Matthew Chapter Twenty-One
Public Entry into Jerusalem, 21:1-11.
(Mark 11:1-11; Luke 19:29-44; John 12:12-19)
1. come to Bethphage.—Bethphage and Bethany were two villages on the eastern slope of the Mount of Olives, so close together that in coming to one Jesus came also to the other. (Comp. Luke 19:29.)
2, 3. The Lord has need of them.—If the owner of the ass and colt had been a stranger to Jesus, it would have been very unsatisfactory to give him as an excuse for taking away the animals, the statement that "The Lord has need of them." But Jesus foreknew both the person whose asses would be found at the designated place, and his willingness to let the disciples bring them to him.
4, 5. spoken by the prophet.—The quotation is from Zech. 9:9, and its context shows clearly that it was written concerning the Messiah. Foreseeing the strange figure of a king riding in triumph into the capital city of his kingdom, not on a richly caparisoned steed and surrounded by pomp and glory, but on the colt of an ass, the last animal which vanity would choose for a grand display, the ass without a bridle and with no saddle but a man's coat thrown across its back, the prophet exclaims, "Behold, thy King cometh to thee meek, sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass."
7. set him thereon.—More accurately, set him on them (ἐπάνω αὐτων). "They put on them their clothes, and they set him on them." The last them must refer to the clothes, for they could not set Jesus on both the animals. They put the garments on both because they knew not which he would ride; but he chose the colt (Verse 5; Mark 11:7.)
8. spread their garments.—The people were wild with delight and admiration. Only the most extravagant state of feeling could prompt them to make a carpet along the mountain path with their garments, and with the soft branches of the palm-tree. (John 12:13.) It was "a very great multitude," and their numbers enabled them to spread this carpet all the way from the mountain top to the gate of the city.
Hosanna.—A Hebrew word whose etymological meaning is, "Save, we pray!" Originally a formula of supplication, it became by usage a formula of gratulation. (Alford.)
10, 11. all the city was moved.—The Mount of Olives, from the top of which the vast multitude escorted Jesus, was about two hundred feet higher than the temple mount, and was separated from it only by the narrow valley of Jehoshaphat; consequently the procession could be seen and the shouts of the people distinctly heard in all parts of the city. To the question on every body's lips," Who is this?" the people exultingly responded, "This is Jesus the prophet, of Nazareth of Galilee."
The Temple Cleared, and the Praises of Children, 12-16.
(Mark 11:15-19; Luke 19:45-48)
12. sold and bought.—There was general traffic going on besides that of the money-changers and the dealers in doves. The excuse for allowing doves to be sold and money to be changed there, was that this was an accommodation to the poor, whose offerings consisted largely in doves, and who needed small change for their contributions. The admission of these traffickers opened the way for the others.
13. It is written.—"My house shall be called a house of prayer," are quoted from Isaiah 56:7; and some have supposed that the words, "ye have made it a den of thieves," are taken from Jeremiah 7:11, where a similar expression occurs. I prefer to regard the latter as the words of Jesus. The expression "den of thieves" is a hyperbole to indicate the dishonesty with which their sacrilegious traffic was conducted.
This clearing of the temple must not be confounded with that mentioned in John 2:13-18, for the details are quite different, and the latter occurred during the first visit of Jesus to Jerusalem, while the one in our text occurred during his last visit. It is useless to conjecture what would have been the consequences on either of these occasions, had the traders refused to move at his bidding, for he knew before he began his demonstration against them that they would move. He is now in his Father's house, where his authority is most appropriately exercised, and where even Cæsar could not assume to be his rival.
14. the blind and the lame.—The high authority which Jesus assumed in—the temple was supported by the miracles which he there performed. It was no longer in the obscure towns and the desert places of Galilee that his power to heal was displayed, but in Jerusalem, in the court of the temple, and surrounded by his bitterest foes.
15. sore displeased.—The chief priests and scribes were offended by the authority which Jesus assumed in regard to the traders in the temple, and by the unfavorable reflection on their own toleration of this traffic implied in his suppression of it. His triumphant vindication of his act, both by the manifest righteousness of it and by the "wonderful things which he did," and the praises of the children, who now caught up the Hosanna which had been dropped by the multitude, increased their irritation, and roused them up to an expression of it.
