And he did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief.
Did not many mighty works – Miracles. This implies that he performed some miracles. Mark tells us what they were: He laid his hands upon a few sick folk and healed them, Mar 6:5.
Because of their unbelief – That is, it would have been useless to the great purposes of his mission to have worked miracles there. We are not to suppose that his power was limited by the belief or unbelief of people; but they were so prejudiced, so set against him, that they were not in a condition to judge of evidence and to be convinced. They would have charged it to derangement, or sorcery, or the agency of the devil. Compare Joh 10:20. It would have been of no use, therefore, in proving to them that he was from God, to have worked miracles. He did, therefore, only those things which were the proper work of benevolence, and which could not easily be charged on the devil. He gave sufficient proof of his mission, and left them in their chosen unbelief without excuse. It is also true, in spiritual things, that the unbelief of a people prevents the influences of the Holy Spirit from being sent down to bless them. God requires faith. He hears only the prayers of faith. And when there is little true belief, and prayer is cold and formal, there the people sleep in spiritual death and are unblessed.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Mat 13:58
Because of their unbelief.
Unbelief
An empty vessel capable of holding water, if tightly corked, none can enter it, though water is poured upon it in great abundance; nay, it may be thrown into the sea, and still remain empty. So it is with our hearts; unbelief closes them, so that the water of life cannot fill them, however abundantly it may be poured upon and around us. Could not do many mighty works, etc. Unbelief hinders grace. This sin not only locks up the heart of a sinner, but also binds up the hands of a Saviour. (Burkitt.)
The imperfection of the religion of modern society has its root in the obscure perception of Divine truth. If is only a clear-sighted faith which can grasp the truths of revealed religion, and show to us the relation in which we stand to God. If it does not bring into clear view the obligations and duties which it imposes, and the privileges and graces which it imparts, the life of holiness and devotion will not be seen . We may trace our imperfect Christian characters, our defective morality, and our almost godless civilization, to a want of faith in our Lords doctrines and in His view of life, and our relations to Him and to eternity. It is faith primarily, which will alone bring us into union with Himself, and enable us to see and realize our relations to God as our Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier. (R. B. Fairbairn, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 58. And he did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief] , miracles. So the word is used, Mt 7:22; Mt 11:20; Ac 19:11; 1Co 12:28; Ga 3:5; Heb 2:4. The Septuagint translates niphleoth el, the miraculous works of God, by .
Unbelief and contempt drive Christ out of the heart, as they did out of his own country. Faith seems to put the almighty power of God into the hands of men; whereas unbelief appears, to tie up even the hands of the Almighty. A man, generally speaking, can do but little good among his relatives, because it is difficult for them to look with the eyes of faith upon one whom they have been accustomed to behold with the eyes of the flesh. – QUESNEL.
A DISSERTATION ON THE NATURE AND USE OF PARABOLICAL WRITINGS.
See the notes at the beginning of this chapter. Mt 13:1
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Mark saith, Mar 6:4-6, But Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without honour, but in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house. And he could there do no mighty work, save that he laid his hands upon a few sick folk, and healed them. And he marvelled because of their unbelief. And he went round about the villages teaching. Our Lord here gives another more external reason of their being scandalized at him; that is, his being so familiar with them, and conversing so long with them: familiarity ordinarily breeding contempt: to this purpose he applies to them a proverbial speech, That
a prophet is not without honour, save in his own country. Men are ready to undervalue, slight, and disesteem those they have been brought up and ordinarily conversed with and amongst.
He did not many mighty works there (Mark telleth us he did some, but not many)
because of their unbelief: he saw them a people whose hearts, through the just judgment of God, were locked and shut up under unbelief, and therefore it was to no purpose to do more miracles before them, upon whom they would have no effect; nor did this consist with what he knew of the counsels of God with reference unto them. So as he left them, and went preaching about the villages or country towns in Galilee.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
58. And he did not many mighty worksthere, because of their unbelief“save that He laid Hishands on a few sick folk, and healed them” (Mr6:5). See on Lu 4:16-30.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And he did not many mighty works there,…. Some he did, though not many; partly that they might be left inexcusable, and partly that it might not be said, he did not wish well, to his own country: what he did, were not of the first class, and greatest note; he only “laid his hands”, as Mark says, Mr 6:5 “upon a few sick folk, and healed them”; and yet these were such as raised their wonder and astonishment, but did not command their faith, and were rather stumbling blocks unto them; such were their prejudices, their unbelief, and the hardness of their hearts: and the reason indeed why he did no more was,
because of their unbelief. These words in Mark are joined with this expression, “he marvelled”; showing, that their continued unbelief in him, notwithstanding his ministry and miracles among them, was matter of surprise to him; but here they are given as a reason why he did no more mighty works among them: and which Mark says he could not do, not for want of power, or as if their unbelief was too mighty for him to overcome; but he would not, because he judged them unworthy, and that it was not fit and convenient to perform any more, since they were offended with what was done; and that their condemnation might not be increased.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Mighty works (). Powers. The “disbelief” () of the townspeople blocked the will and the power of Jesus to work cures.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
1) “And he did not many mighty works there,” (kai ouk epoiesen ekei dunameis) “And he did not do many dynamic or miraculous things there,” in His own native town or community. Mr 6:5 adds, “Save that he laid his hands on a few sick folk, and healed them.”
2) “Because of their unbelief.” (dia ten apistian auton) “On account of their unbelief,” doubt or skepticism, Mr 5:17; 6:5,6; 9:23; Mat 13:34; Mr 6:5; Mat 23:37; See also Heb 3:18-19.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
58. And he did not perform many miracles in that place. Mark states it more emphatically, that he could not perform any miracle. But they are perfectly agreed as to the substance of what is said, that it was the impiety of Christ’s countrymen that closed the door against the performance of a greater number of miracles among them. He had already given them some taste of his power; but they willingly stupify themselves, so as to have no relish for it. Accordingly, Augustine justly compares faith to the open mouth of a vessel, while he speaks of faith as resembling a stopper, by which the vessel is closed, so as not to receive the liquor (349) which God pours into it. And undoubtedly this is the case; for when the Lord perceives that his power is not accepted by us, he at length withdraws it; and yet we complain that we are deprived of his aid, which our unbelief rejects and drives far from us.
When Mark declares that Christ could not perform any miracles, he represents the aggravated guilt of those by whom his goodness was prevented; for certainly unbelievers, as far as lies in their power, bind up the hands of God by their obstinacy; not that God is overcome, as if he were an inferior, but because they do not permit him to display his power. We must observe, however, what Mark adds, that some sick people, notwithstanding, were cured; for hence we infer, that the goodness of Christ strove with their malice, and triumphed over every obstacle. (350) We have experience of the same thing daily with respect to God; for, though he justly and reluctantly restrains his power, because the entrance to us is shut against him, yet we see that he opens up a path for himself where none exists, and ceases not to bestow favors upon us. What an amazing contest, that while we are endeavoring by every possible method to hinder the grace of God from coming to us, it rises victorious, and displays its efficacy in spite of all our exertions!
(349) “ La bonne liqueur;” — “the good liquor.”
