CRITICAL NOTES
The general heading of the chapter may be given as: Jesus judging His contemporaries and Himself (A. B. Bruce, D.D.). Hitherto almost everything has been hopeful and encouraging in our Evangelist’s record of the Saviour’s ministry. But the path of the King is not to be a triumphal progress. It is to be a via dolorosa, leading to a cross and a grave. It is not at all to be wondered at, then, that the Evangelist should now give his readers some idea of the discouragements which met the King in the setting up of His kingdom on the earth.
1. The first of these which he mentions comes from a quarter from which least of all it might have been expected: John in doubt (Matthew 11:1-15).
2. The unreasonableness of the people (Matthew 11:16-19).
3. The unbelief of the cities (Matthew 11:20-24). How does the Saviour bear Himself under these repeated discouragements? The passage which follows will show (Matthew 11:25-30). See note below on Matthew 11:25 (J. M. Gibson, D.D.).
Matthew 11:1. He departed thence.—I.e. from the place from which He had sent forth the Twelve. Where this was St. Matthew does not tell us; but Matthew 9:36 makes it probable that it was not in Capernaum nor any other city, but from some spot in the open country where He had rested with them (Plumptre). Their cities.—Might seem grammatically to point to the towns where the Twelve had been, or to which they belonged; but probably used here vaguely for the cities of Galilee in general (ibid.).
Matthew 11:2. Prison—See note on Matthew 14:3. The position of the Baptist was, so far, that of a prisoner treated with respect. Herod himself observed him, and heard him gladly. Herodias had not yet found an occasion of revenge. His disciples came and went freely. Some of these were present when our Lord was teaching (Matthew 9:14), and were certain to hear of such wonders as those narrated in
8. and
9. (ibid.). Two of his disciples.—By his disciples (R.V.), a reading supported by the best MS. authority.
Matthew 11:6. Shall not be offended in Me.—Shall find none occasion of stumbling in Me (R.V.). Some had thought only of an avenging and triumphant Christ (Carr).
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Matthew 11:1-6
Untaught disciples.—Hitherto in this Gospel we have met with little else than advance. The personal ministry of Jesus has prospered so far that He has just finished selecting and commissioning twelve special servants to aid Him in His work. But now we hear of words and actions which are symptomatic of doubt. A message is brought, and another is returned, which whisper it at the least. If we would rightly trace out the story of the Saviour’s ministry, we must consider them both.
I. The message brought.—A message remarkable, first, for the person it comes from. It is from “John the Baptist”—the forerunner of Christ—the man to whom Jesus of Nazareth had been pointed out as Messiah both by vision and voice (Matthew 3:16-17), and the man who, in turn, had pointed Him out to the faith of the world (John 1:29). More remarkable is it, next, this being so, for the question it asked. Ostensibly and generally that question asks, Who art Thou that art filling Syria—filling even my “prison” (Matthew 11:2)—with the fame of Thy works? More particularly, and in reality, it asks, Art thou the “Man,” or only His shadow? The end of the series, or only another step in it? The fulness of hope, or merely another postponement, not to say another disappointment as well? Most remarkable is it, however, for the state of things it implies, viz. a state of suspense which, in such a matter and circumstances, was a state of offence. Whether this was so on the part of the Baptist himself, shut up there in his unfriended prison, most are reluctant to hold. They rather believe that he asks thus for the sake of his disciples only, and to clear up their doubts on the subject. But, even so, it is surprising that his disciples should have such doubts to clear up. To think that he should have to send them to the Saviour Himself to settle their minds about Him. What has been the aim of his preaching amongst these disciples? What the subject of it? What the power of it? What the effect it produced? Apparently, the very message he came to teach has been so taught by him as not yet to be learned!
