more explicit: "And they went out, and preached that men should repent. And they cast out many devils (demons) and anointed with oil many that were sick, and healed them." Though this "anointing with oil" was not mentioned in our Lord's instructions--at least in any of the records of them--we know it to have been practiced long after this in the apostolic Church (see [Jas 5:14], and compare [Mr 6:12], )--not medicinally, but as a sign of the healing virtue which was communicated by their hands, and a symbol of something still more precious. It was unction, indeed, but, as Bengel remarks, it was something very different from what Romanists call extreme unction. He adds, what is very probable, that they do not appear to have carried the oil about with them, but, as the Jews used oil as a medicine, to have employed it just as they found it with the sick, in their own higher way.
2. Now when John had heard in the prison--For the account of this imprisonment, see on [Mr 6:17-20].
the works of Christ, he sent, &c.--On the whole passage, see on [Lu 7:18-35].
Mt 11:20-30. Outburst of Feeling Suggested to the Mind of Jesus by the Result of His Labors in Galilee
The connection of this with what goes before it and the similarity of its tone make it evident, we think, that it was delivered on the same occasion, and that it is but a new and more comprehensive series of reflections in the same strain.
20. Then began he to upbraid the cities wherein most of his mighty works were done, because they repented not.
21. Woe unto thee, Chorazin!--not elsewhere mentioned, but it must have lain near Capernaum.
woe unto thee, Bethsaida--"fishing-house," a fishing station--on the western side of the Sea of Galilee, and to the north of Capernaum; the birthplace of three of the apostles--the brothers Andrew and Peter, and Philip. These two cities appear to be singled out to denote the whole region in which they lay--a region favored with the Redeemer's presence, teaching, and works above every other.
for if the mighty works--the miracles
which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon--ancient and celebrated commercial cities, on the northeastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea, lying north of Palestine, and the latter the northernmost. As their wealth and prosperity engendered luxury and its concomitant evils--irreligion and moral degeneracy--their overthrow was repeatedly foretold in ancient prophecy, and once and again fulfilled by victorious enemies. Yet they were rebuilt, and at this time were in a flourishing condition.
they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes--remarkable language, showing that they had done less violence to conscience, and so, in God's sight, were less criminal than the region here spoken of.
22. But I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgment, than for you--more endurable.