Whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother. There is nothing new or peculiarly Christian in the idea that there is a bond stronger than that of blood. It is too obvious to escape notice. Nor does the assertion cast any disparagement on the institution of the family; less is not made of blood, but more of spiritual affinity. That our Lord did not make less of family ties is shown by his care for his mother; that he made much of spiritual ties also is shown by his commending her to the care of his most sympathetic friend. The family bulks less in his life because the community, the world, bulks larger. The proportion of thought he gave to the family was smaller, the actual amount greater, than that given by most men. That which is peculiar in these words is - The distinct assertion of what constitutes the bond of this more enduring, truer relationship. It is the recognition and acceptance of God's will. This is the true basis of eternal society, the one bond we can trust to, to keep us ever united. The doing of God's will implies an inward, deep-seated acknowledgment that his will is holy, just, and good, and that God is the Ruler of our life; it implies that devout love for God from which flows light and regeneration to every part of a man's life and nature. Other associations dissolve, pass away, become obsolete, but all that comes of accepting God's will from a genuine love of him abides.
2. But Christ here indirectly presents himself as the Centre of this new spiritual family. This is so
(1) because he is the actual, visible embodiment of God's will, in whom men can best see what that wilt is. And
(2) because it is through him they become able to do God's will. Only by becoming brethren of Christ can we become children of God. From this truth flow several inferences.
I. IT IS NOT YOUR BIRTH, BUT YOUR CHOICE, WHICH DETERMINES YOUR ETERNAL RELATIONSHIPS AND SURROUNDINGS. Every man passes judgment on himself by his affinities. You cannot judge a man by his family, his origin; but you can judge him, or he can judge himself, by the profession he chooses, the friendships he forms, the course of life he freely adopts. But the great test of men is Christ. He is set for the fall and rising of many, and by him are the thoughts of many hearts revealed. By the treatment men give him they reveal what is in them, and whether their talk about virtue is merely talk, or if they have hearty love for it when presented in actual life.
II. THE FAMILY IS NOT AN ETERNAL INSTITUTION, Those affections which are developed in the family must be fed. from a more enduring root if they are to abide. They are like the bindings which join the graft to the tree; they keep us together until the vital sap knits us into one. There is no guarantee for the endurance of love but that it goes down to and roots itself in the deepest springs of our life. In family life the pain of want of sympathy is only the keener for the superficial affection. It is thus that Christ brings sometimes, not peace, but division. It is the magnet passing through the heap of dust and iron filings; the superior attraction at once produces separation. It is not that we must buy his favour by perfect submission, or propitiate his jealousy by disliking others, but that he is worthy of and can command a deeper. holier, more devoted love than any other; and the further we ourselves advance in all that is good, the more we see the necessary truth of his saying, "He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me." Let parents try to win their children to that permanent and eternal family in which the relationship lies not in the flesh, but in the deepest recesses of the spirit, and from which there are no banishments, no deaths, no separations. Death then loses the greater part of its terrors - is, indeed, recognized as the apparently necessary means of purifying and deepening our natural affections.
III. FROM THIS STATEMENT WE UNDERSTAND BETTER OUR OWN POSITION, IF WE BE DOING THE WILL OF GOD.
1. We have claims on Christ superior to those which can be asserted even by his relatives. He wants to be trusted, confided in, counted on. ]f you would have counted it happy to be born in the same family, and would have expected from him, your own Brother, all the help he could give, you may still count on that help and with greater assurance.
2. Christ takes pleasure in us, if we are doing God's wilt, such as he finds in nothing else. We cannot understand his longing for human love and acceptance, but we know that even as God he loved human fellowship, and when he became man we find him the same. To be closer to Christ than to father or mother, to be more truly at one with him than with any one besides, this is salvation. In his own day he could point to some anti say, "Behold my mother and my Brethren!" Surely there are among ourselves those who long above all things to be truly the brethren of the Lord Jesus Christ. - D.
The same is My brother, and sister, and mother.
I. That Jesus here implies THAT THE SUPREME RELATIONSHIPS OF LIFE ARE MORAL
1. It is similar to that of the family.
2. It is superior to that of the family.
(1)It is non-artificial(2)It is intimate.(3)It is dear.(4)It is completer.(5)It is vaster.(6)It is more lasting.II. That Jesus here proclaims that the bond by which men sustain this supreme relationship to Himself, IS BY THEIR OBEDIENCE TO GOD'S WILL. When we do His will.