(350) “ En sorte que quelques empeschemens qu’ils ayent scen y mettre, encore est—elle venue au dessus, et s’est monstree en quelque maniere.” —”So that, whatever obstacles they might be able to throw in the way, still it rose above them, and was in some measure displayed.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(58) He did not many mighty works there.In St. Mark the language is stronger, He could do no mighty works there. The wonder-working power was not absolute and unconditioned, but depended on the faith of those who came to Him. Without that, the will and the power were alike thwarted. St. Mark adds, with more precision, that He laid His hands upon a few sick folk, and healed them.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
58. Did not many works It would be a waste of divine power to perform miracles that would be disregarded and condemned by anticipation. Besides, it is probable that they abstained from affording him any opportunity for performing miracles of power and mercy, such as alone lay within the bounds of our Lord’s mission. So that both morally and physically they rendered the performance of mighty works a thing out of the question. The evangelist Mark says strongly, “he could there do no mighty work;” because of course he could not do a useless and unsuitable deed. So man’s faithlessness may bind the Lord’s arm from performing miracles of mercy. A faithless Church restrains the convicting and converting Spirit. Unbelief defeats omnipotence. The same evangelist, Mark, vividly represents the woman with the issue of blood drawing the miraculous virtue forth from Jesus by the touch of her finger, put forth in faith. So that as faith divinely compels the virtue forth, so unbelief compels the virtue back into the Lord’s person.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘And he did not perform many mighty works there because of their unbelief.’
Jesus was able to accomplish very little in His own home area, simply because, in their unbelief, they did not come to Him or seek His help, apart that is from a few. (Mark states it slightly differently but says the same thing – Mar 6:5-6). Had He performed some unusual feat appropriate to an artisan they would have willingly shared with Him in His honour, but as far as they were concerned for Him as a carpenter to claim special inspiration from God was seen as disreputable and unacceptable, and they were therefore quite confident that all this talk about healings was a hoax. In view of that they did not bring their sick for healing, although the few who did were satisfied.
Note that Jesus will not perform wonders in order to gain attention. In the main His ‘mighty works’ are a compassionate response to the needs of the people, not an attempt to win people. That is why they are Messianic signs. They reveal the compassion of the Messiah, not a desire to win people by signs. He is quite willing to concentrate on the preaching. he does not want men to follow Him just in order to see wonders (Joh 2:23-25).
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Jesus Is Unable To Do Many Mighty Works In His Home Town, But His Mighty Works Impress Herod Who Thinks That He May Be John The Baptist Raised From The Dead (13:58-14:2).
The mighty works of Jesus, which they have heard of through the tales spreading from elsewhere (Luk 4:23), have not impressed His own home town. They refuse to believe that He can do them and so do not bring their sick to be healed. But Herod is impressed and sees Him as John the Baptist raised from the dead.
Analysis.
a
b At that time (season) Herod the tetrarch heard the report concerning Jesus, and he said to his servants, “This is John the Baptist. He is risen from the dead” (Mat 14:1-2 a).
a “Therefore do these powers work in him (Mat 14:2). p
Note that while His home town do not believe in His mighty works, in the parallel Herod does so. Centrally we have the conclusion that he comes to. It must be John the Baptist who is risen from the dead.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Mat 13:58. And he did not, &c. We are not to understand these words as if the power of Christ was here disarmed: but only that they brought but few sick people to him for a cure, Mar 6:5. He did not judge it convenient to obtrude his miracles upon them, and so could not honourably and properly perform them. On the same principle it is that faith, in some cases, though not in all, is made the condition of receiving a cure. Compare ch. Mat 9:29. Mar 9:23 and Act 14:9. Christ saw proper to make it so here, as he well might, considering what the Nazarenes must undoubtedly have heard of him from other places, and what they had themselves confessed but just before, of mighty works being wrought by his hands; which shews indeed that their unbelief did not so much consist in a doubt of his miraculous power, as of his divine mission, which, to any unprejudiced person’s mind, that power so abundantly proved. In this view therefore it is hard to say, how he could, consistently with his character and perfections, have lavished away his favours on so unworthy a people. Dr. Clarke explains this, “He could not do any mighty works there, consistently with his rule and method of acting, or with his present purposes and designs.” See vol. 9: serm. 3.; the note on Mar 6:6.; Doddridge; and Olearius. The reason, says one, why many mighty works are not wrought now is, not that the faith is everywhere planted, but that unbelief every where prevails.
Inferences.We have in this chapter one more prophetic testimony to the divine character and mission of our great Redeemer,his speaking in parables; and certainly we should think ourselves peculiarly favoured, that while the great truths of the Gospel were veiled in obscurity, and hid from the sight of those who had rendered themselves unworthy of clearer information, we, with the disciples of our Lord, are permitted to know the mysteries of the kingdom, and are indulged with the clearest and fullest intelligence of those great and interesting truths, which many prophets and righteous men have anxiously wished to know, but have not known them.
We should for ever fix it in our minds, that more abundant light and information require a proportionably higher degree of holiness and virtue; to whom much is given, of them much will be required. And as from the parable of the sower we are clearly informed, that increase and improvement depend, under the influence of God’s grace, upon ourselves; that the seed and the sower being always the same, the success of that seed, and the fruitfulness of it, arise from the soil; we should be especially careful, in dependence on the Holy Spirit, duly to prepare our hearts, to bring that good and honest, that humble and teachable, that attentive and considerate disposition to the hearing of the Gospel, which will always be abundantly recompensed with a right knowledge, a genuine experience, and the zealous practice of that Gospel.
When we review mankind, and consider the various pursuits in which they are engaged, the idlenesses and the occupations, the business and the pleasures which so totally engross the minds of the generality, we cannot wonder at the little influence which the preaching of the word of Christ has upon them. Cares are thorns to the poor, wealth to the rich, the desire of other things to all. Riches are called deceitful, and with great propriety: for they smile and betray, kiss and smite into perdition; they put out the eyes, harden the heart, steal away the divine life, fill the soul with pride, anger, and love of the world, and make men enemies to the whole cross of Christ; and all the while are eagerly desired, and vehemently pursued even by those who believe there is a God; nay, who profess to believe the Gospel of Christ.
How great is the forbearance and long-suffering of our God! However pernicious the tares, however abandoned the wicked; however they defy his power, defile his gifts, and dishonour his works, he will not suffer them instantly to be rooted up; he will not in terrible vengeance immediately exert the severity of his judgments upon them. And shall our forbearance and lenity be less than God’s! When we behold vice triumphant, nay when we suffer beneath its oppressions, or in any respect feel its fatal consequences, let us preserve our souls in patience, and remember that a day is coming, when the great separation will be made; when all things that offend shall be cast out of the kingdom of heaven; and when the faithful righteous shall shine forth, bright and pure as the sun, in that kingdom of the Father. Glorious and triumphant consolation! What more do we want to sustain us, amidst all the evils and difficulties of this state of probation? What more can we want to encourage us to maintain the faith of Christ, and to make ourselves, through grace, of the number of those righteous?
The blessed Jesus renewed his visit to Nazareth, Mat 13:54 though the people of that place had attempted to murder him on his first preaching among them: So should we never be weary of well-doing, nor refuse to renew our attempts on the most obstinate sinners, where the interests of their immortal souls are concerned. Blind and deaf though they be, while hardened in guilt, to the dreadful danger of their unhappy state; yet we, as having our eyes open by Almighty grace to that danger, should be the more ready to compassionate and relieve them.
But though these Nazarenes were astonished at his wisdom, and could not but allow the mighty works which he had wrought; yet they went on, perverse and ungrateful, to reject him, and in so doing were condemned out of their own mouth. Well would it be if these persons afforded us the only instance of such self-condemnation. Well would it be, if, among those who profess the faith of Christ, who acknowledge his wisdom and mighty works, none were found, who in heart and life rejected him, disavowing by their actions what their lips continually expressed. Formality of profession is ever to be most dreaded by those, who, brought up in a speculative faith, receive their creed by tradition, and without due examination; and therefore we cannot be too carefully guarded against it.