16. hast perfected praise.—It was both the thought which the children uttered, declaring Jesus to be the Son of David, and the noise which they were making in the temple, which displeased the priests and scribes. They claimed that his zeal for good order in the temple demanded a suppression of this noisy outcry. But they were as greatly mistaken in wishing to suppress the Hosannas of the children as they had been in not suppressing the traffic of the dove-sellers and the money-changers. The outcries of these children was the perfection of praise, and therefore the most appropriate of all places for it was the temple. It was the perfection of praise, because, being an irrepressible outburst of admiration in the midst of solemnities which were likely to overawe the children, and under the frown of the priests which would ordinarily frighten them into silence, it was the strongest attestation to the completeness of his triumph. The quotation is made with a slight variation from Psalm 8:2.
The Barren Fig-tree, 17-22.
(Mark 11:12-14)
17. Bethany.—A village on the eastern slope of the Mount of Olives, the home of Martha and Mary, and of Lazarus whom Jesus had recently raised from the dead. (John 12:1.) Here Jesus spent the nights of this last week of his life. (Luke 21:37, 38.)
18. he hungered.—He was going to the temple, as was customary, early in the morning, before the morning meal; hence the hunger.
19. the fig-tree withered.—The incident is more accurately narrated and its significance made more apparent by Mark. (See the notes, Mark 11:12-14, 20-26.)
20. they marveled.—Every miracle affecting a new department of nature, filled the disciples with fresh surprise. They had seen miracles wrought on the human body, on demons, on the winds and the waves, on bread and flesh; but they had not until now seen one that took effect on a tree. Their surprise, though by no means philosophical, was not unnatural.
21. ye shall not only.—It is not necessarily implied that they would actually wither fig-trees and remove mountains, but that they should do miracles equally surprising with these. On the nature of the faith necessary to such miracles, see the note, Mark 11:23.
22. whatsoever ye shall ask.—This, like all the other promises to answer prayer, is limited by the conditions laid down in the Scriptures. (See the note on 7:7, 8.)
Argument of Section 2
In this section we have two more exhibitions of the foreknowledge of Jesus: one in the minute prophetic description of his own condemnation and death, and the other in the prediction concerning the cup which James and John were yet to drink on account of his name. These were predicted by him in terms which prove that he foresaw them as clearly as they were seen by his disciples when they transpired.
The section also presents two more physical miracles, in one of which is displayed his compassion toward the unfortunate, and in the other, his wrath against the hypocritical. The bright eyes of the recently blind, and the active movements of the recently lame, attest the former, while the withered leaves falling from the barren fig-tree in spring time attest the latter.
Resides the double proofs of miraculous power, the section brings to view a multitude of people who had witnessed miracles previously wrought, and who proclaimed his praise with an extravagance approaching to wildness, while he, as if unconscious of the kingly honors conferred on him, sat meekly on the back of an ass colt and thus rode into the holy city. Who can contemplate this unparalleled combination of facts without exclaiming, with the exultant multitude and the irrepressible children, "Hosanna to the son of David?"
Disputations in the Temple, 21:23-22:46
His Authority Demanded, 23-27.
(Mark 11:27-33; Luke 20:1-8)
23. By what authority.—What authority to cast out the traders, as he had done on the previous day, to teach, and to allow himself to be called the Son of David. As he was neither a priest nor a civil ruler, and had not been commissioned either by Cæsar or the Sanhedrim, they denied that he had rightful claim to the authority which he exercised.
24, 25. I will ask you.—It was absurd and impertinent to ask him for his authority when his miracles had given an unmistakable answer; consequently his reply was not an attempt to enlighten them, but to expose their folly. They had often tried to place him in a dilemma, and had never succeeded; he sometimes tried the same with them, and never failed. He does so on this occasion by asking them the source of authority for John's baptism.
25-27. We can not tell.—They were forced either to tell a lie, which they did, or to acknowledge the fact that John's baptism was from heaven. Had they made this acknowledgment they foresaw that he would demand of them, "Why then, did you not believe him" (verse 25), which means not merely, Why did you not believe in John as a prophet, but, Why did you not believe what be said about me? This second question was the one they dreaded; so, fearing to offend the people by saying that John's baptism was of men, they fell upon the false and foolish alternative, "We can not tell." The response of Jesus, "Neither tell I you by what authority I do these things," exposed their hypocrisy and at the same time made it very apparent to the people that his authority was the same as John's.