1. There is the kinship of sympathy.
2. Kinship of resemblance.
III. That Jesus here suggests that the Christian relationship to Christ IS INDIVIDUAL, VARIED AND SATISFYING.
1. Brotherhood. Active men.
2. Sisterhood. The intercourse of heart.
3. Motherhood.
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Christ saw things in their superior relationships. All true relationship springs from moral states, not from the mechanical arrangements of society.1. It is the real and proper tendency of all moral affections to seek each other, and to coalesce. The lower feelings are to a certain extent centrifugal. Policy, self interest, gifts, are perpetually separating men. All attempts to compromise union, to reason men into external union have failed. It is not found in contiguity. It is found in divergence of thought and feeling. All harmonies are in the direction of diversity. Love will do what reason never could do.
2. Human affections are never carried to their full power, and sweetness and beauty, till they are lifted up into the higher sphere, by their affinities and associations, religious. It is not enough to love the human that is in man; but that which is to live after the body. An unsanctified affection an imperfect one.
3. It is a matter of great rejoicing to those who ponder the spirit of this passage, that this world, after all, is as rich as it is. Although hearts are distributed and unrecognized, yet you can feel what a wealth of relationship there is after all.
4. The true man of God, in our day, is he who feels most sensitively his relationship to the Divine element which is in his fellow man. The largest man is the man of the largest heart.
5. It is piteous to see how men have spent their lives in resisting their relationships, and in putting trust and charity upon hard conditions. We must change away from the hating and fighting to the loving principle.
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I never read a book of a fine nature that I do not instantly feel, "Well, he is mine, too." The Guerins — brother and sister — are as much mine as though I had been brought up on their mother's knee. Fenelon is mine. Bossuet is mine. All those noble men who carried down the light of a true Christian example through stormy times, and held steadfastly to the faith, and suffered nobly — they are mine. Pascal is mine. Newton is mine. All the great natures of the earth that have lifted themselves up under the genial Sun of Righteousness, and have begun to show heavenly colours and heavenly blossoms-they are mine. The same Father is mine. The same Saviour is mine. And I hear my Saviour saying, "All those that do the will of God are mothers to each other, brothers to each other, sisters to each other.()
You do not know how many relations you have till you are in heaven. Oh! when those that are around you, and that you meet from day to day with little pleasure, meet you again, and they have thrown off the cerements of the body; when you see that in them which is good, and in conditions in which counterpoising evil is taken away, and the whole evolutions of their glorious nature are disclosed, you will never know them! It will be as when one looks upon the banks in January, and says, "How dreary are these banks I " and then in June looks upon the same landscape, and says, "It is not the thing that I looked at before." It is winter here, and we are frost-bitten, or ice-clad. It will be summer there; and we shall be in fragrant leaf and glorious blossom. And when you reach heaven, you will never be lonesome, or restrained. Here the necessities of earth, and. the proprieties of life, and the laws and conditions of our lower nature, partition and divide us; and we belong to each other more than we do to all the world. But in heaven all that will be gone. Every soul there will belong to every soul; every heart to every- heart; every love to every love. We shall be God's, and He shall be ours.()
I. THEIR CHARACTER. "They do the will of His Father."1. Some do the will of the devil.
2. Some do the will of men.
3. Some do their own will.
4. The Christian makes the will of God the rule of his life.
5. God has revealed His will. Their obedience is
(1)Affectionate;(2)Impartial.II. THEIR PRIVILEGE. His disciples are Christ's kindred.
1. We look for family likeness, and we have it — "Conformed to the image of His Son." "'We shall also bear the image of the heavenly." The resemblance not complete in this world: but it is real.
2. He confers honour upon them as His kindred. It is glorious to belong to persons of illustrious endowments.
3. If they are relations, Christ will love them.
4. Since He declares them to be His relations, He will provide for them.
5. He will keep up an intercourse with them.
6. He will defend them.
7. Admire the grace and condescension of our Lord Jesus Christ.
8. The advantages of religion.
9. The holiness of the gospel.
10. The duty derived from this alliance.
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I. A DESCRIPTION OF CHRIST'S DISCIPLES — "They do the will," etc. What is the will of God?1. God would have us to believe in Jesus Christ.