How much did these Nazarenes lose by their obstinate prejudices against Jesus! How many diseased bodies might have been cured, how many lost souls might have been recovered and saved, had they given him a better reception! Their unbelief as it were disarmed Christ himself of his power to do good, and rendered him a savour of death rather than of life to their souls: and still the same destructive principles will work the same destructive consequences: faith seems to have put the Almighty power of God into the hands of men, while unbelief seems even to tie up the hands of Omnipotence. It is a sin pregnant with every other; and with respect to the dispensation of the Gospel, one which discovers no less blindness than disingenuousness in the mind: for what could the Lord have done more for his vineyard than he hath done in it? What more abundant and convincing testimony could he have given in proof of his divine mission, than he has graciously afforded to mankind?Prophesies clear and continued, miracles mighty and indisputable, wisdom pure and perfect. The Nazarenes allowed his wisdom; and we shall do well to observe, that the very argument which they made use of to support their rejection of this most Divine Prophet, is in itself a strong proof of his divine mission. Whence hath this carpenter’s son this wisdom? Born and educated amongst us, without any of the means of improvement in human learning, putting his hand to the nail, and his right hand to the workman’s hammer? Whence this wisdom, these mighty works, to a man so mean, so low, so utterly uninstructed, unlettered, unaided? O ye Nazarenes, can ye want an answer? This wisdom is from God! O wisdom of the Son of God! O power of the Father! who canst at the same time discover thyself to the eyes of simple and genuine believers, and conceal thyself from such as are carnal: my faith owns, adores, invokes thee, as the uncreated and incarnate Wisdom, as the light of angels and men, hid under the obscurity of our flesh, veiled in the voluntary meanness of thy humiliation, and debased in the proud conceits of self-sufficient philosophers of this world.
REFLECTIONS.1st, With indefatigable diligence did the great Prophet labour to inculcate the doctrines of his Gospel. The same day went Jesus out of the house, and sat by the sea-side, his auditory being too great for a house to contain them; and there, ascending a ship for his pulpit, while the attentive multitude crowded the shore, he spake many things unto them in parables, more, probably, than are here recorded; and he chose this method for reasons given. Note; (1.) In preaching the Gospel, we are called to be instant in season and out of season: no time nor place is unsuitable to speak a word for Christ and for immortal souls. (2.) Where Christ is preached, there should we with delight attend: his presence and blessing on the sea-shore are better than all the magnificence of Solomon’s temple without him.
1. The parable with which Christ opens his discourse is that of a sower, sowing his seed, with the various soils on which it fell, and the consequences thereof. By familiar and well-known objects, Christ would thus convey more pleasingly his divine instructions, and teach them to spiritualize their daily labours, and to draw from them profitable meditation. The explication of the parable Christ is pleased himself to give, and we cannot err when following an infallible interpreter. The seed is the word of the kingdom, the Gospel; the sower is the Lord Jesus, with all his divinely appointed ministers; and he also by his Spirit quickens the seed sown, that it may bring forth fruit in the hearts of those who will with simplicity accept his grace. The field is the world in general; and the several sorts of ground here mentioned, on which the seed falls, represent the different tempers of those to whom the Gospel is preached, and the effects thereby produced upon them.
[1.] Some are like the way-side, where the seed, falling on the hard ground, not broken up, is exposed to the birds, and devoured. This represents the case of those who are careless, negligent, and inattentive hearers, on whom the word of God makes no impression: they understand it not, being wilfully under the darkness of their fallen mind, and their hearts hardened. The wicked one, the devil, ever watchful to prevent all good men from entering, no sooner observes such a one in the way of the Gospel, than he seeks to divert him from it, and catches away the word from his heart as it falls, distracting his attention by some objects around him, or suggesting some idle, vain, worldly, or trifling thoughts, so that the word of God is immediately effaced from the memory, and becomes utterly unprofitable.
[2.] Others are like the stony ground, on which whatever is sown springs up quickly, the earth being shallow; but, unable to bear the scorching sun, for want of root, it withers away. Such are they who attend the ministry of the word, and, greatly struck at first with what they hear, give an immediate assent to its truth; but the root of the matter is not in them; they are unfaithful; they are not brought to a deep and humble sense of the sinfulness of their nature; they do not see the utter impotence of their hearts to all good; they are not humbled to an universal renunciation of themselves; nor led to Christ alone for pardon, righteousness, grace, and glory: but while some lively impression or sudden flash of joy succeeds their hearing, they are ready to conclude that the work is done; their hearts continue unhumbled and unholy; they are not influenced by the divine principle of faith which worketh by love; they have never truly counted the cost, and therefore, when they are called to painful self-denial for Christ’s sake, to endure reproach, the loss of friends or fortune, or the severer sufferings which invenomed persecutions may inflict, then they shrink from the cross, dishonour their profession, comply with the world, are offended, and walk no more with Jesus. May we never be numbered among such!
[3.] Another sort of hearers are compared to the seed sown among thorns. These go farther than the former: they are attendants on the word and ordinances, and in appearance Christians altogether; but insensibly the cares of the world, a too great anxiety about a provision for themselves or families, an inordinate love of money, and too eager a pursuit after it, these, under many a specious cloak of prudent care and becoming industry, seduce the affections to gold from God, and insensibly, like the thorns, eat out the life and spirit of that godliness which they once possessed; the heart grows cold, eternal things lose their importance, the vanities of time appear more significant; and though the profession of religion and the form of duties may still be carried on, it is mere husk; no substantial fruit of grace remains: the word is choked, and the soul drowned in perdition and destruction. How many thus have fallen! May we be warned of the imminent danger, and fear for ourselves, lest this evil world steal away our hearts from God!
[4.] Though others were unfruitful, one sort of hearers are mentioned, who, like the good ground, repaid the husbandman’s toils. Their hearts sincerely yielded to be saved by grace: they received the seed of the Gospel, and, watered by the dews of heavenly influence, it grew, and brought forth fruit abundantly. They are described not merely as hearing the word, but understanding it, the eyes of their mind being enlightened; and they receive the truth not only in the light but in the love of it: in their heart the seed takes root, and brings forth the genuine fruits of righteousness and true holiness: and this variously; for though the quality of the fruit be the same in all, wrought by that one and the self-same spirit, yet in some these fruits are more eminent and abundant than in others. May Jesus give us then the hearing ear and understanding heart, that our profiting may appear; and may we seek to abide and abound in all the fruits of grace, which by Jesus Christ are to the praise and glory of God!