Parable of the Two Sons, 28-32
28-31. Whether of them twain.—An obsolete form of expression for Which of the two. Neither of them did in full the will of his father, but, leaving out of view the improper answer of the first, and looking only at his subsequent conduct, it was correctly answered that he did his father's will.
31. publicans and harlots... before you.—Here the conduct of the publicans and harlots as a class is declared to correspond with that of the first son, and that of the chief priests and elders (verse 23) to the conduct of the second son. The assertion that they "go into the kingdom of God before you," does not mean that either party had already gone into the kingdom of God, but it declares the direction in which they were moving, and points to the result soon to be attained. The publicans and harlots had made one step in that direction by believing in John (verse 32), while the priests and elders had not gone so far as that. The rebuke was a stinging one on account of the contempt with which publicans and harlots were regarded by the priests and elders, and the great disparity which had formerly existed between the two classes.
32. For John came.—The precedence declared in favor of the publicans and harlots had reference, not to their reception of Jesus, but to their regard for John. Previous to John's coming these wicked characters had been like the first son, saying, "I will not," making no pretense of obedience to God, while the priests and elders had been like the second son, saying, "I go, Sir," making great professions of respect and obedience. But when John came and by his preaching put both parties to the test, the latter "believed him not," made no change in their conduct; but the former "believed him," giving up their evil practices, confessing their sins, and being baptized for the remission of gins. (3:6; Mark 1:4.)
repented not.—The word translated repented here and in verse 29, is not melanoeo the one usually so rendered, but metamelomai. The former expresses a change of thought or purpose, the latter a change of feeling. The latter is used in the case of Judas (27:3), who did not repent as sinners are required to repent, though he experienced regret even to the degree of remorse. Regret is its best English representative, and by this term Mr. Green renders it throughout his Two-fold New Testament. The first son and the publicans and harlots did experience a change of purpose as well as a change of feeling; but the change of feeling only is expressed in the word, while the change of purpose is ascertained only by its being implied in their subsequent action.
that ye might believe.—In the statement ye "repented not afterward, that ye might believe him," the dependence of their belief on previous regret is clearly assumed. The nature of the dependence is made apparent by the following considerations. When John first came "in the way of righteousness," the chief priests and elders, after a formal inquiry as to who he was, rejected him. (John 1:19-25; Luke 7:30.) Afterward, when they saw the wonderful effect of his preaching on the lives of the publicans and harlots, they should have regretted the inconsiderate manner in which they had rejected him; and this regret, had they felt it, would have caused them to re-examine his claims, and, as a consequence, to become believers in him. Their belief depended on regret as one of its remote causes, and so does the belief of all persons in analogous circumstances.
Parable of the Wicked Husbandmen, 33-46.
(Mark 12:1-12; Luke 20:9-19)
33. digged a winepress.—The winepresses of the ancients were literally dug, for they consisted in an excavation in the solid rock a foot or two in depth and several feet square. The grapes were thrown into these excavations and mashed by young men tramping them with their feet. Another excavation lower down the hill side, whose top was on a level with the bottom of the press, received the juice as it ran from the mashed grapes through an orifice provided for the purpose. Robinson describes one of these presses which he saw in Judea whose dimensions were eight feet square by fifteen inches deep, with a vat for the juice four feet square and three feet deep. This method of expressing the juice is frequently alluded to in the Scriptures. (Neh. 13:15; Lam. 1:15; Isa. 63:2, 3; Jer. 48:33 et al.)
built a tower.—The Jews lived in cities and villages, knowing nothing of the farm life so common in America. They went to their fields in the morning and returned at night, except in times of harvest and vintage, when they sometimes slept in the fields. (see Ruth 3:1-7.) This tower was built for protection at such times, and also for the purpose of guarding the vineyard when necessary. (Comp. Isa. 5:1-7.)
41. They say unto him.—By pausing at this point and asking his hearers what should be done with those husbandmen, Jesus made them pronounce judgment before they saw the drift of the parable, and then in the conclusion (43) he showed them that they had pronounced judgment against themselves.