2. God requires of us to repent of our sins and to walk in newness of life. Naturally men cannot do these things; only the children of God.
II. THE DIGNITY CONFERRED ON THE.
1. Christ here declares how dear and precious to Him are His true disciples. A true brother will watch over the interests of His brethren.
III. THE PRIVILEGES DERIVED from this dignity.
1. Confidence in prayer.
2. Comfort in death.
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Brother and sister, because of either sex. The faithful soul is also the mother of Christ, because by teaching, exhorting, and counselling, she brings forth Christ in herself and in others. Thus St. Gregory says: "We must know that he who is the brother or sister of Christ through believing is made His mother by preaching. For he, as it were, brings forth the Lord, whom he infuses into the hearts of his hearers." He subjoins the example of , who, by the Spirit, bore to God the seven sons to whom she had given birth in the flesh, because she strengthened them in persecution, and animated them for martyrdom. These words of Christ were also exemplified in Victoria, a virgin-martyr under Diocletian. She replied to the pro-consul, on his asking her whether she would join her brother Fortunatianus, who was a heathen: "No, for I am a Christian; and those are my brethren who keep the commandments of God." Wherefore she was shut up in prison, and perishing by hunger, obtained the martyr's crown.I. CHRISTIANS ARE THE RELATIVES OF CHRIST. The ground of the relationship not natural, ecclesiastical, but spiritual — faith and obedience.
II. Spiritual relationship to Christ is SUPERIOR TO NATURAL. It is more intimate, happy, honourable, comprehensive, permanent.
III. The love of Christ to Christians as His relatives COMPRISES WITHIN ITSELF ALL, THE DIFFERENT PHASES OF NATURAL AFFECTIONS.
1. Let us honour the relatives of Christ.
2. Seek to be of their number.
3. Choose them for our companions.
4. Do them all the good in our power.
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I. The character of the disciple of Christ. Relates to — What we are to believe, experience, be, do, suffer, enjoy.
II. How near and dear they are to Christ.
III. How near and dear they ought to be to each other.
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I. The spiritual relatives of Jesus. Close and intimate. All the saints have one Father, one nature, one mind, one name with Christ.
II. The great principle of this relationship. Obedience. God's will is revealed to us. Obedience must be evangelical, affectionate, full, constant.
III. The advantages of this relationship. Exalted honour, greatest blessings, everlasting security. Rejoice, walk worthy, etc.
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This reply of our Lord shows —I. THE PERVADING SPIRITALITY OF CHRIST'S MIND. He turned every circumstance to spiritual account. Christ spiritualized because He was spiritual.
II. THE PURE PHILANTHROPY OF CHRIST'S HEART. His love for man as man. The world is made one in relationship as it enters into Christ's love.
III. IT SHOWS THE TRUE BOND OF MAN'S CONNECTION WITH CHRIST.
1. Connection with Christ is not determined by social position.
2. It is not determined by material relationships.
3. It is determined by obedience to the Divine will.
(1)That there is but one infallible will;(2)That this infallible will may be disregarded;(3)That this infallible will appeals for universal obedience.IV. IT SHOWS THE HIGH PRIVILEGES RESULTING FROM MORAL UNION WITH CHRIST.
