CRITICAL NOTES
Matthew 19:16. Good Master.—The better MSS. omit the adjective, and it has probably been added here by later copyists to bring the passage into a verbal agreement with the narrative of St. Mark and St. Luke. From the prominence given to it in the form of our Lord’s answer, as reported by them, we may reasonably believe that it was actually uttered by the questioner (Plumptre).
Matthew 19:17. Why callest thou me good?—Here again the older MSS. give a different form to our Lord’s answer (See R.V.). Keep the commandments.—The questioner is answered as from his own point of view. If eternal life was to be won by doing, there was no need to come to a new Teacher for a new precept (Plumptre).
Matthew 19:20. From my youth up.—Omitted in R.V., as in oldest MSS., but not in the parallel passages.
Matthew 19:21. If thou wilt be perfect.—If thou wishest to be characterised by full-orbed “goodness” (Morison).
Matthew 19:23. Hardly.—I.e., with difficulty (see R.V.).
Matthew 19:24. It is easier for a camel, etc.—It has been suggested that the needle’s eye was an expression in common use for a narrow gate into a city intended for foot-passengers only, and through which, if a camel could squeeze at all, it would first need to be unladen and entirely stripped of trappings and encumbrances. Very possibly this explanation may be right, but it is not necessary to scrutinise closely what is so obviously the language of hyperbole. The object is to stamp on the mind and memory the idea of extreme difficulty, and it has been shown by Dr. John Lightfoot that a Talmudist used for the same purpose a phrase still more hyperbolical: “an elephant going through the eye of a needle” (Fraser).
Matthew 19:25. Who then can be saved?—Since everyone has more or less of the same love of the world (De Wette). The question shows that the disciples took their Master to be referring not to men of great wealth alone, but to a much larger class (Canon Duckworth).
Matthew 19:27. What shall we have therefore?—There is something in Peter’s question that abundantly betrays his spiritual imperfection. There was too great eagerness for reward. Arnot somewhat plainly says, “His eye was on the main chance.” But still there was transparency of character and ingenuousness manifested by the question which he put. And then, too, it must be borne in mind that regard to reward is right in its own place; although, assuredly, its place ever has been, and must for ever be, as it deserves to be, in a very subordinate sphere of moral motives (Morison). The answer of Christ shows that all true sacrifice shall have its reward, but all that looks like sacrifice is not really such; therefore “many that are first shall be last.” Among the Twelve there was a Judas (Carr).
Matthew 19:28. The regeneration.—“The renewal of things,” “the return to a perfect state,” otherwise called “the restitution of all things,” nearly = the kingdom of God (cf. Matthew 17:11) (Carr). There is to be a “new birth” for mankind as well as for the individual (Plumptre). Ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones.—What approximations to a literal fulfilment there may be in the far-off future lies behind the veil (ibid.). In at least one instance the words, absolute as they were in their form, failed of their fulfilment. The guilt of Judas left one of the thrones vacant. The promise was given subject to the implied conditions of faithfulness and endurance lasting even to the end (ibid.).
Matthew 19:30. Many that are first, etc.—See on Matthew 19:27.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Matthew 19:16-30
The perils of wealth.—Long as this passage is, it will be found to turn on one topic throughout, viz., on that “love of money” of which the Apostle tells us that it is the possible “root” of all ill. It will be found also to tell us, in regard to this evil, almost all we require—its special malignity, e.g. on the one hand, and its only cure, on the other.
I. Its special malignity.—We may see this, first, in the kind of cases attacked by this evil. They are often such as appear to be proof against everything else. See this exemplified in the “young man” who here comes to the Saviour (Matthew 19:16). How earnest and right his desires! How perfect his aim! “That which was good” (Matthew 19:16). How well ordered his life! Even if we suppose his testimony about himself (Matthew 19:20) to refer only to externals, what a record it was! No impurity, no falsehood, no dishonesty, no failure in duty towards his parents; nothing, in short, for which even the Saviour could, so far, reprove him! How simply lovely, in short, such a life! We can hardly wonder at what we are told about it in Mark 10:21. What we do wonder at is that there was yet “one” form of excellence in which this young man was “lacking” (Matthew 19:21)—one form of evil before which he was found to succumb. How deadly an evil, therefore, this form of evil must be in itself! We may see this, also, in the next place, in the kind of results it produced. Consider what was actually done by this subtle evil in this, so far, eminent case. This is very soon told. When things were put here to the test—when this most exemplary youth (in so many respects) was invited to be “perfect” indeed, and to show that he was ready to do anything rather than fail in his aim in any direction—then he fell at a stroke. Then his inward faith in the all-surpassing importance of worldly gain came out of its secret hiding place, and stood, as it were, in his way (Matthew 19:22). From one point of view, he was asked, no doubt, to do much. But he was promised still more. He was to part with treasure on earth. But he was to gain treasure in heaven. He was asked to do, therefore, what he knew in his heart to be both the “good” and the “wise.” But he was unable to do it. The “deceitfulness of riches” bewildered his judgment and benumbed his desires, so that he could not do, therefore, what it yet made him bitterly “sorrowful” to be unable to do. See the effect, therefore, in this most pitiable sorrow, of this wide fountain of evil. Never, surely, were fairer hopes more disastrously shattered. Never, surely, goodlier vessel wrecked so near to its port! What evil, therefore, can be greater than that which brought about such an end?
