And they shall kill him, and the third day he shall be raised again. And they were exceeding sorry.
Ver. 23. And they were exceeding sorry] Out of love to their Lord, saith Jerome; out of ignorance and stupidity, saith St Mark Mar 9:32 and St Luke: Luk 9:45 so they grieve where no cause was, as we do often upon like grounds and causes. How well might our Saviour have said to them, as afterwards he did to the women, "Grieve not for me, but grieve for yourselves." They knew well that if Christ suffered, they should not escape scot free, Hinc illae laehrymae. We shrink in the shoulder when called to carry the cross, and pretend this and that for excuse, as Moses did the conscience of his own insufficiency, Exodus 4:10, when the very truth was, he feared Pharaoh, lest he would have revenged the Egyptian's quarrel against him, whom he had slain, and hid in the sand: and as Peter pretended his dear love to his Master, Matthew 16:22, when it appears, Matthew 17:26, he aimed indeed at the safeguard of his own life more than his Master's safety. Let care be taken that (whatever we make believe) we be not self-lovers (which begins that black bead-roll, (list ŒD) 2Ti 3:2), and "lovers of pleasures," profits, preferments, "more than lovers of God" (which ends it).