II. The message returned.—This is remarkable, on the one hand, in not being a direct answer at all. It does not say who Jesus was in so many words. It only does so in the way of inference. It is remarkable also in that it only points, in so doing, in the first place, at any rate, to the kind of knowledge which was already in existence. We are expressly told that John had “heard in the prison”—not improbably through some of his own disciples—of the works of Jesus. When he asks to know for the sake of his disciples (as is supposed) what he is to think of Him who wrought these marvels, he is simply referred to more of the kind. “Go and report to John what you are looking on now.” There is the first answer to what he inquires (Matthew 11:5). Are not these works which he has heard of just the things which the “Coming One” ought to do? The second answer also seems to be a reference to what was already known to the Baptist. We cannot but believe that he was familiar with that declaration of Isaiah 61 about the Messiah, which the Saviour, in the synagogue at Nazareth, once applied to Himself (Luke 4:15-21). Well, his messengers were to go and report what they had seen on this point also. They were to bid the Baptist, in fact, judge for himself on what he already knew and had read of; and so understand, therefore, that, employed as it should be, that settled the point about which he inquired. A view which is confirmed by the apparent purport of the solemn words which ensue (Matthew 11:6). As though He would say thereby to the Baptist, “Let thy disciples beware how they allow themselves to doubt about Me. Let them understand that they have evidence enough on the point as it is, and that, if there be anything which disappoints or perplexes them on what else they may hear about Me, they had better fall back upon that. Happy indeed for all who do so. Blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in Me” (Matthew 11:6).
1. How trying all this must have been to the Saviour.—There is a touch of reproach in these closing words which signifies this. How grievous to find doubt where He had looked for support! To be questioned about His mission where He had looked for testimony in its favour!
2. How instructive to all who favour His cause.—The disappointments and defections of these days sometimes tend to overwhelm us with fear. We may see from this that they are by no means new to the church. She has survived countless others before. She began with them in the time of the Saviour Himself. Scarcely indeed had He fully risen before such mists gathered around Him.
3. How encouraging also to some of those who are troubled by doubts!—Why are they so? For lack of light? Rather for not rightly availing themselves of the light which they have. There is that in Christ’s works which is sufficient to prove the truth of His words. There is more in “Moses and the prophets” (Luke 16:31) than men have found out as yet. “What is that in thy hand?” So it was that God Himself once confirmed faith (Exodus 4:2). So, in effect, it was here!
HOMILIES ON THE VERSES
Matthew 11:1-6. John’s doubting message to Jesus.—There was real, serious, honest doubt in John’s mind concerning Jesus; and doubt, be it observed, not in regard to the identity of the worker of the works reported to John with Jesus, but in regard to the nature of the works viewed as Messianic. That he was staggered by the character of the works is plainly indicated in the reflection, “Blessed is he that is not offended in Me.” Obviously John had stumbled at something in the public life of Jesus, and the something was just the works which Jesus, sent the disciples of John back to report to their master.
I. But why should John stumble at those works, so full of the spirit of love and mercy?
1. Just because they were works of mercy.—These were not the sort of works he had expected Messiah to busy Himself with; at all events so exclusively (see Matthew 3:10; Matthew 3:12). He had looked for judgment and beheld unaccountable patience, and the grim Hebrew prophet was astonished; none the less that his own forlorn plight brought very vividly home to his mind how evil the time was and how utterly ripe for judgment.
2. In his astonishment and doubt John was not only in harmony with his own antecedents, but with what we may venture to call the prophetic temperament.—The prophet, from the nature of his vocation, is a man more likely to have sympathy with manifestations of Divine righteousness than with manifestations of Divine long-suffering. When we say this we do not forget that there are splendid exceptions, notable above all the author of the second half of the Book of Isaiah, whether Isaiah or another. In one sense John was not wrong, for Israel’s judgment-day was not far off; and just on that account it was needful that the messengers of mercy should make a hasty run over all her borders, urging her with unwonted earnestness to repent. But be was too hasty and too impatient, and hence he was offended in Jesus.
