This
chapter is a continuation of Christ's discourses in the temple, two or three
days before he died. His discourses then are largely recorded, as being of
special weight and consequence. In this chapter, we have, I. Instruction
given, by the parable of the marriage-supper, concerning the rejection of
the Jews, and the calling of the Gentiles (ver. 1-10), and, by the doom of
the guest that had not the wedding-garment, the danger of hypocrisy in the
profession of Christianity, ver. 11-14. II. Disputes with the Pharisees,
Sadducees, and scribes, who opposed Christ, 1. Concerning paying tribute to
Cæsar, ver. 15-22. 2. Concerning the resurrection of the dead, and the
future state, ver. 23-33. 3. Concerning the great commandment of the law,
ver. 34-40. 4. Concerning the relation of the Messiah to David, ver. 41-46.
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The
Parable of the Marriage Feast.
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1 And Jesus answered and spake unto them
again by parables, and said, 2 The kingdom of heaven is like
unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son, 3 And
sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding: and
they would not come. 4 Again, he sent forth other servants,
saying, Tell them which are bidden, Behold, I have prepared my dinner: my
oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are
ready: come unto the marriage. 5 But they made light of it,
and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise:
6 And the remnant took his servants, and entreated them spitefully,
and slew them. 7 But when the king heard thereof,
he was wroth: and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers,
and burned up their city. 8 Then saith he to his servants, The
wedding is ready, but they which were bidden were not worthy. 9
Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the
marriage. 10 So those servants went out into the highways, and
gathered together all as many as they found, both bad and good: and the
wedding was furnished with guests. 11 And when the king came in
to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding
garment: 12 And he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in
hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless. 13
Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him
away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and
gnashing of teeth. 14 For many are called, but few are
chosen.
We have here the parable of the guests invited to the wedding-feast.
In this it is said (v. 1), Jesus answered, not to what his
opposers said (for they were put to silence), but to what they thought,
when they were wishing for an opportunity to lay hands on him, ch.
xxi. 46. Note, Christ knows how to answer men's thoughts, for he is a
Discerner of them. Or, He answered, that is, he continued his
discourse to the same purport; for this parable represents the gospel offer,
and the entertainment it meets with, as the former, but under another
similitude. The parable of the vineyard represents the sin of the rulers
that persecuted the prophets; it shows also the sin of the people, who
generally neglected the message, while their great ones were persecuting the
messengers.
I. Gospel preparations are here represented by a feast which a king made at
the marriage of his son; such is the kingdom of heaven, such the
provision made for precious souls, in and by the new covenant. The King
is God, a great King, King of kings. Now,
1. Here is a marriage made for his son, Christ is the Bridegroom, the
church is the bride; the gospel-day is the day of his espousals,
Cant. iii. 11. Behold by faith the church of the first-born, that are
written in heaven, and were given to Christ by him whose they were; and
in them you see the bride, the Lamb's wife, Rev. xxi. 9. The gospel
covenant is a marriage covenant betwixt Christ and believers, and it is a
marriage of God's making. This branch of the similitude is only mentioned,
and not prosecuted here.
2. Here is a dinner prepared for this marriage, v. 4. All the
privileges of church-membership, and all the blessings of the new covenant,
pardon of sin, the favour of God, peace of conscience, the promises of the
gospel, and all the riches contained in them, access to the throne of grace,
the comforts of the Spirit, and a well-grounded hope of eternal life. These
are the preparations for this feast, a heaven upon earth now, and a heaven
in heaven shortly. God has prepared it in his counsel, in his covenant. It
is a dinner, denoting present privileges in the midst of our day, beside the
supper at night in glory.
(1.) It is a feast. Gospel preparations were prophesied of as a
feast (Isa. xxv. 6), a feast of fat things, and were typified by
the many festivals of the ceremonial law (1 Cor. v. 8); Let us keep the
feast. A feast is a good day (Esth. vii. 17); so is the gospel;
it is a continual feast. Oxen and fatlings are killed for this feast;
no niceties, but substantial food; enough, and enough of the best. The day
of a feast is a day of slaughter, or sacrifice, Jam. v. 5. Gospel
preparations are all founded in the death of Christ, his sacrifice of
himself. A feast was made for love, it is a reconciliation feast, a token of
God's goodwill toward men. It was made for laughter (Eccl. x. 19), it
is a rejoicing feast. It was made for fulness; the design of the gospel was
to fill every hungry soul with good things. It was made for
fellowship, to maintain an intercourse between heaven and earth. We are sent
for to the banquet of wine, that we may tell what is our petition, and
what is our request.
(2.) It is a wedding feast. Wedding feasts are usually rich, free,
and joyful. The first miracle Christ wrought, was, to make plentiful
provision for a wedding feast (John ii. 7); and surely then he will not be
wanting in provision for his own wedding feast, when the marriage of the
Lamb is come, and the bride hath made herself ready, a victorious
triumphant feast, Rev. xix. 7, 17, 18.
(3.) It is a royal wedding feast; it is the feast of a king (1
Sam. xxv. 36), at the marriage, not of a servant, but of a son; and then, if
ever, he will, like Ahasuerus, show the riches of his glorious kingdom,
Esth. i. 4. The provision made for believers in the covenant of grace, is
not such as worthless worms, like us, had any reason to expect, but such as
it becomes the King of glory to give. He gives like himself; for he
gives himself to be to them El shaddai--a God that is enough, a feast
indeed for a soul.
II. Gospel calls and offers are represented by an invitation to this feast.
Those that make a feast will have guests to grace the feast with. God's
guests are the children of men. Lord, what is man, that he should be
thus dignified! The guests that were first invited were the Jews;
wherever the gospel is preached, this invitation is given; ministers are the
servants that are sent to invite, Prov. ix. 4, 5.
Now, 1. The guests are called, bidden to the wedding. All that are
within hearing of the joyful sound of the gospel, to them is the word of
this invitation sent. The servants that bring the invitation do not set down
their names in a paper; there is no occasion for that, since none are
excluded but those that exclude themselves. Those that are bidden to the
dinner are bidden to the wedding; for all that partake of gospel
privileges are to give a due and respectful attendance on the Lord Jesus, as
the faithful friends and humble servants of the Bridegroom. They are bidden
to the wedding, that they may go forth to meet the bridegroom;
for it is the Father's will that all men should honour the Son.
2. The guests are called upon; for in the gospel there are not only gracious
proposals made, but gracious persuasives. We persuade men, we beseech
them in Christ's stead, 2 Cor. v. 11, 20. See how much Christ's heart is
set upon the happiness of poor souls! He not only provides for them, in
consideration of their want, but sends to them, in consideration of their
weakness and forgetfulness. When the invited guests were slack in coming,
the king sent forth other servants, v. 4. When the prophets of
the Old Testament prevailed not, nor John the Baptist, nor Christ himself,
who told them the entertainment was almost ready (the kingdom of God was
at hand), the apostles and ministers of the gospel were sent after
Christ's resurrection, to tell them it was come, it was quite ready; and to
persuade them to accept the offer. One would think it had been enough to
give men an intimation that they had leave to come, and should be welcome;
that, during the solemnity of the wedding, the king kept open house; but,
because the natural man discerns not, and therefore desires not, the
things of the Spirit of God, we are pressed to accept the call by the
most powerful inducements, drawn with the cords of a man, and all the
bonds of love. If the repetition of the call will move us, Behold,
the Spirit saith, Come; and the bride saith, Come; let him that heareth say,
Come; let him that is athirst come, Rev. xxii. 17. If the reason of the
call will work upon us, Behold, the dinner is prepared, the oxen and
fatlings are killed, and all things are ready; the Father is ready to
accept of us, the Son to intercede for us, the Spirit to sanctify us; pardon
is ready; peace is ready, comfort is ready; the promises are ready, as wells
of living water for supply; ordinances are ready, as golden pipes for
conveyance; angels are ready to attend us, creatures are ready to be in
league with us, providences are ready to work for our good, and heaven, at
last, is ready to receive us; it is a kingdom prepared, ready to be
revealed in the last time. Is all this ready; and shall we be unready?
Is all this preparation made for us; and is there any room to doubt of our
welcome, if we come in a right manner? Come, therefore, O come to the
marriage; we beseech you, receive not all this grace of God in vain,
2 Cor. vi. 1.
III. The cold treatment which the gospel of Christ often meets with among
the children of men, represented by the cold treatment that this message met
with and the hot treatment that the messengers met with, in both which the
king himself and the royal bridegroom are affronted. This reflects primarily
upon the Jews, who rejected the counsel of God against themselves; but it
looks further, to the contempt that would, by many in all ages, be put upon,
and the opposition that would be given to, the gospel of Christ.
1. The message was basely slighted (v. 3); They would not come.
Note, The reason why sinners come not to Christ and salvation by him is, not
because they cannot, but because they will not (John v. 40); Ye
will not come to me. This will aggravate the misery of sinners, that
they might have had happiness for the coming for, but it was their own act
and deed to refuse it. I would, and ye would not. But this was not
all (v. 5); they made light of it; they thought it not worth
coming for; thought the messengers made more ado than needs; let them
magnify the preparations ever so much, they could feast as well at home.
Note, Making light of Christ, and of the great salvation wrought out by him,
is the damning sin of the world. 'AmelhsanteV--They
were careless. Note, Multitudes perish eternally through mere
carelessness, who have not any direct aversion, but a prevailing
indifference, to the matters of their souls, and an unconcernedness about
them.
