| |
THE GOSPEL
ACCORDING TO
MATTHEW
Commentary by DAVID BROWN
[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]
[5]
[6]
[7]
[8]
[9]
[10]
[11]
[12]
[13]
[14]
[15]
[16]
[17]
[18]
[19]
[20]
[21]
[22]
[23]
[24]
[25]
[26]
[27]
[28]
CHAPTER 16
@Mt
16:1-12. A SIGN FROM HEAVEN SOUGHT AND
REFUSED--CAUTION AGAINST THE LEAVEN OF THE PHARISEES AND
SADDUCEES.
For the exposition, see on Mr
8:11-21.
@Mt
16:13-28. PETER'S NOBLE CONFESSION OF CHRIST AND THE
BENEDICTION PRONOUNCED UPON HIM--CHRIST'S FIRST EXPLICIT
ANNOUNCEMENT OF HIS APPROACHING SUFFERINGS, DEATH, AND
RESURRECTION--HIS REBUKE OF PETER AND WARNING TO ALL THE
TWELVE. ( = @Mr
8:27 9:1 Lu 9:18-27).
The time of this section--which is beyond doubt, and will
presently be mentioned--is of immense importance, and
throws a touching interest around the incidents which it
records.
Peter's Confession, and the Benediction Pronounced upon
Him. (@Mt
16:13-20).
13. When Jesus came into the coasts--"the
parts," that is, the territory or region. In Mark (@Mr
8:27) it is "the towns" or
"villages."
of Cęsarea Philippi--It
lay at the foot of Mount Lebanon, near the sources of the
Jordan, in the territory of Dan, and at the northeast
extremity of Palestine. It was originally called Panium
(from a cavern in its neighborhood dedicated to the god Pan)
and Paneas. Philip, the tetrarch, the only good son
of Herod the Great, in whose dominions Paneas lay, having
beautified and enlarged it, changed its name to Cęsarea,
in honor of the Roman emperor, and added Philippi
after his own name, to distinguish it from the other Cęsarea
(@Ac
10:1) on the northeast coast of the Mediterranean Sea.
[JOSEPHUS, Antiquities, 15.10,3; 18.2,1]. This
quiet and distant retreat Jesus appears to have sought
with the view of talking over with the Twelve the fruit of
His past labors, and breaking to them for the first time
the sad intelligence of His approaching death.
he asked his disciples--"by
the way," says Mark (@Mr
8:27), and "as He was alone praying," says
Luke (@Lu
9:18).
saying, Whom--or
more grammatically, "Who"
do men say that I the
Son of man am?--(or, "that the Son of man
is"--the recent editors omitting here the me
of Mark and Luke [@Mr
8:27 Lu 9:18]; though the evidence seems pretty nearly
balanced)--that is, "What are the views generally
entertained of Me, the Son of man, after going up and down
among them so long?" He had now closed the first
great stage of His ministry, and was just entering on the
last dark one. His spirit, burdened, sought relief in
retirement, not only from the multitude, but even for a
season from the Twelve. He retreated into "the secret
place of the Most High," pouring out His soul
"in supplications and prayers, with strong crying and
tears" (@Heb
5:7). On rejoining His disciples, and as they were
pursuing their quiet journey, He asked them this question.
14. And they said, Some say that thou art John the
Baptist--risen from the dead. So that Herod Antipas
was not singular in his surmise (@Mt
14:1,2).
some, Elias--(Compare
@Mr
6:15).
and others, Jeremias--Was
this theory suggested by a supposed resemblance between
the "Man of Sorrows" and "the weeping
prophet?"
or one of the prophets--or,
as Luke (@Lu
9:8) expresses it, "that one of the old prophets
is risen again." In another report of the popular
opinions which Mark (@Mr
6:15) gives us, it is thus expressed, "That it is
a prophet [or], as one of the prophets": in other
words, That He was a prophetical person, resembling those
of old.
15. He saith unto them, But whom--rather,
"who."
say ye that I am?--He
had never put this question before, but the crisis He was
reaching made it fitting that He should now have it from
them. We may suppose this to be one of those moments of
which the prophet says, in His name, "Then I said, I
have labored in vain; I have spent my strength for naught,
and in vain" (@Isa
49:4): Lo, these three years I come seeking fruit on
this fig tree; and what is it? As the result of all, I am
taken for John the Baptist, for Elias, for Jeremias, for
one of the prophets. Yet some there are that have beheld
My glory, the glory as of the Only-begotten of the Father,
and I shall hear their voice, for it is sweet.
