39. But he answered and said unto them--"when the people were gathered thick together" ([Lu 11:29]).
an evil and adulterous generation--This latter expression is best explained by [Jr 3:20], "Surely as a wife treacherously departeth from her husband, so have ye dealt treacherously with Me, O house of Israel, saith the Lord." For this was the relationship in which He stood to the covenant-people--"I am married unto you" ([Jr 3:14]).
seeketh after a sign--In the eye of Jesus this class were but the spokesmen of their generation, the exponents of the reigning spirit of unbelief.
and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas.
40. For as Jonas was--"a sign unto the Ninevites, so shall also the Son of man be to this generation" ([Lu 11:30]). For as Jonas was
three days and three nights in the whale's belly--([Jon 1:17]).
so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth--This was the second public announcement of His resurrection three days after His death. (For the first, see [Joh 2:19]). Jonah's case was analogous to this, as being a signal judgment of God; reversed in three days; and followed by a glorious mission to the Gentiles. The expression "in the heart of the earth," suggested by the expression of Jonah with respect to the sea (2:3, in the Septuagint), means simply the grave, but this considered as the most emphatic expression of real and total entombment. The period during which He was to lie in the grave is here expressed in round numbers, according to the Jewish way of speaking, which was to regard any part of a day, however small, included within a period of days, as a full day. (See [1Sa 30:12], ; [Es 4:16]; ; [Mt 27:63], , &c.).
41. The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, &c.--The Ninevites, though heathens, repented at a man's preaching; while they, God's covenant-people, repented not at the preaching of the Son of God--whose supreme dignity is rather implied here than expressed.
42. The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, &c.--The queen of Sheba (a tract in Arabia, near the shores of the Red Sea) came from a remote country, "south" of Judea, to hear the wisdom of a mere man, though a gifted one, and was transported with wonder at what she saw and heard ([1Ki 10:1-9]). They, when a Greater than Solomon had come to them, despised and rejected, slighted and slandered Him.
43-45. When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, &c.--On this important parable, in connection with the corresponding one ([Mt 12:29]) see on [Lu 11:21-26].
A charming little incident, given only in [Lu 11:27], , seems to have its proper place here.
[Lu 11:27]:
And it came to pass, as He spake these things, a certain woman of the company--out of the crowd.
lifted up her voice and said unto Him, Blessed is the womb that bare Thee, and the paps which Thou hast sucked--With true womanly feeling she envies the mother of such a wonderful Teacher. And a higher and better than she had said as much before her (see on [Lu 1:28]). How does our Lord, then, treat it? He is far from condemning it. He only holds up as "blessed rather" another class: [Lu 11:28]:
But he said, Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it--in other words, the humblest real saint of God. How utterly alien is this sentiment from the teaching of the Church of Rome, which would doubtless excommunicate any one of its members that dared to talk in such a strain!
His Mother and Brethren Seek to Speak with Him and the Answer ([Mt 12:46-50]).
46. While he yet talked to the people, behold, his mother and his brethren--(See on [Mt 13:55], ).
stood without, desiring to speak with him--"and could not come at Him for the press" ([Lu 8:19]). For what purpose these came, we learn from [Mr 3:20], . In His zeal and ardor He seemed indifferent both to food and repose, and "they went to lay hold of Him" as one "beside Himself." Mark ([Mr 3:32]) says graphically, "And the multitude sat about Him"--or "around Him."
47. Then one said unto him, Behold, thy mother and thy brethren stand without, desiring to speak with thee, &c.--Absorbed in the awful warnings He was pouring forth, He felt this to be an unseasonable interruption, fitted to dissipate the impression made upon the large audience--such an interruption as duty to the nearest relatives did not require Him to give way to. But instead of a direct rebuke, He seizes on the incident to convey a sublime lesson, expressed in a style of inimitable condescension.
49. And he stretched forth his hand toward his disciples--How graphic is this! It is the language evidently of an eye-witness.
and said, Behold my mother and my brethren!
50. For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother--that is, "There stand here the members of a family transcending and surviving this of earth: Filial subjection to the will of My Father in heaven is the indissoluble bond of union between Me and all its members; and whosoever enters this hallowed circle becomes to Me brother, and sister, and mother!"
Chapter 13
Mt 13:1-52. Jesus Teaches by Parables. ( = Mr 4:1-34; Lu 8:4-18; 13:18-20)
Introduction ([Mt 13:1-3]).
