III. THE MANIFESTATION AND REJECTION OF THE KING. (Chap, 8:-12:)
I. The signs of His presence (viii, 9:34). The character of His kingdom being thus announced, the next two chapters give at full length the signs which show the presence of the Deliverer and King. And here again at the outset, in two typical cases, is exhibited His rejection by Israel and His reception by the Gentiles.
The leper, an Israelite, but whose place was forfeited (as theirs had been,) by his condition, is the significant representative of his nation. The Lord heals him by touch, as One locally present for man's need, sending the healed man to the priest, as Jehovah's ministers to certify the cure,-the witness of Jehovah's presence among them,-for a testimony to the people. To this there is no response ; but then a Gentile, the centurion, appears, whose faith, going beyond any in Israel, accredits Him with power to heal, not merely present, but absent, by His word. This is characteristically the faith of the present dispensation, and the Lord announces thereupon the nations coming and sitting down in the kingdom with the heirs of promise, while the children of the kingdom should be cast out. These two cases seem preliminary to the general account which follows of the signs which certify His power and title in the midst of the people.
We find Him, therefore, again healing by touch, in the case of Peter's wife's mother, and in the evening casting out devils by His word, and healing all the sick; fulfilling Isaiah's prophecy with a sympathetic love manifested in power for all who came. Multitudes thus come about Him, but not really to follow; and he who would do so must follow Him as One without where to lay His head. None the less is His claim to absolute obedience, nor His power to secure those who follow Him amid whatever opposition. This the storm on the Sea of Galilee bears witness of, where He is at first not actively present, but asleep. Finally, roused by their unbelieving entreaties, (how much unbelief is often expressed by our prayers!) He interferes for them, and the winds and waves subside at His word. In general, for us now, the character of power expressed for us is that which kept them while He was asleep. At His active interference when presently He shall wake up, all the fury of the storm shall cease.
This seems to me, then, parenthetical, not part of His self-manifestation in the midst of Israel, which is resumed on the other side of the sea. Here the power of the enemy is met, demonstrated, and foiled with ease. Man's terrible captor is compelled to give up his prey. Alas! the people, more alarmed at the presence of Jesus than of the devil, beseech Him to depart, and He departs. Then, in His own city, He reaches down to the deepest need of all, the sin which is at the bottom of man's helpless misery and subjection to the evil one, and He works a miracle to give them suitable proof that " the Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins." But here it is in answer to the accusation, "This man blasphemeth." Thus, the more He manifests Himself, and although in blessing, the more manifest is His rejection at the hands of men.
But it only compels Him, as it were, to openly declare His grace. He calls a publican to follow Him, as the witness of it, and sits down in his house with publicans and sinners. He declares Himself come to call these, not as the law which required righteousness. In truth, not only were they ignorant of who was in their midst, and strangers to the joy of the Bridegroom's presence, but would have the true righteousness He came to give merely made a patch for the holes in the rags of man's own legal one. The new wine of His grace must be put in other than the old skins of the law.
Again, most beautifully, a dispensational picture follows here. Israel, while He is on the way to heal her, is in fact discovered to be dead, as is Jairus' daughter. For Israel also He has therefore to go beyond a law which could not give life. But then upon that principle (as Rom. 3:29, 30,) God, if dealing in grace, could come in for need where-ever found, and faith could be welcomed freely to avail itself of the power in Christ. This brings in the Gentiles, who find their figure in the poor woman healed, in fact before Jairus' daughter. Yet she is raised up also, as Israel will be, in the power and grace of Him in whom alone, after all, her hope is.
Having vindicated thus His title as Son of God, (for resurrection marks Him out as this with power for man, Rom. 1:4,) He can appear as Son of David; for this title, as we have seen, He can only take as connected with the other. The blind men own Him as this, although they are forbidden, because He is really rejected, to spread His fame as. such. The dumb man who speaks when the devil is cast out seems, again, a picture of what caused the nation's silence when they should have hailed their King. But the Pharisees consummate their wickedness by imputing to Beelzebub His miracles of power and grace.
2. The messengers of the King (chap. 9:35-10:). The Lord's pity for the scattered sheep now makes Him send forth messengers throughout Israel. The testimony is distinctly for them, not to Samaria or the Gentiles, and "powers of the world to come " still attest the coming kingdom. It is a testimony which, while in abeyance during the present dispersion of Israel, will be taken up again after the Church is removed to heaven, and not completed until the Son of Man be come again (10:23). This final testimony will be above all in the face of trials and persecutions of the severest kind; but the Lord is with His messengers, to reward or punish those who, in them, receive or reject Himself:-a principle applied to the Gentiles in chap. 25:31-49, among whom a similar testimony will be given at the same time.
3. Rejected, yet grace lingering and inviting (chap. 11:). We have now the direct witness of His grace in spite of opposition and rejection. Even the Baptist seems to waver, while the people in general had rejected both John's testimony, coming in the way of righteousness, and the Lord's in grace. Wisdom has found her children only among publicans and sinners; and the cities privileged to behold His mighty works, have only used the opportunity to increase their judgment beyond that of Canaan or of Sodom.
Yet His heart rests. It is right that from the wise and prudent of this world should be hidden what the Father reveals to babes. What wisdom of man merely could pierce the mystery of the Son incarnate ? Yet into His hands the Father had given every thing, and by Him alone could the Father be revealed. Let those laboring and burdened come to Him, and He would give them rest; and learning of Him who, with all the glory of His person, trod Himself in meekness the path of obedience, they would find rest in taking the yoke He gave; for His yoke was easy, His burden light.
4. The rejection of the nation for the rejection of Him (chap. 12:). Now the guilt of that generation is summed up, and their doom pronounced. The Lord shows them that the Sabbath, the sign of God's covenant existing with them as His people, is gone for those who had broken the covenant, and lost the place of relationship with God. David being rejected, God's link with the people in his day, the holy things ceased to be such, so that his followers could partake of the holy bread. On the other hand, in the service of the temple, the priests could without blame infringe the ordinance of the Sabbath. Mercy more than sacrifice was God's own mind; and the Son of Man, greater than David or the temple, was Lord of the Sabbath day.
In the synagogue the same question arises, and the Lord convicts them of the heartlessness of their opposition to divine grace. The Pharisees seek to destroy Him. Again, the blind and dumb, made so by Satan's tenancy, bears witness to the Son of David, and again the Pharisees utter their awful blasphemy. The Lord exposes their folly and warns them as to the result of blaspheming the Holy Ghost. The bad fruit showed the whole tree bad, even the idle words for which men must give account in the day of judgment.
Finally, when they seek a sign, He tells them they shall have none but that of Jonah. Jonah, after three days and nights in the whale's belly, had appeared at Nineveh with the word of judgment. The Son of Man, rejected, and three days in the grave, would be in His day a similar sign of judgment to His rejecters (comp. chap. 24:30). The external reformation which had taken place on their return from Babylon, when the unclean spirit of idolatry had left his house, would not avail; the house was empty still, and he would return with seven other spirits worse than himself, and take possession (comp. chap. 24:15, and 2 Thess. 2:4).
The Lord closes with the solemn breaking of all fleshly ties. It was He who should do the will of His Father in heaven whom alone He could now recognize as in relation to Himself. This is a principle of Christianity, and prepares the way for that view of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven,-the kingdom during the rejection and absence of the King, which the next section of the book discloses to us.