16. And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the
Christ, the Son of the living God--He does not say,
"Scribes and Pharisees, rulers and people, are all
perplexed; and shall we, unlettered fishermen, presume to
decide?" But feeling the light of his Master's glory
shining in his soul, he breaks forth--not in a tame,
prosaic acknowledgment, "I believe that Thou art,"
&c.--but in the language of adoration--such as one
uses in worship, "THOU ART THE CHRIST, THE SON OF THE
LIVING GOD!" He first owns Him the promised Messiah
(see on Mt
1:16); then he rises higher, echoing the voice from
heaven--"This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well
pleased"; and in the important addition--"Son of
the LIVING GOD"--he recognizes the essential and
eternal life of God as in this His Son--though doubtless
without that distinct perception afterwards vouchsafed.
17. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art
thou--Though it is not to be doubted that Peter, in
this noble testimony to Christ, only expressed the
conviction of all the Twelve, yet since he alone seems to
have had clear enough apprehensions to put that conviction
in proper and suitable words, and courage enough to speak
them out, and readiness enough to do this at the right
time--so he only, of all the Twelve, seems to have met the
present want, and communicated to the saddened soul of the
Redeemer at the critical moment that balm which was needed
to cheer and refresh it. Nor is Jesus above giving
indication of the deep satisfaction which this speech
yielded Him, and hastening to respond to it by a signal
acknowledgment of Peter in return.
Simon-Barjona--or,
"son of Jona" (@Joh
1:42), or "Jonas" (@Joh
21:15). This name, denoting his humble fleshly
extraction, seems to have been purposely here mentioned,
to contrast the more vividly with the spiritual elevation
to which divine illumination had raised him.
for flesh and blood hath
not revealed it unto thee--"This is not the fruit
of human teaching."
but my Father which is
in heaven--In speaking of God, Jesus, it is to be
observed, never calls Him, "our Father" (see on Joh
20:17), but either "your Father"--when He
would encourage His timid believing ones with the
assurance that He was theirs, and teach themselves to call
Him so--or, as here, "My Father," to signify
some peculiar action or aspect of Him as "the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ."
18. And I say also unto thee--that is, "As
thou hast borne such testimony to Me, even so in return do
I to thee."
That thou art Peter--At
his first calling, this new name was announced to him as
an honor afterwards to be conferred on him (@Joh
1:43). Now he gets it, with an explanation of what it
was meant to convey.
and upon this rock--As
"Peter" and "Rock" are one word in the
dialect familiarly spoken by our Lord--the Aramaic
or Syro-Chaldaic, which was the mother tongue of
the country--this exalted play upon the word can be
fully seen only in languages which have one word for both.
Even in the Greek it is imperfectly represented. In
French, as WEBSTER and WILKINSON remark, it is perfect, Pierre--pierre.
I will build my Church--not
on the man Simon-Barjona; but on him as the
heavenly-taught confessor of a faith. "My
Church," says our Lord, calling the Church His OWN; a
magnificent expression regarding Himself, remarks BENGEL--nowhere
else occurring in the Gospel.
and the gates of hell--"of
Hades," or, the unseen world; meaning, the gates of
Death: in other words, "It shall never perish."
Some explain it of "the assaults of the powers of
darkness"; but though that expresses a glorious
truth, probably the former is the sense here.
19. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom
of heaven--the kingdom of God about to be set up on
earth
and whatsoever thou
shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and
whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in
heaven--Whatever this mean, it was soon expressly extended
to all the apostles (@Mt
18:18); so that the claim of supreme authority in the
Church, made for Peter by the Church of Rome, and then
arrogated to themselves by the popes as the legitimate
successors of St. Peter, is baseless and impudent. As
first in confessing Christ, Peter got this commission
before the rest; and with these "keys," on the
day of Pentecost, he first "opened the door of
faith" to the Jews, and then, in the person of
Cornelius, he was honored to do the same to the Gentiles.
Hence, in the lists of the apostles, Peter is always first
named. See on Mt
18:18. One thing is clear, that not in all the New
Testament is there the vestige of any authority either
claimed or exercised by Peter, or conceded to him, above
the rest of the apostles--a thing conclusive against the
Romish claims in behalf of that apostle.
20. Then charged he his disciples that they should tell
no man that he was Jesus the Christ--Now that He had
been so explicit, they might naturally think the time come
for giving it out openly; but here they are told it had
not.
Announcement of His Approaching Death and Rebuke of
Peter (@Mt
16:21-28).
The occasion here is evidently the same.
21. From that time forth began Jesus to show unto his
disciples--that is, with an explicitness and
frequency He had never observed before.
how that he must go unto
Jerusalem and suffer many things--"and be
rejected," (@Mr
8:31 Lu 9:22).
of the elders and chief
priests and scribes--not as before, merely by not
receiving Him, but by formal deeds.
and be killed, and be
raised again the third day--Mark (@Mr
8:32) adds, that "He spake that saying
openly"--"explicitly," or "without
disguise."
22. Then Peter took him--aside, apart from the
rest; presuming on the distinction just conferred on him;
showing how unexpected and distasteful to
them all was the announcement.
and began to rebuke him--affectionately,
yet with a certain generous indignation, to chide Him.
saying, Be it far from
thee: this shall not be unto thee--that is, "If I
can help it": the same spirit that prompted him in
the garden to draw the sword in His behalf (@Joh
18:10).