2. Christ resolves the question addressed to him by his disciples, why he spoke to the people by parables? In general, such was the good pleasure of his will. With regard to those who were his disciples, he intended to stir up their inquiries after the explanation of what they heard; they had left all, and followed him; and to them it was given to know the mysteries of the kingdom: but to those who refused to listen to the first inspirations of grace, and trod under foot or negligently cast away those divine seeds out of which faith and regeneration might have sprung up in time, it was not given. Where the divine light which he bestows is faithfully improved, there he will continue to work, increasing his gifts of wisdom and grace: but where there is no desire to profit by his word, but a determined obstinacy to reject it, there he will take away the external gifts, the means of grace, or ministry of the Gospel, which such persons before enjoyed, or at least leave them to the blindness they have chosen. And this he assigns as the reason why he spake to them in parables, without expounding them to the multitude, as he did to his own disciples. He designed to leave those, who wilfully had rejected the light of his miracles and doctrines, to the hardness and impenitence of their own hearts. They did not choose to see or understand, and therefore he decrees in just judgment that they shall not. And herein the prophesy of Isaiah was fulfilled. The Jews were now given up to that judicial blindness which he had foretold. In the midst of the glorious light of the Gospel, and in the face of the astonishing miracles wherewith Jesus as the Messiah had confirmed his mission, they obstinately stopped their ears, and closed their eyes, as if they were afraid lest the force of conviction and the strong evidence of truth should over-power them, and necessitate them to submit to the Saviour’s doctrine, and yield up their hearts and ways to his government: which they being resolved not to do, his spirit will no longer strive with them, and they are left to the ignorance and impenitence of their hearts. But towards those simple souls that received the truth in the love of it, God had the most gracious designs: he had given them the seeing eye, and the hearing ear, and blessed them with the understanding of those mysteries of his grace which were hidden from the eyes of the others: yea, they enjoyed transcendant favours beyond all the prophets and righteous men who had gone before them; for, earnestly as the pious in ancient days longed for the appearing of the Messiah, and to behold him incarnate, they saw his day but at a distance, and chiefly beheld the great things of his kingdom wrapped up in types and figures; while his present disciples beheld him face to face, saw his miracles, and from his own mouth more distinctly were informed of those truths which the others saw only through a glass darkly. Note; (1.) Many enjoy the means of grace whose hearts only grow more hard and insensible under them. They hate the light, and therefore are justly abandoned to the darkness which they have chosen. (2.) The greatest of all blessings is the knowledge of Jesus; for to know him is everlasting life. (3.) If we be distinguished by peculiar circumstances of the divine regard, the stronger obligation is laid upon us to be thankful, and to walk in the light, as children of the light.
2nd, Our Lord farther continues his discourse to the people in parables, choosing in this manner to wrap up the doctrines that he inculcated, according to the prophesy (Psa 78:2.); and while he thus opened a door for inquiry to his disciples, to whom he afterwards explained the meaning of the figures that he used, and informed them of the secrets of wisdom couched under these parables, he left the multitude in general, who shewed no solicitude to be informed of their meaning, to their wilful ignorance. Seven parables are delivered after that of the sower, one of which is afterwards particularly explained by our Lord in private to his disciples, who desired to be informed of its design. We have,
1. The parable of the tares, which is the representation of the visible church in particular, as the former related to the world in general.
[1.] The sower of the good seed is the Son of man, who, by himself, and his ministers whom he appoints, sows the seed of divine life in the hearts of believers, and causes it to take root and bring forth fruit: all that is good in man intirely originates with him.
[2.] The field is the world, through which the Gospel is spread; and particularly the visible church where the word is preached, and Christ’s servants, under him the great Husbandman, continually labour to break up the fallow ground, and cast in the living seed.
[3.] The good seed are the children of the kingdom; those who by faith embrace the doctrines of the Gospel, and in all holy conversation and godliness adorn it.
[4.] The tares are the children of the wicked one; all hypocrites and careless professors, who, though they have a name to live in the visible church, are really dead in trespasses and sins; under the influence of the devil, resembling him in their spirit and tempers, and a trouble and vexation to the children of God among whom they associate.
[5.] The enemy that sowed them is the devil; that spirit of wickedness whose unwearied labours are employed to corrupt and destroy the souls of men, and who watches day and night to take advantage against the church of Christ: and while we are off our guard, or lulled by outward prosperity into a state of security, he insinuates his pernicious errors in doctrine and practice, seducing unstable souls: and for a while the mischief is not discovered, so artful are his wiles; like the villain who sowed tares, and slipped away unnoticed under the covert of the night. But though at first the secret wickedness which lurked under the cloak of profession is not perceived, in a little while the difference between the wheat and tares becomes very visible. The exercise of grace in the one appears evident in the spirituality of their tempers, the simplicity of their hearts, and the purity of their manners; whilst observation and experience discover the unfaithfulness of the tares; and a day of trial shews their real character. With grief and surprise the faithful ministers and servants of Jesus behold the errors and immoralities among the professors of godliness, and carry their sorrowful inquiries to their Lord; for they who have a zeal for him cannot but be affected with every thing in his church which reflects dishonour upon his holy religion. He informs them whence these tares sprung; he marked his enemy in all his ways. He does not reflect upon his servants, as if negligence were to be charged on them: nor will he grant their request of immediately eradicating these pernicious inmates of the visible church. There would be danger, if it was left to us, lest our undistinguishing eye might class among the hypocrites some who were sincere; or, too rigid or hasty in our judgments, we should count those tares, whom the Lord knew to be genuine believers; for his all-seeing eye alone can discern the true characters of men. They are therefore permitted to grow together; the day of separation will come, when the distinction between tares and wheat will be evident. And hence we should learn, (1.) That as long as Christ has a church, the devil will still be seeking to disturb the peace, or corrupt the purity of the professing members of it, notwithstanding the care of the most vigilant pastors, and the administration of the strictest discipline. (2.) We should be very cautious of pronouncing rash and hasty censures on the characters of others: God only knoweth the heart; and it is better that many criminals should escape, than one righteous person be condemned.
[6.] The harvest is the end of the world; the reapers are the angels; they shall go forth, and make the aweful separation. All that offend and do iniquity, whose pernicious doctrines, or immoral conduct, have been a scandal to the religion they professed, shall be gathered out, and, like tares, bound in bundles for the burning. The distinction between the righteous and the wicked shall then be too evident to admit of a mistake, and the separation between them shall be perfect and everlasting. For,
[7.] They shall cast them, the tares, into a furnace of fire; the fire prepared for the devil and his angels, the place of torment appointed for all the ungodly, where they shall burn, and none shall quench them; their pangs intolerable and eternal, under the wrath of God, which is for ever wrath to come; where every expression of acutest anguish and black despair shall prove how fearful a thing it is to fall into the hands of the living God. Lord, gather not my soul with these sinners!
[8.] The wheat shall be gathered into God’s barn. The righteous being proved and found faithful, shall be collected in one glorious company, and shine forth as the sun arrayed in robes of spotless purity, and clothed with honour and immortality; admitted into their Father’s kingdom, and sitting down on the throne of their Lord, to reign with him for ever and ever. The prospect of such a glorious state before us should deeply engage our attention; he therefore that hath ears to hear, let him hear.
2. The parable of the grain of mustard seed, which, from one of the smallest seeds, grows, in the Eastern countries, into the greatest of herbs; so that, like a spreading tree, the birds find shelter in its branches. And such is,
[1.] The work of God in a faithful soul. The beginnings are often small, and scarcely perceptible; but, watered with divine influences, the seed of eternal life springs up, and, amidst all the stormy blasts of temptation, corruption, persecution, affliction, to which it is exposed, increaseth with the increase of God.
[2.] Such also was the Messiah’s kingdom at the first. Christ and his disciples seemed little, mean, and despicable; but their word took deep root; abundant converts were made; the Gospel spread on every side, and filled the face of the world with fruit: and, like the enlarging circle in the water, the church of Christ shall go on increasing, till the kingdoms of the world become the kingdom of the Lord; and all the fowls of the air, both Jews and Gentiles, be converted, and flock together into it. Hasten, O Lord, this happy day!