II. The only cure of this evil.—Where alone, for example, on the one hand, an available remedy can be found, viz., in something, of course, which should be of greater strength than the greatest strength of mankind. The Saviour will be found to bring His disciples to this conclusion by degrees. How hard it is, He says first, for those who have riches at all to enter the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 19:23). How hard it is because of the fact that, where this is the case, the man who has once, in consequence, tasted their sweetness and seen their effect is always tempted to “trust” in them too (Mark 10:24); and to think of them, therefore, as this “young man” did, as though nothing could stand in their place. In which case, of course, it becomes “impossible” for him to suppress the love of them in his heart (Matthew 19:24). How should a man be able to give up that which he believes to be all? Only God Himself can bring his bewitched steps into the pathway of life (Matthew 19:26). How alone, next, the benefits of the remedy in question can be secured by ourselves. We see this by the way in which, in this passage, in the case of some who had overcome the evil in question (Matthew 19:27), the Saviour strengthens them in their decision. He does so, on the one hand, by solemnly assuring them that all shall be well with such in the end; that a time is coming in which there shall be a wholly altered condition of things on the earth, in which He Himself shall be seated on the throne of His glory, and all those who have truly followed Him shall have their share in the same (Matthew 19:28). He does so, on the other hand, by assuring them that, even meanwhile, things shall be for their real good in a most pre-eminent way, all that they may so have to lose in this life for His sake being made up to them a “hundredfold” more (Matthew 19:29). This is, therefore, how He would have us resist this temptation, viz., by working at these counterbalancing gains. To avoid thinking too much of the present and transitory, think more of the future and permanent. To avoid being deceived by earthly riches, fix your eyes on the true. “Set your affections,” in a word, “on things above,” where they “ought to be fixed.” Nothing else is so sure! Nothing else so safe! Nothing else so transcendently gainful in the very best sense! And nothing else, therefore, so able to deliver us from this most insidious and most fatal of snares!
One other thought, to conclude. These solemn cautions are not addressed to rich men, but to poor. The love of money is not a danger to those only who possess it. To no men, probably, does affluence sometimes seem more alluring than to those who see it afar off. Does not the last commandment also teach us the same? It is not to those who have, but to those who desire to have, that its language is addressed. Let all men, therefore, beware of covetousness, whoever they are!
HOMILIES ON THE VERSES
Matthew 19:16-22. A sad story.—We have here one of the saddest stories in the Gospels. It is a true soul’s tragedy. The young man is in earnest, but his earnestness has not volume and force enough to float him over the bar. He wishes to have some great thing bidden him to do, but he recoils from the sharp test which Christ imposes. He truly wants the prize, but the cost is too great; and yet he wishes it so much that he goes away without it in deep sorrow, which perhaps, at another day, ripened into the resolve which was too high for him then. There is a certain severity in our Lord’s tone, an absence of recognition of the much good in the young man, and a naked stringency in His demand from him, which sound almost harsh, but which are set in their true light by Mark’s note, that Jesus “loved him,” and therefore treated him thus. The truest way to draw ingenuous souls is not to flatter nor to make entrance easy by dropping the standard or hiding the requirements, but to call out all their energy by setting before them the lofty ideal. Easy-going disciples are easily made—and lost. Thorough-going ones are most surely won by calling for entire surrender.—A. Maclaren, D.D.