1. Here is the idea of infinite relationship.
2. Here is the idea of social communion.Inferences:
1. If we are to obey the Divine will, a great change must pass over our moral nature.
2. If our union with Christ is moral, it will also be eternal.
3. If all the good are Christ's kindred, their meeting-place must be heaven.
4. If we are all Christ's, joy should be the pervading emotion of our hearts.
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Not the kingdom of heaven is, but the kingdom of heaven is like, so and so. Truth is a separate matter from the forms of phrase along which it is conveyed, or the forms of thought under which it is apprehended. In this respect it resembles the light. No painter can paint light. He can give you colours, the greens, the blues, the crimsons, but he cannot give you light; and yet if he is a genius he will succeed in filling his picture with those tinted suggestions that will somehow quicken in you a deep, thrilling sense of light. So Christ, in a similar manner, did not point out to His disciples this particular thing and that particular thing, but loaded His sentences with suggestions, and started in men's minds presentiments that went leaping along ahead of the spoken word He cut no grooves for men's opinions to slip in, fashioned no moulds for those opinions to be cast in; did not care to have them think precisely this, or precisely that; tied them to no nice forms of declaration; did not accentuate with periods. And so their minds moved as vessels move at sea; at the direction of the compass, to be sure. but without the sea ever being worn down into ruts and roadways. He drew for them pictures of the truth, and then let them make what they could of these pictures. A truth never can be quite told. It is best seen when we are not trying too hard to see it, not straining our eyes to see it — as faint stars become visible when we look a little off from them.()
History of the Church in all ages, from the first preaching of the gospel to the last general judgment, tracing the different steps of its advancement, both externally and internally, from its commencement to its consummation.1. Sower — the preaching of the gospel, when the apostles and their successors went through the world, sowing everywhere the good seed.
2. Tares — the development of those evils of doctrine, the germs of which existed even in an earlier day.
3. Mustard seed-the extension and progress of the Church. It needs no support for itself, but affords a shelter to others who resort to it.
4. Leaven — the manner in which its vital spirit silently makes its progress, gradually changing the character of the whole mass into which it has been infused.
5. Hid treasure — action of Christianity upon some. In such a ease as this, some unlooked-for occurrence brings the man into contact with this treasure, for which he was not seeking. He finds it accidentally, and at once gives up all to possess it.
6. Pearl of great price — action of Christianity upon others. Here the man is engaged in the business of his life. He gains that for which he has all along been seeking.
7. Net — the solemn winding-up of the mighty drama — the separation — the consummation.
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No one should miss gathering from these parables some notion of the all-embracing character of the kingdom which Christ came to set up among men. We need not wonder that Christ exhibits the truth lie wanted to impress upon them in a great variety of lights. It would have been surprising if He had not supplemented the parable of the hid treasure with that of the pearl, for the four parables which precede these are arranged in pairs. First, we have the action of Christ upon the Church, in the parable of the sower, supplemented by the field and the tares; then the expansive and permeating power of the Christian society, in the mustard and leaven; and, in the third pair, we are shown the attitude of the individual in relation to the saving grace of God. The king, the kingdom, the subjects — under each of these aspects two illustrations are given to enforce important varieties, and to exhibit, in more than one light, the manifold wisdom of God.()
His parables were divers, when yet by those sundry shadows He did aim directly at one light. The intention of which course in our great Physician is to give several medicines for the same malady in several men, fitting his receipts to the disposition of his patients. The soldier doth not so well understand similitudes taken from husbandry, nor the husbandman from the war. The lawyer conceives not an allusion from physic, nor the physician from the law. Home-dwellers are ignorant of foreign matters; neither doth the quiet, rural labourer trouble his head with matters of state. Therefore Christ derives a parable from an army, to teach soldiers; from legal principles, to instruct lawyers; from the field and sewing, to speak familiarly to the husbandman's capacity.()
The word used (masdal) means a "likeness" or "comparison." Parables differ from fables in being pictures of possible occurrences — frequently of actual daily occurrences — and in teaching religious truths rather than moral truths.()
People
Beelzebub,
David,
Isaiah,
Jesus,
Jonah,
Jonas,
Ninevites,
SolomonPlaces
Galilee,
NinevehTopics
Brother, Heaven, Heavens, Obey, Pleasure, SisterOutline
1. Jesus reproves the blindness of the Pharisees concerning the Sabbath,3. by scripture,9. by reason,13. and by a miracle.22. He heals a man possessed that was blind and mute;24. and confronting the absurd charge of casting out demons by Beelzebub, 32. he shows that blasphemy against the Holy Spirit shall never be forgiven.36. Account shall be made of idle words.38. He rebukes the unfaithful, who seek after a sign,46. and shows who is his brother, sister, and mother.Dictionary of Bible Themes
Matthew 12:50 1040 God, fatherhood
