Because seeing they see not; and hearing they hear not.
Insensibility to the truth
Christ here touches upon a common fact of our human nature-spiritual insensibility-that state in which spiritual things pass before a man; and instead of being beautiful and blessed realities, they are meaningless to him. There is nothing strange or fanciful in this representation. We understand how a man may be face to face with anything, and yet not perceive it, through the appropriate faculty in him being beclouded or dormant. Men are coming into contact with nature, art, charity, and yet are insensible to them. Not that God decrees arbitrarily that a certain few shall be blessed with the power of vision and receptivity, and others deprived of it. It is not imposed upon men, but is the result of certain lines of conduct.
I. What are some of the steps by which this gross insensitive state is reached.
1. It is induced by all kinds of depravity. It is one of the penalties of wrong-doing that the moral nature is made unresponsive to spiritual things.
2. It grows on a man through the mastery of worldly pursuits-of business, home, social, and political life.
3. The habit of cherishing doubt is another circumstance which tends to weaken spiritual vision and understanding. Caution must not degenerate into procrastination.
II. Formal endorsement of the christian verities is one thing, living realization of them is another.
III. He who opened the understanding of his disciples is with us now to do the same for us. “Lord, that I might receive my sight.” (T. Hammond.)
Scientific insensibility
There is a huge boulder stone close by a man’s cottage on the moor. He has been familiar with that stone from the early days of childhood. He has passed it a thousand times. He has climbed over it when a boy, and rested in the shadow of it when hot and tired with the toil of manhood. It was there in his father’s time before him. And yet he has never seen that stone. Ask him the composition of it. Ask him the geological history of it and he cannot tell. But a geologist passes that way, and at a glance he sees what the cottager has never caught a glimpse of. To him the stone tells stories of ages long anterior to Adam; he hears in imagination the wash of primaeval waters and the mighty crash of volcanic upheavals; to the one man the rock reveals no secrets; to the other it is a scroll written within and without. There is a man, cold, guileful as a serpent, who is full of an insatiable hoarding propensity. The one object of his life is to amass wealth. He will allow himself no luxury, no recreation, but toils and saves with hungry, greedy avarice unremittingly. His eye glitters like lightning, and his busy brain is for ever concocting plans for lucrative investment. The money-fever burns like a fire in his heart. The one ruling motto of his sordid life is get-get gold. Now such a man hears of a philanthropist, who has parcelled out his fortune for certain needy classes of the community. And the whole thing is an enigma, a puzzle to him. He cannot understand how any one can have any pleasure n giving away anything. “It is more blessed to give than to receive,” is a saying which he simply cannot and will not believe. And he calls the philanthropist a fool, an idiot, a madman. He has no vision for the duty and blessedness of generosity, His whole nature rises up in antagonism to it and he thrusts the idea of benevolence mockingly away from him. (T. Hammond.)
Worldliness causes insensibility
Their sympathy and force gradually get concentrated around one object in life: around trade, or art, or science, or legislation; and what lies outside of that they do not see, or hear, or understand. In this way the higher or heavenward side of men’s natures is often stifled and dimmed. It is hindered from coming role play until, by and by, it becomes crystallized, fixed in its state of inaction and torpor. We are exceeding delicate and critical beings to keep in order. On the one hand, religiousness is apt to overshadow our lawful worldly activity-and that leads to asceticism, a morbid love of seclusion. On the other hand, our worldly activity is apt to overshadow and blight the religious side of our nature-and that leads to moral insensibility. It is exceedingly difficult to preserve a true balance. (T. Hammond.)
Sin causes moral insensibility
The evil thing in which you have indulged is not like a wave which lifts a ship for a moment, and then passes on leaving everything-as it was before. Far from that! It has entered as a poison into your spiritual nature-it has become an actual blighting force in your character. You are essentially a different man: the measure of your religions capacity is so much less than it was. Let any one yield to selfishness, to falsehood, to cynical ill-humour, to lust, and darker anti darker every day the chambers of the imp, or man become: feebler and feebler the energies for all heavenly belief and obedience; more and more earthly the tastes and inclinations; narrower and more circumscribed the horizon of life; deeper and more profound the loss of the soul. This is one of the most solemn aspects of sin. (T. Hammond.)
Intellectual conception not spiritual reglization
There are many whose creed is accurate enough, who subscribe intellectually to all the essentials of the Christian faith, but to whom, after all, they are no more than words-mere words. As a person may sit down before a piano, possessing a capital knowledge of the technicalities of music, and able to touch skilfully, and yet never enter into the spirit of the piece he is playing, so you may sit down before the Word of God, sweep your fingers over its glorious keys, and yet never bring forth one strain of its sweet Divine harmony. Ignorance and familiarity are two things, seemingly very unlike each other, and yet they are often yoked together. It is not uncommon to find a man who has filled up stores of information in his memory. History, science, biography, have been laboriously studied through fen; toilsome years. But his knowledge is not digested; it lies in his mind like pieces of rock ill water, undissolved. Ask him the date of a battle, and he will tell you. But ask him to expound, unfold in a living manner, any event of history, and be cannot. He is not a learned man-simply a stuffed one. What he carries, with him is nothing better than a collection of fossilized lore. And the gospel may be known in such a way that it does not vitalize and respire)-on. It may lie outside of you, be no more to you than light to a blind man or sweet sounds to a deaf man, or poetry to an unpoetic man. (T. Hammond.)
