The Pulpit Commentary — Matthew — Volume 2 — Section 104

of the Levi tical rules; he does not i11sist upon it; he retnrns to the original topic of disrussi0n, "To eat with unwashen -hands defileth not a man." It was one of those saYin;rs which the apostles could not receive in their full meanina- at once but whioh remained in their memory, and ,afterwards were understood and br~u<>ht fo;th fruit, III. THl!: DISCIPLES. 1. Thei,r fears. The Pharisees were offended. The. Lord's' words were a stumbling-block to them; be had struck so hard at their prejudices their- traditions-tbose traditions which were so deeply interwoven with their whole life• hA had called them hypocrites, too; be had said that they were no better than actors 'or ,ti part, and bad applied to them the strong condemnation of Isaiah. Again, in his address to the multitude, reported doubtless to the Pharisees, perhaps heard by them he seemed to set aside the plain teaching of the written Law. At all this,tbe,PharisM~ stumbled; it wall an offence to them; such teaching was in direct opposition. to au, that they esteemed most sacred. They thought it ,dangerous, heretical. ,They were• o!fended, irritated, aliena_ted. And -evidently the 1:'o:d's disciples had not wholly· divested themselves of their old reverence for the rabbm1cal system, and for the received· teachers of the nati?n, th~ Pharisees. They were tro1:1bled at .their increasing hostility; perhaps they were m their he.arts somewhat vexed with the Lord himself; his words, it may be, seemed to them so stern, so needlessly strong.. They apprehended diffi- culties, dangers; they Cea.red for their Master and for "themselves. And now they came to him privately, into the house (Mark vii. 17); they hinted at their anxieties; they sought to -know what he would do. We must always come to Christ in our troubles; but we must trust him and yield up our wills to him; he doeth,all thing's well. 2. The answer. (1) The teaching of the Pharisees was not of. ·God; it came from human tradition or from their own evil hearts. And all that is not o( God must perish. The whole system of rabbinical teaching must pass away. It·had wrought itself into the very nature of tJie Pharisees, as the good seed in the parable had filled the heart and determined the character of the true_disciples. That system must perish; and its professors, alas! with it, if they would not receive,tbe love of the truth, that they might be saved. (2) "Let them alone," the Lord said. They stood high in· popula1; estimation; they sat in Moses' seat; but they were'blind guides. ".Let them a;lone." Christ is the one Master; we must follow him.· They are blind who see-not,Obrisli; for Ohrist is the Light of the world. 1'hey who see not the light walk in ·darkness;: the darkness bath blinded their eyes. Guides who see not the Christ and follow ndt the Christ themselves are no gui-0.es for the Christian ; he must let them alone ... Such, men may sometimes be set in places of authority;· Judas was an apostle. We may riot speak of them as the Lord spoke of the Pharisees; we have not the right; we .ha-vQ not his knowledge, his holiness; we must not speak evil of dignities, But let,.thl!n1> alone; be not dazzled by their rank, their popularity, their intellectual power. They are blind, and those who follow them are blind also. This blindness is wilful; it is the result of spiritual sloth,.or pride, or indulged sin of some sort. The blind who follow the blind must fall into the ditch; spiritual blindness must lead to spiritual! ruin. Come to Christ with the prayer, "Lord, that l might. receive my sight I'~ Follow those who follow him tbe closest; who, seeing him themselves with the vision of faith, are enabled by his grace to lead others nearer to the true Light th·a.t sbinetb: upon them. 3. The -request of Peter. He spoke in the naIIl:e of all th~ discip!es(M9:rk vii. 17). But we know that long afterwards be clung to his old Jewish habits of-.life 1 (Gal. ii. 11-16); and at this time our Lord's words in ver. 11 must have seemed: a very bard saying to him. He called it a parable; it was very difficult for him with• his Jewish training to receive it; he wanted to understand what· was in our Lord's, thoughts, the spiritual meaning of bis words. 4-. The Lord's reply. "Are ye also ye• without understanding?" he said to the disciples. They had been with him long; they onght to have understood by this time the spiritual character of his teaching. But it was hard for them to throw a.side the beliefs, the practices, of a lifetime; they needed the plainest teaching on a subject like this. And Christ gave it them. It is the inner life of thought and feeling which determines the true cleanliness .or uncleanli- ness of a man, not the quality of •hie food. "The kingdom of God is· not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." "All things indeed are pure; " there may be good and holy reasons for abstaining from certain things under certain circumstances; but" there is nothing unclean of itself." Such was the teaching OH, xv. 1-39.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEW. 107