Mark xii. 6. They will reverence my son.
THERE are many passages of Scripture, wherein God speaks of himself as frustrated and disappointed by the conduct of his creatures. We are not how- ever to suppose that events happened really contrary to the purposes he had fixed or the expectations he had formed : for it is certain that " he doeth accord- ing to his will in the armies of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth;" and that "known
unto him are all his works, from the foundation of the world." The truth is, that God speaks after the manner of men, for the sake of accommodating him- self to our low and feeble apprehensions ; and there- fore we must understand his words in a popular sense, without deducing from them all the conclusions which they may appear to warrant.
In the parable before us, he is represented as adopt- ing an expedient, which, humanly speaking, could not fail of success. He had sent many servants to the Jews, in order to obtain from them the fruits of his vineyard : but some of them they had beaten, and others they had killed. " Having therefore One Son, his well-beloved," he determined to send him, judging it impossible, as it were, that they should lift up their hands, or move their tongues against him ; " They will reverence my Son." But in the sequel of the parable we are informed, that, notwithstanding the numerous and solid grounds on which this expectation was formed, their hostility to him was more inveterate than it had been to any who had preceded him ; and their treatment of him was the more cruel on account of the relation he bore to God, and the interest he claimed in the vineyard.
Conforming ourselves to the mode of speaking which God himself has suggested in the text, it will be proper to consider,
I. The grounds of his expectation —
If we were to confine the subject to Christ's recep- tion among the Jews, we should notice the peculiar circumstances of his incarnation, the spotless purity of his character, the multitude of his benevolent and stupendous miracles, and his perfect correspondence with all that had been predicted concerning him. But, that we may bring the subject home to our own bosoms, we shall omit these general topics, which interest us chiefly as proving his Messiahship, and shall notice others which mark more strongly the grounds of a believer's attachment to him.
God then may well expect us to reverence his Son,
k2
m MARK, XII. 6. [1446.
1. On account of the dignity of his person —
[Jesus, though born of a woman, differed infinitely from any other of the human race. He was, in an exalted and appropriate sense, the Son of God ; " his only Son, his well- beloved." He was God as well as man, " God manifest in the flesh." As he was " perfect man, so was he also perfect God, equal with the Father as touching his Godhead, at the same time that he was inferior to the Father as touching his man- hood." Now if God had sent us an angel, or only a worm like ourselves, we ought to reverence him, because the authority of the king is to be acknowledged in his ambassador. But when he sends his co-equal, co-eternal Son, who is " Jehovah's fellow," even " God over all blessed for evermore," ought we not to testify all possible respect for him? Surely when he comes to us in his Gospel, and declares who he is, and whence he came, it becomes us to bow the knee before him, and to welcome him from our inmost souls.]
2. On account of our extreme need of him —
[If we did not need a Saviour, we might disregard the Lord Jesus, on the principle that " the whole need not a phy- sician, but they that are sick." But who amongst us is free from sin ? or who can make compensation to God for his ini- quities? Who can satisfy Divine justice, or avert the wrath which his sins have merited ? If we cannot do these things, and God has sent his only dear Son to do them for us, ought we not to reverence his Son ? Ought we not to receive him with the warmest gratitude and affection ? Suppose that having sent his Son into this world, God were now to send him to the regions below, where millions of our fellow-creatures are enduring the punishment due to their transgressions : Would the unhappy sufferers disregard his offers of mercy as we do ? Would they not throng him on every side, and vie with each other in rending the air with their acclamations and hosannas? Why then should not we do the same? for wherein clo we differ from them, except in this, that we are under a sentence of condemnation, but on them the sentence is already executed ? Surely God may well expect, that we should be as solicitous to escape the wrath we fear, as others would be to obtain deliverance from the wrath they feel.]