The Pulpit Commentary — Matthew — Volume 1 — Section 482

force of their gravitation, and the aberration of certain neighbouring bodies, It was first shov.n that they must be there, and then it was found that they were there . .1. Tbe miracles were a necessary part of Christ's mission. He was both Redeemer from sin and Giver of life. His was really a spiritual work; not, therefore, immediately apparent to human vision. He must, in some outward palpable form, illustrate his higher work. He did the outward work of healing bodily disease and driving out evil spirits that he might lead men to look to him for 1piritual healiogs and redeemings. 2. The miracles w_ere also a necessary part of Christ's revelation. He had a -mission, and was a revelation. The Father-God was set before men in Jesus Christ. Ho was "God manifest in the flesh." Christ's character must show men what the Father is • and Christ's works-his miracles-must show men what the Father does.~R.- T. ' Ver. S.-'I'Mway to deal with O'Ur doubts. Whether the doubts were John's own or such as be knew disturbed the minds of his disciples, he certainly took the wisest ~nd most hopeful way in which to secure their removal. If a man is an intelligent man he is sure to have doubts; doubts come in the process of thinking; but everything depends on the way in which a man deals with his doubts. He may foster them; he may indulge them; or he may make earnest effort to secure their removal. He may keep them to himself, and grow proud of them ; or he may take them to Jesus, and get them solved and dissipated. I. JOHN DEALING WITH ms OWN DOUllTS. 1. Thinking them over in his own heart. It is certain that John bad occasional glimpses, at least, of the higher and more spiritual aspects of Messiah's mission ; but it is equally certain that he never shook himself quite free from those temporal notions of Messiah which were the characteristic of his age. The teaching and healing, and the very gentle ways, of Jesus, did not at all match the idea of Messiah which he had formed. The Jewish nation was not likely to be delivered from Roman bondage by such a man. Perhaps, after all, the work of Jesus was only preparing work, like his own had been. 2. Talking them over with his disciples. They might well be more puzzled than he, for they had none of those prophetical visions which had been vouchsafed to him. Evidently the talk did not mend matters. It even seemed to increase the uncertainty, and it madto John feel that something must at once be done, Neither thinking doubts over, nor talking ooubts over, ever helps us very much. Too often they grow big by brooding; and so much depends on the friends whom we choose for the talk. II. JoHN TAXING ms DOUBTS TO THE LORD JEsus. He would have actually gone himself, bnt he could not. So he sent two disciples, that he might see through their eyes and bear through-their ears. Our Lord solved the doubts by, in effect, saying, .. Yon find a difficulty in recognizing me because you are hindered by wrong ideas concerning the character ·of Messiah'a mission." A Messiah who heals, delivers, and saves, exactly fits a forerunner who called to repentance. John's doubts fle_d when he learned to say, "He is the Messiah, be must be the Messiah, for I see that hie moral and spiritual work is precisely the carrying on, the completion, of that moral work of mine."-R. T. • Ver. 5.-The clauu Christ helped. The point of the answer sent by our Lord to J'ohn is usually thonght to be the proof he was giving of his Divine power; he was -opening the eyes of the blind ; he was making the lame walk ; he was cleansing the lepers; he was unstopping the ears of the deaf; he was raising the dead. Must he not, then, be the Messiah? Nicodemus properly argued, "Rabbi, we know that thou art a Teacher come from God, for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, .except God be with him." And yet it may be that this was not our Lord's precise point. Indeed, John knew all about these miracles, and it was because he could not make up his mind about them that be sent the inquiry. It may be that our Lord fixed the attention of the messengers on the kinds of persons for whom he was working, and the character of the work he was doing for them. And we can see that just this would be the most suggestive and helpful answer for John. It would ehow him that J l'!IUS was Messiah in a spiritual sense. "It might seem, at fir8t sight, as if the thing that would make fitting impression on John was the display t,f Divine power in these miracles of healing and restoration. It would seem ~s if -(lH. x1, 1-30.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEW. 479