《Expositor’s Dictionary of Texts – Matthew (Vol. 2)》(William R. Nicoll)
15 Chapter 15
Verses 1-39
Matthew 15:13
If I had not had a hope fixed in me that this Cause and Business was of God, I would many years ago have run from it If it be of God, He will bear it up. If it be of Prayer of Manasseh , it will tumble; as everything that hath been of man since the world began hath done. And what are all our Histories, and other Tradition of Actions in former times, but God manifesting Himself, that He hath shaken, and tumbled down, and trampled upon, everything that He had not planted?
—Cromwell to the Parliament of1655.
References.—XV:13.—F. D. Maurice, Lincoln"s Inn Sermons, p1. G. Tyrrell, Oil and Wine, p170. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. vii. No423. XV:14.—H. Scott Holland, Church Times, vol. lvi1906 , p285. XV:18-31.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xlii. No2481. XV:19.—Ibid. vol. xiii. No732. W. M. Sinclair, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xlvi1894 , p328. XV:21-28.—J. Laidlaw, The Miracles of Our Lord, p247. J. McNeill, British Weekly Pulpit, vol. ii. p369. Archbishop Trench, Notes on the Miracles of Our Lord, p280. W. M. Taylor, The Miracles of Our Saviour, p295. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xlii. No2481; vol. xlii. No2446. Archer Butler, Sermons (1Series), p201. Parker, Inner Life of Christ, vol. ii. p331. Kingsley, All Saints" Day, p76. Stopford Brooke, Spirit of Christian Life, p164. Stanford, Homilies on Christian Work, p133. Bruce, Galilean Gospel, p146. Guthrie, Way to Life, pp210,228. Laymen"s Legacy, p208. Lynch, Sermons for my Curates, p317. Phillips Brooks, Sermons in English Churches, p157. C. Wordsworth, Sermons, vol. i. p109. Bishop Wilberforce, Four Sermons, p53. Pusey, Sermons, vol. ii. p167. W. F. Hook, On the Miracles, vol. ii. p33. XV:21-31.—A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture—St. Matthew IX-XVII. p314. XV:21-39. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxviii. No2253. XV:22.—C. Silvester Home, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lxvi1904 , p225. C. Leach, Mothers of the Bible, p95. XV:22 , 23.—Eugene Bersier, Twelve Sermons, p128. R. W. Hiley, A Year"s Sermons, vol. i. p129. XV:22-28.—Andrew Murray, The Children for Christ, p226.
Matthew 15:22
I doubt whether she had inquired after Christ, if she had not been vexed with her daughter"s spirit. Our afflictions are... the files and whetstones that set an edge on our devotions.
—Bishop Hall.
Divine Silence
Matthew 15:23
Have you prayed? In what way have you prayed? Have any of your prayers been unmistakably answered? It is a curious fact that some persons never look for answers to their prayers, and they, of all persons, would be most astonished if God took them at their word and granted their request. Some people make mistakes in the requests they make to God. It is absolutely necessary for us to keep before; us one or two thoughts in connexion with prayer. Prayer in this way is a science just as much as any other sciences, and having just as many special laws. You may rest assured that any legitimate prayer is never left unanswered, but the answer may not perhaps be as our special desires dictate; in fact, we sometimes look for the answer to come in at the front door when it is already in the house by the back door.
We have a wonderful illustration in connexion with the subject in the text—"He answered her not a word". Has that been your experience?
I. It is Just Possible that You Yourselves were not Ready for the Answer.—God may have seen that there was some rectification of character necessary. It may have been some inconsistency, some unworthiness, some selfishness, or even some secret sin that prevented God from answering. Here is a very good illustration. A man may be seen in a boat rowing, rowing, rowing, but the boat never moves. Why? Because the boat is anchored. The boat is floating on the surface of the water, yet the anchor holds it fast. That is the picture of a man"s spiritual life. He may feel in his heart that he wants to know God, but finds his progress arrested because his real affections are fastened or anchored on to something of this world. He does not make progress, and God does not answer his prayers.
II. It is Just Possible that Your Exterior Circumstances are not Ready for the Answer.—Take the case of Joseph when he was in prison. Joseph prayed that he might be delivered from the prison, but it pleased God to keep him there for a time that he might be a comfort to his fellow-prisoners. And so it may be with you. God may have His own reasons for not granting you some timely blessing at once. The circumstances may not be favourable; God may be dealing with some other member of your household at the same time; He has not completed His purpose, and the delay should not distress you or disturb you if you reflect that God may choose to confer His blessing in some special way.
III. It is Just Possible that Circumstances have to be Rearranged and Readjusted to Bring Greater Benefits.—Take the case of Moses and his remarkable prayer when he besought the Lord to let him go over and see the good land which was beyond Jordan. Why did not God grant his request? Because he had something better in store for him. Was it not much better for Moses to see his Lord transfigured on the Mount than to cross over Jordan with the Israelites? There is the illustration of St. Paul when he prayed that a thorn in his flesh might be taken away from him. God did not answer his prayer. He had something better in store for him. He was going to give him more grace, and when St. Paul knew that, he said he would rather keep the thorn and have the grace. Then with regard to the woman in the text, the Lord gave her at first no encouragement whatever; but the delays and hindrances that He put in her path only increased her faith and made her more earnest and more determined to get that which she required, and she stands out as one of the great figures of all spiritual history. What a biography! only a verse or two, but the biography of a woman whose faith in the Redeemer could not be shaken. Her pleading became more earnest, and at last—may I say it?—the Lord is conquered by her, and then He praises her for her faith.
References.—XV:23.—W. H. Hutchings, Sermon-Sketches, p60. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xlix. No2841. XV:24 , 26.—Ibid. vol. xxx. No1797.
Matthew 15:25
Consider: it is not failing in this or that attempt of coming to Christ, but a giving over of your endeavours, that will be your ruin.
—John Owen.
References.—XV:25.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xliv. No2597. M. Guy Pearse, Jesus Christ and the People, p142. XV:26 , 27.—H. H. Carlisle, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lxix1906 , p268. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxii. No1309.
Matthew 15:27
A retort quite Greek in its readiness, its symmetry, and its point! But it was not the intellectual merit of the answer that pleased the Master. Cleverness is cheap. It is the faith He praises, which was as precious as rare.... The quickness of her answer was the scintillation of her intellect under the glow of her affection. Love is the quickening nurse of the whole nature.
—George Macdonald.
References.—XV:27.—W. P. Balfern, Lessons from Jesus, p69. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xii. No715; vol. xxxvi. No2129. XV:28.—E. B. Pusey, Parochial Sermons, vol. ii. p167. B. F. Westcott, The Historic Faith, p3. R. H. McKim, The Gospel in the Christian Year, p184. Henry Wace, Some Central Points of Our Lord"s Ministry, p251. S. C. Malan, Plain Preaching for a Year, vol. i. p262. R. E. Hutton, The Crown of Christ, vol. ii. p509. A. G. Mortimer, One Hundred Miniature Sermons, vol. i. p182. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxvi. No2173; vol. xxxviii. No2253; vol. xlii. No2446. XV:29-38.—J. Laidlaw, The Miracles of Our Lord, p105. XV:30 , 31.—Walter Brooke, Sermons, pp125 , 135. XV:32.—B. Wilberforce, Christian World Pulpit, vol. li1897 , p113. Hugh Black, ibid. vol. lxix1906 , p189. XV:32-39.—Archbishop Trench, Notes on the Miracles of Our Lord, p293. W. M. Taylor, The Miracles of Our Saviour, p307. XV:33.—G. F. Browne, Christian World Pulpit, vol. liv1898 , p161. J. A. Bain, Questions Answered by Christ, p34. James Denney, Gospel Questions and Answers, p61. XVI:1-4.—H. Bremner, Christian World Pulpit, vol. liii1898 , p87. C. Holland, Gleanings from a Ministry of Fifty Years, p246.
16 Chapter 16
Verses 1-28
Spiritual Discernment
Matthew 16:3
Jesus Christ found that He was in the midst of a number of weather-wise people; they were quite experts in the reading of the cloudy signs, they knew what the weather would be Today and perhaps tomorrow, and they published their forecasts of the weather; but when it came to higher reading, reading on another level, they were as moles and bats from whom the genius of daylight penetration had been withheld. Do we make one another up? do we hold varied trusteeships? and are they brought under one grand obligation, so that we may, thus supplementing one another, constitute a great social unit? Are there not really readers of the clouds and readers of the unseen? could they not meet now and then in common counsel to see how things stand and what the general outlook is? They must not despise one another; for one man can do this, and another man can do that, and neither man can do both. So that we are mutual trustees, we supplement each other; if we could enter into the spirit of this arrangement, we should have brotherhood, free, frank interchange of opinion, and work together in a great and beneficent association. I. But whilst we recognize these great common gifts, we recognize also a partition of ability, so that one man is an expert along line A, and another man is an expert along line B, and each must work out his own vocation. As there are great commonwealth blessings of nature, so there are great republican blessings in moral and spiritual regions. God did not intend any man to be born a slave. Liberty belongs to every responsible creature; his responsibility will limit and define his liberty, and thus give him the very best of it Liberty that wantons itself into licence really conducts itself into the worst bondage. Regulated liberty is freedom. God means every soul in this sense to be free. There are common instincts, common privileges. And yet singular to say, and yet necessary to say, there are limitations which are round about the individual, so that he has his talent, his two talents, his five talents, himself not to be numbered with other men in certain great generalities. The individuality of the soul is never lost; it is never drowned in the river of mean compromises; it should stand forth individual and yet associated; a great personality, yet part of a greater humanity. To combine the whole and the part, the great universal gift and the special endowment: this is the problem, and Christianity alone sufficiently and finally solves it.
II. By the text we are entitled to enlarge what we can see into what we cannot see except by the vision of the soul. Here is a great lesson in inductive reasoning. Because such and such is the direction of the wind and such and such are the indications of the clouds, therefore we shall have such and such weather. Quite right; I do not oppose your forecasts; but why not carry up the idea, and endeavour to reason concerning the things you see with the eyes of the heart in the spiritual realm, and draw your inductions according to the great basis of fact, phenomena, and experience available to every student who faithfully and humbly and lovingly endeavours to discover the will of God? There is a spiritual barometer, there is a spiritual thermometer; there are many ways appointed and therefore approved of God by which we can put this and that together and draw wide inferences from great spiritual premises. If we had eyes to see we should know that from the beginning God has a certain purpose and will surely accomplish it. That purpose is a purpose of beneficence.
III. We must recognize the fact that there is a difference in sight. We recognize this in the sight of the bodily eyes; why not recognize it in the inner and truer sight of the soul? Can you read a placard fifty yards off? Your answer Isaiah , I certainly cannot do so. Are you entitled from that consciousness to declare that there is not a man in the world that can read it? You have to admit that there is sight longer than yours. Can you read the Bible without lenses, glasses, or mechanical aids of any kind? You may possibly reply, Certainly I cannot do so. Does it therefore follow that no other man can read it without such aids? In a moment you say that to make any such contention would be simply absurd. That is right: why not apply that fact to a higher level, and find for it a broader and deeper interpretation? We must listen to the higher voices. We are at liberty to test the spirits whether they are of God; that may often be a bounden duty which we cannot shirk under any plea or pretext. Yet there remains the great fact that we have a book which is filled with holy messages from the holy God, and these have been so often confirmed that their very confirmation becomes not only an argument but a starting-point of the most profound and elaborate reasoning. If any man has read the book of Genesis aright he knows that there is a book coming that shall be full of anthem, Song of Solomon , and triumph; for the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdom of our God and of His Christ. He read that in the very first verse of the Bible if he was a prophet when he read that opening verse. There is a great philosophy of implication; one thing means another, points to another, and gives assurance of another.
—Joseph Parker, City Temple Pulpit, vol. iii. p175.
Matthew 16:3
Carlyle opens his Latter-day Pamphlets with this paragraph: "The Present Time, youngest-born of Eternity, child and heir of all the Past Times with their good and evil, and parent of all the Future, is ever a "New Era" to the thinking man; and comes with new questions and significance, however commonplace it look: to know it, and what it bids us do, is ever the sum of knowledge for all of us. This new Day, sent us out of Heaven, this also has its heavenly omens;—amid the bustling trivialities and loud, empty noises, its silent monitions, which, if we cannot read and obey, it will not be well with us! No;—nor is there any sin more fearfully avenged on men and Nations than that same, which indeed includes and presupposes all manner of sins: the sin which our old pious fathers called "judicial blindness";—which we with our light habits, may still call misinterpretation of the Time that now is; disloyalty to its real meanings and monitions, stupid disregard of these, stupid adherence, active or passive, to the counterfeits and mere current semblances of these. This is true of all times and days."