The Pulpit Commentary — Matthew — Volume 2 — Section 387

or rune in harmony with, the things our Lord ie enforcing. It seems as if it suddenly etruck our Lord that what be bad been saying was open to misconstruction. "The perception of the abeolute, unconditioned freedom of entrance, the sense borne in on their mind that they were the objects of God's love and invitation, might possibly lead them to overlook the great moral change requisite in all who enter God's presence and propose to hold intercourse with him." It is true that salvation is freely offered, but a man must be in a certain frame of mind to receive it. One so unresponsive to the kindness and authority of the king as this man, who would not have the wedding garment, was clearly unfitted for and unable to receive the king's grace. II. THE BEASON FOR ·rHE BEHAVIOUR OF THIS PARTICULAR MAN. Nothing explains his act but the uppishness of self-will. He was not going to be ordered about-to be made to do what eomebody else wished. If the king wanted him at the feast, he must take him just as he was, See in this no sense of gratitude for the king's kind- ness; no sense of submissive obedience to the king's will; no lowly estimates of bis own unfitness. So the man who was just upon getting a big blessing lost it altogether through bis own stubborn wilfulness.-Il. T. Ver. 16.-Purposed entanglements. As foolish a thing as was ever attempted was trying to entangle Jesus in talk. A difficult business enough if Jeans had been only a wise prophet-teacher, A hopeless business, seeing that Jesus was the Son of God, and read thoughts and hearts, and "knew what was in man." We are to understand that different parties agreed to set several traps for Jesus, hoping to catch him in one or other of them. Popular feeling was too strongly in bis favour for his enemies to venture upon anything like an open arrest. "All the previous attempts bad been to discredit Jesus as a religious Teacher; the present is an attempt to expose him to the hostility of the Boman government." It would suit the purpose of the Sanhedrin if they could make him say something disloyal, so that the Romans would deal with him. I. ENTANGLEMENTS REVEALING THOSE WHO ATTEMPTED THEllL This opens an interesting character-study. It brings before us the shifts to which men resort who will not yield themselves to arguments and persnasions they are determined not to admit. These men were resolved not to accept Christ as Messiah. They were resolved to discredit his claims somehow, and destroy him, if only they could get a chance. _They were untrue to their better selves, and so they had to be ruled by their baser selves; and thus they were put upon all eorts of mean and miserable shifts and schemes. Yet they did not see how they were degrading themselves. Honourable men were self-deluded into acting dishonourably. These men are shown up. They were not really jealous for the honour of God: it was fear for their own place and influence that made them so mean and base. The upright man wants no shifts, and takes no advantage of his brother. II. ENTANGLEMENTS BEYEA.LING Hlll WHO WAS TO BE ENTANGLED, Our Lord feli no sort of alarm when, with imposing authority, the deputation from the Sanhedrin made its demands. Our Lord showed no fear or anxiety when the schemers pre- sented their subtle and malicious question. And be made no mistake ; he ga.ve the entanglers no sort of opportunity. He was proof against their wiles. His simplicity tested their guilefulness. His wisdom saw through their schemes.-R. T. Ver. 21.-0hrist ke,eping to hu province. The coin produced was probably a silver dena.rius of the reign of Tiberius Ca!sar, and it bore on its face the bead of the emperor, and had an inscription running round it, containing his name and titles. To under- stand how this question was intended to entangle Christ, we must remember that the Mosaic injunction, "Thou niayest not set a stranger over thee" (Deut. xvii. 15), was made by the rabbis to mean that they must not pay tribnto to any foreign power. The Romans levied a poll-tax on each individual, and this tax was particularly offensive to the patriotic party, If they could make Jesus take part with the zealots, they could accuse him to the Romans as a dangerous person and fomenter of rebellion, The answer of Jesus is very variously explained, and bas even been taken as a watch- word of particular religious schools, But the answer is really a refusal to answer; and in this its skilfulness is seen.  392 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST, MATTHEW, [on. :r.xu. 1-4!8