Matthew 11:5 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

The blind receive their sight— Nothing can be more apposite, natural, and convincing, than such an answer as this; which took its rise from what Christ was then doing, and rested on the most apparent testimony of God himself, in astonishing miracles, to which they knew their master made no pretences: (See John 10:41.) miracles of so beneficent a nature, that no austerities of a retired life were by any means comparable to them; and miracles receiving an additional lustre, from their being foretold by a prophet many ages before; even by Isaiah the prophet, by whom the Baptist was so particularly described, that as he himself had frequently referred to him (Matthew 3:3. Luke 3:4-6. John 1:23.), so his disciples must, no doubt, have made themselves peculiarly familiar with his writings. These and many other particulars are set in the most beautiful light by the masterly hand of Bishop Atterbury, in his Posthumous Sermons, vol. 1: p. 41-50. Archbishop Tillotson also has largely shewn the correspondence between the prophesies and events here referred to. See his 117th sermon, and Dr. Thomas Jackson's Works, vol. 2: p. 470. The last circumstance mentioned in this verse, The poor, &c. distinguished the Messiah from all the heathen philosophers and priests; for whereas they concealed the mysteries or depths of their doctrines from the poor and those who were not initiated, he opened his to every one, without distinction; to the poor as well as the rich, to the unlearned as well as the learned. It distinguished him likewise from the prophets who went before him, they being chiefly sent to monarchs; whereas Christ discovered the treasures of life to the illiterate. It distinguished him from the Scribes and doctors of the Jews, who taught none but the rich, and charged very highly for their instruction, despising and neglecting the poor, who were styled the offscouring of the earth, and holding it as a maxim, that the spirit rested upon the rich only. It might have convinced the Jews, that their ideas of the Messiah were false: they looked upon the Messiah as a temporal prince, who should subdue the world to his yoke: but he placed his glory in subduing sin, and in overcoming iniquity. It might have served to convince the Jews that he was disinterested: instead of paying his court to the great, he applied himself to the distressed; and instead of engaging the priests and Scribes for his disciples, he preached to the lower people, and chose twelve illiterate and poor men to be the propagators of his doctrine. To speak the blind to sight, to command the lame to walk, to restore the deaf to hearing by a single word, and to call the dead to life, were such miracles as plainly shewed him to be the Messiah. But these cures were only the cures of bodily diseases: his office was likewise to include in it the cure of our mental distempers;andthereforeourblessedLordadds,astheheighteningand distinguishing criterion of his character, that he preached the gospel to the poor. Others put a differentsense upon the clause Πτωχοι ευαγγελιζονται, translating it actively, the poor preach the gospel, as if Jesus intended to insinuate, that the Baptist had no reason to be displeased with the election of twelve illiterate fishermen to preach the gospel, while he, whose gifts were far superior to theirs, was suffered to lie useless in prison,—because this also was one of the characters of the Messiah's reign, mentioned byIsaiah. According to this interpretation, our Lord's meaning was, "Go, and tell your master, that the miracles which you have seen me perform, are the very miracles which Isaiah long ago predicted that the Messiah should perform; and that the persons I have chosen to assist me in preaching the gospel, are such as the same prophet had pointed out for that work." See Macknight and Sherlock.