23. But he turned, and said--in the hearing of the
rest; for Mark (@Mr
8:33) expressly says, "When He had turned about
and looked on His disciples, He rebuked Peter";
perceiving that he had but boldly uttered what others
felt, and that the check was needed by them also.
Get thee behind me,
Satan--the same words as He had addressed to the
Tempter (@Lu
4:8); for He felt in it a satanic lure, a whisper from
hell, to move Him from His purpose to suffer. So He shook
off the Serpent, then coiling around Him, and "felt
no harm" (@Ac
28:5). How quickly has the "rock" turned to
a devil! The fruit of divine teaching the Lord delighted
to honor in Peter; but the mouthpiece of hell, which he
had in a moment of forgetfulness become, the Lord shook
off with horror.
thou art an offence--a
stumbling-block.
unto me--"Thou
playest the Tempter, casting a stumbling-block in My way
to the Cross. Could it succeed, where wert thou? and how
should the Serpent's head be bruised?"
for thou savourest not--thou
thinkest not.
the things that be of
God, but those that be of men--"Thou art carried
away by human views of the way of setting up Messiah's
kingdom, quite contrary to those of God." This was
kindly said, not to take off the sharp edge of the rebuke.
but to explain and justify it, as it was evident Peter
knew not what was in the bosom of his rash speech.
24. Then said Jesus unto his disciples--Mark (@Mr
8:34) says, "When He had called the people unto
Him, with His disciples also, He said unto
them"--turning the rebuke of one into a warning to
all.
If any man will come
after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and
follow me.
25. For whosoever will save--is minded to save, or
bent on saving.
his life shall lose it,
and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it--(See
on Mt
10:38,39). "A suffering and dying Messiah liketh
you ill; but what if His servants shall meet the same
fate? They may not; but who follows Me must be prepared
for the worst."
26. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the
whole world, and lose his own soul--or forfeit his own
soul?
or what shall a man give
in exchange for his soul?--Instead of these weighty
words, which we find in @Mr
8:36 also, it is thus expressed in @Lu
9:25: "If he gain the whole world, and lose
himself, or be cast away," or better, "If he
gain the whole world, and destroy or forfeit
himself." How awful is the stake as here set forth!
If a man makes the present world--in its various forms of
riches, honors, pleasures, and such like--the object of
supreme pursuit, be it that he gains the world; yet along
with it he forfeits his own soul. Not that any ever did,
or ever will gain the whole world--a very small portion of
it, indeed, falls to the lot of the most successful of the
world's votaries--but to make the extravagant concession,
that by giving himself entirely up to it, a man gains the
whole world; yet, setting over against this gain the
forfeiture of his soul--necessarily following the
surrender of his whole heart to the world--what is he
profited? But, if not the whole world, yet possibly
something else may be conceived as an equivalent for the
soul. Well, what is it?--"Or what shall a man give in
exchange for his soul?" Thus, in language the
weightiest, because the simplest, does our Lord shut up
His hearers, and all who shall read these words to the end
of the world, to the priceless value to every man of his
own soul. In Mark and Luke (@Mr
8:38 Lu 9:26) the following words are added:
"Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of Me and of My
words [shall be ashamed of belonging to Me, and ashamed of
My Gospel] in this adulterous and sinful generation"
(see on Mt
12:39), "of him shall the Son of man be ashamed
when He cometh in the glory of His Father, with the holy
angels." He will render back to that man his own
treatment, disowning him before the most august of all
assemblies, and putting him to "shame and
everlasting contempt" (@Da
12:2). "O shame," exclaims BENGEL, "to
be put to shame before God, Christ, and angels!" The
sense of shame is founded on our love of reputation,
which causes instinctive aversion to what is fitted to
lower it, and was given us as a preservative from all that
is properly shameful. To be lost to shame is
to be nearly past hope. (@Zep
3:5 Jer 6:15 3:3). But when Christ and "His
words" are unpopular, the same instinctive desire to stand
well with others begets that temptation to be ashamed
of Him which only the expulsive power of a higher
affection can effectually counteract.
27. For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his
Father with his angels--in the splendor of His
Father's authority and with all His angelic ministers,
ready to execute His pleasure.
and then he shall
reward, &c.
28. Verily I say unto you, There be some standing here--"some
of those standing here."
which shall not taste of
death, fill they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom--or,
as in Mark (@Mr
9:1), "till they see the kingdom of God come with
power"; or, as in Luke (@Lu
9:27), more simply still, "till they see the
kingdom of God." The reference, beyond doubt, is to
the firm establishment and victorious progress, in the
lifetime of some then present, of that new kingdom of
Christ, which was destined to work the greatest of all
changes on this earth, and be the grand pledge of His
final coming in glory.
|
|
