Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Matthew 9:38
Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his harvest.
38. send forth ] The original word is more forcible, implying a strong impulse; it is used Mar 1:12. “The spirit driveth him into the wilderness;” and frequently of casting out evil spirits, also of casting into outer darkness (ch. Mat 25:30).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Mat 9:38
Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest.
The spiritual harvest-field
1. How closely connected the spiritual commission of the apostles was with deep sympathy for the physical wants of humanity.
2. That it is the Lord of the harvest who has power to send forth labourers into His harvest. We rely too much on our own agencies.
3. The strong expression of constraint which the Lord here uses-that He may cast out. It has been so with the more eminent saints at all times. (S. Leathes, D. D.)
The harvest-field and the harvest labourers
I. The field is the world.
1. It is precious, in the very fact that it is a harvest-field. Men are the fruit for the sake of which the world was made.
2. It is plenteous.
(1):Pagans.
(2) Mahomedans.
(3) Papists.
3. It is ripe.
4. It is perishing.
II. The harvest labourers.
1. All who try to win souls are in His eye as reapers gathering the wheat into the garner. Labourers are not a high class of functionaries, and need not expect to get all their own will as to the times and places of their toils.
2. In the judgment of our Lord labourers are few. His heart is so enlarged toward a lost world that He will complain, Few are coming. Few, in proportion to the worlds need-a contrast to the multitude pressing to the natural harvest.
3. When additional labourers enter the field, they are sent into it by the Lord of the harvest. They are grasped by the Providential hand of God.
4. The Lord of the harvest presses labourers into the field in answer to the prayers of His people. (W. Arnot.)
The multitudes pressing to the natural harvest
The pressure has slackened of late; but a few years ago you might have seen, any day about the beginning of autumn, dense crowds of Irish labourers clustering like bees about the wharves of Liverpool and Glasgow. On one occasion the master of a Londonderry steamer, on arriving at Glasgow, was prosecuted for admitting a much greater number of passengers than his ship was legally entitled to carry. His defence was that the men rushed on board in spite of his efforts to prevent them, and took forcible possession of the deck. Such were the numbers that poured into the Scottish harvest-fields at that time, and such the eagerness of each man to get a share of the work and the reward. (W. Arnot.)
The harvest-field near
Exercise is provided for the spiritual life. None shall be able to say that the field was too distant, and that lie consequently had not an opportunity of rendering service as a reaper. A man cannot sit at meals in his own family, walk along the streets, or pursue his daily toil on the farm or in the workshop, without passing along this laden harvest-field. Everywhere precious fruit, ready to perish, offers itself to the reapers hand. (W. Arnot.)
Labourers wanted
I. Christ manifested an intense zeal for the evangelization of the world. And Jesus went about all their cities, etc.
1. Christ was the great Teacher-Teaching in their synagogues, etc.
2. Christ was the great Physician-and healing every sickness.
II. Christ displayed the tenderest sympathy while evangelizing the world. The spirit in which Christ did His work, almost as important as the work itself.
1. Christ was deeply affected by the spiritual depression of the people-they fainted.
2. Christ was deeply affected at the spiritual destitution of the people-were scattered abroad.
III. Christ enjoined a devout spirit for evangelizing the world-Pray ye therefore, etc.
1. Christ indicated the right spirit for the work-Pray ye.
2. Christ indicated the right men for the work-Labourers in His harvest, etc. (J. T. Woodhouse.)
Harvest-men wanted
I. Our lord states the case. The people who gathered round Him He likened to harvest-fields: wherein lay the similarity?
1. The thought of multitude rises naturally from the sight of a harvest-field. You cannot count the ears of corn, neither will you be able to count the sons of men.
2. The second idea was that of value. He did not speak of blades of grass, but ears of corn. The souls of men precious in the sight of God.
3. The idea of danger. Fear lest it should perish.
4. Accessible. Multitudes are near at hand.
5. Immediate need.
II. The service needed. Labourers are wanted. We must not despise instrumentalities. God could do without them, but does not.
1. They must be labourers. Idler no use.
2. They must go down into flee wheat.
3. He cuts right through. Delicate words useless. The preacher must not file off the edge of his scythe for fear it should hurt somebody.
4. He binds it together.
III. Our Lord directed his disciples how to obtain a supply.
1. Pray ye.
2. Pray ye therefore.
3. Pray to the Lord.
IV. The lord jesus heard their prayers. And when He had called unto Him His twelve disciples, he gave them power, etc. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 38. That he will send forth labourers] , that he would thrust forth labourers. Those who are fittest for the work are generally most backward to the employment. The man who is forward to become a preacher knows little of God, of human nature, or of his own heart. It is, God’s province to thrust out such preachers as shall labour; and it is our duty to entreat him to do so. A minister of Christ is represented as a day-labourer: he comes into the harvest, not to become lord of it, not to live on the labour of others, but to work, and to labour his day. Though the work may be very severe, yet, to use a familiar expression, there is good wages in the harvest-home; and the day, though hot, is but a short one. How earnestly should the flock of Christ pray to the good Shepherd to send them pastors after his own heart, who will feed them with knowledge, and who shall be the means of spreading the knowledge of his truth and the savour of his grace over the face of the whole earth!