3. The parable of the leaven. As a little of this diffuses itself gradually through the whole mass of meal with which it is mingled; so does the Gospel word, when quickened by Divine grace, powerfully diffuse its energy through all the faculties of the believing soul, and over all the members of the body; sanctifying the whole, communicating throughout a sweet savour of Christ, and working a blessed and universal change into his image and likeness: And spreading far and wide among all nations, the word of truth shall continue its mighty operations, till all nations shall be brought to the obedience of the faith. Note; Where the leaven of truth is hid in the heart, there its influence will infallibly appear; there will be a sweet savour of Christ in all we speak or do.
4. The treasure hid in the field, which is Christ himself, and the great and precious promises that are in him. The field is the Scripture, wherein He is revealed to us, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, and from whom the most inestimable riches to a sinner, of pardon, peace, righteousness, and grace, are to be derived. These are hid from us in our state of nature: though we have the Scriptures before us, we cannot look farther than the surface of them, till God imparts the spiritual understanding, and enables us to dig deep in the precious mine. When we have found the treasure, we must hide it in our hearts; and nothing can equal the joy with which a poor sinner discovers the riches of the grace revealed in Jesus Christ: for the sake of this we shall be ready to part with all besides, and count an interest in his love and favour the most invaluable treasure.
5. The parable of the pearl of great price is much of the same import with the foregoing. The merchant is the convinced sinner, seeking after Christ and his salvation, the pearl of great price, an object indeed deserving our most eager pursuit. Shall merchants compass sea and land for one poor jewel; and shall we not be more assiduous in securing an interest in Jesus, and the possession of all the jewels of grace and glory? He finds it, as all who truly seek the Saviour assuredly will; and then with cheerfulness sells all to become possessor of it; content to quit the world, with all its riches, honours, pleasures; and his sins, with all their allurements; that Christ may be to him all and in all.
6. The parable of the net cast into the sea, with the explication annexed. The net is the Gospel preached to every creature; the ministers of Christ are the fishermen, who cast it into the sea, the world: by it a multitude of souls are inclosed, and brought into the visible church. When it is full, in the latter days, and all, both Jews and Gentiles, are gathered into it, then cometh the end, when the net shall be drawn to shore, in the great day of final separation, and the contents of it be examined. The good fish, the just, who in Christ Jesus are justified from all things, and found faithful, shall be gathered into the vessels of glory prepared for their reception; while the angels, the ministers employed in this service, shall separate the bad, the wicked, from among them, and cast them away as vile and reprobate into the everlasting burnings. Note; (1.) Many, who have had a place in the Gospel church, will at the last day be rejected by the great Head of the church, as hypocrites and unfaithful. (2.) They who live in wickedness, have nothing to expect but an eternity of woe. (3.) The consideration of the dreadful end of those who perish should awaken our greater solicitude to make our calling and election sure.
7. The parable of the householder aptly finishes, as the practical improvement of the whole. Our Lord had interrogated them on their proficiency, whether they had understood the meaning of the parables which he had uttered; and as they had replied in the affirmative, he directs them to the proper use of the knowledge which they possessed. They were to be evangelical Scribes to preach the everlasting Gospel, as the Scribes in their days expounded the law: and herein they were to resemble a householder, who, having made a liberal provision for the family under his care, brings forth out of his storehouse things new and old, as each is best suited to their wants. The family under our care is the church of Christ, that particular part of it to which we are ordained to minister. Our treasure is the word of truth, and Christ especially therein revealed, with all experimental knowledge of him in all his offices, of the riches of his salvation, and the obligations to love and serve him thence arising. These we must set before the people, drawn from the sacred storehouses of the Old and New Testament; inculcating anew ancient truths; adding to old experiences, new observations; and providing thus a supply of spiritual food, suited to every state, condition, and circumstance of the people whom we serve. And this wisdom, this ability to minister, no attainments of science, no researches of philosophy, no force of genius can bestow: it is the gift of the great Master of the family, the Lord Jesus; and they who would savingly teach others the doctrines of the kingdom, must be themselves first taught of him.
3rdly, When Jesus had finished this discourse, he returned to his own city Nazareth, where he had before been so contumeliously treated, and where he again met the like contempt.
1. Though they could not help being astonished at the wisdom and authority with which he spoke in their synagogue, and the mighty works that he performed, yet their questions shew the prejudices which they entertained against him. They knew his parentage and education: he had not been brought up under their admired doctors; and his father was of no higher rank than a carpenter: his mother Mary, a woman of no account; and his brethren and sisters mean, low, and illiterate people: and at this they stumbled, despised his person, and slighted his ministry.
2. Christ gently rebukes their unreasonable prejudices, and punishes them for their low thoughts of him. They acted according to vulgar prepossessions, which lead us to pay little reverence and respect to those with whom we have been familiar; and if they rise to superior excellence, and above their former station, they are envied. Therefore, since they despised and rejected him, refused to believe his doctrine, and submit to the evidence of his miracles, he did not many mighty works there; not for want of power, but in just judgment; leaving them to their unbelief and hardness of heart. Note; (1.) Prejudice entertained against ministers is a great obstruction to our profiting by their labours. (2.) We owe it to our unbelief, that we see and experience no more of the mighty works of Jesus.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Mat 13:58 . ] In Mar 6:5 , put more definitely thus: . This does not include the idea of unsuccessful attempts, but what is meant is, that the unwillingness of the people to acknowledge the greatness of His person (Mat 13:55 ) compelled Jesus, partly on moral (because of their unworthiness) and partly also on psychical grounds (because the condition of faith was wanting), to make but a limited use of His miraculous power.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
REFLECTIONS
Reader! let you and I pause over this sweet Chapter, and mark the condescending love of Jesus, in thus adopting his discourse, under the imagery of parables, surely it serves to teach us the tenderness of his heart towards his redeemed, as if to come down to the humblest capacities of his people; and that none might err in the apprehension, he varies his subject by illustrating under various similitudes the important truths relating to his kingdom. But that all might be impressed of the everlasting line of distinction between his children, and the children of the wicked One, under whatever figure, or parable, he states the subject Jesus never loseth sight of this. The good seed, or the leaven, the treasure hid in the field, or the good gathered into vessels, all are made to represent the very reverse of the way-side hearers, the stony ground, the thorns, and the tares; which uniformly set forth the state of the reprobate and the seed of the devil. In every part of this blessed Chapter, the Lord Jesus hath drawn, as with a sun-beam, the striking difference, and shewn that characters, springing from such different stocks, never can coalesce; so that the good seed may become tares, or the tares good seed. Lord Jesus! give thy people grace to discover, that amidst all their complaints of unprofitableness, and the like, still thy redeemed are thine, and the Lord. will own them. Oh! for grace, to have all our fruit in Jesus, and the end everlasting life.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Chapter 5
Christ’s Failure As a Preacher
Sympathy Necessary in Hearing The Perils of Literalism Christ Declined Applause Spirituality the Supreme Text.
Text: “Because of their unbelief.”