And the reason why they made light of the marriage feast was, because
they had other things that they minded more, and had more mind to; they
went their ways, one to his farm, and another to his merchandise. Note,
The business and profit of worldly employments prove to many a great
hindrance in closing with Christ: none turn their back on the feast, but
with some plausible excuse or other, Luke xiv. 18. The country people have
their farms to look after, about which there is always something or other to
do; the town's people must tend their shops, and be constant upon the
exchange; they must buy, and sell, and get gain. It is true, that
both farmers and merchants must be diligent in their business but not so as
to keep them from making religion their main business. Licitis perimus
omnes--These lawful things undo us, when they are unlawfully managed,
when we are so careful and troubled about many things as to neglect
the one thing needful. Observe, Both the city and the country have
their temptations, the merchandise in the one, and the farms in the other;
so that, whatever we have of the world in our hands, our care must be to
keep it out of our hearts, lest it come between us and Christ.
2. The messengers were basely abused; The remnant, or the rest of
them, that is, those who did not go the farms, or merchandise,
were neither husbandmen nor tradesmen, but ecclesiastics, the scribes,
and Pharisees, and chief priests; these were the persecutors, these took
the servants, and treated them spitefully, and slew them. This, in the
parable, is unaccountable, never any could be so rude and barbarous as this,
to servants that came to invite them to a feast; but, in the application of
the parable, it was matter of fact; they whose feet should have been beautiful,
because they brought the glad tidings of the solemn feasts (Nahum i.
15), were treated as the offscouring of all things, 1 Cor. iv. 13.
The prophets and John the Baptist had been thus abused already, and the
apostles and ministers of Christ must count upon the same. The Jews were,
either directly or indirectly, agents in most of the persecutions of the
first preachers of the gospel; witness the history of the Acts, that
is, the sufferings of the apostles.
IV. The utter ruin that was coming upon the Jewish church and nation is here
represented by the revenge which the king, in wrath, took on these insolent
recusants (v. 7); He was wroth. The Jews, who had been the
people of God's love and blessing, by rejecting the gospel became the
generation of his wrath and curse. Wrath came upon them to the uttermost,
1 Thess. ii. 16. Now observe here,
1. What was the crying sin that brought the ruin; it was their being murderers.
He does not say, he destroyed those despisers of his call, but those
murderers of his servants; as if God were more jealous for the lives of
his ministers than for the honour of his gospel; he that toucheth them,
toucheth the apple of his eye. Note, Persecution of Christ's faithful
ministers fills the measure of guilt more than any thing. Filling
Jerusalem with innocent blood was that sin of Manasseh which the Lord
would not pardon, 2 Kings xxiv. 4.
2. What was the ruin itself, that was coming; He sent forth his armies.
The Roman armies were his armies, of his raising, of his sending against the
people of his wrath; and he gave them a charge to tread them down,
Isa. x. 6. God is the Lord of men's host, and makes what use he pleases of
them, to serve his own purposes, though they mean not so, neither doth
their heart think so, Isa. x. 7. See Mic. iv. 11, 12. His armies
destroyed those murderers, and burnt up their city. This points out very
plainly the destruction of the Jews, and the burning of Jerusalem, by the
Romans, forty years after this. No age ever saw a greater desolation than
that, nor more of the direful effects of fire and sword. Though Jerusalem
had been a holy city, the city that God had chosen, to put his name
there, beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth; yet that
city being now become a harlot, righteousness being no longer lodged in
it, but murderers, the worst of murderers (as the prophet speaks, Isa. i.
21), judgment came upon it, and ruin without remedy; and it is set forth for
an example to all that should oppose Christ and his gospel. It was the
Lord's doing, to avenge the quarrel of his covenant.
V. The replenishing of the church again, by the bringing in of the Gentiles,
is here represented by the furnishing of the feast with guests out of the
high-ways, v. 8-10.
Here is, 1. The complaint of the master of the feast concerning those that
were first bidden (v. 8), The wedding is ready, the covenant
of grace ready to be sealed, a church ready to be founded; but they which
were bidden, that is, the Jews, to whom pertained the covenant and
the promises, by which they were of old invited to the feast of fat
things, they were not worthy, they were utterly unworthy, and, by
their contempt of Christ, had forfeited all the privileges they were invited
to. Note, It is not owing to God, that sinners perish, but to themselves.
Thus, when Israel of old was within sight of Canaan, the land of promise was
ready, the milk and honey ready, but their unbelief and murmuring, and
contempt of that pleasant land, shut them out, and their carcases were left
to perish in the wilderness; and these things happened to them for
ensamples. See 1 Cor. x. 11; Heb. iii. 16-iv. 1.
2. The commission he gave to the servants, to invite other guests. The
inhabitants of the city (v. 7) had refused; Go into the
high-ways then; into the way of the Gentiles, which at first they
were to decline, ch. x. 5. Thus by the fall of the Jews salvation is
come to the Gentiles, Rom. xi. 11, 12; Eph. iii. 8. Note, Christ will have a
kingdom in the world, though many reject the grace, and resist the
power, of that kingdom. Though Israel be not gathered, he will be
glorious. The offer of Christ and salvation to the Gentiles was, (1.)
Unlooked for and unexpected; such a surprise as it would be to wayfaring men
upon the road to be met with an invitation to a wedding feast. The Jews had
notice of the gospel, long before, and expected the Messiah and his kingdom;
but to the Gentiles it was all new, what they had never heard of before
(Acts xvii. 19, 20), and, consequently, what they could not conceive of as
belonging to them. See Isa. lxv. 1, 2. (2.) It was universal and
undistinguishing; Go, and bid as many as you find. The highways are
public places, and there Wisdom cries, Prov. i. 20. "Ask them
that go by the way, ask any body (Job xxi. 29), high and low, rich and poor,
bond and free, young and old, Jew and Gentile; tell them all, that they
shall be welcome to gospel-privileges upon gospel-terms; whoever will, let
him come, without exception."
3. The success of this second invitation; if some will not come, others will
(v. 10); They gathered together all, as many as they found.
The servants obeyed their orders. Jonah was sent into the high-ways,
but was so tender of the honour of his country, that he avoided the errand;
but Christ's apostles, though Jews, preferred the service of Christ before
their respect to their nation; and St. Paul, though sorrowing for the Jews,
yet magnifies his office as the apostle of Gentiles. They gathered
together all. The design of the gospel is, (1.) To gather souls
together; not the nation of the Jews only, but all the children of God
who were scattered abroad (John xi. 52), the other sheep that were
not of that fold, John x. 16. They were gathered into one body, one
family, one corporation. (2.) To gather them together to the wedding-feast,
to pay their respect to Christ, and to partake of the privileges of the new
covenant. Where the dole is, there will the poor be gathered together.
Now the guests that were gathered were, [1.] A multitude, all, as many as
they found; so many, that the guest-chamber was filled. The sealed ones
of the Jews were numbered, but those of other nations were without
number, a very great multitude, Rev. vii. 9. See Isa. lx. 4, 8. [2.] A
mixed multitude, both bad and good; some that before their conversion
were sober and well-inclined, as the devout Greeks (Acts xvii. 4) and
Cornelius; others that had run to an excess of riot, as the Corinthians (1
Cor. vi. 11); Such were some of you; or, some that after their
conversion proved bad, that turned not to the Lord with all their heart,
but feignedly; others that were upright and sincere, and proved of the right
class. Ministers, in casting the net of the gospel, enclose both good
fish and bad; but the Lord knows them that are his.
VI. The case of hypocrites, who are in the church, but not of
it, who have a name to live, but are not alive indeed, is represented by the
guest that had not on a wedding garment; one of the bad that were
gathered in. Those come short of salvation by Christ, not only who refuse to
take upon them the profession of religion, but who are not sound at heart in
that profession. Concerning this hypocrite observe,
1. His discovery, how he was found out, v. 11.
(1.) The king came in to see the guests, to bid those welcome who
came prepared, and to turn those out who came otherwise. Note, The God of
heaven takes particular notice of those who profess religion, and have a
place and name in the visible church. Our Lord Jesus walks among the
golden candlesticks and therefore knows their works. See Rev. ii.
1, 2; Cant. vii. 12. Let this be a warning to us against hypocrisy, that
disguises will shortly be stripped off, and every man will appear in his own
colours; and an encouragement to us in our sincerity, that God is a witness
to it.
Observe, This hypocrite was never discovered to be without a wedding
garment, till the king himself came in to see the guests. Note,
It is God's prerogative to know who are sound at heart in their profession,
and who are not. We may be deceived in men, either one way or other; but He
cannot. The day of judgment will be the great discovering day, when all the
guests will be presented to the King: then he will separate between the
precious and the vile (ch. xxv. 32), the secrets of all hearts
will then be made manifest, and we shall infallibly discern between
the righteous and the wicked, which now it is not easy to do. It
concerns all the guests, to prepare for the scrutiny, and to consider how
they will pass the piercing eye of the heart-searching God.
(2.) As soon as he came in, he presently espied the hypocrite; He saw
there a man which had not on a wedding garment; though but one, he soon
had his eye upon him; there is no hope of being hid in a crowd from the
arrests of divine justice; he had not on a wedding garment; he was not
dressed as became a nuptial solemnity; he had not his best clothes on. Note,
Many come to the wedding feast without a wedding garment. If the gospel be
the wedding feast, then the wedding garment is a frame of heart, and a
course of life agreeable to the gospel and our profession of it, worthy
of the vocation wherewith we are called (Eph. iv. 1), as becomes the
gospel of Christ, Phil. i. 27. The righteousness of saints, their
real holiness and sanctification, and Christ, made Righteousness to them,
is the clean linen, Rev. xix. 8. This man was not naked, or in rags;
some raiment he had, but not a wedding garment. Those, and those only, who put
on the Lord Jesus, that have a Christian temper of mind, and are adorned
with Christian graces, who live by faith in Christ, and to whom he is all in
all, have the wedding garment.
