THIS chapter is a continuation of the subject of the preceding one, and sets before the disciples the spirit in which they should pass through the troublous scenes just foretold to them. If they be desolate, their strength and stay gone—if they suffer from the violence of their adversaries, and if the avenging arm of God is still unmoved for them—yet to Him, and Him alone, though there be no indication of His help, though all appearances be against them, must they look for deliverance and succor. The simple remedy for such times is, “that men pray always and not faint;” and the fruit of crying day and night unto Him is, “I tell you He will avenge them speedily”—when the day of vengeance begins. “Nevertheless, when the Son of man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth? “a plain intimation that the earth, especially the Jewish hand, shall not be the laud of faith, as became the true sons of Abraham when the Son of man cometh. How little did their present self-satisfaction accord with the spirit of the widow! This the Lord denounces in the next parable. He is not a real suppliant whose confidence is not alone in God, and he is not a true one that is not conscious of his own unworthiness.
The Pharisee depictures Israel’s then present spirit: the publican represents that of the contrite remnant. The real condition of Israel was that of a publican; they were tributaries to the Roman power. The official publicans might have exacted tribute from them, but so did they from the Lord’s inheritance; one and all did this, save “the repairer of the breach,” who, from the fish’s mouth, from the sea, neither by toil nor from the land, provided the tribute money, the evidence of Israel’s condition-but He stood above that condition.
It is evident no one can appreciate blessings rightly from God, who has not at the same time a consciousness of his need and helplessness and his entire unworthiness of relief. The widow shews one, the publican the other, and then follows the “infant,” as showing, though weak in itself, the simple confidence and submission withal, which such an one retains for its careful nurturer. This sample of Christ’s followers, the disciples, who naturally (like many a religionist) expected some appearance of power and rule, are quite ready to discard, and “rebuked them that brought them;” but the Lord sets them forward as a model of the subjects of the kingdom of God. Be a widow as to your sense of need and helplessness, and a publican as to your sense of unworthiness, and an infant, though you are weak, as to your confidence and unresisting submission. A rich; ruler, as the narrative next brings before us, may desire, yea sincerely, to discover a mode of inheriting the kingdom of God. He is a most amiable and very rich man in his best and favored condition; yet, he has a sense of need, the need of the kingdom of God, but not a sense like the widow, of need and no ability to counteract it; he has kept all the commandments he is asked, and these comprise all which refer to our neighbor, save “ thou shalt not covet,” which, as we see from the manner in which Paul uses it in Rom. 7., touches the secret springs; in a word, he was unblemished among men, the personification of the best among Israel. To any thoughtful Jew, it must be deeply interesting what answer the Lord would give to this good rich ruler’s question. Oh! how it tested his convictions of Christ as “good Master,” as of God, when required to sell all that he hath, “distribute to the poor, have treasure in heaven, and follow me,” a poor, a desolate, but a good Stranger. Such are the plain characteristics of an heir of the kingdom, entirely above and beyond all Jewish calculation, so opposed to all natural desires that the hearers in consternation cry out: “Who then can be saved?” That “all things are possible with God” can alone allay such fears. May we all know more practically the effects of that “possibility,” and be able to echo the words of Peter: “Lo, we have left all and followed thee!” To this the Lord replies, announcing a large blessing not to the Jews only, but to every one: “There is no man (save He) who hath left.... for the kingdom of God’s sake, that shall not receive manifold more in this present time, and in the world (or ageτῷαἰῶνι)to come eternal life.” I believe the word “age” is always connected with the history of the earth, and in the coming age will be the manifestation of the sons of God; so that the followers of Christ now not only receive manifold more in this present time, “blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places,” (which, though not distinctly alluded to here, is perhaps no forced interpretation of “the manifold more,”) but shall be manifested in living eternity in the age to come.
The Lord, “then” in company with “the twelve,” proceeds on His way “to Jerusalem,” and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of man shall be accomplished. He does not say at what moment, but that they shall be accomplished. The order and the time are not spoken of; the fact is merely stated that they shall be accomplished, and that Jerusalem would be the great theatre of them, so that any which are not yet accomplished will be, doubtless, accomplished, and accomplished there. But while He discloses to them the cruel mockings and bitter treatment He is to receive at the hands of “Gentiles,” unto whom His own people are to deliver Him, “they understood none of these things.” The death and resurrection of Jesus, the cross and the glory, are subjects often incomprehensible to many an old disciple; we are unwilling to see the path Christ trod, lest we be filled with reproach and dismay at our great distance or departure from it. Israel gave Jesus to be crucified by “the Gentiles.” “He is evidently set forth crucified amongst them.” (Gal. 3:1.) They are assuredly glorified with Him. Ali! how blindness in part is happened to Israel. But as a picture of their condition and the mercy that would one day arrest it, though now there was “not a man among them that should make up the hedge,” and therefore “their own way have I recompensed upon their heads, saith the Lord God,” (Ezek. 22:30, 31,) we have, “as He came nigh unto Jericho, (“the cursed city in Israel,”) a certain blind man sat by the wayside begging.” This is Israel’s present condition, blind and covetous; but when in deep distress, despite of all rebuking, he shall cry for mercy to Jesus, the Son of David. (Zech. 11:8-10.) The command shall go forth that he should be “brought near,” and according to his desires so shall he receive, and then Israel shall no longer be obstructed by blindness and covetousness, but endued with a power which “the ruler” (such an ornament of their nation) knew nothing of and would not receive. “He followed Jesus, glorifying God,” and as was then in measure, when they saw it, so by and bye with one heart and one voice all the people will give praise unto God.