1175 God, will of
2057 Christ, obedience
2078 Christ, sonship of
5682 family, significance
5734 relationships
6611 adoption, privileges and duties
8126 guidance, need for
8454 obedience, to God
8658 Lord's Prayer
9412 heaven, worship and service
Matthew 12:46-50
2535 Christ, family of
Matthew 12:48-50
5099 Mary, mother of Christ
Matthew 12:49-50
5661 brothers
Library
An Attempt to Account for Jesus
'But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, This man doth not cast out demons, but by Beelzebub, the prince of the demons.'--MATT. xii. 24. Mark's Gospel tells us that this astonishing explanation of Christ and His work was due to the ingenious malice of an ecclesiastical deputation, sent down from Jerusalem to prevent the simple folk in Galilee from being led away by this new Teacher. They must have been very hard put to it to explain undeniable but unwelcome facts, when they hazarded such a preposterous …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture 'Make the Tree Good'
'... Make the tree good, and his fruit good....' --MATT. xii. 33. In this Gospel we find that our Lord twice uses this image of a tree and its fruit. In the Sermon on the Mount He applies it as a test to false teachers, who hide, beneath the wool of the sheep's clothing, the fangs and paws of ravening wolves. He says, 'By their deeds ye shall know them; for as is the tree so is its fruit.' That is a rough and ready test, which applies rather to the teacher than to his doctrine, but it applies, to …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture
'A Greater than Jonas'
'A greater than Jonas is here.'--MATT. xii. 41. There never was any man in his right mind, still more of influence on his fellows, who made such claims as to himself in such unmistakable language as Jesus Christ does. To say such things of oneself as come from His lips is a sign of a weak, foolish nature. It is fatal to all influence, to all beauty of character. It is not only that He claims official attributes as a fanatical or dishonest pretender to inspiration may do. He does that, but He does …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture
'A Greater than Solomon'
'A greater than Solomon is here.'--MATT. xii. 42. It is condescension in Him to compare Himself with any; yet if any might have been selected, it is that great name. To the Jews Solomon is an ideal figure, who appealed so strongly to popular imagination as to become the centre of endless legends; whose dominion was the very apex of national glory, in recounting whose splendours the historical books seem to be scarce able to restrain their triumph and pride. I. The Man. The story gives us a richly …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture
The Pharisees' Sabbath and Christ's
'At that time Jesus went on the Sabbath day through the corn; and His disciples were an hungred, and began to pluck the ears of corn, and to eat. 2. But when the Pharisees saw it they said unto Him, Behold, Thy disciples do that which is not lawful to do upon the Sabbath day. 3. But he said unto them, Have ye not read what David did, when he was an hungred, and they that were with him; 4. How he entered into the house of God, and did eat the shewbread, which was not lawful for him to eat, neither …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture
On the Words of the Gospel, Matt. xii. 32, "Whosoever Shall Speak a Word against the Holy Spirit, it Shall not be Forgiven Him, Neither In
1. There has been a great question raised touching the late lesson of the Gospel, to the solution of which I am unequal by any power of mine own; but "our sufficiency is of God," [2335] to whatever degree we are capable of receiving His aid. First then consider the magnitude of the question; that when ye see the weight of it laid upon my shoulders, ye may pray in aid of my labours, and in the assistance which is vouchsafed to me, may find edification for your own souls. When "one possessed with a …
Saint Augustine—sermons on selected lessons of the new testament
On the Words of the Gospel, Matt. xii. 33, "Either Make the Tree Good, and Its Fruit Good," Etc.
1. The Lord Jesus hath admonished us, that we be good trees, and that so we may be able to bear good fruits. For He saith, "Either make the tree good, and his fruit good, or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt, for the tree is known by his fruit." [2484] When He says, "Make the tree good, and his fruit good;" this of course is not an admonition, but a wholesome precept, to which obedience is necessary. But when He saith, "Make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt;" this is not a …
Saint Augustine—sermons on selected lessons of the new testament
Sweet Comfort for Feeble Saints
I. First, we have before us a view of MORTAL FRAILTY And first, the encouragement offered in our text applies to weak ones. What in the world is weaker than the bruised reed, or the smoking flax? A reed that groweth in the fen or marsh, let but the wild duck light upon it, and it snaps; let but the foot of man brush against it and it is bruised and broken; every wind that comes howling across the river makes it shake to and fro, and well nigh tears it up by the roots. You can conceive of nothing …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 1: 1855
How to Read the Bible
I. That is the subject of our present discourse, or, at least the first point of it, that IN ORDER TO THE TRUE READING OF THE SCRIPTURES THERE MUST BE AN UNDERSTANDING OF THEM. I scarcely need to preface these remarks by saying that we must read the Scriptures. You know how necessary it is that we should be fed upon the truth of Holy Scripture. Need I suggest the question as to whether you do read your Bibles or not? I am afraid that this is a magazine reading age a newspaper reading age a periodical …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 25: 1879
Strength in the Weak.