The subject of fasting, already slightly noticed in the preceding notes, should be farther considered.
In all countries, and under all religions, fasting has not only been considered a duty, but also of extraordinary virtue to procure blessings, and to avert evils. Hence it has often been practised with extraordinary rigour, and abused to the most superstitious purposes. There are twelve kinds of fasts among the Hindoos: –
1. The person neither eats nor drinks for a day and night. This fast is indispensable, and occurs twenty-nine times in the year.
2. The person fasts during the day, and eats at night.
3. The person eats nothing but fruits, and drinks milk or water.
4. He eats once during the day and night.
5. Eats one particular kind of food during the day and night, but as often as he pleases.
6. Called Chanderaym, which is, to eat on the first day, only one mouthful; two on the second; and thus continue increasing one mouthful every day for a month, and then decreasing a mouthful every day, till he leaves off where he began.
7. The person neither eats nor drinks for twelve days.
8. Lasts twelve days: the first three days he eats a little once in the day; the next three, he eats only once in the night; the next three, he eats nothing, unless it be brought to him; and, during the last three days, he neither eats nor drinks.
9. Lasts fifteen days. For three days and three nights, he eats only one handful at night; the next three days and nights, he eats one handful if it be brought him, if not, he takes nothing. Then he eats nothing for three days and three nights. The next three days and nights he takes only a handful of warm water each day. The next three days and nights he takes a handful of warm milk each day.
10. For three days and nights he neither eats nor drinks. He lights a fire, and sits at a door where there enters a hot wind, which he draws in with his breath.
11. Lasts fifteen days. Three, days and three nights he eats nothing but leaves; three days and three nights, nothing but the Indian fig; three days and three nights, nothing but the seed of the lotus; three days and three nights, nothing but peepul leaves; three days and three nights, the expressed juice of a particular kind of grass called doobah.
12. Lasts a week. First day he eats milk; second, milk-curds; third, ghee, i.e. clarified butter; fourth, cow’s urine; fifth, cow’s dung; sixth, water; seventh, nothing.
During every kind of fast, the person sleeps on the ground, plays at no game, has no connection with women, neither shaves nor anoints himself, and bestows alms each day. – AYEEN AKBERY, vol. iii. p. 247-250. How much more simple and effectual is the way of salvation taught in the BIBLE! But, because it is true, it Is not credited by fallen man.
FASTING is considered by the Mohammedans as an essential part of piety. Their orthodox divines term it the gate of religion. With them, it is of two kinds, voluntary and incumbent; and is distinguished by the Mosliman doctors into three degrees:
1. The refraining from every kind of nourishment or carnal indulgence.
2. The restraining the various members from every thing which might excite sinful or corrupt desires.
3. The abstracting the mind wholly from worldly cares, and fixing it exclusively upon God.
Their great annual fast is kept on the month Ramzan, or Ramadhan, beginning at the first new moon, and continuing until the appearance of the next; during which, it is required to abstain from every kind of nourishment from day-break till after sun-set of each day. From this observance none are excused but the sick, the aged, and children. This is properly the Mohammedan Lent. See HEDAYAH, prel. Dis. p. LV. LVI.
It is worthy of remark, that these children of the Bridegroom, the disciples, did not mourn, were exposed to no persecution, while the Bridegroom, the Lord Jesus, was with them, but after he had been taken from them, by death and his ascension, they did fast and mourn; they were exposed to all manner of hardships, persecutions, and even death itself, in some of its worst forms.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The plain sense of these two verses is this: John the Baptist and Christ had now been preaching for some time, God inclined the hearts of great multitudes to follow both the one and the other; there was a great people prepared for the Lord: Mat 11:12, From the days of John the Baptist, the kingdom of heaven had suffered violence, and the violent took it by force; men were exceeding fond of hearing the gospel.
The fields were white to the harvest, as our Saviour expresses it, Joh 4:35. But there were few that would faithfully deliver the mind of God; there were abundance of idle Pharisees, and scribes, and priests, that spent their time in teaching people their rites, and ceremonies, and traditions, but the labourers were few; such must be Gods gift to the people, and they must be thrust out. No arguments will be sufficient to persuade men to the weighty work of the ministry, with an intention to fulfil it, but the power of God inclining their hearts to it. You had need therefore pray unto God that he would send, nay, that he would , thrust out, labourers into his harvest.
1. The inclination and desire of multitudes to hear Divine truth is Gods harvest.
2. Ministers work is a labour, Gal 4:11; Phi 4:3; 1Ti 5:17; if rightly discharged, it must be with labour.
3. God is the Lord of the harvest; ministers ought to look upon him as so.
4. None ought to thrust themselves into the work of the ministry, till God thrust them out, Heb 5:4.
5. There always were but a few labourers in Gods harvest. Hence Chrysostom thought that but a few ministers would be saved.
