1 L. A. Banks.
ST. MATTHEW xx. 28 383
with it the process of ransoming was common, when, for a price paid, slaves received their liberty. The Jews had, besides, numerous forms of ransoming peculiar to their own laws and customs. For example, the firstborn male of every household was, in theory, liable to be a priest, but was redeemed by a pay- ment of so many shekels to the actual priesthood, which belonged exclusively to a single tribe. A person whose ox had gored a man to death was in theory guilty of murder, but was released from the liability to expiate his guilt with his life by a payment to the relatives of the dead man. Such cases show clearly what ransoming was : it was the deliverance of a person from some misery or liability through the payment, either by himself or by another on his behalf, of a sum of money or any other equivalent which the person in whose power he was might be willing to accept as a condition of his release. It was a triangular trans- action, involving three parties — first the person to be ransomed, secondly the giver, and thirdly the receiver of the ransom.1
4. His life was a continued ministry. And it was such by its own necessity. Not as though He chose it should be so, as though He debated with Himself whether He would serve His fellow-men or not, go forth to meet persecution and contumely or lead a quiet and peaceful life, speak the truth that was in Him or withhold it ; but simply because there was that in Him which must needs find expression, because feelings so deep and tender must assert themselves, because sympathies so broad and generous cannot confine themselves within the heart, because the great power of blessing or capacity of action is its own incentive to beneficence or action. He would not be ministered to. He saw too many souls about Him to be aided, too many sorrows to be comforted, too many doubts to be answered, too much spiritual darkness to be illumined, for Him to wait for others' ministering. To see such needs was to long to supply them. To feel within Him the power to serve was to put forth that power. To know the truth for which other souls were waiting was to utter it. To minister was the Divine necessity of His being. It was His soul's great pre- rogative, which could not be put aside.
^| Some can be touched by personal sympathy ; they have heart, but they cannot take a comprehensive view and embrace a noble cause — they fail in mind. Others have their imagination 1 J. Stalker, The Christology of Jesus, 179.
384 THE MINISTERING MASTER
fired by a cause, but they cannot sympathize with a wounded heart. We have narrow good men, and we have iron-hearted philanthropists. Christ, takes in the tender heart and compre- hensive thought — the person and the cause — the woman's way of looking at it and the man's. Or take another feature oi it. He sympathizes with Buffering and sorrow — a bruised heart ; and He weeps over sin — a blinded heart. Christianity alone has set these two forth, — it is our glory and our duty — and in One Person ; the tenderness of the human with the comprehensiveness of the Divine.1
5. The virtue of His costliest service extended to all. He says here " a ransom for many." Now that word is not used here in contradistinction to " all," nor in contradistinction to " few." It is distinctly employed as emphasizing the contrast between the single death and the wide extent of its benefits : and in terms which, rigidly taken, simply express indefiniteness, it expresses universality. " Many " is a vague word, and in it we see the dim crowds stretching away beyond vision, for whom that death was to be the means of salvation. The words of the text may have an allusion to words in the great prophecy in the 53rd chapter of Isaiah, in which we read, " By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many ; for he shall bear their iniquities." Calvin says, " The word ' many ' here is not put definitely for a certain number, but for a large number, for the Saviour contrasts Himself with all the rest of mankind." The New Testament meaning of " many " is " all." " Ye are of more value than many sparrows." Surely this means than all the sparrows. " If through the offence of one many be dead " (that is, all be dead), " much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many." " That he (the Son) might be the firstborn among many brethren " — that is, among all the brethren. In the ministry of His life He drew no distinctions ; in the ministry of His death He encompasses the wide world. " He is the propitiation for our sins : and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world." If in His life His ministry was, of necessity, confined within geographical bounds, on His cross He stretched out His hands, mighty to save, to the whole world.