"He is Faithful that Promised." "A bruised reed shall He not break, and smoking flax shall He not quench."--MATT. xii. 20. Strength in the Weak. Will Jesus accept such a heart as mine?--this erring, treacherous, traitor heart? The past! how many forgotten vows--broken covenants--prayerless days! How often have I made new resolutions, and as often has the reed succumbed to the first blast of temptation, and the burning flax been well-nigh quenched by guilty omissions and guiltier commissions! Oh! …
John Ross Macduff—The Faithful Promiser
Identity of Christ's Character.
THE argument expressed by this title I apply principally to the comparison of the first three Gospels with that of Saint John. It is known to every reader of Scripture that the passages of Christ's history preserved by Saint John are, except his passion and resurrection, for the most part different from those which are delivered by the other evangelists. And I think the ancient account of this difference to be the true one, viz., that Saint John wrote after the rest, and to supply what he thought …
William Paley—Evidences of Christianity
What are Evidences of Backsliding in Heart.
1. Manifest formality in religious exercises. A stereotyped, formal way of saying and doing things, that is clearly the result of habit, rather than the outgushing of the religious life. This formality will be emotionless and cold as an iceberg, and will evince a total want of earnestness in the performance of religious duty. In prayer and in religious exercises the backslider in heart will pray or praise, or confess, or give thanks with his lips, so that all can hear him, perhaps, but in such a …
Charles G. Finney—The Backslider in Heart
Lesser and Fuller Forms.
Moreover, we have endeavoured to use the fullest form, including the words of those Gospels which have the lesser forms of sentences, except where the sentence ends in a period, in which case have given the least form, so that the larger form of the other Gospels might be made apparent; as, for instance, this sentence, taken from Matt. xii. 47; Mark iii. 32; Luke viii. 20: ^c 20 And it was told him, ^a Behold, thy mother and thy brethren bseek for thee. ^c stand without desiring to see thee. ^a seeking …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel
Jesus Defends Disciples who Pluck Grain on the Sabbath.
(Probably While on the Way from Jerusalem to Galilee.) ^A Matt. XII. 1-8; ^B Mark II. 23-28; ^C Luke VI. 1-5. ^b 23 And ^c 1 Now it came to pass ^a 1 At that season ^b that he ^a Jesus went { ^b was going} on the { ^c a} ^b sabbath day through the grainfields; ^a and his disciples were hungry and began ^b as they went, to pluck the ears. ^a and to eat, ^c and his disciples plucked the ears, and did eat, rubbing them in their hands. [This lesson fits in chronological order with the last, if the Bethesda …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel
Jesus Heals Multitudes Beside the Sea of Galilee.
^A Matt. XII. 15-21; ^B Mark III. 7-12. ^a 15 And Jesus perceiving it withdrew ^b with his disciples ^a from thence: ^b to the sea [This was the first withdrawal of Jesus for the avowed purpose of self-preservation. After this we find Jesus constantly retiring to avoid the plots of his enemies. The Sea of Galilee, with its boats and its shores touching different jurisdictions, formed a convenient and fairly safe retreat]: ^a and many followed him; ^b and a great multitude from Galilee followed; and …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel
Blasphemous Accusations of the Jews.
(Galilee.) ^A Matt. XII. 22-37; ^B Mark III. 19-30; ^C Luke XI. 14-23. ^b 19 And he cometh into a house. [Whose house is not stated.] 20 And the multitude cometh together again [as on a previous occasion--Mark ii. 1], so that they could not so much as eat bread. [They could not sit down to a regular meal. A wonderful picture of the intense importunity of people and the corresponding eagerness of Jesus, who was as willing to do as they were to have done.] 21 And when his friends heard it, they went …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel
Sign Seekers, and the Enthusiast Reproved.