42. The stone.—By a singular irregularity of arrangement Jesus here interrupts the progress of the parable to introduce the figure of the rejected cornerstone; then, in the next verse, he makes the application of the parable; and finally, at verse 44, he returns to the figure of the stone. In the figure of the rejected cornerstone, the chief priests and Pharisees are represented as trying to build the walls of a house, but being unable to fit the stones at the corner because they rejected the only stone that was cut for that place. They were guilty of this folly in rejecting Jesus while trying to construct a conception of the kingdom of God.
43. Therefore say I.—This verse contains the application of the parable, and the key to its interpretation. The vineyard represents all of the religious privileges granted to the Jews who are the husbandmen, from the beginning of their history until the kingdom itself was offered to them by Jesus and afterward by the apostles. The prophets, from Samuel down to John, are the messengers sent to demand the fruits of righteousness; the son who was sent last is Jesus; the destruction of the husbandmen is the final destruction of the Jewish nationality; and the transfer of the vineyard to other husbandmen, the transfer of the kingdom of heaven to the Gentiles. The kingdom of heaven was chiefly Jewish before the destruction of Jerusalem, but it became, after that event, almost exclusively Gentile, both in its membership and in the predominant characteristics of its membership; and thus it was taken away from the Jews and given to a nation which would bring forth the fruits thereof.
44. shall fall on this stone.—Here the rejected cornerstone is again brought into view (verse 42), and a person represented as falling on it and being "broken;" that is, breaking some of his limbs. As Jesus is the stone, falling on it is coming into conflict with him; and being broken represents the injury which persons who thus fall will sustain. Jesus warned John the Baptist against this when he said to him, "Blessed is he who shall not be offended in me." (11:6.)
on whomsoever it shall fall.—The falling of this cornerstone upon a person evidently symbolizes the bringing of Christ's power to bear against the person. Such a person, like a small stone ground to powder by the fall of a large one, shall be utterly crushed and ruined forever. The Pharisees were then being broken; they were yet to be ground to powder.
45, 46. they perceived.—It was easy for them to perceive that both of the parables were spoken against themselves; and though they can not have fully comprehended the import of either, they saw enough to enrage them, and but for the people they would have laid hands on him.
The New Testament Commentary: Vol. I - Matthew and Mark.
(Mark 11:1-11; Luke 19:29-44; John 12:12-19)
1. come to Bethphage.—Bethphage and Bethany were two villages on the eastern slope of the Mount of Olives, so close together that in coming to one Jesus came also to the other. (Comp. Luke 19:29.)
2, 3. The Lord has need of them.—If the owner of the ass and colt had been a stranger to Jesus, it would have been very unsatisfactory to give him as an excuse for taking away the animals, the statement that "The Lord has need of them." But Jesus foreknew both the person whose asses would be found at the designated place, and his willingness to let the disciples bring them to him.
4, 5. spoken by the prophet.—The quotation is from Zech. 9:9, and its context shows clearly that it was written concerning the Messiah. Foreseeing the strange figure of a king riding in triumph into the capital city of his kingdom, not on a richly caparisoned steed and surrounded by pomp and glory, but on the colt of an ass, the last animal which vanity would choose for a grand display, the ass without a bridle and with no saddle but a man's coat thrown across its back, the prophet exclaims, "Behold, thy King cometh to thee meek, sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass."
7. set him thereon.—More accurately, set him on them (ἐπάνω αὐτων). "They put on them their clothes, and they set him on them." The last them must refer to the clothes, for they could not set Jesus on both the animals. They put the garments on both because they knew not which he would ride; but he chose the colt (Verse 5; Mark 11:7.)
8. spread their garments.—The people were wild with delight and admiration. Only the most extravagant state of feeling could prompt them to make a carpet along the mountain path with their garments, and with the soft branches of the palm-tree. (John 12:13.) It was "a very great multitude," and their numbers enabled them to spread this carpet all the way from the mountain top to the gate of the city.
Hosanna.—A Hebrew word whose etymological meaning is, "Save, we pray!" Originally a formula of supplication, it became by usage a formula of gratulation. (Alford.)
10, 11. all the city was moved.—The Mount of Olives, from the top of which the vast multitude escorted Jesus, was about two hundred feet higher than the temple mount, and was separated from it only by the narrow valley of Jehoshaphat; consequently the procession could be seen and the shouts of the people distinctly heard in all parts of the city. To the question on every body's lips," Who is this?" the people exultingly responded, "This is Jesus the prophet, of Nazareth of Galilee."