II. The reply sent back by Jesus to John amounted to this, that the sure marks that He was the Coming One, the Christ, were just the very works which had awakened his (John’s) surprise (Matthew 11:4-6). It was a good reply, not only on its own merits, but from the point of view of Old Testament prophecy, as it claimed for Jesus, as marks of His Messiahship, some of the most outstanding features in the picture of the Messianic era drawn by that very prophet from whom John took his own watchword: “The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord” (cf. Isaiah 35:5-6; Isaiah 42:7, Ias. 61). Having recounted rapidly His mighty works, Jesus appended the reflection, “and blessed is he,” etc. The tone of compassion, rather than of severity or soreness, is audible in the utterance. Jesus felt keenly how much John missed by being in such a state of mind that that in His own work which was most Godlike was a stumbling-block to him. Translated into positive form the reflection means: “Blessed are they to whom the mercy and grace of which I am full, and whereof My ministry is the manifestation and outflow, are no stumbling-block but rather worthy of all acceptation.”—A. B. Bruce, D.D.
Matthew 11:2-5. The world’s King.—This chapter is a mirror wherein is reflected the restlessness of the age in which Christ lived. Even John seems to have shared this feeling to some extent; hence his question. In thinking of Christ’s relationship to humanity we must think of Him not merely as dealing with individuals here and there, but as dealing with the world as an organised whole.
I. Jesus Christ is the King of the world.—It is a familiar fact that Christ gave Himself this title. The Apostles and Evangelists also made it prominent. The charge laid against them in one place was that they said “there was another king—one Jesus.” What is a king? Does the putting of a crown on a man’s head make him a king? That depends upon what sort of a head it is which receives the crown.
1. Is not a king one who governs by the mighty influence of his personality—by the force of a commanding character? Many are called kings who are not kings; many are kings who have not the name. Kingliness is the true sign of the king, and judged by this criterion Christ is the greatest king who has ever appeared. This royal quality was put to the severest test. Art Thou the King? is virtually the question which John put. He had proclaimed the coming of the kingdom, but this does not yet look much like the King. I do not wonder at the doubt; we should have doubted too. But the fact that there was room for doubt supplied an additional opportunity of proving His real kingliness. The life of Christ was a revelation, in a thousand forms, of the kingliness of His person.
2. Another sign of real kingliness is the power to bless. Some are great by what they receive; the greatest are great by what they bestow.
II. The sphere of His kingship.—In words which belong either to a madman or to God, Christ says: “All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth.” He claims what all men desire for themselves and yet are jealous of in others. The expression is unqualified. Consider this power in regard to its operation on human life in two of its dimensions:—
1. Its depth.—Christ touches human nature not merely on the surface. The glory of His work lies in His power to change the heart itself into something it could not have been without Him.
2. Its breadth.—It goes without saying that if Christ thus acquire dominance over the hearts of men, His influence will also be felt in every department of their life. The questions of life, of death, of society, of politics, and of commerce are best understood by him who kneels at the feet of Jesus of Nazareth.
III. What should be the effect upon us of this view of the greatness of Christ’s kingdom?—One thing is certain; if we are to partake of the spirit of the King, and so belong to Him in the truest sense, our faith must not be a weak, effeminate thing, but a strong confidence, which sees all power arrayed on its side.—J. B. Stedeford.
Matthew 11:3-4. The supreme social Benefactor.—There are times when the old problems of human life seem to come back upon us more imperiously than ever. We cannot forget, for example, that nigh two thousand years have run their course since the night of the angels’ song; and what of our poor world to-day? If the world’s Saviour be indeed born, how is the world still thus? And so from our perplexity there goes up to Christ’s ear the impatient question of the Baptist, “Art Thou He that should come, or look we for another?” The point on which it is important we should fix attention is that, in answer to John’s perplexed inquiry, Christ simply pointed to His own method of working. To a lamentable extent there has been misapprehension and mistake on the part of the church and of Christian people as to the way of advancing the Divine kingdom.