1. The same day went Jesus out of the house, and sat by the seaside.
2. And great multitudes were gathered together unto him, so that he went into a ship--the article in the received text lacks authority
and sat; and the whole multitude stood on the shore--How graphic this picture!--no doubt from the pen of an eye-witness, himself impressed with the scene. It was "the same day" on which the foregoing solemn discourse was delivered, when His kindred thought Him "beside Himself" for His indifference to food and repose--that same day retiring to the seashore of Galilee; and there seating Himself, perhaps for coolness and rest, the crowds again flock around Him, and He is fain to push off from them, in the boat usually kept in readiness for Him; yet only to begin, without waiting to rest, a new course of teaching by parables to the eager multitudes that lined the shore. To the parables of our Lord there is nothing in all language to be compared, for simplicity, grace, fulness, and variety of spiritual teaching. They are adapted to all classes and stages of advancement, being understood by each according to the measure of his spiritual capacity.
3. And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, &c.--These parables are SEVEN in number; and it is not a little remarkable that while this is the sacred number, the first FOUR of them were spoken to the mixed multitude, while the remaining THREE were spoken to the Twelve in private--these divisions, four and three, being themselves notable in the symbolical arithmetic of Scripture. Another thing remarkable in the structure of these parables is, that while the first of the Seven--that of the Sower--is of the nature of an Introduction to the whole, the remaining Six consist of three pairs--the Second and Seventh, the Third and Fourth, and the Fifth and Sixth, corresponding to each other; each pair setting forth the same general truths, but with a certain diversity of aspect. All this can hardly be accidental.
First Parable: The Sower ([Mt 13:3-9, 18]-).
This parable may be entitled, The Effect of the Word Dependent on the State of the Heart. For the exposition of this parable, see on Mr 4:[1-9, 14-20].
Reason for Teaching in Parables ([Mt 13:10-17]).
10. And the disciples came, and said unto him--"they that were with Him, when they were alone" ([Mr 4:10]).
Why speakest thou to them in parables?--Though before this He had couched some things in the parabolic form, for more vivid illustration, it would appear that He now, for the first time, formally employed this method of teaching.
11. He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven--The word "mysteries" in Scripture is not used in its classical sense--of religious secrets, nor yet of things incomprehensible, or in their own nature difficult to be understood--but in the sense of things of purely divine revelation, and, usually, things darkly announced under the ancient economy, and during all that period darkly understood, but fully published under the Gospel ([1Co 2:6-10]; Ep 3:3-6, 8, ). "The mysteries of the kingdom of heaven," then, mean those glorious Gospel truths which at that time only the more advanced disciples could appreciate, and they but partially.
but to them it is not given--(See on [Mt 11:25]). Parables serve the double purpose of revealing and concealing; presenting "the mysteries of the kingdom" to those who know and relish them, though in never so small a degree, in a new and attractive light; but to those who are insensible to spiritual things yielding only, as so many tales, some temporary entertainment.
12. For whosoever hath--that is, keeps; as a thing which he values.
to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance--He will be rewarded by an increase of what he so much prizes.
but whosoever hath not--who lets this go or lie unused, as a thing on which he sets no value.
from him shall be taken away even that he hath--or as it is in Luke ([Lu 8:18]), "what he seemeth to have," or, thinketh he hath. This is a principle of immense importance, and, like other weighty sayings, appears to have been uttered by our Lord on more than one occasion, and in different connections. (See on [Mt 25:9]). As a great ethical principle, we see it in operation everywhere, under the general law of habit; in virtue of which moral principles become stronger by exercise, while by disuse, or the exercise of their contraries, they wax weaker, and at length expire. The same principle reigns in the intellectual world, and even in the animal--if not in the vegetable also--as the facts of physiology sufficiently prove. Here, however, it is viewed as a divine ordination, as a judicial retribution in continual operation under the divine administration.
13. Therefore speak I to them in parables--which our Lord, be it observed, did not begin to do till His miracles were malignantly ascribed to Satan.
because they seeing, see not--They "saw," for the light shone on them as never light shone before; but they "saw not," for they closed their eyes.
and hearing, they hear not; neither do they understand--They "heard," for He taught them who "spake as never man spake"; but they "heard not," for they took nothing in, apprehending not the soul-penetrating, life-giving words addressed to them. In Mark and Luke ([Mr 4:12]; [Lu 8:10]), what is here expressed as a human fact is represented as the fulfilment of a divine purpose--"that seeing they may see, and not perceive," &c. The explanation of this lies in the statement of the foregoing verse--that, by a fixed law of the divine administration, the duty men voluntarily refuse to do, and in point of fact do not do, they at length become morally incapable of doing.
14. And in them is fulfilled--rather, "is fulfilling," or "is receiving its fulfilment."
the prophecy of Esaias, which saith--([Is 6:9], --here quoted according to the Septuagint).