I. There ought to have been nothing which startled the Jews in the first part of this announcement. The name of Abraham ought to have recalled to them the covenant on which their nation stood. That covenant would have told them of a blessing to all the earth. But they had never understood what the blessing was which they had inherited, and which the families of the earth were to share with them. The Gospel of Christ's kingdom was a sentence upon those who had imagined another kingdom for themselves. The news of salvation to the world was the judgment upon those who counted the salvation of the world a loss and curse to them.
II. The light of the world shines forth upon mankind. Those who should hail it and spread it through the world are scared by it fly from it, hate it. Either they must establish their reign of darkness, or the light must prove itself stronger than they arc. It does prove stronger; therefore they are left to the darkness which they have chosen. It is outer darkness; it lies outside of God's kingdom, outside of humanity. God's order has banished it. The Word made flesh and dwelling among men opened to men a kingdom of righteousness, peace, joy; showed them how with their spirits they might enter into it; promised them the Spirit of His Father the Spirit who had dwelt without measure in Him that they might enter into it. The Word came to His own, and His own received Him not. They did not confess Him as the Lord of their spirits; they saw in Him only the carpenter's son. And so more and more the invisible world became utterly obscure to them; they could perceive only that which their senses presented to them. And so more and more those great possessions of which the senses can take no account justice, love, truth the eternal, substantial, universal treasures, which the hearts of holy men felt that they must have or perish, were withdrawn from the apprehension of the chosen people; they became as though they were not. Shadows took their place; they passed into shadows. Then came the hubbub of parties, a Babel of unintelligible sounds, nothing clear but the passion and fury which were trying to express themselves, and which, since words proved so ineffectual, must seek for other weapons.
F. D. Maurice, Sermons,vol. iii., p. 69.
References: Matthew 8:11; Matthew 8:12. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. i., Nos. 39, 40. Matthew 8:13. Ibid.,vol. xxiv., No. 1422; J. Edmunds, Sixty Sermons,p. 123; C. Girdlestone, Twenty Parochial Sermons,1st series, p. 119; H. P. Liddon, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xxii., p. 97; R. D. B. Rawnsley, Village Sermons,3rd series, p. 33.Matthew 8:14; Matthew 8:15. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xxxi., No. 1836; G. Macdonald, The Miracles of our Lord,p. 25.Matthew 8:14-17. Parker, Inner Life of Christ,vol. ii., p. 21.Matthew 8:16. Preacher's Monthly,vol. x., p. 49. Matthew 8:16; Matthew 8:17. A. B. Bruce, The Training of the Twelve,p. 48; C. C. Bartholomew, Sermons Chiefly Practical,p. 417. Matthew 8:17. J. Thain Davidson, Catholic Sermons,p. 49. Matthew 8:18-22. J. O. Davies, Sunrise on the Soul,p. 55; Parker, Inner Life of Christ,vol. ii., p. 30. Matthew 8:19-22. H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit,vol. iii., p. 123.