The Temple Cleared, and the Praises of Children, 12-16.
(Mark 11:15-19; Luke 19:45-48)
12. sold and bought.—There was general traffic going on besides that of the money-changers and the dealers in doves. The excuse for allowing doves to be sold and money to be changed there, was that this was an accommodation to the poor, whose offerings consisted largely in doves, and who needed small change for their contributions. The admission of these traffickers opened the way for the others.
13. It is written.—"My house shall be called a house of prayer," are quoted from Isaiah 56:7; and some have supposed that the words, "ye have made it a den of thieves," are taken from Jeremiah 7:11, where a similar expression occurs. I prefer to regard the latter as the words of Jesus. The expression "den of thieves" is a hyperbole to indicate the dishonesty with which their sacrilegious traffic was conducted.
This clearing of the temple must not be confounded with that mentioned in John 2:13-18, for the details are quite different, and the latter occurred during the first visit of Jesus to Jerusalem, while the one in our text occurred during his last visit. It is useless to conjecture what would have been the consequences on either of these occasions, had the traders refused to move at his bidding, for he knew before he began his demonstration against them that they would move. He is now in his Father's house, where his authority is most appropriately exercised, and where even Cæsar could not assume to be his rival.
14. the blind and the lame.—The high authority which Jesus assumed in—the temple was supported by the miracles which he there performed. It was no longer in the obscure towns and the desert places of Galilee that his power to heal was displayed, but in Jerusalem, in the court of the temple, and surrounded by his bitterest foes.
15. sore displeased.—The chief priests and scribes were offended by the authority which Jesus assumed in regard to the traders in the temple, and by the unfavorable reflection on their own toleration of this traffic implied in his suppression of it. His triumphant vindication of his act, both by the manifest righteousness of it and by the "wonderful things which he did," and the praises of the children, who now caught up the Hosanna which had been dropped by the multitude, increased their irritation, and roused them up to an expression of it.
16. hast perfected praise.—It was both the thought which the children uttered, declaring Jesus to be the Son of David, and the noise which they were making in the temple, which displeased the priests and scribes. They claimed that his zeal for good order in the temple demanded a suppression of this noisy outcry. But they were as greatly mistaken in wishing to suppress the Hosannas of the children as they had been in not suppressing the traffic of the dove-sellers and the money-changers. The outcries of these children was the perfection of praise, and therefore the most appropriate of all places for it was the temple. It was the perfection of praise, because, being an irrepressible outburst of admiration in the midst of solemnities which were likely to overawe the children, and under the frown of the priests which would ordinarily frighten them into silence, it was the strongest attestation to the completeness of his triumph. The quotation is made with a slight variation from Psalm 8:2.
The Barren Fig-tree, 17-22.
(Mark 11:12-14)
17. Bethany.—A village on the eastern slope of the Mount of Olives, the home of Martha and Mary, and of Lazarus whom Jesus had recently raised from the dead. (John 12:1.) Here Jesus spent the nights of this last week of his life. (Luke 21:37, 38.)
18. he hungered.—He was going to the temple, as was customary, early in the morning, before the morning meal; hence the hunger.
19. the fig-tree withered.—The incident is more accurately narrated and its significance made more apparent by Mark. (See the notes, Mark 11:12-14, 20-26.)
20. they marveled.—Every miracle affecting a new department of nature, filled the disciples with fresh surprise. They had seen miracles wrought on the human body, on demons, on the winds and the waves, on bread and flesh; but they had not until now seen one that took effect on a tree. Their surprise, though by no means philosophical, was not unnatural.
21. ye shall not only.—It is not necessarily implied that they would actually wither fig-trees and remove mountains, but that they should do miracles equally surprising with these. On the nature of the faith necessary to such miracles, see the note, Mark 11:23.
22. whatsoever ye shall ask.—This, like all the other promises to answer prayer, is limited by the conditions laid down in the Scriptures. (See the note on 7:7, 8.)
Argument of Section 2
In this section we have two more exhibitions of the foreknowledge of Jesus: one in the minute prophetic description of his own condemnation and death, and the other in the prediction concerning the cup which James and John were yet to drink on account of his name. These were predicted by him in terms which prove that he foresaw them as clearly as they were seen by his disciples when they transpired.