2. His trial (v. 12); and here we may observe,
(1.) How he was arraigned (v. 12); Friend, how camest thou in
hither, not having a wedding garment? A startling question to one that
was priding himself in the place he securely possessed at the feast. Friend!
That was a cutting word; a seeming friend, a pretended friend, a friend in
profession, under manifold ties and obligations to be a friend. Note, There
are many in the church who are false friends to Jesus Christ, who say that
they love him while their hearts are not with him. How camest thou in
hither? He does not chide the servants for letting him in (the wedding
garment is an inward thing, ministers must go according to that which falls
within their cognizance); but he checks his presumption in crowding in, when
he knew that his heart was not upright; "How durst thou claim a share
in gospel benefits, when thou hadst no regard to gospel rules? What has
thou to do to declare my statutes?" Ps. l. 16, 17. Such are spots
in the feast, dishonour the bridegroom, affront the company, and disgrace
themselves; and therefore, How camest thou in hither? Note, The day
is coming, when hypocrites will be called to an account for all their
presumptuous intrusion into gospel ordinances, and usurpation of gospel
privileges. Who hath required this at your hand? Isa. i. 12. Despised
sabbaths and abused sacraments must be reckoned for, and judgment taken out
upon an action of waste against all those who received the grace of God
in vain. "How camest thou to the Lord's table, at such a time,
unhumbled and unsanctified? What brought thee to sit before God's prophets,
as his people do, when thy heart went after thy covetousness? How camest
thou in? Not by the door, but some other way, as a thief and a
robber. It was a tortuous entry, a possession without colour of a
title." Note, It is good for those that have a place in the church,
often to put it to themselves, "How came I in hither? Have I a
wedding-garment?" If we would thus judge ourselves, we should not be
judged.
(2.) How he was convicted; he was speechless: efimwqh--he
was muzzled (so the word is used, 1 Cor. ix. 9); the man stood mute,
upon his arraignment, being convicted and condemned by his own conscience.
They who live within the church, and die without Christ, will not have one
word to say for themselves in the judgment of the great day, they will be
without excuse; should they plead, We have eaten and drunk in thy
presence, as they do, Luke xiii. 26, that is to plead guilty; for the
crime they are charged with, is thrusting themselves into the presence of
Christ, and to his table, before they were called. They who never heard a
word of this wedding feast will have more to say for themselves; their sin
will be more excusable, and their condemnation more tolerable, than theirs
who came to the feast without the wedding garment, and so sin against the
clearest light and dearest love.
3. His sentence (v. 13); Bind him hand and foot, &c.
(1.) He is ordered to be pinioned, as condemned malefactors are, to be
manacled and shackled. Those that will not work and walk as they should, may
expect to be bound hand and foot. There is a binding in this world by the
servants, the ministers, whose suspending of persons that walk disorderly,
to the scandal of religion, is called binding of them, ch. xviii. 18.
"Bind them up from partaking of special ordinances, and the peculiar
privileges of their church-membership; bind them over to the righteous
judgment of god." In the day of judgment, hypocrites will be
bound; the angels shall bind up these tares in bundles for the fire, ch.
xiii. 41. Damned sinners are bound hand and foot by an irreversible
sentence; this signifies the same with the fixing of the great gulf; they
can neither resist nor outrun their punishment.
(2.) He is ordered to be carried off from the wedding feast; Take him
away. When the wickedness of hypocrites appears, they are to be taken
away from the communion of the faithful, to be cut of as withered branches.
This bespeaks the punishment of loss in the other world; they shall be taken
away from the king, from the kingdom, from the wedding feast, Depart from
me, ye cursed. It will aggravate their misery, that (like the
unbelieving lord, 2 Kings vii. 2), they shall see all this plenty with
their eyes, but shall not taste of it. Note, Those that walk unworthy of
their Christianity, forfeit all the happiness they presumptuously laid claim
to, and complimented themselves with a groundless expectation of.
(3.) He is ordered into a doleful dungeon; Cast him into utter darkness.
Our Saviour here insensibly slides out of this parable into that which it
intimates--the damnation of hypocrites in the other world. Hell is utter
darkness, it is darkness out of heaven, the land of light; or it is extreme
darkness, darkness to the last degree, without the least ray or spark of
light, or hope of it, like that of Egypt; darkness which might be felt;
the blackness of darkness, as darkness itself, Job x. 22. Note,
Hypocrites go by the light of the gospel itself down to utter darkness; and
hell will be hell indeed to such, a condemnation more intolerable; there
shall be weeping, and gnashing of teeth. This our Saviour often uses as
part of the description of hell-torments, which are hereby represented, not
so much by the misery itself, as by the resentment sinners will have of it;
there shall be weeping, an expression of great sorrow and anguish;
not a gush of tears, which gives present ease, but constant weeping, which
is constant torment; and the gnashing of teeth is an expression of
the greatest rage and indignation; they will be like a wild bull in a
net, full of the fury of the Lord, Isa. li. 20; viii. 21, 22. Let us
therefore hear and fear.
Lastly, The parable is concluded with that remarkable saying which we
had before (ch. xx. 16), Many are called, but few are chosen, v.
14. Of the many that are called to the wedding feast, if you set aside all
those as unchosen that make light of it, and avowedly prefer other things
before it; if then you set aside all that make a profession of religion, but
the temper of whose spirits and the tenour of whose conversation are a
constant contradiction to it; if you set aside all the profane, and all the
hypocritical, you will find that they are few, very few, that are chosen;
many called to the wedding feast, but few chosen to the wedding garment,
that is, to salvation, by sanctification of the Spirit. This is
the strait gate, and narrow way, which few find.
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The
Question Respecting Tribute.
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15 Then went the Pharisees, and took counsel
how they might entangle him in his talk. 16 And they sent
out unto him their disciples with the Herodians, saying, Master, we know
that thou art true, and teachest the way of God in truth, neither carest
thou for any man: for thou regardest not the person of men.
17 Tell us therefore, What thinkest thou? Is it lawful to give tribute unto
Caesar, or not? 18 But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and
said, Why tempt ye me, ye hypocrites? 19 show me the
tribute money. And they brought unto him a penny. 20 And he
saith unto them, Whose is this image and superscription?
21 They say unto him, Caesar's. Then saith he unto them, Render therefore
unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are
God's. 22 When they had heard these words, they
marvelled, and left him, and went their way.
It was not the least grievous of the sufferings of Christ, that he
endured the contradiction of sinners against himself, and had snares
laid for him by those that sought how to take him off with some pretence. In
these verses, we have him attacked by the Pharisees and Herodians with a
question about paying tribute to Cæsar. Observe,
I. What the design was, which they proposed to themselves; They took
counsel to entangle him in his talk. Hitherto, his encounters had been
mostly with the chief priests and the elders, men in authority, who trusted
more to their power than to their policy, and examined him concerning his
commission (ch. xxi. 23); but now he is set upon from another
quarter; the Pharisees will try whether they can deal with him by their
learning in the law, and in casuistical divinity, and they have a tentamen
novum--a new trial for him. Note, It is in vain for the best and wisest
of men to think that, by their ingenuity, or interest, or industry, or even
by their innocence and integrity, they can escape the hatred and ill will of
bad men, or screen themselves from the strife of tongues. See how
unwearied the enemies of Christ and his kingdom are in their opposition!
1. They took counsel. It was foretold concerning him, that the
rulers would take counsel against him (Ps. ii. 2); and so
persecuted they the prophets. Come, and let us devise devices against
Jeremiah. See Jer. xviii. 18; xx. 10. Note, The more there is of
contrivance and consultation about sin, the worse it is. There is a
particular woe to them that devise iniquity, Mic. ii. 1. The more
there is of the wicked wit in the contrivance of a sin, the more there is of
the wicked will in the commission of it.
2. That which they aimed at was to entangle him in his talk. They saw
him free and bold in speaking his mind, and hoped by that, if they could
bring him to some nice and tender point, to get an advantage against him. It
has been the old practice of Satan's agents and emissaries, to make a man an
offender for a word, a word misplaced, or mistaken, or misunderstood; a
word, though innocently designed, yet perverted by strained inuendos: thus
they lay a snare for him that reproveth in the gate (Isa. xxix. 21),
and represent the greatest teachers as the greatest troublers of Israel:
thus the wicked plotteth against the just, Ps. xxxvii. 12, 13.
There are two ways by which the enemies of Christ might be revenged on him,
and be rid of him; either by law or by force. By law they could not do it,
unless they could make him obnoxious to the civil government; for it was
not lawful for them to put any man to death (John xviii. 31); and the
Roman powers were not apt to concern themselves about questions of words,
and names, and their law, Acts xviii. 15. By force they could not do it,
unless they could make him obnoxious to the people, who were always the
hands, whoever were the heads, in such acts of violence, which they call the
beating of the rebels; but the people took Christ for a Prophet, and
therefore his enemies could not raise the mob against him. Now (as the old
serpent was from the beginning more subtle than any beast of the field),
the design was, to bring him into such a dilemma, that he must make himself
liable to the displeasure either of the Jewish multitude, or of the Roman
magistrates; let him take which side of the question he will, he shall run
himself into a premunire; and so they will gain their point, and make his
own tongue to fall upon him.
II. The question which they put to him pursuant to this design, v.
16, 17. Having devised this iniquity in secret, in a close cabal, behind the
curtain, when they went abroad without loss of time they practised it.