(Galilee on the Same Day as the Last Section.) ^A Matt. XII. 38-45; ^C Luke XI. 24-36. ^c 29 And when the multitudes were gathering together unto him, ^a 38 Then certain of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, Teacher, we would see a sign from thee. [Having been severely rebuked by Jesus, it is likely that the scribes and Pharisees asked for a sign that they might appear to the multitude more fair-minded and open to conviction than Jesus had represented them to be. Jesus had just wrought …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel
Christ's Teaching as to his Mother and Brethren.
(Galilee, Same Day as the Last Lesson.) ^A Matt. XII. 46-50; ^B Mark III. 31-35; ^C Luke VIII. 19-21. ^a 46 While he yet speaking to the multitudes, behold, his mother and his brethren stood without seeking to speak to him. [Jesus was in a house, probably at Capernaum--Mark iii. 19; Matt. xiii. 1.] ^c 19 and there came { ^b come} ^c to him his mother and ^b his brethren; ^c and they could not come at him for the crowd. ^a and, standing without, they sent unto him, calling him. 32 And the multitude …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel
Jesus Defends Healing a Withered Hand on the Sabbath.
(Probably Galilee.) ^A Matt. XII. 9-14; ^B Mark III. 1-6; ^C Luke VI. 6-11. ^a 9 And he departed thence. [The word here points to a journey as in Matt. xi. 1 and xv. 29, which are the only places where Matthew uses this expression. Greswell may be right in thinking that it indicates the return back to Galilee from the Passover, since a cognate expression used by John expresses such a journey from Galilee to Judæa. See John vii. 3 ], ^c 6 And it came to pass on another sabbath [another sabbath …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel
The Acceptance of the Christian Conception of Life Will Emancipate Men from the Miseries of Our Pagan Life.
The External Life of Christian Peoples Remains Pagan Though they are Penetrated by Christian Consciousness--The Way Out of this Contradiction is by the Acceptance of the Christian Theory of Life--Only Through Christianity is Every Man Free, and Emancipated of All Human Authority--This Emancipation can be Effected by no Change in External Conditions of Life, but Only by a Change in the Conception of Life--The Christian Ideal of Life Requires Renunciation of all Violence, and in Emancipating the Man …
Leo Tolstoy—The Kingdom of God is within you
The Two Sabbath-Controversies - the Plucking of the Ears of Corn by the Disciples, and the Healing of the Man with the Withered Hand
IN grouping together the three miracles of healing described in the last chapter, we do not wish to convey that it is certain they had taken place in precisely that order. Nor do we feel sure, that they preceded what is about to be related. In the absence of exact data, the succession of events and their location must be matter of combination. From their position in the Evangelic narratives, and the manner in which all concerned speak and act, we inferred, that they took place at that particular …
Alfred Edersheim—The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah
The First Peræan Discourses - to the Pharisees Concerning the Two Kingdoms - their Contest - what Qualifies a Disciple for the Kingdom of God, And
It was well that Jesus should, for the present, have parted from Jerusalem with words like these. They would cling about His hearers like the odour of incense that had ascended. Even the schism' that had come among them [4194] concerning His Person made it possible not only to continue His Teaching, but to return to the City once more ere His final entrance. For, His Peræan Ministry, which extended from after the Feast of Tabernacles to the week preceding the last Passover, was, so to speak, …
Alfred Edersheim—The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah
Opposition to Jesus.
During the first period of his career, it does not appear that Jesus met with any serious opposition. His preaching, thanks to the extreme liberty which was enjoyed in Galilee, and to the number of teachers who arose on all hands, made no noise beyond a restricted circle. But when Jesus entered upon a path brilliant with wonders and public successes, the storm began to gather. More than once he was obliged to conceal himself and fly.[1] Antipas, however, did not interfere with him, although Jesus …
Ernest Renan—The Life of Jesus
The Cardinal was Seated, -- He Rose as Moretti Appeared. ...
The Cardinal was seated,--he rose as Moretti appeared. "I beg your Eminence to spare yourself!" said Moretti suavely, with a deep salutation, "And to pardon me for thus coming unannounced into the presence of one so highly esteemed by the Holy Father as Cardinal Bonpre!" The Cardinal gave a gesture of courteous deprecation; and Monsignor Moretti, lifting his, till then, partially lowered eyelids, flashed an angry regard upon the Abbe Vergniaud, who resting his back against the book-case behind him, …
Marie Corelli—The Master-Christian
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