And Jesus saith unto him, The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.
Ver. 20. The foxes have holes, &c.] q.d. Exigua mihi sunt subsidia aut praesidia. Nudus opum, sed cui coelum terraque paterent, as Ennius said of Archimedes. The great Architect of the world had not a house to put his head in; but emptied himself of all, and became poor to make us rich, not in goods, but in grace, not in worldly wealth, but in the true treasure, εκενωσεν, Philippians 2:7; 2 Corinthians 8:9. Say we with that Father, Christi paupertas meum est patrimonium: prefer the reproach of Christ before the treasures of Egypt, Hebrews 11:26; and if, besides and with Christ, we have food and raiment, let us therewith rest content, 1 Timothy 6:8. Say we have no house on earth, we have one in heaven not made with hands. Those good souls dwelt in "dens and caves of the earth," yea, "wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins," Hebrews 11:37,38, that might have rustled in their silks and velvets, that might (Nebuchadnezzar-like) have vaunted themselves on their stately turrets and palaces, if they would have let go Christ. But that, they knew well, had been to make a fool's bargain.
But the Son of man, &c.] So he styles himself either to note the truth of his humanity or the depth of his abasement; the Son of God became the son of man, which was, as one said in a like case, to fall from the court to the cart, from a palace to a gallows. Among all the prophets, Ezekiel is most frequently styled the son of man, and that purposely; to keep him low amidst his many rare raptures and revelations. The heathen, when they would set forth a man miserable indeed, they called him πρισανθρωπον, thrice a man.
Hath not whereon to lay his head] That the Messiah when he cometh shall not have whereon to sit, where to rest his body, is affirmed by the Jewish Gemarists. Our Saviour may seem here to allude to such a tradition.