of Zebedee's children with her sons, worshipping him, and desiring a certain thing of him. 21 And he said unto her, What wilt thou? She saith unto him, Grant that these my two sons may sit, the one on thy right hand, and the other on thy left, in thy kingdom. 22 But Jesus answered and said, Ye know not what ye ask. Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? They say unto him, We are able. 23 And he saith unto them, Ye shall drink indeed of my cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with: but to sit on my right hand and on my left, is not mine to give; but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my Father. 24 And when the ten heard it, they were moved with indignation against the two brethren. 25 But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them. 26 But it shall not be so among [of Zebedee's sons. you; but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister; 27 And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant: 28 Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many. 29 And as they departed from Jericho, a great multitude followed him. 30 And, behold, two blind men sitting by the way side, when they heard that Jesus passed by, cried out, saying, Have mercy on us, O Lord, thou Son of David. 31 And the multitude rebuked them, because they should hold their peace but they cried the more, saying, Have mercy on us, O Lord, thou Son of David. 32 And Jesus stood still, and called them, and said, What will ye that I shall do unto you? 33 They say unto him, Lord, that our eyes may be opened. 34 So Jesus had compassion on them, and touched their eyes: and immediately their eyes received sight, and they followed him. (T) EXPOSITION-Chap. XX. Continued. (T) Ver. 17-34. Jesus, going up to Jerusalem, refuses an improper application from the sons of Zebedee; but heals two blind men.-Jesus now going to celebrate his last passover, calls his apostles on one side from the multitude, and informs them, in addition to his former intimations, not only that he was to suffer and die, but also that he was to be crucified by the hands of the Gentiles. After this Salome, the mo ther of Zebedee's children, doubtless at their desire, presents a request on their behalf, which, though in itself improper, and consequently refused, was, as Bp. Hall thinks, singularly well timed. "O the admirable faith of this good woman! When she heard the discourse of Christ's sufferings and death, she talks of his glory; when she hears of his cross, she speaks of his crown. If she had seen Herod come NOTES-Chap. XX. Con. Crucifixion was not a Jewish, but a Roman punishment; nor could the Jews at this time punish capitally, at least not without the sanction of the Roman government. Ver. 21. The one on thy right hand, &c.-Talmudical writers relate, that in Sanhedrim, two principal officers were placed on either hand of the president; one called the Father of the Justiciary, the other, the Sage. See Doddr. Ver. 22. To drink of the cup, &c.-Among the ancients, it was customary to assign to each guest a particular cup, which is spoken, not only in reference to cups of blessing, but also of vengeance. See Zech, xii. 2, and Note. Ver. 23. Ye shall drink-James was the first of the apostles who suffered martyrdom, and John was Scourged. See Acts v. 40; xii. 2.-The baptism, &c.-Camp., who considers baptism as primarily intending immersion, here renders it by that term; but those who think it rather signifies aspersion, or pouring, may refer to scourging in illustration of the term, as by that punishment, the blood poured down the back in streams. Ibid. Not mine to give, but, &c.-Doddr. " Not mine to give, but (to those) for whom," &c. Camp. "I cannot give, unless to those," &c. Dr. Edward Williams, "Not mine to give, except to them (for whom)," &c. Sermons and Charges, p. 124. Ver. 26. Your minister - Gr. deacon, or waiting Christ's public entry] CHAP. XXI. CHAP. XXI. ` [into Jerusalem. be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, 5 Tell ye the daughter of Sion, Behold, thy king cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass. 6 And the disciples went, and did as Jesus commanded them, 7 And brought the ass, and the colt, and put on them their clothes, and they set him thereon. 8 And a very great multitude spread their garments in the way; others cut down branches from the trees and strewed them in the way. 9 And the multitudes that went be EXPOSITION. and tender his sceptre to Christ; or the elders of the Jews come upon their knees, with a submissive proffer of their allegiance, she might have had some reason to entertain the thoughts of a kingdom: but now, while the sound of betraying, suffering, dying, was in her ear, to make account of, and sue for a place in his kingdom, it argues a belief able to triumph over all discouragements." But to come to the petition itself, whether this good woman had heard of the previous contentions for pre-eminence between her sons and their fellow apostles, we are not informed: it should seem, however, that she had some doubt of the propriety of her request, by the language in which she clothes it, "desiring a certain thing" on which the excellent prelate