The section also presents two more physical miracles, in one of which is displayed his compassion toward the unfortunate, and in the other, his wrath against the hypocritical. The bright eyes of the recently blind, and the active movements of the recently lame, attest the former, while the withered leaves falling from the barren fig-tree in spring time attest the latter.
Resides the double proofs of miraculous power, the section brings to view a multitude of people who had witnessed miracles previously wrought, and who proclaimed his praise with an extravagance approaching to wildness, while he, as if unconscious of the kingly honors conferred on him, sat meekly on the back of an ass colt and thus rode into the holy city. Who can contemplate this unparalleled combination of facts without exclaiming, with the exultant multitude and the irrepressible children, "Hosanna to the son of David?"
Disputations in the Temple, 21:23-22:46
His Authority Demanded, 23-27.
(Mark 11:27-33; Luke 20:1-8)
23. By what authority.—What authority to cast out the traders, as he had done on the previous day, to teach, and to allow himself to be called the Son of David. As he was neither a priest nor a civil ruler, and had not been commissioned either by Cæsar or the Sanhedrim, they denied that he had rightful claim to the authority which he exercised.
24, 25. I will ask you.—It was absurd and impertinent to ask him for his authority when his miracles had given an unmistakable answer; consequently his reply was not an attempt to enlighten them, but to expose their folly. They had often tried to place him in a dilemma, and had never succeeded; he sometimes tried the same with them, and never failed. He does so on this occasion by asking them the source of authority for John's baptism.
25-27. We can not tell.—They were forced either to tell a lie, which they did, or to acknowledge the fact that John's baptism was from heaven. Had they made this acknowledgment they foresaw that he would demand of them, "Why then, did you not believe him" (verse 25), which means not merely, Why did you not believe in John as a prophet, but, Why did you not believe what be said about me? This second question was the one they dreaded; so, fearing to offend the people by saying that John's baptism was of men, they fell upon the false and foolish alternative, "We can not tell." The response of Jesus, "Neither tell I you by what authority I do these things," exposed their hypocrisy and at the same time made it very apparent to the people that his authority was the same as John's.
Parable of the Two Sons, 28-32
28-31. Whether of them twain.—An obsolete form of expression for Which of the two. Neither of them did in full the will of his father, but, leaving out of view the improper answer of the first, and looking only at his subsequent conduct, it was correctly answered that he did his father's will.
31. publicans and harlots... before you.—Here the conduct of the publicans and harlots as a class is declared to correspond with that of the first son, and that of the chief priests and elders (verse 23) to the conduct of the second son. The assertion that they "go into the kingdom of God before you," does not mean that either party had already gone into the kingdom of God, but it declares the direction in which they were moving, and points to the result soon to be attained. The publicans and harlots had made one step in that direction by believing in John (verse 32), while the priests and elders had not gone so far as that. The rebuke was a stinging one on account of the contempt with which publicans and harlots were regarded by the priests and elders, and the great disparity which had formerly existed between the two classes.
32. For John came.—The precedence declared in favor of the publicans and harlots had reference, not to their reception of Jesus, but to their regard for John. Previous to John's coming these wicked characters had been like the first son, saying, "I will not," making no pretense of obedience to God, while the priests and elders had been like the second son, saying, "I go, Sir," making great professions of respect and obedience. But when John came and by his preaching put both parties to the test, the latter "believed him not," made no change in their conduct; but the former "believed him," giving up their evil practices, confessing their sins, and being baptized for the remission of gins. (3:6; Mark 1:4.)
repented not.—The word translated repented here and in verse 29, is not melanoeo the one usually so rendered, but metamelomai. The former expresses a change of thought or purpose, the latter a change of feeling. The latter is used in the case of Judas (27:3), who did not repent as sinners are required to repent, though he experienced regret even to the degree of remorse. Regret is its best English representative, and by this term Mr. Green renders it throughout his Two-fold New Testament. The first son and the publicans and harlots did experience a change of purpose as well as a change of feeling; but the change of feeling only is expressed in the word, while the change of purpose is ascertained only by its being implied in their subsequent action.
that ye might believe.—In the statement ye "repented not afterward, that ye might believe him," the dependence of their belief on previous regret is clearly assumed. The nature of the dependence is made apparent by the following considerations. When John first came "in the way of righteousness," the chief priests and elders, after a formal inquiry as to who he was, rejected him. (John 1:19-25; Luke 7:30.) Afterward, when they saw the wonderful effect of his preaching on the lives of the publicans and harlots, they should have regretted the inconsiderate manner in which they had rejected him; and this regret, had they felt it, would have caused them to re-examine his claims, and, as a consequence, to become believers in him. Their belief depended on regret as one of its remote causes, and so does the belief of all persons in analogous circumstances.
