“In the mean while,” whilst the scribes and Pharisees were thus so unworthily employed, “an innumerable multitude of the people were gathered together,” and the Lord uses the opportunity for impressing on His disciples to beware, in particular, or “first of all,” “of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.” The Pharisees, by their assumption of godliness, were deceivers of the people; they were greater enemies to the truth, by pretending to be what they were not, than if they had been openly vicious. No greater danger to true religion than the leaven of hypocrisy; malice is only masked. There is no power of it in the heart. It is merely adopted as a cloak for the evil within; and hence what the disciples are first of all warned against shall mark the full blown apostasy of Christendom, “having the form of godliness, but denying the power thereof.” It is the design to make religion conspicuous and acknowledged, which never can be in a world which rejected Christ. But there will be a full disclosure of all motives. Mere privacy will not avail; yet on the other hand you are not, if “friends” of Christ, to fear to confess His name; you are not to assume a character without power, nor again shrink from a testimony which you can afford; you are not to seek the gaze of men for religiousness, nor shrink from confessing His Name through fear of men. If your body is full of light, it will not fear them who kill the body; this will be one bright ray from it. Covetousness will not be your snare, for you will have learned that “a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth” —a Jewish idea, and one to which all nature is wedded—but ye will learn to “take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat; neither for the body, what ye shall put on.” Abandon all natural calculations, such as all the nations of the earth seek after. Know it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. The word “kingdom” did not sound strangely on Jewish ears; they all expected a kingdom; and truly what is here promised shall be realized, though I apprehend that in the next verse a new thought was introduced, and cue which embodied the place and hope of the saints now. Here they are told to “sell” all their property on earth, and give it to those needing it, and lay up treasure in a region utterly unknown or unheard of to a Jew, save as the throne of God; and the value of this doctrine is enforced by the remarkable words, that “where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” If Jesus be rejected to the heavens, and Jesus is your treasure, then your heart will be there; or in other words, you will be set down together with Christ in the heavenlies; and the natural consequence of having such a hope and interest beyond this scene will be that “your loins will be girt and your lights burning,” marked by an alacrity in moving onwards, and your course luminous with the light of the body described in this chapter.
From verse 36 to 40 I am very much disposed to think the return to Israel is spoken of. The Lord’s return here being placed subsequent to “the wedding,” strongly disposes me to this thought, and in the perfect keeping with the fact that the Lord always only casually and subsidiarily referred to the Church, while the open and general narrative manifestly bears on Israel. This is still more confirmed by Peter’s question, “Speakest thou this parable unto us, or even to all?” To this I believe the Lord replies, giving strict reference to the Church as now. “A faithful and wise steward,” οἰκονόμος, leads you at once to a house and its domestic economy. In the preceding parable we have servants and the master of the house, their service “watching,” efficient if they are ready to answer to the knock of their returning Lord, in which the house-master, οικοδεσπότης, is especially interested. Here the service is not watching, but feeding and caring for the domestics in the absence of their Lord. Whoever observes this service is blessed when the Lord returns; his reward shall be great, though I think the word “enter” is not expressed in the original. The Church, as the habitation of God through the Spirit, should be known here as in domestic relationship; and then in proportion as one is faithful and wise will he care and nurture his fellows. The principle is only declared here, that is, service to one another in a domestic scene. If the Lord’s return is appreciated, service to His people here will be proportionately observed, but if apostasy creep in, the judgments on Christendom will be very great. The word stripes, πληγων, is translated “plagues” in the Revelation. The thought of this judgment leads our Lord to disclose the issue of His mission on earth. “I am come,” saith He, “to send fire on the earth.” We road in another place, “The earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.” (2 Peter 3:1010But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. (2 Peter 3:10).) Premonitory notices of this terrible issue were already to commence. Natural domesticity would be outraged. The fairest scene on earth, the social hearth, would be marred by the malignancy of Satan, no longer to be restrained. The Lord having thus glanced at the earth’s destiny and the progress to it, with His unwearied grace chides the people for not forming a more truthful judgment of the purposes of God. In natural things they were wise enough. Why then so dull as to matters so momentous? And He concludes by showing them the only mode for escape, and if that be neglected, incarceration till they have paid the last farthing must be their doom.