“Hearing, they bear not”
I. Why this ignorance and lack of apprehension?
1. Bias, prejudice. So the Jews, because our Lord did not come in the character they anticipated, rejected Him. Our faith, to be strong and healthy, must rest on conviction.
2. Inattention.
3. Love of the world. Man’s mind is often preoccupied, and so, like the seed which fell amongst thorns, the word sown is choked.
4. Pride of heart. It is right for every man to sift Christian evidence, but he must do so with humility-there must be a teachable disposition.
II. Danger of continuing thus ignorant.
1. The longer we continue in sin, the more inveterate will become our habits of sin.
2. To resist light adds to our guilt. The privileges of a Christian land, a Christian home, and a Christian training, bring with them corresponding obligations (Luke 12:47-48).
3. Sometimes brings as its punishment judicial blindness and hardness of heart.
4. Neglected opportunities will aggravate future woe-“Son, remember.”
III. How may this ignorance be overcome?
1. By the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit. ‘Tis He who knows “ the deep things of fled,” and He alone who can teach them.
2. Labour to know the mind of God-“Search the Scriptures.”
3. Sanctify the Sabbath-not simply a day of physical rest, but of spiritual labour.
4. Do not stifle the voice of conscience.
5. Look up to Christ as your “ all in all.” (Essex Remembrancer.)
Moral impotence no excuse for irreligion
I. that moral impotence is no excuse for irreligion. Examine the true character of their inability, and hence discover the equity of their condemnation. They were incompetent for the holy service of religion; they were in effect blind, deaf, insensible.
1. Their spiritual incompetency did not arise from the absence of sufficient information as to the nature and extent of their sacred obligations. The obligations of man are in proportion to the means he might possess for acquiring a knowledge of duty. The responsibilities of the Jews were great. In the gospel no plea is left for ignorance.
2. It could not be ascribed to any natural incapacity. They had eyes, though they saw not; not by the want, but abuse of these capacities. The Jews rejected Christ in spite of clear evidence.
3. The inability was moral. It was their own, in contempt of entreaty, from the bias of their own will.
4. The effective restoration is effected by moral influence. The true cause of man’s inability to believe in Christ, is love of sin. How can the spirit wedded to the earth soar as on an eagle’s wing to heaven? This view of moral impotence does not do away with responsibility; is no excuse for irreligion; not a misfortune, but rebellion; a depraved nature no excuse. The day will come when all excuses for moral impotence will fail. (A. Tidman.)
The guilt and doom of impenitent hearers
The presages and symptoms of the approach of the tremendous judgment-the judgment of having the ministry of the gospel continued, not as the means of salvation, but as the occasion of more aggravated sin and punishment.
1. The abuse or neglect of the ministry of the gospel in time past.
2. Incorrigible obstinacy under chastisements.
3. Growing insensibility or hardness of heart.
4. Repeated violences to the motions of the Holy Spirit, and convictions of conscience, or obstinate sinning against knowledge.
5. The withdrawing of Divine influences.
6. And, as the consequence of all, a general decay of religion. (President Daries.)
The effects of God’s communications
Correspond to the willingness or wilfulness of men.
I. Divine truth elicits human dispositions.
II. Divine truths repelled because of dislike.
III. Divine truth cannot be rejected without injury. (M. Braithwaite.)
I. Christ’s parables-Roused inquiry: Rendered subjects familiar; Removed prejudice, Convinced of wickedness; Impressed subjects on the mind.
II. Their superiority over all others. Others were cold and dry-His were interesting. Others were trifling-His were important. Others founded on improbable and impossible subjects-Christ’s were founded on common scenes and familiar things. (Bishop Portens.)
But blessed are your eyes, for they see.
I. The two classes of persons here mentioned. Prophets-inspired men. Righteous men-saints. Every prophet was not a righteous man. To be a righteous man is more desirable than to be a prophet. Grace is a higher endowment than inspiration or genius.
II. These two classes of persons eagerly anticipated the Christian dispensation, Various dispensations-one religion, as one ocean. Every degree of experimental knowledge of the true religion awakens a desire for additional information. It satisfies, yet it stimulates. Moses, etc. The Divine revelation of the true religion has been progressive. The desires of the great and good are not always gratified according to their intensity. They must submit to the will of God.
III. Our privileges are far superior to those of these two classes of persons.
1. We should be grateful.
2. We should cherish a sense of responsibility.
3. We should strive to outstrip in attainment those whom we surpass in privilege. (Various.)
Divine illumination
I. To whom these words were addressed.
1. They were not addressed indiscriminately to the people.
2. They were addressed to His chosen disciples.
3. The same distinction must be observed when these words are applied to ourselves.
II. The spiritual import of these words when thus applied.
1. What the faithful disciples saw-“the Lord’s Christ.”
2. How it was the disciples saw those things in Him.
3. Unspeakably blessed are they who thus see. Are you in possession of these privileges? what do you know of them?
(1) Do you know that you are destitute of them?
(2) Do you humbly hope that light has visited your soul, but lament how dim it is? (F. Close. M. A.)