Matthew 19:16-26. The requirements of the King.—I. We have the picture of a real though imperfect moral earnestness, and the way Christ dealt with it.—Matthew tells us that the questioner was young and rich. Luke adds that he was a ruler,—a synagogue official, that is—which was unusual for a young man, and indicates that his legal blamelessness was recognised. Mark adds one of his touches, which are not only picturesque, but character-revealing, by the information that he came “running” to Jesus in the way, so eager was he, and fell at His feet, so reverential was Hebrews 1. His first question is singularly compacted of good and error. The fact that he came to Christ for a purely religious purpose, not seeking personal advantage for himself or for others, like the crowds who followed for loaves and cures, nor laying traps for Him with puzzles which might entangle Him with the authorities, nor asking theological questions for curiosity, but honestly and earnestly wanting to be helped to lay hold of eternal life, is to be put down to his credit. He is right in counting it the highest blessing. Where had he got hold of the thought of “eternal life”? It was miles above the dusty speculations and casuistries of the Rabbis. Probably from Christ Himself. He was right in recognising that the conditions of possessing it were moral, but his conception of “good” was surface, and he thought more of doing than of being good, and of the desired life as payment for meritorious actions. In a word, he stood at the point of view of the old dispensation. “This do, and thou shalt live,” was his belief; and what he wished was further instruction as to what “this” was. He was to be praised in that he docilely brought his question to Jesus, even though, as Christ’s answer shows, there was error mingling in his docility. Such is the character—a young man, rich, influential, touched with real longings for the highest life, ready, so far as he knows himself, to do whatever he is bidden, in order to secure it. We might have expected Christ, who opened His arms wide for publicans and harlots, to have welcomed this fair, ingenuous seeker with some kindly word. But He has none for him. We adopt the reading of the Authorised Version, in which our Lord’s first word is repellent. It is in effect, “There is no need for your question, which answers itself. There is one good Being, the Source and Type of every good thing, and therefore the good, which you ask about, can only be conformity to His will. You need not come to Me to know what you are to do.” He relegates the questioner, not to his own conscience, but to the authoritative revealed will of God in the law. On another occasion He answered a similar question in a different manner (see John 6:28-29). Why did He not answer the young ruler thus? Only because He knew that he needed to be led to that thought by having his own self-complacency shattered, and the clinging of his soul to earth laid bare. The whole treatment of him here is meant to bring him to the apprehension of faith as preceding all truly good work.
2. The young man’s second question says a great deal in its one word. It indicates astonishment at being remanded to these old, well-worn precepts, and might be rendered, “What sort of commandments?” as if taking it for granted that they must be new and peculiar. The craving for more than ordinary “good works” shows a profound mistake in the estimate of the ordinary, and a fatal blunder as to the relation between “goodness” and “eternal life.” So Christ answers the question by quoting the second half of the Decalogue, which deals with the homeliest duties, and appending to it the summary of the law, which requires love to our neighbour as to ourselves. Why does He omit the earlier half? Probably because He would meet the error of the question by presenting only the plainest, most familiar commandments, and because He desired to excite the consciousness of deficiency, which could be most easily done in connection with these.
3. There is a touch of impatience in the rejoinder, “All these I have kept,” with more than a touch of self-satisfaction. The law has failed to accomplish one of its chief purposes in the young man, in that it has not taught him his sinfulness. Still he was not at rest.
4. His last question is a plaintive, honest acknowledgment of the hungry void within, which no round of outward obedience can ever fill.
II. Now comes the sharp-pointed test, which pricks the brilliant bubble. Mark tells us that Jesus accompanied His words with one of those looks which searched the soul, and bore His love into it. “If thou wouldst be perfect” takes up the confession of something “lacking” and shows what that is. The principles involved in the precept is medicine for all, and the only way of healing for any.
III. Then comes the collapse of all the enthusiasm.—His earnestness chills at the touch of the test. One sign of grace he does give, in that he went away “sorrowful.” He is not angry nor careless. He cannot see the fair prospect of the eternal life, which he had in some real fashion desired, fade away, without a pang. If he goes back to the world, he goes back feeling more acutely than ever that it cannot satisfy him. He loves it too well to give it up, but not enough to feel that it is enough. Surely, in coming days, that godly sorrow would work a change of the foolish choice, and we may hope that he found no rest till he cast away all else to make Christ his own. A soul which has travelled so far on the road to life eternal as this man had done, can scarcely thereafter walk the broad read of selfishness and death with entire satisfaction.