One would have thought that no difficulties would have stood in the way of such a preacher as Jesus Christ. The Man who could work miracles could surely clear all obstacles out of his path. So it would seem to our ignorance; but so it was not in reality. Jesus Christ complained of difficulties, and confessed his inability to remove them. Those difficulties assume a peculiar significance when we remember that Jesus Christ seemed to have all the elements that both deserve and command success. His miracles were confessed and admired on every hand. He was beyond all question the most popular speaker of his day, characterised by marvellous graciousness and completeness and wisdom of address; so much so that the most learned wondered and the most illiterate understood, and those who were most ignorant felt the coming upon them of a new and very welcome light. Still, this Man, worker of miracles and speaker of beautiful speeches, failed, in a sense which I shall presently explain, in his ministry. He did not numerically fail: great multitudes thronged him on the hill-side, and along by the sea-shore; the popularity of numbers was triumphant it was never so seen in Israel. Yet every heart was a difficulty, every man was a stumbling-block, and in many cases the doctrine was wasted like rain upon the barren sand. At one place even his miracles were powerless; at that place he could do but few mighty works their unbelief was greater, so to speak, than his faith, and he did not there many mighty works because of their unbelief.
Have we any consciousness or experience on our own part which answers to this in any degree, and helps us to understand it? You preachers have, for you know that there are some towns in which you cannot preach. Personally I know that right well. There are some towns in which I find it utterly impossible to say what I have prepared to say. I may, indeed, utter the words, but they come back upon me, and bring no blessing or answer of human heart along with them. They have struck a wall and rebounded and come home, and I cannot get rid of them as gospels and as benedictions. You singers know it. There are some rooms in which you cannot sing: you are choked, suffocated nothing in the construction of the room answers to your voice; you have no co-operation in the walls, in the ceiling, in the floor everything is dead against you, and you who can in other places, under kindlier circumstances, sing to the delight of your friends, and even to the satisfaction of critics, are not at all yourselves under circumstances which seem to depress and disable you. We all know it. There are some men to whom we cannot talk. Conversation is still-born when they are present. I want to say something, but I can not; I have propositions to make, but I cannot make propositions to dead walls or to gravestones. I have sorrows to tell, I have griefs for which I want some human sympathy, but I cannot unburden myself to the men who are round about me on this occasion or on that. We all know the meaning of this temporary disability and disennoblement, so that we who have power under other circumstances are unable to do any mighty works there because of some want, some antipathy, some occult and unnameable cause that shuts us up and makes us barren alike of intellectual conception and verbal expression and force.
Well, it was much the same with Jesus Christ upon another plane, that is to say, upon a much higher level. He was not the same Christ always. The conditions being prepared and equal, how his speech rolled like a river the people welcoming him, eager to hear him, giving him heart-room. Why, he seemed to talk himself up into heaven, and thence to distribute the very bread of life and water from the river of God. Such is he power of sympathy; so true is it that faith works miracles, that good hearing creates good speaking, that social sympathy elicits the whole fulness of the heart, all its secret and mystery and blessedness of love.
How was it that Jesus Christ failed in his ministry? Some reasons are given in the sacred narrative. First of all, the people said, “We know this man. We do not know whence he gets his wisdom. Is not this the carpenter’s son is not his mother called Mary, and his brethren James and Joses, Simon and Judas; and his sisters, are they not all with us? Whence then hath this man all these things?” And they were offended in him. There was a kind of wild logic in their reasoning, a kind of maniac intelligence about their grim philosophy they said: “The cause is not equal to the effect. We can measure this man. We know almost his birthday. We know his father and his mother and his business and his training, and all about him, and there is not in him, so far as we know his antecedents, anything to account for a wisdom that overlaps our rabbinical theology and our doctrinal philosophy. There is not in him enough to account for the wonders which he flings from his fingers and breathes from his lips.”
Do not let us altogether despise these people, because we repeat their error to-day. My brethren, we repeat all the old errors; there is no originality in folly. Our fathers killed the prophets, and we build the sepulchres of the dead men and kill other living men, that our posterity may have grave-digging and tomb-building to attend to in their time. Do not believe all the nonsense you hear talked about heroic lives and splendid boys, who have triumphed over this and that and the other, and do not join the mob when they clap their untrained hands in clamorous and thoughtless applause about those boys now dead. Ask them how they treat the boys that are living in their own streets, and who are trying heroically and quietly to repeat the miracles which they have paid a shilling entrance-fee to clap in the great hall. Let us see what we do ourselves, and not be gloriously heroic over dead people.
Jesus Christ therefore shared the common fate. “There is his father, there is his mother, there are his kinsfolk from whence hath this Man this wisdom? It is guessing, it is conjecture, it is audacity, it is blasphemy: it cannot be accounted for,” and there is nothing people get so angry with as mystery of a supernatural kind. They feel as if they ought to know it; they are intelligent people, they are upon boards of direction, they are ministers of churches, they are office-bearers in high institutions, and they ought to be able to understand everything of the kind. Here is a case in which the spiritual power is in excess of the social antecedency and the social surroundings: therefore ignore it, deny it, contradict it, offend it, disable it, put it down. Rude reasoning, with just as much logic about it as you have seen occasional light in a lunatic’s eye.
Well, there is another reason of failure the utter bondage to the letter. The people to whom Christ spoke were literalists. I do not despise the letter, only I do consider that it is not all. The kingdom of heaven is as a grain of mustard seed, the least among seeds, but when it is sown and fully developed, it becomes a very great tree. So with the letter. It is necessary; we cannot do without it; but it is not to be held in the hand, but is to be planted as a seed, and is to bring forth all the poetry of bad and blossom and fruit, and is to afford lodgment for singing-birds, ay, room enough to give habitations to God’s birds, not one of which he overlooks or neglects. When Jesus Christ said, “Beware of the leaven,” “O,” they said, “that is because we have not brought any bread with us;” and it distressed the Saviour to think that after all his teaching, they could give no higher interpretation to his figures nay, they ceased to be figures before such unimaginative minds. When he said, “Except a man eat my flesh, he cannot live,” they said, “How can a man give his flesh to eat?” and it distressed God’s Christ to hear such literalistic criticism. You cannot interpret religious truth without the religious imagination that wondrous power which keeps the literal and yet comes out into apocalyptic visions and interpretations, and glorifies the letter until its raiments shine and its face glistens with a light brighter than the sun. When Jesus Christ said “bread,” the people thought he meant bread. When he said, “I could give thee water to drink, which, having drunk, would cause thee never to thirst again,” the woman said, “Then let me have it,” not knowing that he spake of his heart’s life and the Holy Ghost, the inner baptism, the satisfaction of the soul’s thirst. Wherever this literalism is, in any congregation, the ministry will be a failure, unless, indeed, the ministry itself is a piece of literalism, and then it will be a double failure.
The third cause of the non-success of our Lord’s preaching was the spirituality of the man and of the doctrine. This was the greatest difficulty of all. The Jews sought the more to kill him because he had not only broken the Sabbath, but said also that God was his Father. “The words that I speak unto you they are spirit and they are life. The Son of Man, which is in heaven.” There was a strange ghostliness about the doctrine of Christ. It had earthly aspects of extreme and indestructible beauty, but the people were afraid to acknowledge the fascination, lest, by their admissions, they should be hurried to conclusions that would make them Christians. Jesus had always something beyond. He never said, “This is the point at which I want you to stand still.” His plan of educating his church is God’s plan of educating the world. The promise come, the promise realised, a higher promise still is spoken. The prize seized, a grander prize is offered, and thus God “allures to brighter worlds and leads the way.”