Observe,
1. The persons they employed; they did not go themselves, lest the design
should be suspected and Christ should stand the more upon his guard; but
they sent their disciples, who would look less like tempters, and more like
learners. Note, Wicked men will never want wicked instruments to be employed
in carrying on their wicked counsels. Pharisees have their disciples at
their beck, who will go any errand for them, and say as they say; and they
have this in their eyes, when they are so industrious to make proselytes.
With them they sent the Herodians, a party among the Jews, who were for a
cheerful and entire subjection to the Roman emperor, and to Herod his
deputy; and who made it their business to reconcile people to that
government, and pressed all to pay their tribute. Some think that they were
the collectors of the land tax, as the publicans were of the customs, and
that they went with the Pharisees to Christ, with this blind upon their
plot, that while the Herodians demanded the tax, and the Pharisees denied
it, they were both willing to refer it to Christ, as a proper Judge to
decide the quarrel. Herod being obliged, by the charter of the sovereignty,
to take care of the tribute, these Herodians, by assisting him in that,
helped to endear him to his great friends at Rome. The Pharisees, on the
other hand, were zealous for the liberty of the Jews, and did what they
could to make them impatient of the Roman yoke. Now, if he should
countenance the paying of tribute, the Pharisees would incense the people
against him; if he should discountenance or disallow it, the Herodians would
incense the government against him. Note, It is common for those that oppose
one another, to continue in an opposition to Christ and his kingdom.
Samson's foxes looked several ways, but met in one firebrand. See Ps.
lxxxiii. 3, 5, 7, 8. If they are unanimous in opposing, should not we be so
in maintaining, the interests of the gospel?
2. The preface, with which they were plausibly to introduce the question; it
was highly complimentary to our Saviour (v. 16); Master, we know
that thou art true, and teachest the way of God in truth. Note, It is a
common thing for the most spiteful projects to be covered with the most
specious pretences. Had they come to Christ with the most serious enquiry,
and the most sincere intention, they could not have expressed themselves
better. Here is hatred covered with deceit, and a wicked heart
with burning lips (Prov. xxvi. 23); as Judas, who kissed, and betrayed,
as Joab, who kissed, and killed.
Now, (1.) What they said of Christ was right, and whether they knew it or
no, blessed be God, we know it.
[1.] That Jesus Christ was a faithful Teacher; Thou art true, and
teachest the way of God in truth. For himself, he is true, the Amen,
the faithful Witness; he is the Truth itself. As for his doctrine, the
matter of his teaching was the way of God, the way that God requires us to
walk in, the way of duty, that leads to happiness; that is the way of God.
The manner of it was in truth; he showed people the right way, the way in
which they should go. He was a skilful Teacher, and knew the way of God;
and a faithful Teacher, that would be sure to let us know it. See Prov.
viii. 6-9. This is the character of a good teacher, to preach the truth, the
whole truth, and nothing but the truth, and not to suppress, pervert, or
stretch, any truth, for favour or affection, hatred or good will, either out
of a desire to please, or a fear to offend, any man.
[2.] That he was a bold Reprover. In preaching, he cared not for any;
he valued no man's frowns or smiles, he did not court, he did not dread,
either the great or the many, for he regarded not the person of man.
In his evangelical judgment, he did not know faces; that Lion of the
tribe of Judah, turned not away for any (Prov. xxx. 30), turned not a
step from the truth, nor from his work, for fear of the most formidable. He reproved
with equity (Isa. xi. 4), and never with partiality.
(2.) Though what they said was true for the matter of it, yet there was
nothing but flattery and treachery in the intention of it. They called him Master,
when they were contriving to treat him as the worst of malefactors; they
pretended respect for him, when they intended mischief against him; and they
affronted his wisdom as Man, much more his omniscience as God, of which he
had so often given undeniable proofs, when they imagined that they could
impose upon him with these pretences, and that he could not see through
them. It is the grossest atheism, that is the greatest folly in the world,
to think to put a cheat upon Christ, who searches the heart, Rev. ii. 23.
Those that mock God do but deceive themselves. Gal. vi. 7.
3. The proposal of the case; What thinkest thou? As if they had said,
"Many men are of many minds in this matter; it is a case which relates
to practice, and occurs daily; let us have thy thought freely in the matter,
Is it lawful to give tribute to Cæsar or not?" This implies a
further question; Has Cæsar a right to demand it? The nation of the Jews
was lately, about a hundred years before this, conquered by the Roman sword,
and so, as other nations, made subject to the Roman yoke, and became a
province of the empire; accordingly, toll, tribute, and custom, were
demanded from them, and sometimes poll-money. By this it appeared that the
sceptre was departed from Judah (Gen. xlix. 10); and therefore, if they
had understood the signs of the times, they must have concluded that Shiloh
was come, and either that this was he, or they must find out another
more likely to be so.
Now the question was, Whether it was lawful to pay these taxes voluntarily,
or, Whether they should not insist upon the ancient liberty of their nation,
and rather suffer themselves to be distrained upon? The ground of the doubt
was, that they were Abraham's seed, and should not by consent be in
bondage to any man, John viii. 33. God had given them a law, that they
should not set a stranger over them. Did not that imply, that they
were not to yield any willing subjection to any prince, state, or potentate,
that was not of their own nation and religion? This was an old mistake,
arising from that pride and that haughty spirit which bring destruction
and a fall. Jeremiah, in his time, though he spoke in God's name, could
not possibly beat them off it, nor persuade them to submit to the king of
Babylon; and their obstinacy in that matter was then their ruin (Jer. xxvii.
12, 13): and now again they stumbled at the same stone; and it was the very
thing which, in a few years after, brought final destruction upon them by
the Romans. They quite mistook the sense both of the precept and of the
privilege, and, under colour of God's word, contended with his providence,
when they should have kissed the rod, and accepted the punishment of their
iniquity.
However, by this question they hoped to entangle Christ, and, which way
soever he resolved it, to expose him to the fury either of the jealous Jews,
or of the jealous Romans; they were ready to triumph, as Pharaoh did over
Israel, that the wilderness had shut him in, and his doctrine would
be concluded either injurious to the rights of the church, or hurtful to
kings and provinces.
III. The breaking of this snare by the wisdom of the Lord Jesus.
1. He discovered it (v. 18); He perceived their wickedness;
for, surely in vain is the net spread in the sight of any bird, Prov.
i. 17. A temptation perceived is half conquered, for our greatest danger
lies from snakes under the green grass; and he said, Why tempt ye me, ye
hypocrites? Note, Whatever vizard the hypocrite puts on, our Lord Jesus
sees through it; he perceives all the wickedness that is in the hearts of
pretenders, and can easily convict them of it, and set it in order before
them. He cannot be imposed upon, as we often are, by flatteries and fair
pretences. He that searches the heart can call hypocrites by their own name,
as Ahijah did the wife of Jeroboam (1 Kings xiv. 6), Why feignest thou
thyself to be another? Why tempt ye me, ye hypocrites? Note, Hypocrites
tempt Jesus Christ; they try his knowledge, whether he can discover them
through their disguises; they try his holiness and truth, whether he will
allow of them in this church; but if they that of old tempted Christ,
when he was but darkly revealed, were destroyed of serpents, of how much
sorer punishment shall they be thought worthy who tempt him now in the
midst of gospel light and love! Those that presume to tempt Christ will
certainly find him too hard for them, and that he is of more piercing eyes
than not to see, and more pure eyes than not to hate, the disguised
wickedness of hypocrites, that dig deep to hide their counsel from him.
2. He evaded it; his convicting them of hypocrisy might have served for an
answer (such captious malicious questions deserve a reproof, not a reply):
but our Lord Jesus gave a full answer to their question, and introduced it
by an argument sufficient to support it, so as to lay down a rule for his
church in this matter, and yet to avoid giving offence, and to break the
snare.
(1.) He forced them, ere they were aware, to confess Cæsar's authority over
them, v. 19, 20. In dealing with those that are captious, it is good
to give our reasons, and, if possible, reasons of confessed cogency, before
we give our resolutions. Thus the evidence of truth may silence gainsayers
by surprise, while they only stood upon their guard against the truth
itself, not against the reason of it; Show me the tribute-money. He
had none of his own to convince them by; it should seem, he had not so much
as one piece of money about him, for for our sakes he emptied himself, and
became poor; he despised the wealth of this world, and thereby taught us not
to over-value it; silver and gold he had none; why then should we covet to
load ourselves with the thick clay? The Romans demanded their tribute in
their own money, which was current among the Jews at that time: that
therefore is called the tribute-money; he does not name what piece
but the tribute money, to show that he did not mind things of that
nature, nor concern himself about them; his heart was upon better things,
the kingdom of God and the riches and righteousness thereof, and ours should
be so too. They presently brought him a penny, a Roman penny in
silver, in value about sevenpence half-penny of our money, the most common
piece then in use: it was stamped with the emperor's image and
superscription, which was the warrant of the public faith for the value of
the pieces so stamped; a method agreed on by most nations, for the more easy
circulation of money with satisfaction. The coining of money has always been
looked upon as a branch of the prerogative, a flower of the crown, a royalty
belonging to the sovereign powers; and the admitting of that as the good and
lawful money of a country is an implicit submission to those powers, and an
owning of them in money matters. How happy is our constitution, and how
happy we, who live in a nation where, though the image and superscription be
the sovereign's, the property is the subject's, under the protection of the
laws, and what we have we can call our own!