IV. Christ’s comment on the sad incident.—He has no word of condemnation, but passes at once from the individual to the general lesson, of the difficulty which rich men (or, as He explains it in Mark, men who “trust in riches”) have in entering the king dom. The reflection breathes a tone of pity, and is not so much blame as a merciful recognition of special temptations which affect His judgment, and should modify ours.—Ibid.
Matthew 19:17. The goodness of God.—The notion of goodness is inseparable from the notion of a God. We cannot own the existence of God, but we must confess also His goodness.
I. What this goodness is.—
1. The bounty of God.
2. The goodness of God comprehends all His attributes. All the acts of God are nothing else but the effluxes of His goodness, distinguished by several names, according to the objects it is exercised about; as the sea, though it be one mass of water, yet we distinguish it by several names, according to the shores it washes and beats upon. When He confers happiness without merit, it is grace; when He bestows happiness against merit, it is mercy; when He bears with provoking rebels, it is long-suffering; when He performs His promise, it is truth; when He commiserates a distressed person, it is pity; when He supplies an indigent person, it is bounty; when He succours an innocent person, it is righteousness; and when He pardons a penitent person, it is mercy; all summed up in this one name of goodness.
II. The nature of this goodness.
1. He is good by His own essence.
2. He is the prime and chief goodness.
3. This goodness is communicative.—Without goodness He would cease to be a Deity, and without diffusiveness He would cease to be good (Psalms 119:68).
4. God is necessarily good.
5. He is also freely good.—It would not be a supreme goodness, if it were not a voluntary goodness. It is agreeable to the nature of the highest good to be absolutely free, to dispense His goodness in what methods and measures He pleaseth.
6. This goodness is communicated with the greatest pleasure (Psalms 21:3).—It is the nature of His goodness to be glad of men’s solicitations for it.
III. The manifestations of this goodness.
Conclusion:
1. If God be so good, how unworthy is the contempt or a buse of His goodness (Jeremiah 2:5).
2. It is matter of comfort in afflictions.
3. Imitate this goodness of God (Matthew 5:44-45).—Anon.
Matthew 19:21. Christ’s demand of the young ruler.—Commentators stumble over the difficulty of this command. But it came to others, and they stood the test. It came to Peter, and James, and John, and Andrew, when Christ bade them leave all to follow Him, to become fishers of men. It came to Paul, when Christ bade him crucify his pride, and go into Damascus, and take his instructions from one of the despised and persecuted Christians, who would tell him what he should do. It came to Luther, when Christ bade him forsake the church of his fathers and of his childhood; to Coligny, when Christ bade him abandon wife and home and peace; to William of Orange; to the Puritans; to John Howard; to David Livingstone. In one form or another it comes to every Christian; for to every would-be Christian the Master says: “Give up your property, your home, your life itself, and take them back as Mine, and use them for Me in using them for your fellow-men. He who cannot, does not, do this, is no Christian. He can do naught but go away sorrowful: in this life, if he is keen of conscience; in the life to come, if a false education has lulled his conscience into uneasy slumber, but slumber so deep that only the judgment day can awaken it.—L. Abbott, D.D.
Christ’s demand.—There seems to be a twofold danger.
1. On the one hand, lest while trying to explain the words of Christ, we should find ourselves to be only explaining them away.
2. On the other hand, lest by insisting on their literal and universal application, we should destroy Christian liberty, should put the letter for the spirit, rules for principles, and so degrade the gospel into a system of purchase in which a certain outlay secures unfailing return.—Canon Duckworth.
A surgical case.—Clearly it is a surgical case; the medicine of the commandments will not do; there must be the insertion of the knife, “Go and sell,” etc.—J. M. Gibson, D.D.
St. Anthony.—It was from the story of the rich young man in the gospel that the famous Anthony, the very patriarch of Monachism, inferred that it was his duty to abandon his ancestral estate and live in solitude and poverty. There is no question of the ardour and sincerity of the man; but as we read what history has to tell of the moral and social effects of Monachism, we cannot but reflect how much better it would have been for all Christendom if Anthony had lived on the estate which he inherited, and used his means and position for the honour of Christ and the gospel among the ignorant peasantry around, rather than have passed his life in the desert, injuring his own body by gratuitous hardships, maintaining mysterious combats with fiends, and so leading hundreds and thousands of misguided men into a similar pursuit of an illusive, ascetic perfection.—D. Fraser,D.D.