above cited, thus descants: "A certain thing! Speak out, woman; what is this certain thing that thou cravest? How poor and weak is this supplicatory anticipation, to him that knew thy thoughts ere thou utteredst them? (But) we are all in this tune: every one would have something, such, perhaps, as we are ashamed to utter. The proud would have a certain thing, honour; the covetous man a certain thing, wealth; the malicious, revenge; the epicure, pleasure, &c. &c. though we may be ashamed to name openly the direct object of our wishes." He who knew this good woman's thoughts, drew from her the explicit declaration of her wish; which was, to secure for her sons the chief places in the new kingdom. Jesus then addressed her sons; "Ye know not what ye ask." As if he had said, "Simple young men! ye dream only of honour, power, or wealth; but ye are asking for much tribulation, for a martyrdom, and death. Can ye drink of my cup of sufferings? Will ye be content to be baptized with blood?" Alas! vainconfident disciples! they fled before they saw the sight of blood, except from the ear of the high priest's servant. This silly petition, however, exposed the sons of Zebedee to the indignation of the other apostles, and it required wisdom and temper equal to that of their Master to reconcile them. This he does by repeating his favourite lesson on humility, and placing before them his own most instructive example: The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister:" not to be waited upon, but to serve; not to serve only, but to give his life a ransom" for mankind. This dispute seems to have happened at Jericho; in leaving which, two blind men, who were sitting by the way side, addressed our Lord with much importunity, and implored a cure, which he cheerfully granted, notwithstanding some opposition from the multitude who followed Jesus. One only of these, namely Bartimeus, is mentioned by the other evangelists, probably because the most known, and the most importunate; but upon this we shall reserve our remarks till we come to Mark, ch. x. 46. NOTES. CHAP. XXI. Ver. 1. To Bethphage - a small village at the foot of the mount of Olives.And Bethany-the latter is the village" opposite," to which the disciples were sent, and both were very near Jerusalem. Ver.5, Daughter of Sion-that is, all the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Upon an ass and a colt.The prophecy seems to require, and the history to CHAP. XXI. [of the multitude. 11 And the multitude said, This is Jesus the prophet of Nazareth of Galilee. (U) 12 ¶ And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple; and overthrew the tables of the money EXPOSITION. (U) Ver. 1-11. The Lord Jesus rides into Jerusalem on an ass, is hailed by the hosannas of the multitude. To understand the propriety of this conduct in our Saviour, we must turn back to the prophecy of Zechariah (chap. ix. 9), of which we shall find it an exact fulfilment; and consequently, an argument of Christ's divine character and mission. It also forms an honourable close of his public ministry. An eloquent and popular writer thus describes the event: "When this Sun of righteousness arose with healing under his wings, the populace, who lay all neglected and forlorn, benighted with ignorance, and benumbed with vice, saw the light, and hailed the brightness of its rising. Up they sprang, and after him in multitudes, men, women, and children, went. Was he to pass a road, they climbed the trees to see him; yea, the blind sat by the way side to hear him go by. Was he in a house, they unroofed the building to come at him. As if they could never get near enough to hear the soft accents of his voice, they pressed, they crowded, they trod upon one another to surround him. When he retired into the wilderness, they thought him another Moses, and would have made him a king. It was the finest thing they could think of. He, greater than the greatest monarch, despised worldly grandeur; but, to fulfil prophecy, sitting upon a borrowed ass's colt, rode into Jerusalem, the Son of the Highest, and allowed the transported multitude to strew the way with garments and branches, and to arouse the insensible metropolis by acclamations, the very children shouting Hosanna! Hosanna in the highest-Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the Lord!" (Claude, vol. ii. Introd. p. xxxi.) This sort of triumphant entry, a mixture of simplicity and grandeur, roused the whole population of the metropolis; "All the city was moved, saying, Who is this?" WHO? Say you: Ask Moses, and he will tell you, "It is the seed of the woman, that shall break the serpent's head." Ask the patriarch Jacob, and he will reply, "The Shiloh of the tribe of Judah." Ask David, and he shall tell you, "The King of glory." Isaiah proclaims him, "The Prince of peace;" Jeremiah, "the righte ous Branch;" Zechariah, "The King of Zion;" John the Baptist, "The Lamb of God;" and the multitude which followed him say, "This is Jesus, the Prophet of Galilee!" It is evident, from comparing the gospel of John with the other evangelists, that beside the throng which accompanied Jesus from Jericho, another multitude, which had been assembled at Jerusalem from all parts of Judea, to celebrate the Passover, and many also which had witnessed the resurrection of Lazarus, came from Jerusalem to meet Jesus; so that he was surrounded with the greater part of the population of the country. "Let us (now) imagine," says the pious and amiable Doddridge, "that we see the Son of God and the King of Israel thus proceeding towards Jerusalem, and the people meeting him, and surrounding him with their acclamations: Hosanna! Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the Lord! Do not our hearts spring at the sound? Do we not, as it were, in spirit go forth with them, and join in that sublime, but simple song? 'Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the Lord,' with divine authority, and divine blessings in his hands! and blessed be the kingdom he hath erected! May perpetual prosperity attend it!" NOTES-Chap. XXI. Con. Ver. 9. Hosanna! Save now, I beseech-Psalm cxviii. 25. Blessed is he that cometh, &c.— Campbell," Blessed BE," &c. Bp. Chandler remarks, that the prophecy of Zechariah, here referred to, is twice explained in the Talmud, of Messiah. The same learned prelate quotes from a Rabbinical book (Seder Hagada Pesach) the following tradition: That at the Paschal feast a man, who personated the Messiah, bursting open a door, used to ride into the room upon an ass, another following with a horn, to proclaim and anoint him. Hence is supposed to originate the story of the heathen, in the time of Antiochus Epiphanes, finding in the temple the image (or picture) of a man with a long beard, riding on an ass. Chandler's Def. of Christ. p. 103-105. That Zechariah's prophecy was by the Jews understood of Messiah, and could not justly be applied to any other. See Preb. Townsend's N. Test. Arrang. vol. 1. p. 381--384, and Notes. Ver. 12. Into the temple.-Camp. observes, that the word here used for the temple is hieron, not naos; the latter being confined to the sanctuary, The fig-tree] 13 And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves. 14 And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple; and he healed them. 15 And when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying in the temple, and saying, Hosanna to the son of David; they were sore displeased, 16 And said unto him, Hearest thou what these say? and Jesus saith unto them, Yea; have ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise? 17 And he left them and went out of the city into Bethany; and he lodged there. [cursed. 18 Now in the morning as he returned into the city, he hungered. 19 And when he saw a fig tree in the way, he came to it, and found nothing thereon, but leaves only; and said unto it, Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward for ever. And presently the fig tree withered away. 20 And when the disciples saw it, they marvelled, saying, How soon is the fig tree withered away! 21 Jesus answered and said unto them, Verily I say unto you, If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but also if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done. 22 And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer believing, ye shall receive. (X) 23 And when he was come into the EXPOSITION. (X) Ver. 12-22. Jesus cleanses the temple; curses the barren fig-tree; and answers the demand of the chief priests and elders.-When we read of Jesus and his apostles entering the temple, we are neither to understand it of the holy, or the most holy place, which none might enter but the priests; but of the courts of the temple, where only the other tribes were allowed to meet. In the first of these, entering by the east gate, were found these money changers, who supplied those who wanted to purchase sacrifices with change, smaller coin for large; Jewish money for foreign; and advanced money to persons of credit, on their own security. The tables (or counters) of these bankers, Jesus overthrew, and turned out those who sold doves for sacrifice; a class, perhaps, equal to our bird-catchers, or pigeon-fanciers; for they are said to have been men of infamous character, who thereby turned the house of God "into a den of thieves ;" alluding, perhaps, to the caverns of Judea, which were often occupied by thieves and freebooters. That such trafficking was not suited to the house of God, is self-evident; and if they had been expelled and warned two or three years before, it made their offence the more criminal. (See Note, ver. 12.) The mixing up trade with religion, if we are not grossly misinformed, is still the Jewish practice, and bargains of every kind are imingled with their prayers even in some London synagogues; nor is it, alas! peculiar to the Jews, for we fear there is too much trafficking in some Christian synagogues, and that even on the sabbath day! Surely the pecuniary transactions of places of worship ought, as little as possible, to entrench upon the times of public devotion, and especially upon the day devoted to God's name and worship. "There is," says Bp. Hall, “a reverence due to God's house for the Owner's sake; for the service's sake. Secular and profane actions are not (fit) for that sacred NOTES. the former comprehending all the courts of the temple, in the outermost of which (entering from the eastern gate), Jesus found the money changers and the pigeon dealers, who were no better than "a den of thieves." Orient. Cust. Nos. 495. 