I. Let us observe how the person of the Man Christ Jesus has been largely obscured.—When we turn to the gospel record we find a Christ who delighted in the name, “the Son of man,” and who abundantly proved His right to that name. But now we turn to history; and away back in the early centuries the clouding influence comes in. We find controversy raging so fiercely over dogmatic definitions of the nature of Christ, and men so intolerantly eager regarding His Divine glory alone, that His true and tender humanity fell quite into the background. Hence it came about that, in course of time, men and women began to crave anew for some more approachable mediator. Christ was so far, so high above them, so widely separated from poor, weak, burdened, sinful men and women that, though He might be the ultimate way to the Father, others must first form a way of access to Him; and so longing hearts groping about turned to the Virgin Mother, and to the saints, that they, in the first instance, might interpose and intercede; and a corrupt church, instead of feeling its way back to the manhood which had been ignored, sanctioned the dishonouring idolatry. Let us give thanks that a characteristic feature of the religious thought of our time is a return to the recognition of Christ in His true and tender human life. We are taking our ideas of His person, not from dogmatic systems, but from His own life on earth.
II. We are thus reminded how Christ’s method of working has been to a sad extent overlooked.—The usual method of exposition with reference to our Lord’s works of healing is this: These works are expressive symbols of the great spiritual work He came into the world to effect. But while His works of mercy may undoubtedly be viewed as symbols worthy of something more, have they not a reality of their own? They were themselves most real acts, instinct with the living breath of a most practical pity. But now, what as to the church’s way of following Christ? Has it adequately imparted and expressed through the centuries His spirit of earnest sympathy and helpful service? In our answer to such questions we must be on our guard against exaggeration. Time would fail me to tell of all the various ways in which the spirit of Christ, the Divine leaven, reveals its pervasive power in our modern social life, or of the countless agencies and institutions which bear growing testimony to its beneficent and abiding presence. But while truth and gratitude call for large acknowledgments we may not shut our eyes to the fact that the church’s energies and efforts have been to a large extent deplorably misdirected. Instead of steadily striving to carry on Christ’s saving work amidst the world’s millions it has earned for itself a reputation as a debating ground, an arena where gladiators fight to the death for their respective tenets, and where preachers show their skill in defining and dividing and drawing hair-splitting distinctions in regard to matters far apart from ordinary human interests. The great need of our time is that our abounding Christian profession be translated into Christlike lives.—W. R. Taylor, M.A.
Matthew 11:3. John’s question.—
I. What is the explanation of John’s doubt about Jesus?
1. No doubt it was in part his disappointment.—Jesus did not do the very things that John expected in the very way that John expected.
2. His own unhappy lot.—John seemed to have laboured, and Jesus entered into his labours and left him at the mercy of this profligate king. And these things entered into John’s soul, and perhaps made him a little bitter, and he wondered if the great King who was to come, just and victorious, had really come when things like that were really being done in the world; and despondency made him ask the question again and again, till it became unbearable, and he felt bound to put it direct to Jesus.
II. Notice how Jesus deals with this kind of question.—Practically He said to John: Yes, I am He that should come. He pointed to the works that He did, and how these works were the very things that the Coming One had been foretold to do, and left John to draw the inference. But Jesus adds another word, a word of warning to the doubter—“Blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in Me.” Possibly in the prison John had begun to think too much about himself, to think that the kingdom of God could not have come because he was left in the dungeon to suffer and to die. Now Jesus had that very trial to bear Himself. He knew that His own path led straight to the cross, and He knew that that did not throw any shadow of doubt on His calling to be the Saviour of the world. So He says, “Blessed is the man who can look on Me who am meek and lowly in heart, and come without the axe and the fan; who can look on Me preaching glad tidings to the meek, healing the sick, cleansing the lepers, and raising the dead; who can see Me suffering for righteousness’ sake; who can do all that and not doubt.” Jesus warns us in this place that no man is too good to suffer for God’s sake; that no man’s life is too good a thing to lay down that the kingdom of God may come, and that it is a danger when what he has to bear for the kingdom of heaven’s sake makes a man wonder whether the kingdom of heaven is there or not.