The people having seen this to be part of his method were very careful how they conceded anything or made any admissions without looking well around the circle of consequences. They learned caution by experience. At first they were clamorous in their applause, but by-and-by they came to understand that applause was not enough. Then they came to hostility. They found it was one of two things then, and it is one of two things now either worship or hatred. There are men about whom you have no strong opinion; they are what are called nice, pleasant men, very agreeable persons, individuals whom you might pass by the thousand in the street, and take no notice of altogether without specialty or accent. But when Christ comes, it is one of two things; it is, worship him, love him, give him all; or it is, crucify him, crucify him. So the people were going to give applause. “Well done,” said they; “repeat that miracle, show us another sign, renew the testimony of tokens;” and Jesus said, “You have had enough of this; I have wrought miracles enough to save the world if miracles ever would save it; now you must think, love, trust, repent, believe.” At that point the great division was set up. The people said, in effect, “His parables are intellectual gems, his voice is full of varied and thrilling music, his language is nothing short of a Divine election of words, his retorts are keen and final, his miracles are mighty and beneficent, he is indeed the supreme wonder of our land.” Jesus Christ said, “That will not do; so far, so good, if good; so far, so bad, if the rest be not added.” There was partial faith, no doubt. Many of the Jews believed on him, and said, “When Christ cometh will he do more miracles than these which this man hath done?” That reasoning would seem to point to this man as the Messiah. Many of the people, when they heard these sayings, said, “Of a truth this is that prophet.” All the people were amazed, and said, “Is not this the Son of David?”
So there was an acknowledgment of peculiar influence and special powers. Was Christ satisfied? A very beautiful trait of his character comes out here. An impostor would have been intoxicated with the applause; Christ declined it. The people said, “Never man spake like this man.” The people would have taken him by force to make him a king, the people delighted in his miracles, and made him famous concerning them. Was this enough? Alas! it brought the expression of an infinite distress into Christ’s face. There is some applause that damns a man, there is a liking for a ministry which crushes the minister. What did Christ want? To see of the travail of his soul! To applaud his miracles was to annoy him, to speak about what he had done was to give him offence. He said, “Do not speak about it; miracles spoken about lose their meaning. Tell no man; go home to thy friends and think.” He was afraid that the people’s applause would end in itself, in mere admiration, and in merely spreading for him a high-sounding name as a kind of consecrated juggler. He knew human nature, and he said, “Be quiet about the miracles; go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel.” When the miracle was wrought, he said, “Go home and say nothing about it.” We cannot be trusted with too many miracles, they unsettle our intelligence, they were not meant as other than alphabetic and indicative. If we make more of them we invert and spoil the purpose of Christ. Christ spoke of his soul the travail of his soul, “My soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto death.” Please his soul, and you give him sincere and pure delight.
But surely Jesus Christ kept in hand all whom he did succeed in getting to hear him and like him? No. Many escaped from his grasp. “From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.” He was a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel. That is a marvellous circumstance in our Lord’s life. He had difficulty in getting any: he did not keep all whom he did get. He was despised and rejected of men. Can we wonder that we hear in our own day of ministers who have to complain of similar non-success? Do you know how ministers of Christ are now spoken of in this matter of failure and success? I will tell you, but do not repeat what I tell you. The common inquiry Is, “How is he getting on?” and the frequent reply is, “They are not filling they are not filling. He does not fill the place. He does not keep up his congregation. The place was not so full as I have seen it. I think there is a falling away.” Why I have even heard some lunatics say that the collection was not quite so large as it used to be! Ah, me! my Christ, my God’s Christ, it is the old criticism over again, and it will be the old crucifixion. God grant that it may be the old resurrection! We are wrong in our standards, false in our reckoning. I do not complain of the criticism. I thank God that for five-and-twenty years I have been standing in the midst of a crowd as a Christian minister, and therefore I make no personal references in the matter, but there are higher standards than numbers, money, patronage, gifts, or anything that is outside and secondary. Do not let us despise these; they are most useful and necessary, and if any man here has the gift of speech and can eulogise these things soberly and fully, I will accept his statement and will replace my own with his description. Only let us know that Jesus Christ had to suffer from exactly this same cause. “From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.” Did he then cease to walk? He hardened his face and went to the Jerusalem of his destiny. Keep steadily on thy purpose, and never mind who comes or who goes, be thy face towards God’s will, and God will see that no stone can keep thee in the grave.
A falling-off of physical power there may be in your minister: alas! he cannot always be young. Time makes insidious advances upon us all. As there came a time in our boyhood when words suddenly revealed their full meaning to us, so there are special moments in our after life when a man says, “Why, I am no longer young.” Who cares for the aged minister who cares for the minister whose vigour is gone! Even a decline of intellectual force is possible: the man is not so ready and strong as he used to be. Once he answered the occasion as powder answers fire now he is more torpid, he has farther to come, his sleep is of another kind, and steals more fatally over his brain. Who cares for him in that withering time? Always some thank God.
But this physical decline, or intellectual falling away, is not the cause; the real reason may be deeper, and may actually be the supreme honour of the minister, as it was in the case of Christ. When did the disciples fall away and walk no more with Christ when his power of working miracles was gone, when his power of inventing and delivering beauteous parables had declined? The cause lay deeper: do not let us hasten over it, but rather let us consider it deeply. From what time was it, then, when many of his disciples went back? It was when Jesus was most spiritual in his teaching. Hear the testimony. He began to say, “Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me and I in him. As the living Father hath sent me, and as I live by the Father, so he that eateth me even he shall live by me.” It was THEN that the disciples said, “This is a hard saying: who can hear it?” Jesus hearing that objection went further, and said, plainly, “No man can come unto me except it were given unto him of my Father.” From THAT TIME many of his disciples went back and walked no more with him. Why? Because the miracles were less glittering and notable? No. Because the parables fell off in intellectual beauty and force? No but because the ministry became more spiritual. Just so now. When and why do the people love the minister? Which are the sermons which are little liked? I know. What are the sermons that will empty any church in London? O, my friends, belonging to this place or to that, for we gather here from many religious centres, how is it with you? Are you still hungering for little stories, striking anecdotes, pretty parables are you still delighted with small rhetorical toys cut with a jack-knife and painted red and blue, or do you want the inner truth, Christ’s flesh to eat, Christ’s blood to drink, a baptism of the Holy Ghost, keen, piercing insight into the inner mysteries of God’s invisible kingdom? From that time, from the moment he became intensely spiritual, his disciples walked no more with him.
I heard a great organist play. He played from Handel, and the people answered with feeble enthusiasm of hand and foot. He played from Mendelssohn and Beethoven, and there was the same acquiescence in fate it was to be so, and was taken as such. He played a piece full of scenic representation, the village dance, the storm brewing, rolling, shattering the heavens then the quiet, gentle hymn: it was most pictorial, most vivid and graphic, and the people answered as with a roar. The organist said to me afterwards, on being complimented on the reception of the piece in question, “Well, it was somewhat ad captandum .” He was not pleased with the compliment. It was a beautiful piece, a rare and wonderful piece but Handel and Beethoven, these were masters, so to speak, who opened the infinite. Alas! who cares?
Now this review of Christ’s failure destroys two sophisms. First, that earnestness is always successful. O, the cant that is talked about earnestness! Was Christ earnest?
58 And he did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief.
Ver. 58. He did not many mighty works ] Mark saith he could not do much for them. Christ, that could do all things by his absolute power, could hardly do anything by his actual power (could not, because he would not) for unbelievers. Note here that this journey of his to Nazareth must be distinguished from that set down Luk 4:16 , though the same things are said of both: his countrymen, we see, were no changelings, but continued as bad as before, not a jot the better for that former visit.
Because of their unbelief ] A sin of that venomous nature, that it transfuseth, as it were, a dead palsy into the hands of omnipotence. This infectious sorceress can make things exceeding good to prove exceeding evil.