Christ asked them, Whose image is this? They owned it to be Cæsar's,
and thereby convicted those of falsehood who said, We were never in
bondage to any; and confirmed what afterward they said, We have no
king but Cæsar. It is a rule in the Jewish Talmud, that "he is the
king of the country whose coin is current in the country." Some think
that the superscription upon this coin was a memorandum of the conquest of
Judea by the Romans, anno post captam Judæam--the year after that event;
and that they admitted that too.
(2.) From thence he inferred the lawfulness of paying tribute to Cæsar (v.
21); Render therefore to Cæsar the things that are Cæsar's; not,
"Give it him" (as they expressed it, v. 17), but,
"Render it; Return," or "Restore it; if Cæsar fill
the purses, let Cæsar command them. It is too late now to dispute paying
tribute to Cæsar; for you are become a province of the empire, and, when
once a relation is admitted, the duty of it must be performed. Render to
all their due, and particularly tribute to whom tribute is due."
Now by this answer,
[1.] No offence was given. It was much to the honour of Christ and his
doctrine, that he did not interpose as a Judge or a Divider in matters of
this nature, but left them as he found them, for his kingdom is not of
this world; and in this he hath given an example to his ministers, who
deal in sacred things, not to meddle with disputes about things secular, not
to wade far into controversies relating to them, but to leave that to those
whose proper business it is. Ministers that would mind their business, and
please their master, must not entangle themselves in the affairs of this
life: they forfeit the guidance of God's Spirit, and the convoy of his
providence when they thus to out of their way. Christ discusses not the
emperor's title, but enjoins a peaceable subjection to the powers that
be. The government therefore had no reason to take offence at his
determination, but to thank him, for it would strengthen Cæsar's interest
with the people, who held him for a Prophet; and yet such was the impudence
of his prosecutors, that, though he had expressly charged them to render
to Cæsar the things that are Cæsar's, they laid the direct contrary in
his indictment, that he forbade to give tribute to Cæsar, Luke xxiii.
2. As to the people, the Pharisees could not accuse him to them, because
they themselves had, before they were aware, yielded the premises, and then
it was too late to evade the conclusion. Note, Though truth seeks not a
fraudulent concealment, yet it sometimes needs a prudent management, to
prevent the offence which may be taken at it.
[2.] His adversaries were reproved. First, Some of them would have
had him make it unlawful to give tribute to Cæsar, that they might have a
pretence to save their money. Thus many excuse themselves from that which
they must do, by arguing whether they may do it or no. Secondly, They
all withheld from God his dues, and are reproved for that: while they were
vainly contending about their civil liberties, they had lost the life and
power of religion, and needed to be put in mind of their duty to God, with
that to Cæsar.
[3.] His disciples were instructed, and standing rules left to the church.
First, That the Christian religion is no enemy to civil government,
but a friend to it. Christ's kingdom doth not clash or interfere with the
kingdoms of the earth, in any thing that pertains to their jurisdiction. By
Christ kings reign.
Secondly, It is the duty of subjects to render to magistrates that
which, according to the laws of their country, is their due. The higher
powers, being entrusted with the public welfare, the protection of the
subject, and the conservation of the peace, are entitled, in consideration
thereof, to a just proportion of the public wealth, and the revenue of the
nation. For this cause pay we tribute, because they attend
continually to this very thing (Rom. xiii. 6); and it is doubtless a
greater sin to cheat the government than to cheat a private person. Though
it is the constitution that determines what is Cæsar's, yet, when that is
determined, Christ bids us render it to him; my coat is my coat, by the law
of man; but he is a thief, by the law of God, that takes it from me.
Thirdly, When we render to Cæsar the things that are Cæsar's, we
must remember withal to render to God the things that are God's. If our
purses be Cæsar's, our consciences are God's; he hath said, My son, give
me thy heart: he must have the innermost and uppermost place there; we
must render to God that which is his due, out of our time and out of our
estates; from them he must have his share as well as Cæsar his; and if Cæsar's
commands interfere with God's we must obey God rather than men.
Lastly, Observe how they were nonplussed by this answer; they marvelled,
and left him, and went their way, v. 22. They admired his
sagacity in discovering and evading a snare which they thought so craftily
laid. Christ is, and will be, the Wonder, not only of his beloved friends,
but of his baffled enemies. One would think they should have marvelled and
followed him, marvelled and submitted to him; no, they marvelled and left
him. Note, There are many in whose eyes Christ is marvellous, and yet not
precious. They admire his wisdom, but will not be guided by it, his power,
but will not submit to it. They went their way, as persons ashamed,
and made an inglorious retreat. The stratagem being defeated, they quitted
the field. Note, There is nothing got by contending with Christ.
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The
Question Respecting Marriage.
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23 The same day came to him the Sadducees,
which say that there is no resurrection, and asked him, 24
Saying, Master, Moses said, If a man die, having no children, his brother
shall marry his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother. 25 Now
there were with us seven brethren: and the first, when he had married a
wife, deceased, and, having no issue, left his wife unto his brother:
26 Likewise the second also, and the third, unto the seventh. 27
And last of all the woman died also. 28 Therefore in the
resurrection whose wife shall she be of the seven? for they all had
her. 29 Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not
knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God. 30 For in the
resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the
angels of God in heaven. 31 But as touching the resurrection of
the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God,
saying, 32 I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and
the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.
33 And when the multitude heard this, they were astonished at his
doctrine.
We have here Christ's dispute with the Sadducees concerning the
resurrection; it was the same day on which he was attacked by the Pharisees
about paying tribute. Satan was now more busy than ever to ruffle and
disturb him; it was an hour of temptation, Rev. iii. 10. The truth as
it is in Jesus will still meet with contradiction, in some branch or other
of it. Observe here,
I. The opposition which the Sadducees made to a very great truth of
religion; they say, There is no resurrection, as there are some fools
who say, There is no God. These heretics were called Sadducees
from one Sadoc, a disciple of Antigonus Sochæus, who flourished about two
hundred and eighty-four years before our Saviour's birth. They lie under
heavy censures among the writers of their own nation, as men of base and
debauched conversations, which their principles led them to. They were the
fewest in number of all the sects among the Jews, but generally persons of
some rank. As the Pharisees and Essenes seemed to follow Plato and
Pythagoras, so the Sadducees were much of the genius of the Epicureans; they
denied the resurrection, they said, There is no future state, no life after
this; that, when the body dies, the soul is annihilated, and dies with it;
that there is no state of rewards or punishments in the other world; no
judgment to come in heaven or hell. They maintained, that, except God, there
is not spirit (Acts xxiii. 8), nothing but matter and motion. They would not
own the divine inspiration of the prophets, nor any revelation from heaven,
but what God himself spoke upon mount Sinai. Now the doctrine of Christ
carried that great truth of the resurrection and a future state much further
than it had yet been revealed, and therefore the Sadducees in a particular
manner set themselves against it. The Pharisees and Sadducees were contrary
to each other, and yet confederates against Christ. Christ's gospel hath
always suffered between superstitious ceremonious hypocrites and bigots on
the one hand, and profane deists and infidels on the other. The former
abusing, the latter despising, the form of godliness, but both
denying the power of it.
II. The objection they made against the truth, which was taken from a
supposed case of a woman that had seven husbands successively; now they take
it for granted, that, if there be a resurrection, it must be a return to
such a state as this we are now in, and to the same circumstances, like the
imaginary Platonic year; and if so, it is an invincible absurdity for this
woman in the future state to have seven husbands, or else an insuperable
difficulty which of them should have her, he whom she had first, or he whom
she had last, or he whom she loved best, or he whom she lived longest with.
1. They suggest the law of Moses in this matter (v. 24), that the
next of kin should marry the widow of him that died childless (Deut. xxv.
5); we have it practised Ruth iv. 5. It was a political law, founded in the
particular constitution of the Jewish commonwealth, to preserve the
distinction of families and inheritances, of both which there was special
care taken in that government.
2. They put a case upon this statute, which, whether it were a case in
fact or only a moot case, is not at all material; if it had not
really occurred, yet possibly it might. It was of seven brothers, who
married the same woman, v. 25-27. Now this case supposes,
(1.) The desolations that death sometimes makes in families when it comes
with commission; how it often sweeps away a whole fraternity in a little
time;: seldom (as the case is put) according to seniority (the land of
darkness is without any order,) but heaps upon heaps; it diminishes
families that had multiplied greatly, Ps. cvii. 38, 39. When there were
seven brothers grown up to man's estate, there was a family very likely to
be built up; and yet this numerous family leaves neither son nor nephew,
nor any remaining in their dwellings, Job xviii. 19. Well may we say
then, Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it.
Let none be sure of the advancement and perpetuity of their names and
families, unless they could make a covenant of peace with death,
or be at an agreement with the grave.
(2.) The obedience of these seven brothers to the law, though they had a
power of refusal under the penalty of a reproach, Deut. xxv. 7. Note,
Discouraging providences should not keep us from doing our duty because we
must be governed by the rule, not by the event. The seventh, who ventured
last to marry the widow (many a one would say) was a bold man. I
would say, if he did it purely in obedience to God, he was a good
man, and one that made conscience of his duty.
But, last of all, the woman died also. Note, Survivorship is but a
reprieve; they that live long, and bury their relations and neighbours one
after another, do not thereby acquire an immortality; no, their day will
come to fall. Death's bitter cup goes round, and, sooner or later, we must
all pledge in it, Jer. xxv. 26.
3. They propose a doubt upon this case (v. 28); "In the
resurrection, whose wife shall she be of the seven? You cannot tell
whose; and therefore we must conclude there is no resurrection."
The Pharisees, who professed to believe a resurrection, had very gross and
carnal notions concerning it, and concerning the future state; expecting to
find there, as the Turks in their paradise, the delights and pleasures of
the animal life, which perhaps drove the Sadducees to deny the thing itself;
for nothing gives greater advantage to atheism and infidelity than the
carnality of those that make religion, either in its professions or in its
prospects, a servant to their sensual appetites and secular interests; while
those that are erroneous deny the truth, those that are superstitious betray
it to them. Now they, in this objection, went upon the Pharisees'
hypothesis. Note, It is not strange that carnal minds have very false
notions of spiritual and eternal things. The natural man receiveth not these
things, for they are foolishness to him. 1 Cor. ii. 14. Let truth be
set in a clear light, and then it appears in its full strength.
III. Christ's answer to this objection; by reproving their ignorance, and
rectifying their mistake, he shows the objection to be fallacious and
unconcluding.
1. He reproves their ignorance (v. 29); Ye do err. Note, Those
do greatly err, in the judgment of Christ, who deny the resurrection and a
future state. Here Christ reproves with the meekness of wisdom, and is not
so sharp upon them (whatever was the reason) as sometimes he was upon the
chief priests and elders; Ye do err, not knowing. Note, Ignorance is
the cause of error; those that are in the dark, miss their way. The patrons
of error do therefore resist the light, and do what they can to take
away the key of knowledge; Ye do err in this matter, not knowing.
Note, Ignorance is the cause of error about the resurrection and the future
state. What it is in its particular instances, the wisest and best
know not; it doth not yet appear what we shall be, it is a glory that is to
be revealed: when we speak of the state of separate souls, the resurrection
of the body, and of eternal happiness and misery, we are soon at a loss; we
cannot order our speech, by reason of darkness, but that it is a
thing about which we are not left in the dark; blessed be God, we are not;
and those who deny it are guilty of a willing and affected ignorance. It
seems, there were some Sadducees, some such monsters, among professing
Christians, some among you, that say, There is no resurrection of the
dead (1 Cor. xv. 12) and some that did in effect deny it, by turning it
into an allegory, saying, The resurrection is past already. Now
observe,
(1.) They know not the power of God; which would lead men to infer
that there may be a resurrection and a future state. Note, The
ignorance, disbelief, or weak belief, of God's power, is at the bottom of
many errors, particularly theirs who deny the resurrection. When we are told
of the soul's existence and agency in a state of separation from the body,
and especially that a dead body, which had lain many ages in the grave, and
is turned into common and indistinguished dust, that this shall be raised
the same body that it was, and live, move, and act, again; we are ready to
say, How can these things be? Nature allows it for a maxim, A
privatione ad habitum non datur regressus--The habits attaching to a state
of existence vanish irrecoverably with the state itself. If a man die,
shall he live again? And vain men, because they cannot comprehend the way
of it, question the truth of it; whereas, if we firmly believe in God
the Father Almighty, that nothing is impossible with God, all these
difficulties vanish. This therefore we must fasten upon, in the first place,
that God is omnipotent, and can do what he will; and then no room is left
for doubting but that he will do what he has promised; and, if so, why
should it be thought a thing incredible with you that God should raise the
dead? Acts xxvi. 8. His power far exceeds the power of nature.
(2.) They know not the scriptures, which decidedly affirm that there
shall be a resurrection and a future state. The power of God, determined and
engaged by his promise, is the foundation for faith to build upon. Now the
scriptures speak plainly, that the soul is immortal, and there is another
life after this; it is the scope both of the law and of the prophets, that
there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and of the
unjust, Acts xxiv. 14, 15. Job knew it (Job xix. 26), Ezekiel foresaw it
(Ezek. xxxvii.), and Daniel plainly foretold it, Dan. xii. 2. Christ rose
again according to the scriptures (1 Cor. xv. 3); and so shall we.
Those therefore who deny it, either have not conversed with the Scriptures,
or do not believe them, or do not take the true sense and meaning of them.
Note, Ignorance of the scripture is the rise of abundance of mischief.
2. He rectifies their mistake, and (v. 30) corrects those gross ideas
which they had of the resurrection and a future state, and fixes these
doctrines upon a true and lasting basis. Concerning that state, observe,
(1.) It is not like the state we are now in upon earth; They neither
marry, nor are given in marriage. In our present state marriage is
necessary; it was instituted in innocency; whatever intermission or neglect
there has been of other institutions, this was never laid aside, nor will be
till the end of time. In the old world, they were marrying, and giving in
marriage; the Jews in Babylon, when cut off from other ordinances, yet
were bid to take them wives, Jer. xxix. 6. All civilized nations have
had a sense of the obligation of the marriage covenant; and it is requisite
for the gratifying of the desires, and recruiting the deficiencies, of the
human nature. But, in the resurrection, there is no occasion for marriage;
whether in glorified bodies there will be any distinction of sexes some too
curiously dispute (the ancients are divided in their opinions about it);
but, whether there will be a distinction or not, it is certain that there
will be no conjunction; where God will be all in all, there needs no
other meet-help; the body will be spiritual, and there will be
in it no carnal desires to be gratified: when the mystical body is
completed, there will be no further occasion to seek a godly seed,
which was one end of the institution of marriage, Mal. ii. 15. In heaven
there will be no decay of the individuals, and therefore no eating and
drinking; no decay of the species, and therefore no marrying; where there
shall be no more deaths (Rev. xxi. 4), there need be no more births. The
married state is a composition of joys and cares; those that enter upon it
are taught to look upon it as subject to changes, richer and poorer,
sickness and health; and therefore it is fit for this mixed, changing
world; but as in hell, where there is no joy, the voice of the bridegroom
and the voice of the bride shall be heard no more at all, so in heaven,
where there is all joy, and no care or pain or trouble, there will be no
marrying. The joys of that state are pure and spiritual, and arise from the
marriage of all of them to the Lamb, not of any of them to one another.
(2.) It is like the state angels are now in in heaven; They are as the
angels of God in heaven; they are so, that is, undoubtedly they
shall be so. They are so already in Christ their Head, who has made them sit
with him in heavenly places, Eph. ii. 6. The spirits of just men already
made perfect are of the same corporation with the innumerable company of
angels, Heb. xii. 22, 23. Man in his creation was made a little lower
than the angels (Ps. viii. 5); but in his complete redemption and
renovation will be as the angels; pure and spiritual as the angels, knowing
and loving as those blessed seraphim, ever praising God like them and with
them. The bodies of the saints shall be raised incorruptible and glorious,
like the uncompounded vehicles of those pure and holy spirits (1 Cor. xv.
42, &c.), swift and strong, like them. We should therefore desire
and endeavour to do the will of God now as the angels do it in heaven,
because we hope shortly to be like the angels who always behold our Father's
face. He saith nothing of the state of the wicked in the resurrection; but,
by consequence, they shall be like the devils, whose lusts they have done.
IV. Christ's argument to confirm this great truth of the resurrection and a
future state; the matters being of great concern, he did not think it enough
(as in some other disputes) to discover the fallacy and sophistry of the
objection, but backed the truth with a solid argument; for Christ brings
forth judgment to truth as well as victory, and enables his followers to
give a reason of the hope that is in them. Now observe,
1. Whence he fetched his argument--from the scripture; that is the great
magazine or armoury whence we may be furnished with spiritual weapons,
offensive and defensive. It is written is Goliath's sword. Have ye
not read that which was spoken to you by God? Note, (1.) What the
scripture speaks God speaks. (2.) What was spoken to Moses was spoken to us;
it was spoken and written for our learning. (3.) It concerns us to
read and hear what God hath spoken, because it is spoken to us. It was
spoken to you Jews in the first place, for to them were committed the
oracles of God. The argument is fetched from the books of Moses, because the
Sadducees received them only, as some think, or, at least, them
chiefly, for canonical scriptures; Christ therefore fetched his proof from
the most indisputable fountain. The latter prophets have more express proofs
of a future state than the law of Moses has; for though the law of Moses
supposes the immortality of the soul and a future state, as principles of
what is called natural religion, yet no express revelation of it is made by
the law of Moses; because so much of that law was peculiar to that people,
and was therefore guarded as municipal laws used to be with temporal
promises and threatenings, and the more express revelation of a future state
was reserved for the latter days; but our Saviour finds a very solid
argument for the resurrection even in the writings of Moses. Much scripture
lies under ground, that must be digged for.
2. What his argument was (v. 32); I am the God of Abraham.
This was not an express proof, totidem verbis--in so many words; and
yet it was really a conclusive argument. Consequences from scripture, if
rightly deduced, must be received as scripture; for it was written for those
that have the use of reason.
Now the drift of the argument is to prove,
(1.) That there is a future state, another life after this, in which the
righteous shall be truly and constantly happy. This is proved from what God
said; I am the God of Abraham.
[1.] For God to be any one's God supposes some very extraordinary privilege
and happiness; unless we know fully what God is, we could not comprehend the
riches of that word, I will be to thee a God, that is, a Benefactor
like myself. The God of Israel is a God to Israel (1 Chron.
xvii. 24), a spiritual Benefactor; for he is the Father of spirits, and
blesseth with spiritual blessings: it is to be an all-sufficient Benefactor,
a God that is enough, a complete Good, and an eternal Benefactor; for he is
himself an everlasting God, and will be to those that are in covenant with
him an everlasting Good. This great word God had often said to Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob; and it was intended as a recompence for their singular
faith and obedience, in quitting the country at God's call. The Jews had a
profound veneration for those three patriarchs, and would extend the promise
God made them to the uttermost.
[2.] It is manifest that these good men had no such extraordinary happiness,
in this life, as might look any thing like the accomplishment of so
great a word as that. They were strangers in the land of promise, wandering,
pinched with famine; they had not a foot of ground of their own but a
burying-place, which directed them to look for something beyond this life.
In present enjoyments they came far short of their neighbours that were
strangers to this covenant. What was there in this world to distinguish them
and the heirs of their faith from other people, any whit proportionable to
the dignity and distinction of this covenant? If no happiness had been
reserved for these great and good men on the other side of death, that
melancholy word of poor Jacob's, when he was old (Gen. xlvii. 9), Few and
evil have the days of the years of my life been, would have been an
eternal reproach to the wisdom, goodness, and faithfulness, of that God who
had so often called himself the God of Jacob.
[3.] Therefore there must certainly be a future state, in which, as God will
ever live to be eternally rewarding, so Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, will ever
live to be eternally rewarded. That of the apostle (Heb. xi. 16), is a key
to this argument, where, when he had been speaking of the faith and
obedience of the patriarchs in the land of their pilgrimage, he adds, Wherefore
God is not ashamed to be called their God; because he has provided
for them a city, a heavenly city; implying, that if he had not provided
so well for them in the other world, considering how they sped in this, he
would have been ashamed to have called himself their God; but now he
is not, having done that for them which answers it in its true intent and
full extent.
(2.) That the soul is immortal, and the body shall rise again, to be united;
if the former point be gained, these will follow; but they are likewise
proved by considering the time when God spoke this; it was to Moses at the
bush, long after Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, were dead and buried; and yet
God saith, not, "I was," or "have been,"
but I am the God of Abraham. Now God is not God of the dead, but
of the living. He is a living God, and communicates vital influences to
those to whom he is a God. If, when Abraham died, there had been an end of
him, there had been an end likewise of God's relation to him as his God; but
at that time, when God spoke to Moses, he was the God of Abraham, and
therefore Abraham must be then alive; which proves the immortality of the
soul in a state of bliss; and that, by consequence, infers the resurrection
of the body; for there is such an inclination in the human soul to its body,
as would make a final and eternal separation inconsistent with the bliss of
those that have God for their God. The Sadducees' notion was, that
the union between body and soul is so close, that, when the body dies, the
soul dies with it. Now, upon the same hypothesis, if the soul lives, as it
certainly does, the body must some time or other live with it. And besides,
the Lord is for the body, it is an essential part of the man; there is a
covenant with the dust, which will be remembered, otherwise the man
would not be happy. The charge which the dying patriarchs gave concerning
their bones, and that in faith, was an evidence that they had some
expectation of the resurrection of their bodies. But this doctrine was
reserved for a more full revelation after the resurrection of Christ, who was
the first-fruits of them that slept.
Lastly, We have the issue of this dispute. The Sadducees were put
to silence (v. 34), and so put to shame. They thought by their
subtlety to put Christ to shame, when they were preparing shame for
themselves. But the multitude were astonished at this doctrine, v.
33. 1. Because it was new to them. See to what a sad pass the exposition of
scripture was come among them, when people were astonished at it as a
miracle to hear the fundamental promise applied to this great truth; they
had sorry scribes, or this had been no news to them. 2. Because it had
something in it very good and great. Truth often shows the brighter, and is
the more admired, for its being opposed. Observe, Many gainsayers are
silenced, and many hearers astonished, without being savingly converted; yet
even in the silence and astonishment of unsanctified souls God magnifies his
law, magnifies his gospel, and makes both honourable.
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The
Substance of the Commandments.
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34 But when the Pharisees had heard that he
had put the Sadducees to silence, they were gathered together.
35 Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question,
tempting him, and saying, 36 Master, which is the great
commandment in the law? 37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love
the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy
mind. 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39
And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as
thyself. 40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the
prophets.
Here is a discourse which Christ had with a Pharisee-lawyer, about the great
commandment of the law. Observe,
I. The combination of the Pharisees against Christ, v. 34. They heard
that he had put the Sadducees to silence, had stopped their mouths,
though their understandings were not opened; and they were gathered
together, not to return him the thanks of their party, as they ought to
have done, for his effectually asserting and confirming of the truth against
the Sadducees, the common enemies of their religion, but to tempt him,
in hopes to get the reputation of puzzling him who had puzzled the
Sadducees. They were more vexed that Christ was honoured, than pleased that
the Sadducees were silenced; being more concerned for their own tyranny and
traditions, which Christ opposed, than for the doctrine of the resurrection
and a future state, which the Sadducees opposed. Note, It is an instance of
Pharisaical envy and malice, to be displeased at the maintaining of a
confessed truth, when it is done by those we do not like; to sacrifice a
public good to private piques and prejudices. Blessed Paul was otherwise
minded, Phil. i. 18.
II. The lawyer's question, which he put to Christ. The lawyers were students
in, and teachers of, the law of Moses, as the scribes were; but some think
that in this they differed, that they dealt more in practical
questions than the scribes; they studied and professed casuistical divinity.
This lawyer asked him a question, tempting him; not with any design
to ensnare him, as appears by St. Mark's relation of the story, where we
find that this was he to whom Christ said, Thou are not far from the
kingdom of God, Mark xii. 34, but only to see what he would say, and to
draw on discourse with him, to satisfy his own and his friends' curiosity.
1. The question was, Master, which is the greatest commandment of the
law? A needless question, when all the things of God's law are great
things (Hos. viii. 12), and the wisdom from above is without partiality,
partiality in the law (Mal. ii. 9), and hath respect to them all. Yet it is
true, there are some commands that are the principles of the oracles of God,
more extensive and inclusive than others. Our Saviour speaks of the weightier
matters of the law, ch. xxiii. 23.
2. The design was to try him, or tempt him; to try, not so much his
knowledge as his judgment. It was a question disputed among the critics in
the law. Some would have the law of circumcision to be the great
commandment, others the law of the sabbath, others the law of sacrifices,
according as they severally stood affected, and spent their zeal; now they
would try what Christ said to this question, hoping to incense the people
against him, if he should not answer according to the vulgar opinion; and if
he should magnify one commandment, they would reflect on him as vilifying
the rest. The question was harmless enough; and it appears by comparing Luke
x. 27, 28, that it was an adjudged point among the lawyers, that the love
of God and our neighbour is the great commandment, and the sum of
all the rest, and Christ had there approved it; so the putting of it to him
here seems rather a scornful design to catechise him as a child, than
spiteful design to dispute with him as an adversary.
III. Christ's answer to this question; it is well for us that such a
question was asked him, that we might have his answer. It is no
disparagement to great men to answer plain questions. Now Christ recommends
to us those as the great commandments, not which are so exclusive of others,
but which are therefore great because inclusive of others. Observe,
1. Which these great commandments are (v. 37-39); not the judicial
laws, those could not be the greatest now that the people of the Jews, to
whom they pertained, were so little; not the ceremonial laws, those could
not be the greatest, now that they were waxen old, and were ready to vanish
away; nor any particular moral precept; but the love of God and our
neighbour, which are the spring and foundation of all the rest, which (these
being supposed) will follow of course.
(1.) All the law is fulfilled in one word, and that is, love. See
Rom. xiii. 10. All obedience begins in the affections, and nothing in
religion is done right, that is not done there first. Love is the leading
affection, which gives law, and gives ground, to the rest; and therefore
that, as the main fort, is to be first secured and garrisoned for God. Man
is a creature cut out for love; thus therefore is the law written in the
heart, that it is a law of love. Love is a short and sweet word; and,
if that be the fulfilling of the law, surely the yoke of the command
is very easy. Love is the rest and satisfaction of the soul; if we walk in
this good old way, we shall find rest.
(2.) The love of God is the first and great commandment of all, and
the summary of all the commands of the first table. The proper act of love
being complacency, good is the proper object of it. Now God, being good
infinitely, originally, and eternally, is to be loved in the first place,
and nothing loved beside him, but what is loved for him. Love is the
first and great thing that God demands from us, and therefore the first and
great thing that we should devote to him.
Now here we are directed,
[1.] To love God as ours; Thou shalt love the Lord they God as thine.
The first commandment is, Thou shalt have no other God; which implies
that we must have him for our God, and that will engage our love to him.
Those that made the sun and moon their gods, loved them, Jer. viii. 2;
Judges xviii. 24. To love God as ours is to love him because he is ours, our
Creator, Owner, and Ruler, and to conduct ourselves to him as ours, with
obedience to him, and dependence on him. We must love God as reconciled to
us, and made ours by covenant; that is the foundation of this, Thy God.
[2.] To love him with all our heart, and soul, and mind. Some make
these to signify one and the same thing, to love him with all our powers;
others distinguish them; the heart, soul, and mind, are the will,
affections, and understanding; or the vital, sensitive, and intellectual
faculties. Our love of God must be a sincere love, and not in word and
tongue only, as theirs is who say they love him, but their hearts are not
with him. It must be a strong love, we must love him in the most intense
degree; as we must praise him, so we must love him, with all
that is within us, Ps. ciii. 1. It must be a singular and superlative
love, we must love him more than any thing else; this way the stream of our
affections must entirely run. The heart must be united to love God, in
opposition to a divided heart. All our love is too little to bestow upon
him, and therefore all the powers of the soul must be engaged for him, and
carried out toward him. This is the first and great commandment; for
obedience to this is the spring of obedience to all the rest; which is then
only acceptable, when it flows from love.
(3.) To love our neighbour as ourselves is the second great
commandment (v. 39); It is like unto that first; it is
inclusive of all the precepts of the second table, as that is of the first.
It is like it, for it is founded upon it, and flows from it; and a
right love to our brother, whom we have seen, is both an instance and an
evidence of our love to God, whom we have not seen, 1 John iv. 20.