III. Let us bring this question about doubting concerning Jesus down to our own time.—People wonder whether after all Jesus is the Saviour of the world, or whether there may not be something better to hope for than the gospel has really brought. What are the reasons, what are the forces that create that kind of doubt in people’s minds now?
1. One is this—it is the same as in John’s time—that we are standing at the beginning of a new age. Young people especially cannot help asking, Is Christ to be for us what He has been to our fathers? Is He still to preside in the future, as He has done in the past, over the growth of all that is worthiest and best in human nature? Is the gospel still to be the inspiration and the restraint of men? Or have we to put that away and look for something else? Now that kind of doubt one may call without offence, I think, thoughtless. One can only cherish that kind of feeling if he looks at the future vaguely, and does not look at Christ at all. But if we think of the new ideas that are really working themselves into prominence, we shall feel that almost all of them are really Christian.
2. Another kind of doubt arises out of ignorance. Sometimes people meet Christ at a particular place. They get one revelation of what Jesus is, very often that precise revelation that John had when he said, “Behold the Lamb of God,” etc. But then, although Jesus does bear the guilt of the race, that is not all He does, and that is not all we should find in Him. And if we do not go on to find more in Him, even what we have found will become doubtful. I suppose there is no kind of doubter more common than the doubter who has once been fervently evangelical. And that is not any fault at all of evangelicalism; it is the fault of some slothfulness or worldliness that has kept a man from improving his knowledge of Christ, and that keeps him walking not in the light of Christ’s presence, but in the light of some far away, and often fading, recollection of Christ.
3. This kind of doubtful question is often prompted still in good men and earnest men, as it was in John, by disappointment. Men lose temper when they see that God is so slow, that things do not go swiftly in their way; and they say, Art Thou He that should come? Is the thing we see salvation? It was a question that was put straight to Christ Himself, and He answered it. And the way He answered it was to point out that this trial of the partial failure of the gospel was one that He Himself had to bear. In this very chapter a little further down we are told, “He began to upbraid the cities wherein most of His mighty works were done, because they repented not.”—Jos. Denney, D.D.
Looking for another Christ.—I find it rather hard to believe that John the Baptist’s faith was really shaken. With his severe ascetic habits, with the resoluteness of his nature in which will counted for quite as much as passion, and with his religious temper, which made more of righteousness than of emotion, a few months’ imprisonment could hardly have produced upon him an effect so disastrous. The real explanation seems to be that the Baptist’s conception of the Messiah included elements in it which it was difficult to bring together. The prophetic visions of the Christ were generally bright with glory, but they were sometimes clouded with intimations of struggle and of suffering. A Christ knowing nothing of sorrow was hardly the Christ that this sorrowful world needed; and the prophets felt sure that He must endure pain and humiliation. How the glory and the sufferings were to be blended they could not tell. And so John, in his earlier preaching, had spoken of the power and glory of the Christ. He was to found a kingdom; He was to be a mighty prince; He was to cut down the trees that did not bring forth good fruit; He was to burn up the sin of the world with unquenchable fire. Later on, after Christ’s baptism, John the Baptist began to speak of Him as “the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world”; and I think it must have been difficult for John to understand how it should be possible for the Christ both to suffer and to reign, to bear the sin of the world and yet to be enthroned in glory. Some of the learned teachers of the Jewish race had speculated on the possibility of there being two Messiahs, a Messiah who should suffer, and a Messiah who should be enthroned in majesty and in splendour. This idea had not penetrated the popular mind, and there is no trace of it in the Gospels; but when John came to reflect in prison on all that the prophets had spoken of the Messiah’s glory, and on what, I imagine, Jesus had told him at the baptism about His being the sacrifice for the sins of the world, it is very possible that John began to wonder whether Jesus Himself would both suffer and reveal Himself to the world in glory. With unfailing faith in Jesus as the Christ, with an immovable conviction that He was all that He claimed to be, John may have been unable to see how He was to be at once a great Prince and the Lamb of God taking away the sin of the world; and so, in his perplexity, he sends two of his disciples to Jesus to ask Him whether He was the Christ that was to come, or whether they were still to look for another. That John should have sent to Christ Himself to solve the doubt, shows that his faith in Christ was unshaken.
I. There are times when, through the disappointments and failures of our personal religious lives, it may be necessary for us, in a sense, to look for another Christ than the Christ we have already known.
1. Some have been restless for months, perhaps years, about their sin. They have appealed to Christ again and again, and the peace of Christ has not come to them. They are almost ready to say, “Art Thou He that should come?” etc. Christ may reply to that question by pointing them, as He pointed the disciples of John, to the great triumphs of mercy by which they are surrounded.
2. Some have no trouble about forgiveness. Long ago they were able to bring their sins to the feet of Christ and leave them there. But their Christian life has not had the power and brightness they hoped for. I believe that this also often arises from a defective knowledge of Christ. He is a “Prince and Saviour.” He gives us a law that we must obey, and if we expect Him to keep His promises we must be willing to keep His precepts.
II. This question, or something very like it, may be suggested by the general condition and history of the world.—He came to save the world, and the world, or a large part of it, remains still unsaved. Well, do you look for another Christ? And, if you do, what kind of a Christ do you desire Him to be?
III. We do not look for the coming of another Christ, but the Christ whom we know will come in another form (Acts 1:11).—He will seem to some of us to be another Christ from the Christ that we once knew, a Christ whom we never expected to see, and in whom we had never believed. But He will come in His power and majesty, only to complete the work which He commenced in weakness and in shame, for it was always His purpose to assert the authority of righteousness, to get the will of God done, to defeat and destroy sin, to give to holiness a perfect and everlasting triumph.—R. W. Dale, LL.D.
Matthew 11:5. The gospel and the poor.—There must have been something very remarkable in the act of preaching to the poor if it was striking enough to be held forth as a proof of the Divinity of the Preacher. And it certainly was a contrast to the ways of those then in authority. By them the poor were despised. But our Lord most probably desired to call attention to the fulfilment of prophecy. Consider the fact related in the text:—
I. As a distinguishing mark of the Christian religion.—Heathen nations cared little for their poor. They might live or die. In some cases they were put to death. Selfishness was the only motive of their lives, and the burden of helpless people was not to be undertaken. But the motive of Christianity is disregard of self, and tenderness, gentleness, love, and kindness towards the sick and weak.
II. As showing the inclusiveness of the kingdom of heaven.—It does not consist of any one particular class. The rich and the poor are one in Christ.
III. As intimating the character of enlightened hearers.—It is those who are poor in spirit who alone accept the gospel (Matthew 18:3; Luke 18:14). Application: This fact brings consolation and encouragement to those who feel their weakness and to those who have nothing of their own. They are welcome to the Saviour, and the message of love is their inalienable heritage.—B. in “Homilist.”
Matthew 11:6. Offended in Christ.—
I. The causes of offence.—“Offended in Me.”
1. The strictness of Christ’s requirements.—Christ demands our whole service, our whole attention, our self-denial. His love is inexorable. To follow Him requires the renunciation of much that is congenial to human nature.
2. The painful consequences of a religious profession.—In ancient times it involved persecution. In the present day it courts sneers, domestic strife and bitterness. There is the dissevering of old companionships, the breaking off of old friendships. True, there are many encouragements. Many loving hands and tender hearts smooth the young convert’s first steps to heaven, but this does not remove the fact that much unpleasantness must be endured.
3. The apparent discrepancies of the gospel.—The true follower of Christ should remember that Scripture contains many things hard to be understood, that God does not reach the soul through the intellect, but through the heart, and that He leaves many things unexplained in order to test our faith.
II. The reward of constancy.—“Blessed.” This blessedness will consist of:—
1. The approval of Christ.—His smile of recognition will encourage. His “well done” will rejoice. His friendship will make up for the loss of all.
2. The participation in His reward.—This will include:
(1) Victory over all doubts. There is no triumph so sweet as victory over self and mental misgivings.
(2) A share in His kingdom.
(3) The enlightenment of the understanding and the clear manifestation of the Divine purposes. Application: To be offended in Christ is unreasonable as well as sinful. It seems inhuman to refuse infinite love, reject almighty power, and cast away unspeakable blessedness.—Ibid.
Beatitude of unfaltering faith.—These words imply that the temptation to unbelief is inward and experimental rather than speculative in its origin; it starts in a wounded affection rather than in the revolt of the reason and the understanding. It was not enough that the Baptist’s thought should be turned to the outward sign of Christ’s Messiahship. Christ’s message on that point only confirmed what he already knew by common rumour. The healing of mental tribulation must begin within. The most convincing sign will fail of its appointed end, unless the mind can be freed from the distress of its own entangling wilfulness and preconception, and made loving and loyal in its every fibre and sensibility. “Blessed is he, whosoever,” etc.
I. These words suggest a danger of secret and subtle disaffection of heart towards Christ that threatens to destroy faith. Our Lord felt how much there was in Himself and His plans that was out of harmony with the best opinion of the time. Whilst the most advanced mind of the old dispensation was staggered by His method, He knew He must inevitably become a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence to men at large, unless they could be warned against themselves.
1. The peculiarities of early education often give rise to this temptation of offence in Christ. The past twelve months of Christ’s ministry had been replete with proofs of His Divine authority; but the proofs were not of such a character, nor did they seem to attest the particular kind of Messiah, that John’s special education had led him to expect. We, too, have the prejudices of our own special education and standpoint.
2. This temptation is sometimes connected with the fact that Christ seems to abandon His friends to the most cruel suffering and oppression. The unbelief that starts in suffering rather than in a syllogism of the scribe has a special claim to sympathy and patient love. Christ dealt very tenderly and mercifully with that. Do we not sometimes fall into the temptation of thinking that Christ under-estimates our temporal well-being?
3. The limitations that hem in our love of the excitements and activities of public service often give rise to this peril. John cannot realise as yet that, as he has been Christ’s type and forerunner in his public teaching, he must now be type and forerunner likewise in his final suffering. And in our quieter paths some of us may be just on the point of stumbling for very similar causes. Our service seems lightly esteemed in the dispensation under which we are placed. Possibly we feel within us a capacity for effective religious enterprise, from the exercise of which we are cut off by some embarrassing condition in our lives.
4. This peril sometimes springs up because our knowledge of Christ comes through indirect and prejudiced channels. There had been scarcely any intercourse between the King and the herald who was sent to announce His coming. After the days of childhood Jesus and the Baptist probably only once saw each other face to face. Now this was a disability for John’s personal faith although a gain in the end to the cause of Christ. This offence may arise in us because we have to view Christ, in some of His relations, through crude, ignoble, small-minded representatives.
II. Consider the beatitude of the heart that is proof against this hidden temptation.—Christ knew just the measure of admonition and just the measure of encouragement His great servant needed; and He adjusted the one to the other, and each to the bleeding sensibilities of the prophet, with the silken touch of an exact science.
1. Not offended in Christ he proved the beatitude of an unwavering faith in the hour of trial. No curse that can poison human life is so deep and dire as the curse of a lost trust.
2. This beatitude includes full salvation from all the power and disability of sin. Herod’s captive began to see at last that the earthly kingdom for which he had pined was denied him only because its limits were too narrow to receive the vastness of the Messianic gift, and he was content to die that he might prove its unfathomed mysteries of blessing. Whatever secretly alienates us from Christ robs us of the benefits of that salvation He is appointed to achieve in us.
3. Not offended in Christ, John proved the beatitude linked with conformity to a higher plan of life than his own. If the temper of hidden loyalty be maintained, life will be worked out for us in agreement with counsels that will issue in higher honour and more abiding satisfactions than our own. John could not picture a future for himself other than of activity, heroism, unselfishness. But his own future would have been barren in comparison with that which God was ordaining for his trial and for his deathless renown. Remember, Christ is Master, you are servant.—T. G. Selby.