58. ] = , Mar 6:5 , where see note. On the identity, or not, of this preaching at Nazareth with that related much earlier by Luk 4:16 sq., see note there.
Mat 13:58 . ere also editorial discretion is at work. Mark states that Jesus was not able to work miracles in Nazareth, and that He marvelled at their unbelief. Matthew changes this into a statement that He did few miracles there because of their unbelief, and passes over the marvelling in silence.
58.] = , Mar 6:5, where see note. On the identity, or not, of this preaching at Nazareth with that related much earlier by Luk 4:16 sq., see note there.
Mat 13:58. , unbelief) The reason why many miracles are not performed at present, is not so much planted Christianity, as reigning infidelity.[653]
[653] In the original, non tam est fides plantata quam infidelitas regnans; i.e. it is not so much that Christianity, having been already planted, does not require the aid of miracles, as that the wide prevalence of unbelief prevents their being performed.-(I. B.)
Mar 6:5, Mar 6:6, Luk 4:25-29, Rom 11:20, Heb 3:12-19, Heb 4:6-11
Reciprocal: 2Ki 4:6 – when the vessels Mat 8:2 – if Mat 9:28 – Believe Mat 17:17 – O faithless Luk 7:23 – General Act 14:9 – he had
THE SIN OF UNBELIEF
He did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief.
Mat 13:58
We see in these words the secret of the ruin of multitudes of souls!
I. Those who will not believe.They perish because they will not believe. There is nothing beside in earth or heaven that prevents their salvation: their sins, however many, might all be forgiven; the Fathers love is ready to receive them; the blood of Christ is ready to cleanse them; the power of the Spirit is ready to renew them. But a great barrier interposes: they will not believe. Ye will not come to Me, says Jesus, that ye might have life (St. Joh 5:40).
II. The old root-sinunbelief.It is the old root-sin which caused the fall of man. Cut down in the true child of God by the power of the Spirit, it is ever ready to bud and sprout again. There are three great enemies against which Gods children should daily pray:
(a) Pride.
(b) Worldliness.
(c) Unbelief.
Of these three none is greater than unbelief.
Bishop J. C. Ryle.
3:58
Pretended miracle workers try to explain their failure at performing certain miracles on the ground of the unbelief of the multitude. They will refer to such passages as the present verse and try to hide behind it. They ignore the point that Jesus did do some of his works in spite of the unbelief of the multitude. The reason their unbelief restricted his mighty works so that he did not many of them was their unbelief which rendered them unworthy. (See chapter 7:6 and Mar 6:5.)
Mat 13:58. And he did not there many mighty works because of their unbelief. This unbelief was inconsistent and criminal, for they acknowledged His wisdom and power (Mat 13:54). Jesus does not force His love or blessings on us, and His miracles were not mere displays of Almighty Power. Where there was no faith, no moral condition to justify such displays, there our Lord could do no mighty works (Mar 6:5). Want of faith is always the great hindrance.
THE BROTHERS OF OUR LORD. Mention is made fourteen or fifteen times in the New Testament of the brothers of our Lord, named in Mat 13:55. In an ordinary history, this could only mean that they were the younger children of Joseph and Mary, or possibly the children of Joseph by a former marriage. The well-known terms, cousin and kinsman, would have been used had the relationship been a different one. Notwithstanding this, three views have been held: (1.) That they were the children of Joseph and Mary; the theory of Tertullian, Helvidius, and many of the best modern Protestant commentators. (2.) That they were the children of Joseph by a former marriage; the theory of Epiphanius, and the ancient Greek Church. (3.) That they were the children of Mary, the wife of Alphaeus (Clopas), the sister of our Lords mother, and hence his cousins. This was the theory of Jerome, adopted by the Roman Catholic Church, and by the older (and some modem) Protestant commentators. Lange modifies this view, by supposing that Alphaeus was the brother of Joseph, and that in consequence of his early death the children were adopted by Joseph.
1. The first view is the most natural one. Objections: (a.) It denies the perpetual virginity of Mary. But this is nowhere asserted, while Mat 1:25 and Luk 2:7, suggest the contrary. (b.) Gal 1:19, seems to intimate that James, our Lords brother, was an Apostle, while this view involves the non-identity of this James with James the son of Alphus, who undoubtedly was an Apostle. But the passage in Galatians has, from the earliest times, been interpreted as not implying the Apostleship of our Lords brother. The identity of names in the list of Apostles and in that of our Lords brothers is of itself, no proof of identity of persons; the name of James especially being very common among the Jews. Further, at a point in the history after the choice of the Twelve (Joh 7:5), His brethren did not believe on Him; they are distinguished from the Apostles in Act 1:14; 1Co 9:5, and by implication in Mat 12:46-50. (c.) Our Lord on the cross commended His mother to the care of John, which is regarded as strange, if she had other sons. But the spiritual nearness of John, and the probable kinship (see below, and notes on Joh 19:25) will account for this.
2. The view that they were the sons of Joseph by a former marriage is not open to any great objection, though supported by no positive evidence. It too, fails to identify James the son of Alphus and James the Lords brother.
3. The cousin-theory is beset with difficulties. (a.) It assumes that two sisters had the same name (Mary). (b.) It does not account for Simon and Judas who were our Lords brothers. Indeed, the better supported reading (Joseph, Mat 13:55) destroys the identity of name with Mar 15:40 (Joses), (c.) It is probable that Salome and not Mary(Joh 19:25) was the sister of our Lords mother. The view of Lange is free from some of these difficulties, but assumes what is extremely improbable, namely, that at least half a dozen children were adopted into the family of a poor carpenter. Besides it is a pure hypothesis.
The view that Mary had other children furnishes an argument in favor of the historical character of the Gospels. Had the story of the miraculous conception been a fiction, the Evangelists, to give consistency to the tale, would have denied that our Lord had any brothers, instead of speaking of them without reserve. For a full presentation of all the views, see Langes Comm., Matthew, pp. 255-260.
This sin not only locks up the heart of a sinner, but also binds up the hands of a Saviour. Unbelief obstructed Christ’s miraculous works when on earth, and it obstructs his gracious works now in heaven.
Ah! cursed unbelief! which shuts up, O sinner, thy heart, and shuts out thy Saviour, and will effectually shut thee out of heaven, and not only procure damnation, but no damnation like it!
Christ was unable because they were unwilling; his impotency was occasioned by their infidelity; he did not, because he would not; and that he would not, proceeded from a defect in their faith, not from any deficiency in Christ’s power; their unbelief bound his hands, and hindered the execution of his power.
Mat 13:58. And he did not, (Mark says, he could not do,) many mighty works, because of their unbelief On which words it has been justly observed, that they are not to be understood so strictly as if the power of Christ was here disarmed; but only, that as they brought but few sick people to him for a cure, he did not judge it proper to obtrude his miracles upon them. On the same principle it is, that faith, in some cases, though not in all, is made the condition of receiving a cure. And Christ saw it proper to make it so here, as well he might, considering what they must undoubtedly have heard of him from other places, and what they had confessed themselves but just before, of mighty works being wrought by his hands; which shows, indeed, that their unbelief did not so much consist in a doubt of his miraculous power, as of his divine mission, which, to any unprejudiced persons mind, that power so abundantly proved. The reasons, says Mr. Wesley, why many mighty works are not wrought now, is not, that the faith is every where planted; but that unbelief everywhere prevails.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments