The Pulpit Commentary — Matthew — Volume 1 — Section 433

Vera. 1-42 (see also Mark vi. 7-13; Luke ix. 1-6).-The "commanding" of the twelve. This was a grand historic occasion indeed. The honoured but ever-com- paratively feeble and now dimmed, dying, or dead schools of the prophets are to be succeeded by a scion of Christianity that marks at one and the same time its noblest and most amazing human institution, and Heaven's most condescending gift and human trust. Now begins" the great company of preachers" of the New Testament. They began with twelve; they very soon grew to seventy; and authorized provision was made by him who first called them, and first "gave them commandment" for their indefinite, "innumerable" increase, by the one method of prayer, their prayer to the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into bis "great" harvest. With what sublimest of simplicity is it said in the first verse of the following chapter, "When Jesus had made an end of commanding his twelve disciples" 1 The command- ments were not ten, and, whatever their number, neither were they like those ten master-instructions of the old covenant, and of all time, till time shall end. These commandments breathed the very breath of love, of sympathy, of help. They were charged with trust, and that trust nothing short of Heaven's own-confided trust. The endowments of mighty powers of gift and of grace were enshrined in them. A glorious honour gilded them with deep, rich light. But throughout them, without a break, there mu the "commandment" that meant caution, warning, an ever-present dangerous enemy, thick dangers through which to thread the way. For this necessity, protection and even the very essence of inspiration were the promises vouchsafed. In somo analysis of this" co=anding of his disciples" we notice-- I. FIRST OF ALL, 0HJUBT'S PARAMOUNT AUTHORITY IN REGARD OF THE PERSONS WHOM HE COMllilISSIONS. Once "/.e caUed" them; now "he calls them to him;" lid "sends them forth; " and before they go, 'lid "commands" them, and "'lid gives them power." Of this authority two things must be said, and unhesitatingly. First, that what it seemed and what it was to these original twelve disciples, such it ever bas been since, and still is, toward those who are their true successors, whether they are the successors of such as Peter and John, or of such as Judas Iscariot. Secondly, that the authority in question is one unshared and undivided, e1cept as it is shared and divided, in whatever mysterious way and in whatever unknown proportion, with those very persons themselves, who either first pushed in to volunteer the solemn responsibility, or put themselves in the way to court it and to consent to accept it. 'l'be ordination of Judas Iscariot is not less a fact than that of St. Peter; and so has it likewise travelled down the ages of Christendom to this hour. Before this pheno- menon we justly quail, and just are we dumb; but we cannot deny it. II. CHRIST'S PARAMOUNT AUTHORITY lN RESPECT OF THE PRINCIPLES UPON wmca  i30 'rHE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEW. [oe. x. 1---42.