Matthew 11:2-30 Now when John had heard in the prison the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples, Note in introduction that St. Luke's placing of this narrative is the preferable one. it was during the period of absence of the twelve, after they had been "commanded," that John was beheaded. The entire current of tiffs chapter, that seems so exceptional in its character in some respects, is blown upon and troubled, as it were, by that presence, an ever-disturbing one, the phenomenal one, of unbelief. Notice - I. A PROPHET'S FORESEEING OF THE WORKING OF UNBELIEF, POSSIBLY EVEN BEING TOUCHED WITH A FEELING OF IT HIMSELF; AND HIS PROVISION AGAINST IT, WHETHER FOR HIS PEOPLE ALONE OR FOR, THE SAKE OF HIMSELF AND THEM. It is stud by Jesus Christ here that a greater prophet had not arisen than John the Baptist. He had heralded Christ; he had baptized him; he had announced and pointed to him as "the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world," and worthily had he already confessed him and the truth before the gainsaying and the ungodly. It is just conceivable that, in his prison and bonds, stone untoward wave of doubt may have crossed his peaceful breast. But it is all the more unlikely, whereas we read that it was when he heard through his disciples of the mighty works of Christ that he sent the question, "Art thou he that should conic, or do we look for another?" Again, as his end drew near, it was certainly not merely plausibly, but justly and really likely, that his anxiety for the informed faith, and the strong, firm faith of his disciples, should be quickened. Had the evangelist made one comment of his own that the reason of John, when he sent his interrogation to his Lord and Master, was "to the end that" his own little flock, soon to be as sheep without their Shepherd, "might" the rather "believe," and might not fail to know the one, only good Shepherd, this old question would never once have been stirred. That neither of the evangelists does this need be no surprise at all to us, unless indeed it might be to a suggestion of our too easily awaking unbelief, oscillating as we so often are, between unbelief and credulily. And see, therefore," the mighty works," say his disciples to John; and he to them again, "the mighty works;" and he sends two of them to Jesus, and he also, having done afresh all a glorious circle of mighty works, while they witnessed, he, of his own abounding sweet grace, grace to teach, and grace to help, and grace to guard the astray, and to confirm the weak, takes up the word, and re-echoes it home to the prison - "the mighty works!" - these "that I do bear witness of me." And, at all events, we are not told that the mission and the return message were in vain. If it were so, that John himself needs for the last earthly agony one more reviving word. of the Holy One, he has it; and for their life his followers and disciples have it. Was it, indeed, a last word of recognition of his servant by the Lord and Master and Saviour of him, that there was added the benediction, "And blessed is he who shall not be offended in me"? John the Baptist was too near the blessing now to let it slip; too near to be permitted to let it slip, or to slip himself from the grasp, or be plucked from the hand of that Saviour. The works of Christ, the works of Christianity, the works of the Christian, and the works of the man who says he is such, but in works denies it, are, and shall be to the end, the test of each respectively. II. THE: UNEXPECTED OCCASION THAT CHRIST, EVER WATCHFUL, UTILIZES, IN ORDER TO DIRECT AND TO AID THE BELIEF OF "THE MULTITUDES." John the Baptist had roused a vast amount of attention in the nation. He had not failed in a jot of the accomplishment of the work he had been appointed to do, and had been announced centuries past, as appointed to do; nor had he failed in the realization of the character, and all that belonged to it, which was prophesied as the mark of him. It appears (ver. 7) that "multitudes" had been present while Jesus had given audience to the deputation from John the Baptist, and had given answer to them also. Christ had, of course, ever approved of the attention that the nation had given to the appearance and preach-of his forerunner. But of what use, and to what end was it, that they gave attention to that herald if they proceeded no further, if they did not "come to him"? The threefold question of Christ leads up now to this, and bears, strictly upon tile question of the people's belief. The question is, "What was it ye went out into the wilderness to see?" They went out in wondering, excited throngs. They heard a preacher of novel utterance; they saw a personage of unusual habit and diet; some believed and some believed not, but all had their thoughts, and all talked and argued. When confronted with the question, it was impossible to them to answer that they had gone out for nothing; impossible fur them to admit that they had. gone out to see a mere natural product, a mere native of the desert, stunted grass, or a trembling barren reed, the habitat of which was the sandy or rocky wind-blown waste. It was equally impossible for them to plead that they had gone there to see the luxury, wealth, show of social life - the diametrical opposite of the desert; this every one knew was not there, and had not been there by any accident now. No, they could not deny that they had been out to see a prophet; and the further truth was, the prophet, allowed and incontestable - for it was "he of whom it was written," in their well-known and prized prophetic oracles, "Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, to prepare thy way before thee." They had flocked out to see John the Baptist, and "he it was who had testified of him. What an introduction for those multitudes to Christ! Why should they not now, mighty works" and all else added, "believe on" and "follow" him? And Christ adds, the youngest true convert of the Church, the tyro in the school of the Church, the as yet unfledged apostle, is greater than he, more blessed, and with still nobler career before him. What a call of grace! What an inspiration to be offered to human ear! And how true, that