Hindered by one thing.—It is the things which are apparently the smallest that prevent the greatest results. A slight defect in the finest bell and it ceases to sound, a lost key and the richest money-chest is useless. The day of battle has arrived, the troops are admirably disposed, the despatches of the general fly here and there; suddenly the horse of the adjutant stumbles on a stone; he arrives a quarter of an hour too late, and the battle is lost. So it is in spiritual matters. Many a man who has got safely over the Rhine has been drowned in a little brook. Sin has no more dangerous delusion than to convince a man that he is safe if only he avoids the so-called flagrant transgressions.—A. Tholuck, D.D.
Matthew 19:20-21. Christ’s test.—The rich young ruler presented fine certificates—of his own composition. Christ didn’t tear them up, but He did what you tradesmen do with an applicant for a vacancy; He gave him a bit of work to try his hand on. The gentlemanly commandment-keeper wrote no more certificates.—John McNeill.
Matthew 19:22. Self-inflicted sorrow.—I. Who was He?—
1. A young man.
2. A well-to-do young man.
3. A young man of considerable Mark 4. A pre-eminently virtuous young man.
5. A young man who was anxious about the life to come.
II. Where had he been of late?—He went away. From whom, or from what place? Christ has answered the man’s interrogation; Christ has responded to his entreaty; Christ has given him a definite and conclusive answer. He came running, he goes lagging. He came complacently; he goes resentfully. He came as one who would lay a giant’s hold upon eternal life; he goes with no shadow of a hold upon eternal life. He was sorrowful as he went away; but go away he did, right clean away. And Jesus, looking intently after him, as he went, intimated to His disciples that he was gone for good and all; that of his ever entering into the kingdom of God there was little hope now. In vain his acknowledged moral excellence. In vain his religious anxiety. In vain his fellowship with the good Master. In this, the momentous crisis of his being, something had interposed which had marred and ruined all. What could it be?
III. Why had he gone away?—
1. Had Christ’s behaviour to him been unkindly? Some teachers are morose, ungenial, supercilious, austere.
2. Had Christ’s treatment of the case been inconsiderate?
3. Had Christ’s direction to him been unreasonable? Then, why did he go away? Alas! he loved his possessions more than he loved his soul! He would not forego the present for the future. He would not cease to be what he was that he might become something better. Whatever his solicitude about eternal life, that solicitude was secondary, not supreme. And what a thing it was to let go! what a thing it was to determine to let go! You are struck with the infatuation of the man! But mind that you are not infatuated too! Think now.
1. In character you resemble him.
2. In procedure you resemble him.
3. In disposition you resemble him.—W. Brock, D.D.
Going away from Christ.—“He went away.” What more, what else could he do? He faced alternatives stubborn and fixed when that reply came to him from Jesus. He must decide for himself now. He did decide.
I. Why did he go? He had great riches, and the alternative seemed hard. But this was not a reason; it was only a test. Jesus did not want his money. He said, “And give to the poor.” No, there were two reasons why the young man failed.
1. What Jesus required involved the entire revolution of his life. He was a member of the Sanhedrin; he must now become instantly a true Christian. He must immediately avow Jesus as the Messiah, and become a defender of the faith which that whole nation hated. All this involved a sudden change in his history. He was not ready for it.
2. The other reason, however, was probably the critical one; it was his unregenerate heart that lay at the bottom of the refusal.
II. How did he go?
1. In low dejection of heart. This young ruler, under pressure of spiritual need, had come to find a path out from his sense of guilt and leading to eternal salvation. He only met heavier admonitions laid on his already sore conscience. Formerly he imagined he had done his entire duty, and still he had wondered why he was not safe and easy in his mind; now he saw that he was as hollow as a hypocrite, and his trouble of heart was explained by the fact that he might have known bettor; so the trouble was worse.
2. He went away thoroughly unsettled as to his future. There remains for him nothing possible except a religious compromise, and that will never give him rest.
3. He went away pitied and mourned by those who loved him.
III. Where did the young ruler go?
1. He went back to the world. It would be a question whether he idolised his old treasures as he once did, whether he was as amiable or as popular as he had once been. Men who stifle their best emotions, and try to hush their noblest convictions, are sure to get soured after a while, and grow unhappy and cynical; and then they are not agreeable. He went back to his old companions. It would be likely to sting in his mind a little, this recollection of the time when he went forth to find Jesus, and actually kneeled down in the road before Him. Some of his Jewish comrades would taunt him, too, with having once set out to become a Nazarene.
2. He went on to his grave. It was to be expected that there should be a proud funeral at his abode some while after this, and that he should be laid with his fathers ostentatiously, with much pomp and attention of social show.
3. He went on to the judgment. The will that refused, the heart that was hard, the pride that was unsubdued, the avarice that was imperious, the determination which fixed his future destiny where he is now, never were put into his coffin for a moment, never had any place whatsoever in the ashes of his tomb.
4. He went “to his own place.” Character decides destiny. If any one is ready to turn away from the Lord where is he going next?—C. S. Robinson, D.D.
Christ left sorrowfully.—It was, we may suppose:
1. The sadness of loss. “And cannot I have eternal life? Is the way so hard? Are the terms so difficult? Must I relinquish so great a prize, bear so heavy a cross?”
2. The sadness of disappointment. “Must all I sought and thought I saw in prospect vanish thus?”
3. The sadness of self-conviction. “Ah! He is right. I did not know myself. It is I, not He, that is to blame,” etc.
4. The sadness of shame. “And I have gone to Him, and He has seen me through. Oh! that look of gentle pity; those tender tones; that hard but loving invitation. He said not “go,” but “come.” And I have left Him, declined His offer, spurned His precepts,” etc. But the sorrow did not prevent his going; did not make Christ relent; did not keep Him from saying, “How hardly,” etc. There are special times when we may be said to leave Christ; when we are brought very near to Him, and have to make an election, and perhaps for ever. Such a time is that of deep religious conviction. Such a time is that when we are obliged by outward circumstances to take a stand. A new position in life compels us to come out afresh, and either as His servants or His foes. Some painful enterprise of sin forces on conscience a decision. A companionship promising pleasure and advantage, requires by its rejection that we honour, or by its acceptance that we renounce, the Saviour. It matters not what we leave Him in spite of, if we leave Him. The greater the difficulties in leaving Him the more sad and fearful the forsaking. And in leaving Christ we leave all.—A. J. Morris.
Hindrances to inquirers.—Sometimes the inquirer may not himself suspect just what the hindrance is until he is probed. In some cases it is a besetting sin that has got a mastery of the heart. In other cases it is an evil habit, or a course of sinful practices or secret sensualities, or dishonest methods in business, or something else’ that must go out before Jesus Christ will come in. Dr. Charles G. Finney tells us that he once had a man on his knees beside him, and the man promised to surrender everything to God until it came to his “business.” The man bolted at that test point, and said: “I can’t give that to God, for I am a liquor seller.”—T. L. Cuyler, D.D.
Matthew 19:23. The perils of wealth.—“Who ever heard,” exclaims Paulus de Palacio, “such theology? It was unknown,” he adds, “to the Stoics. It was unknown to the Platonics. It was unknown to the Peripatetics.” It is true theology, nevertheless. It is one of the most difficult things in the world to deal conscientiously with riches—that is, to keep a good conscience and be rich. It is easy to be rich and honest in the human plane of things. But to take up riches to the higher plane, in which the will and wish of God are recognised and adopted as the rule of life, and consequently as the rule of giving and of keeping, is one of the severest possible tests to which the human heart can be subjected. Happy is the man of opulence who does not shrink from ascending to that platform.—J. Morison, D.D.
Matthew 19:25. The great question.—“Who then,” etc.? an admission that all men share the same guilt and love of the world. How may a rich man enter heaven?
I. It is always difficult in his peculiar circumstances.
II. It is impossible, if in mind and heart he cleaves to his wealth—the Pharisees.
III. It becomes possible by a miracle of Divine grace—Joseph of Arimathea.—J. P. Lange, D.D.
Matthew 19:27-29. “What shall we have therefore?”—
1. Albeit it be little that we suffer for Christ, yet we think much of it.
2. Howsoever it be not worthy to speak of what we do or suffer for Christ, yet the least thing done in sincerity is not despised by Christ, but highly esteemed and richly rewarded, for Christ promiseth a reward.
3. Christ doth not narrowly mark the infirmitics of His own, but doth cherish the smallest beginnings, and fomenteth the smoking flax, as here may be seen in His answer to Peter. Peter’s speech smelleth of pride, yet He passeth it over, saying, “Verily I say unto you,” etc.
4. Although Christ doth not always answer His people’s expectation by giving them the very thing which they look for, yet He will not fail to give them a better thing; as here the Apostles dreamed of an earthly kingdom and of earthly honours to be given unto Christ and themselves. This He will not give them, but He leadeth them higher, showing them that what they loved to have in this life should be given them in substance, and in a more eminent way, in the life to come.