1198. This appears not to have been the first time of Jesus clearing the temple. See John ii. 16. Ibid. The tables-Hamm. and Doddr. "Seats;" Gr. Kathedra. They were probably seats with desks, or counters, attached to them, somewhat like those in our London corn-markets. Ver. 13. The house - Doddr. and others," An Ver. 16. Have ye never read.-See Ps. viii. 3. The chief priests] S. MATTHEW. temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came unto him as he was teaching, and said, By what authority [question Jesus. doest thou these things? and who gave thee this authority? 24 And Jesus answered and said EXPOSITION-Chap. XXI. Continued. roof..... The fairest pretences cannot Let us attend, however, to the chief priests and scribes who saw "the wonderful things that Jesus did," and heard the wonderful things that the people said, and especially the Hosannas of the children, when pretending to be shocked at their profaneness, they said to him, "Hearest thou what these say?" as if they had been uttering blasphemy; and such, indeed, they construed it to be, for our Lord to ascribe to himself the prophecies respecting the Messiah, though they saw he did the works which none but God and his Christ could do. Instead of censuring his followers, and especially the children, Jesus refers the objectors to another Scripture, which speaks not only of praise, but of strong and perfect praise, as coming from the lips of babes. (Ps. viii. 2.) The simpler are our praises, the more acceptable are they in the sight of God. But the chief priests and scribes were sore displeased." Jesus taught the people, and healed them, at which every humane and benevolent person would have rejoiced. Jesus purified the temple from thieves and robbers, which the priests themselves ought to have done. The multitude, and especially the children, glorified God our Saviour for these displays of his grace and mercy; but with all this, these hypocritical priests and scribes were "sore displeased." One circumstance in this narrative has given great offence to infidels; namely, the animal on which Jesus rode-an ass. The riding upon this creature was characteristic, since patriarchs, judges, and kings of Israel, thus rode; and it was even forbidden to the Jews to cultivate the breed of horses. (See Deut. xvii. 16; Josh. xv. 18; Judges v. 10; 2 Sam. xvi. 2.) cept had been, however, so much neglected, that in the time of our Lord it was certainly a mark of meekness and humility, to ride on this much-injured and despised beast; as, indeed, is intimated in the prediction quoted from Zechariah. This pre Next morning occurred another circumstance, which has been very freely censured by those who have evidently not understood it. Jesus coming to town, from Bethany, in the morning, and being hungry, noticed a fig-tree, which, as it grew on the highway, was public property, and therefore went to it, to look for fruit, but found leaves only, and in consequence pronounced against it a sentence of perpetual barrenness, and it was immediately blight. ed, and withered away! This has been misrepresented, as done in a fit of spleen, or passion; but it was, in fact, a symbolic action, such as we frequently meet with iu the ancient prophets. This tree was a type, or emblem of the Jewish nation, and particularly of the Scribes and Pharisees, who, with the greatest professions of religion (like the green foliage of this fig tree) were utterly barren of good fruit. The malediction pronounced against it, represented the curse of God against the Jews, who, after the preaching both of John and of Christ, were still impious and impenitent; and growing worse and worse, were, in a few years afterwards, cut down by the Roman axe, and thrown into the fire. The speedy withering of this fig-tree having attracted the admiration of the apostles, Jesus (ver. 22) re-inculcates his former doctrine, on the importance of prayer as well as faith, in working miracles. (See chap. xvii. 20; xviii. 19.) " All things, whatsoever ye ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive." A maxim, however, of such importance as to require some consideration before we proceed, and the more so, as commentators in general seem to pass it over very slightly. So far as the passage relates to the faith of working miracles, we have already considered it; but the expression is here so strong and general, that we cannot confine our interpretation to this extraordinary gift: we feel it necessary, however, to guard the passage from abuse. 1. It does not warrant our presumption on things trifling and ridiculous; nor does it warrant us to attempt what we know is impossible to us. The pious author of "The Pilgrim's Progress," when young and inexperienced, was tempted to work a miracle to prove his faith. He states in his own Life, that one day, walking between Elstow and Bedford, it was strongly suggested to him to say to some puddles in the horse road," Be dry;' and to say to the dry places, "Be puddles." But just as he was about to speak, the |