in a certain sense the knell of prophecy had ceased, and yielded place to the ringing tidings of the Church of the kingdom ] Its doors had been open but for a short time, but what press into it had there been, and how eagerly had the longing, craving, starving, and determined taken possession of its blessed shelter and hope! III. THE METHOD WHICH CHRIST DID NOT HESITATE TO USE IN ORDER TO CHARACTERIZE GENERALLY THE CONDUCT OF THE UNBELIEVING OF THAT GENERATION. He used a similitude which, plainly as it must speak to any type of national mind, was probably additionally telling and significant to those for whom he then in the first instance spoke. A picture of the perversity of children suffices to portray this. The music of Christ is not listened to, nor the wail of warning of John; neither the stern rigour of this, nor the winning attractiveness of that! Such as these, who is to seek them, who to win, who to save? Dwell on the fact that Christ consents to condescend, by all and various method, to ply the stubborn, the rebellious, the hard-hearted, the "stiff-necked." What patience is this that instructs, but also argues and pleads, and by each avenue of approach to mind, to heart, to temper, to make his urgent and pitiful appeal! At last, where are the children of disobedience? But Wisdom's children justify their name and parentage. IV. THE DISTINCT DENOUNCING OF JUDGMENT, WITH THE ANNOUNCING OF THE DAY OF JUDGMENT, FOR THOSE WHO RESISTED AND REFUSED THE TEACHING AND INTENT OF "THE MIGHTY WORKS" WROUGHT BY HIM. The lips that loved mercy, and belonged to a heart that supremely loved mercy, speak thus forth that very reason, because they love mercy, and the day of judgment was not yet come. The Lord "mourns for towns where the wonders of Divine power had been most manifestly set forth, which once had the mystery of God, and which might have brought forth the fruit of virtues." The Saviour's "Woe'!" is denunciation indeed, but denunciation mingled with the most pathetic of grief. Tyre and Sidon had indeed trodden under foot the law of nature, and "without cause;" but these towns, after that they had transgressed the natural and the written Law, also make light of those "mighty wonders" which had been wrought among them. V. THE CALM OUTFLOW OF THE SON'S PERFECT SYMPATHY OF PRAISE TOWARD THE FATHER. Dwell on: 1. The title by which the Father is addressed, as "Lord of heaven and earth" - once the Maker of both, ever the Ruler and Disposer of both, but withal to be adored as the Uniter of the one to the other. It is a reminiscence of the prayer Jesus taught: "Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven." 2. The perfect consent and harmony that the known counsel and will of God the Father receives of the Son. 3. The matter which now serves to illustrate this, viz. the revealing to the childlike, the poor in spirit, the pure, the meek, of those things, deep as hell and high as heaven, which their souls were indeed able to receive, and which became "more abundant life" in them; and the withholding them from others, viz. those whose blindness, but self-sufficiency, could only misconceive, misrepresent, adulterate them, and increase their own condemnation. 4. The fact that Christ utters no vindication, but does speak perfect acquiescence in the sovereign sight and sovereign will. Dwell also generally on the symptoms suggested by this pause, this personal episode, so full of feeling, occurring in the midst of the current of all that was transpiring in the crooked and perverse generation. What did it mean? How close it seemed to bring heaven down to earth, and what absolute and real inter-communion! VI. THE ENDING OF ALL THE ARGUMENT AND EXPOSTULATION' WITH UNBELIEF BY THAT UNSURPASSED INVITATION AND OFFER, OF SURPASSING GRACE, "COME UNTO ME, ALL THAT LABOR," ETC. First, note the covering, forgiving love Of this call. It is as though the memory of his own mission, and the supremest object and end of it, flashed again fresh upon the wonderful vision already of the Saviour, partly as he had threaded the way that day through the subterfuges of unbelief, and partly as just now for one moment of elysian communion he had addressed himself to the Father. Second, note the breadth and the length of that call - "Come to me, all that toil and are heavily burdened (do not translate "All ye). Those that day, and in that place, who had tangled themselves in the meshes and the excuses of unbelief; those far and wide, as the good tidings should travel to them, of an all-sufficient help; those down through all the ages of time who had toiled, to take nothing, and had overburdened themselves, to break their own strength; - to all these the invitation of this surpassing grace is given. Thirdly, note the intrinsic, inherent, unconscious right and claim involved in the invitation on the part of him who gives it. There is no mistaking the word of it; it is Come to me." Fourthly, note the engagement entered into. "I will give you rest" - rest from biting care; rest from bitter memory; rest from the chagrin of vain and wasted toil; rest from a reproaching conscience; rest from remorse. Who ever offered to enter into such an engagement except he who now did so? And he only can perform it. What tribute to his faithfulness to that offer, invitation, assurance, would millions, absolutely untold, render and present from that day to this! Lastly, note the more developed form of the simple call, "Come to me." It is this: "Take my yoke on you," and the burden I bear with it. The yoke is easy, the burden is light; for I am meek, and give my neck meekly to the yoke, and the burden follows, lightly weighing. These are of the highest things to be learned on earth of Jesus. Nor is there honour to compare with this - to wear the yoke that he wore, and wear it like him; to bear the burden he bore, and bear it like him. So have we learned of Jesus, and so shall learn, more and more. - B. Parallel Verses KJV: Now when John had heard in the prison the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples,WEB: Now when John heard in the prison the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples |
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