5. The day of judgment shall be a sort of regeneration, wherein our bodies and souls shall be renewed perfectly, for glory and immortality.
6. At that day Christ, even in His human nature, shall be seen to reign in glory, suitable to His Divine majesty.
7. Such as follow Christ must be resolved for Christ’s sake to be deprived of what is dear unto them in this life, if He shall be pleased to put them to trial. That is imported in “Every one that forsakes houses,” etc.
8. What men do lose for Christ shall breed them gain a hundredfold even in this life, because the comforts and privileges of Christ’s kingdom are a hundredfold better than anything they can be deprived of.
9. Besides what spiritual gain is gotten in this life to such as suffer for the gospel, life eternal is also given for an inheritance in the world to come, which is able to make up all losses sustained for Christ.—David Dickson.
Matthew 19:29. The hundredfold.—What is the meaning of the promise, that which gathers into itself all its various senses and aspects, and reconciles them? Perhaps it may be summed up and expressed under these three heads:—
I. We find in Christ, in loving and serving Him, all that makes our natural kinships and our possessions of real worth to us.—Our kinships and possessions are valuable to us and reach their true end only as they minister to our welfare and culture, as they develop our various faculties and powers, as they furnish us with opportunities of serving our fellows, and both enable and incline us to avail ourselves of them.
II. We find in Christ corresponding, yet superior, relationships and pos sessions to those which we resign for His sake.—Houses and lands, kinsfolk and friends, are intended for our culture in virtue and righteousness and charity; they are also the express types of higher kinships which are open to us, and of more enduring riches. From the father of our flesh we derive our first and best conception of the Father of our spirits. The love of woman helps us to apprehend and trust the love of Christ. The obedience and simplicity of childhood speak to us of the wiser simplicity and nobler obedience of discipleship. The corruptible treasure on earth symbolises, in many ways, the immortal treasure in heaven. And if we leave, or lose, any of these typical relationships and possessions for Christ’s sake, we gain that which they typify.
III. In virtue of our oneness with Christ we possess all things and persons in a deeper, truer way.—Strictly speaking, a man’s property is exactly what he can appropriate; that, and not a jot more. But on what does the power of appropriation depend? Obviously on the kind of life that is in us, on its volume and quality, on the vigour and variety of its faculties, and on the manner in which these faculties have been trained and developed. He who has most life in him, and in whom this life has been best cultivated, will infallibly possess himself of most that is really valuable and enduring. He will see farther into men, and be able both to do more for them and to get more from them, than those can do in whom there is less life, or a life less cultivated and accomplished. All events and all changes, all kinships and possessions, will have more to say to him, and will more variously and profoundly minister to his culture and to his welfare. And it is precisely this great blessing which the Lord Jesus offers to us. He offers us life of the highest quality, in the richest abundance.—S. Cox, D.D.
Self-denial and its reward.—I beg leave to think that only a hearty recognition of the Divinity of Jesus Christ can save both the claims and the promises from the charge of absurdity and blasphemy.
I. What Christ demands from us.—He seems to divide the thing into two, and between them He places all the more sacred and precious things of life—family ties, brother and sister, wife and children, and all these He says we are to surrender—for His sake. Well, if there is any one thing that modern Christianity does not need to be taught it is that the New Testament is not to be translated literally, as people say. It is a vast deal easier for a man outwardly to abandon than to abandon in his heart and desire. Christ explains the words of my text in another of His sayings. If any man loves so and so more than Me he is not My disciple. As a man thinketh in his heart so is he. The life is the man.
1. The inward abandonment of everything we possess.—That is to say that honestly we shall put all these things of which we can say, “I have them”—houses, lands, mills, factories, balances at our bankers, pictures, home, honestly we shall put all these second, and put Jesus Christ first.
2. An inward abandonment of all the people that we love is as imperative as an inward abandonment of all the possessions that we have, and just in the same position as in regard to the former so in regard to this. A mother’s tenderness; a father’s care; a wife’s self-sacrifice; children’s love; all these are to be rigidly subordinated to the supreme love of Christ and all these are to be put aside, to be put aside gently and tenderly, with a very loving hand, but yet with a very firm one, to be put aside if they would at all avail to cross the path along which our eye should travel, and our heart with our eye, unto Him.
II. The great and wonderful promise which our Lord sets forth.—It falls into two parts. A hundredfold they shall receive; eternal life shall inherit.