[1.] It is implied, that we do, and should, love ourselves. There is a
self-love which is corrupt, and the root of the greatest sins, and it must
be put off and mortified: but there is a self-love which is natural, and the
rule of the greatest duty, and it must be preserved and sanctified. We must
love ourselves, that is, we must have a due regard to the dignity of our own
natures, and a due concern for the welfare of our own souls and bodies.
[2.] It is prescribed, that we love our neighbour as ourselves. We
must honour and esteem all men, and must wrong and injure none; must have a
good will to all, and good wishes for all, and, as we have opportunity, must
do good to all. We must love our neighbour as ourselves, as truly and
sincerely as we love ourselves, and in the same instances; nay, in many
cases we must deny ourselves for the good of our neighbour, and must make
ourselves servants to the true welfare of others, and be willing to spend
and be spent for them, to lay down our lives for the brethren.
2. Observe what the weight and greatness of these commandments is (v.
40); On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets;
that is, This is the sum and substance of all those precepts relating to
practical religion which were written in men's hearts by nature, revived by
Moses, and backed and enforced by the preaching and writing of the prophets.
All hang upon the law of love; take away this, and all falls to the ground,
and comes to nothing. Rituals and ceremonials must give way to these, as
must all spiritual gifts, for love is the more excellent way. This is the
spirit of the law, which animates it, the cement of the law, which joins it;
it is the root and spring of all other duties, the compendium of the whole
Bible, not only of the law and the prophets, but of the gospel too, only
supposing this love to be the fruit of faith, and that we love God in
Christ, and our neighbour for his sake. All hangs on these two commandments,
as the effect doth both on its efficient and on its final cause; for the
fulfilling of the law is love (Rom. xiii. 10) and the end of the law
is love, 1 Tim. i. 5. The law of love is the nail, is the nail in the
sure place, fastened by the masters of assemblies (Eccl. xii. 11), on
which is hung all the glory of the law and the prophets (Isa. xxii.
24), a nail that shall never be drawn; for on this nail all the glory of the
new Jerusalem shall eternally hang. Love never faileth. Into these
two great commandments therefore let our hearts be delivered as into a
mould; in the defence and evidence of these let us spend our zeal, and not
in notions, names, and strifes of words, as if those were the mighty things
on which the law and the prophets hung, and to them the love of God and our
neighbour must be sacrificed; but to the commanding power of these let every
thing else be made to bow.
41 While the Pharisees were gathered
together, Jesus asked them, 42 Saying, What think ye of Christ?
whose son is he? They say unto him, The Son of David. 43
He saith unto them, How then doth David in spirit call him Lord,
saying, 44 The LORD
said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy
footstool? 45 If David then call him Lord, how is he his
son? 46 And no man was able to answer him a word, neither durst
any man from that day forth ask him any more questions.
Many questions the Pharisees had asked Christ, by which, though they thought
to pose him, they did but expose themselves; but now let him ask them
a question; and he will do it when they are gathered together, v. 41.
He did not take some one of them apart from the rest (ne Hercules contra
duos--Hercules himself may be overmatched), but, to shame them the more,
he took them all together, when they were in confederacy and consulting
against him, and yet puzzled them. Note, God delights to baffle his enemies
when they most strengthen themselves; he gives them all the advantages they
can wish for, and yet conquers them. Associate yourselves, and you shall
be broken in pieces, Isa. iii. 9, 10. Now here,
I. Christ proposes a question to them, which they could easily answer; it
was a question in their own catechism; "What think ye of Christ?
Whose Son is He? Whose Son do you expect the Messiah to be, who was
promised to the fathers?" This they could easily answer, The Son of
David. It was the common periphrasis of the Messiah; they called him the
Son of David. So the scribes, who expounded the scripture, had taught
them, from Ps. lxxxix. 35, 36, I will not lie unto David; his seed shall
endure for ever (Isa. ix. 7), upon the throne of David. And Isa.
xi. 1, A rod out of the stem of Jesse. The covenant of royalty made
with David was a figure of the covenant of redemption made with Christ, who
as David, was made King with an oath, and was first humbled and then
advanced. If Christ was the Son of David, he was really and truly Man.
Israel said, We have ten parts in David; and Judah said, He is our
bone and our flesh; what part have we then in the Son of David, who took
our nature upon him?
What think ye of Christ? They had put questions to him, one after
another, out of the law; but he comes and puts a question to them upon the
promise. Many are so full of the law, that they forget Christ, as if their
duties would save them without his merit and grace. It concerns each of us
seriously to ask ourselves, What think we of Christ? Some think not of him
at all, he is not in all, not in any, of their thoughts; some think meanly,
and some think hardly, of him; but to them that believe he is precious;
and how precious then are the thoughts of him! While the daughters
of Jerusalem think no more of Christ than of another beloved; the
spouse thinks of him as the Chief of ten thousands.
II. He starts a difficulty upon their answer, which they could not easily
solve, v. 43-45. Many can so readily affirm the truth, that they
think they have knowledge enough to be proud of, who, when they are called
to confirm the truth, and to vindicate and defend it, show they have
ignorance enough to be ashamed of. The objection Christ raised was, If
Christ be David's son, how then doth David, in spirit, call him Lord? He
did not hereby design to ensnare them, as they did him, but to instruct them
in a truth they were loth to believe--that the expected Messiah is God.
1. It is easy to see that David calls Christ Lord, and this in spirit
being divinely inspired, and actuated therein by a spirit of prophecy; for
it was the Spirit of the Lord that spoke by him, 2 Sam. xxiii. 1, 2.
David was one of those holy men that spoke as they were moved by
the Holy Ghost, especially in calling Christ Lord; for it was
then, as it is still (1 Cor. xii. 3) that no man can say that Jesus is
the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost. Now, to prove that David, in spirit,
called Christ Lord, he quotes Ps. cx. 1, which psalm the scribes
themselves understood of Christ; of him, it is certain, the prophet there
speaks, of him and of no other man; and it is a prophetical summary of the
doctrine of Christ, it describes him executing the offices of a Prophet,
Priest, and King, both in his humiliation and also in his exaltation.
Christ quotes the whole verse, which shows the Redeemer in his exaltation;
(1.) Sitting at the right hand of God. His sitting denotes both rest
and rule; his sitting at God's right hand denotes superlative honour and
sovereign power. See in what great words this is expressed (Heb. viii. 1); He
is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty. See Phil. ii. 9;
Eph. i. 20. He did not take this honour to himself, but was entitled to it
by covenant with his Father, and invested in it by commission from him, and
here is that commission. (2.) Subduing his enemies. There he shall sit, till
they be all made either his friends or his footstool. The carnal mind,
wherever it is, is enmity to Christ; and that is subdued in the conversion
of the willing people that are called to his foot (as the expression is,
Isa. xli. 2), and in the confusion of his impenitent adversaries, who shall
be brought under his foot, as the kings of Canaan were under the feet of
Joshua.
But that which this verse is quoted for is, that David calls the Messiah his
Lord; the Lord, Jehovah, said unto my Lord. This intimates to us,
that in expounding scripture we must take notice of, and improve, not only
that which is the main scope and sense of a verse, but of the words and
phrases, by which they Spirit chooses to express that sense, which have
often a very useful and instructive significance. Here is a good note from
that word, My Lord.
2. It is not so easy for those who believe not the Godhead of the Messiah,
to clear this from an absurdity, if Christ b David's son. It is incongruous
for the father to speak of his son, the predecessor of his successor, as his
Lord. If David call him Lord, that is laid down (v. 45)
as the magis notum--the more evident truth; for whatever is said of
Christ's humanity and humiliation must be construed and understood in
consistency with the truth of his divine nature and dominion. We must hold
this fast, that he is David's Lord, and by that explain his being David's
son. The seeming differences of scripture, as here, may not only be
accommodated, but contribute to the beauty and harmony of the whole. Amicæ
scripturarum lites, utinam et nostræ--The differences observable in the
scriptures are of a friendly kind; would to God that our differences were of
the same kind!
III. We have here the success of this gentle trial which Christ made of the
Pharisees' knowledge, in two things.
1. It puzzled them (v. 46); No man was able to answer him a word.
Either it was their ignorance that they did not know, or their impiety that
they would not own, the Messiah to be God; which truth was the only key to
unlock this difficulty. What those Rabbies could not then answer, blessed be
God, the plainest Christian that is led into the understanding of the gospel
of Christ, can now account for; that Christ, as God, was David's Lord;
and Christ, as Man, was David's son. This he did not now himself
explain, but reserved it till the proof of it was completed by his
resurrection; but we have it fully explained by him in his glory (Rev. xxii.
16); I am the root and the offspring of David. Christ, as God, was
David's Root; Christ, as Man, was David's Offspring. If we
hold not fast this truth, that Jesus Christ is over all God blessed for
ever, we run ourselves into inextricable difficulties. And well might David,
his remote ancestor, call him Lord, when Mary, his immediate mother,
after she had conceived him, called him, Lord and God, her Saviour,
Luke i. 46, 47.
2. It silenced them, and all others that sought occasion against him; Neither
durst any man, from that day forth, ask him any more such captious,
tempting, ensnaring questions. Note, God will glorify himself in the
silencing of many whom he will not glorify himself in the salvation of. Many
are convinced, that are not converted, by the word. Had these been
converted, they would have asked him more questions, especially that great
question, What must we do to be saved? But since they could not gain
their point, they would have no more to do with him. But, thus all that
strive with their Master shall be convinced, as these Pharisees and lawyers
here were, of the inequality of the match.