Parable of the Wicked Husbandmen, 33-46.
(Mark 12:1-12; Luke 20:9-19)
33. digged a winepress.—The winepresses of the ancients were literally dug, for they consisted in an excavation in the solid rock a foot or two in depth and several feet square. The grapes were thrown into these excavations and mashed by young men tramping them with their feet. Another excavation lower down the hill side, whose top was on a level with the bottom of the press, received the juice as it ran from the mashed grapes through an orifice provided for the purpose. Robinson describes one of these presses which he saw in Judea whose dimensions were eight feet square by fifteen inches deep, with a vat for the juice four feet square and three feet deep. This method of expressing the juice is frequently alluded to in the Scriptures. (Neh. 13:15; Lam. 1:15; Isa. 63:2, 3; Jer. 48:33 et al.)
built a tower.—The Jews lived in cities and villages, knowing nothing of the farm life so common in America. They went to their fields in the morning and returned at night, except in times of harvest and vintage, when they sometimes slept in the fields. (see Ruth 3:1-7.) This tower was built for protection at such times, and also for the purpose of guarding the vineyard when necessary. (Comp. Isa. 5:1-7.)
41. They say unto him.—By pausing at this point and asking his hearers what should be done with those husbandmen, Jesus made them pronounce judgment before they saw the drift of the parable, and then in the conclusion (43) he showed them that they had pronounced judgment against themselves.
42. The stone.—By a singular irregularity of arrangement Jesus here interrupts the progress of the parable to introduce the figure of the rejected cornerstone; then, in the next verse, he makes the application of the parable; and finally, at verse 44, he returns to the figure of the stone. In the figure of the rejected cornerstone, the chief priests and Pharisees are represented as trying to build the walls of a house, but being unable to fit the stones at the corner because they rejected the only stone that was cut for that place. They were guilty of this folly in rejecting Jesus while trying to construct a conception of the kingdom of God.
43. Therefore say I.—This verse contains the application of the parable, and the key to its interpretation. The vineyard represents all of the religious privileges granted to the Jews who are the husbandmen, from the beginning of their history until the kingdom itself was offered to them by Jesus and afterward by the apostles. The prophets, from Samuel down to John, are the messengers sent to demand the fruits of righteousness; the son who was sent last is Jesus; the destruction of the husbandmen is the final destruction of the Jewish nationality; and the transfer of the vineyard to other husbandmen, the transfer of the kingdom of heaven to the Gentiles. The kingdom of heaven was chiefly Jewish before the destruction of Jerusalem, but it became, after that event, almost exclusively Gentile, both in its membership and in the predominant characteristics of its membership; and thus it was taken away from the Jews and given to a nation which would bring forth the fruits thereof.
44. shall fall on this stone.—Here the rejected cornerstone is again brought into view (verse 42), and a person represented as falling on it and being "broken;" that is, breaking some of his limbs. As Jesus is the stone, falling on it is coming into conflict with him; and being broken represents the injury which persons who thus fall will sustain. Jesus warned John the Baptist against this when he said to him, "Blessed is he who shall not be offended in me." (11:6.)
on whomsoever it shall fall.—The falling of this cornerstone upon a person evidently symbolizes the bringing of Christ's power to bear against the person. Such a person, like a small stone ground to powder by the fall of a large one, shall be utterly crushed and ruined forever. The Pharisees were then being broken; they were yet to be ground to powder.
45, 46. they perceived.—It was easy for them to perceive that both of the parables were spoken against themselves; and though they can not have fully comprehended the import of either, they saw enough to enrage them, and but for the people they would have laid hands on him.
The New Testament Commentary: Vol. I - Matthew and Mark.