1. How, in regard to the thought shall receive a hundredfold?—I suppose the ordinary interpretation given to such a promise as that is something like this, which is perfectly true and very beautiful—to point out how after a man does keep earthly brethren or earthly love second, and make Christ first, all the things He so gives away become more precious; how religion puts a new spirit into everything; how the love of home held in subordination to the love of Christ, and all illuminated and irradiated by that love, derives a higher sweetness than under any other circumstances, etc. And in like manner outward things—houses and lands and so on, held as from Him and subordinated to Him, used according to His will and for His sake—how they all become to be enjoyed with a higher power and blessedness, and how better is the dinner of herbs with God there than great revenues without Him; and all that is wonderfully and beautifully true. But that I do not think goes to the bottom of the words here, and it would be a self-contradictory assertion to a man to say, “Do not care so much about the world, because if you will only do that you will make a great deal more out of it.” I think, therefore, we must go a great deal deeper than that thought and see what is the hundredfold compensation that the text promises to us. What? Jesus Christ. If you will give up houses and lands for Me, you will get Me, and I am a hundredfold or, as it is in some places, manifold, I am infinitely more than you would give up.
2. And “shall inherit everlasting life.”—As I take it, the language of my text points rather to the everlasting ages inherited beyond the grave. There is one point that strikes me as significant, and that is the variety of the expressions of these two clauses, “shall receive a hundredfold; shall inherit everlasting life.” “Receive,” as the result of a certain course of conduct, “inherit,” not as the result of a certain course of conduct. The Bible does not represent that eternal life is given to a man by reason of anything that he does. The Bible represents to us that eternal life is given to us by reason simply and solely of God’s great love in Jesus Christ, and that all we have to do is simply to take the gift which is freely given to us.—A. Maclaren, D.D.
The joy of giving up all for Christ.—A friend once told me what had been the happiest time in his life. It was soon after his conversion from infidelity; but that conversion involved the loss of friends and fortune. For all, however, he found amends in Christ; in Christ who had saved his soul, who had awakened in him the hope full of immortality, and with whom he could walk and talk the live-long day, telling Him all that was in his heart, and feeling his own being refined and exalted by the ennobling fellowship. And the happiest hour was in the city of Paris, when he sat down on a stone in the Champs Elysées, with no friend in all the place, and with just two sous in his pocket. “For now,” he felt, “Christ is all to me. I have no other friend; I have no other joy.” The equipages rolled past; the gay people shouted and laughed, but none of them all felt so rich or so happy as the stranger who, there on the stone, sat under Christ’s shadow with great delight; not another friend in all the place, but the Saviour at his side; just a penny in his pocket but so rich in his new friendship, that happiness flowed from every feature, and he felt “I have all and abound.”—The Church.
The power of supreme love to Christ.—There is no way of getting away from the tyrannous dominion of the world except by having given ourselves to our dear Lord and letting His love rise up in our souls, and then just as the electric light in our streets makes the gas we thought to be so bright look red and smoky and dim, so this better light in our hearts will dwarf the beauty and dim the brightness of all other lights by reason of its purity and strength.—A. Maclaren, D.D.
Matthew 19:30. Reversals.—I. Enforce this saying with respect to the final judgment.—
1. In the judgment of reason many things that were first come to be last, and the last first.
2. The judgment of life also illustrates the text.
3. Our text is still more confirmed by the judgment of history.
4. We turn for the chief illustration of our text to the judgment of eternity. The final judgment will in many cases be the opposite of human judgment, because of the difference of its rule, and because of the difference of its manner of judgment.
II. A few practical inferences.—
1. In view of this first judgment, we may be patient in the midst of the inequalities and injustice of the present time.
2. Let us be prepared, through Christ, for this strict and just judgment.
3. In view of such a judgment how intensely true we should be.
4. Let us beware how we seek to be first at that day. He is most likely to be first who seeks not to be first, who forgets such seeking in the anxiety of his desire to be and to do good.—A. Goodrich, D.D.
The last shall be first.—I. Consider some illustrations of this truth.
1. Historical.—Jews cast out, etc.
2. From social life.—Those with religious disadvantages often go to the front.
3. With regard to mental acquisitions.—The last in Bible knowledge often the first in rich experience and Christian usefulness.
4. From human character.—The worst become the best, while the good often make but little progress.
II. Make an application of this truth.
1. It may check presumption.—Let not those boast who think themselves first now.
2. It may prevent despair.—Let those who feel themselves among the last persevere.—J. C. Gray.