Our Saviour in this chapter prefaces his work of which we shall discourse in the next chapter, viz. his sending forth his twelve apostles.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
38. Pray ye therefore the Lord ofthe harvestthe great Lord and Proprietor of all. Compare Joh15:1, “I am the true vine, and My Father is the husbandman.”
that he will send forthlabourers into his harvestThe word properly means “thrustforth”; but this emphatic sense disappears in some places, as inMat 9:25; Joh 10:4“When He putteth forth His own sheep.” (See on Mt4:1).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest,…. By “the Lord of the harvest” is either meant God the Father, whose are all the elect, who has a hearty concern for them, and will have them all gathered in, not one of them shall be left; or the Lord Jesus Christ himself, who has the care and charge of the whole election of grace; and who as he must, he will bring them all in; and who has power of sending forth labourers, as the following chapter shows; and so this is a proof of prayer being made to Christ;
that he will send forth labourers into his harvest. This is the petition the disciples of Christ were put upon making to the Lord of the harvest, on consideration of the present condition multitudes of souls were in: they could not make, qualify, and send out ministers themselves; this is not man’s work, but God’s: he only is able to furnish with ministerial gifts, to work upon, and powerfully incline the hearts of men to this service, to call and send them forth into it, and to assist and succeed them in it. The persons desired to be sent are “labourers”; faithful, diligent, and industrious preachers of the Gospel; such as lay out themselves, their time, talents, and strength, in their master’s service; and do not indulge themselves in sloth and idleness: the place they are desired to be sent into is, “into the harvest”; into the field of the world, where God’s elect lie, and there labour in preaching the Gospel; hoping for a divine blessing, and an almighty power to attend their ministrations, for the conversion of sinners, and edification of saints. The request the disciples are directed to make, concerning these persons for this work, is, that the Lord of the harvest would “send”, or “thrust” them “forth”; implying power and efficacy, and authority, on the part of the sender; and backwardness on the part of those that are sent, through modesty: a sense of the greatness of the work, and of their own unworthiness and unfitness for it. Very opportunely did our Lord move his disciples to put up this petition, and was done, no question, with a view to, and to prepare for, his mission of the twelve to preach the Gospel, of which there is an account in the next chapter.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
That he send forth labourers ( ). Jesus turns from the figure of the shepherdless sheep to the harvest field ripe and ready for the reapers. The verb really means to drive out, to push out, to draw out with violence or without. Prayer is the remedy offered by Jesus in this crisis for a larger ministerial supply. How seldom do we hear prayers for more preachers. Sometimes God literally has to push or force a man into the ministry who resists his known duty.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Send forth [] . So A. V. and Rev. But the word is stronger : thrust out, force them out, as from urgent necessity.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest,” (deethete oun tou kuriou tou therismou) “You all therefore pray the Lord of the harvest;” Petition earnestly, the Lord of the harvest, that you may have compassion, a broken heart, a deep spiritual vision and burden that will carry you, in the right spirit, to their rescue, Joh 4:34-38; Isa 6:8.
2) “That he will send forth laborers,” (hopos ekbale ergatas) “So that he may thrust forth workmen;” For who will go, except he be “thrust forth,” with a burden and a vision, like Isa 6:1-8; and like Paul, Act 9:1-7; Psa 29:1?
3) “Into his harvest” (eis ton therismon autou) “Into his (own) harvest,” right where the urgent need exists, Eph 4:11-12; Psa 68:11; Jer 3:15; 2Th 3:1.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
38. Pray therefore to the Lord of the harvest As no man will of himself become a sincere and faithful minister of the gospel, and as none discharge in a proper manner the office of teacher but those whom the Lord raises up and endows with the gifts of his Spirit, whenever we observe a scarcity of pastors, we must raise our eyes to him to afford the remedy. There never was greater necessity for offering this prayer than during the fearful desolation of the church which we now see every where around us.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(38) The Lord of the harvesti.e., the Father who had sent Him to be the Sower of the divine seed, and who, through Him, was about to send forth the labourers.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
38. Pray ye therefore For though it be the act of God, it depends upon the prayer of man. Divine operation waits upon human co-operation. God will do, m answer to prayer, what will not be done without prayer. Low faith in the Church produces slow development of the work of salvation. No doubt our Lord primarily has in view the Jewish multitudes before him. Yet in more distant prospect is to be included the wide field of the world and its vast harvest in the coming age.
And now, in the next chapter, we find Jesus sending forth his Twelve.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Mat 9:38. That he will send forth The original word plainly imports some degree of force. Dr. Doddridge therefore very properly translates and paraphrases the passage thus: Therefore let me urge you to make your “importunate supplications to the great Lord and Master of the harvest, that he would, by the secret and powerful energy of the Spirit on men’s hearts, conquer their natural disinclination to this excellent work; and so thrust forth a sufficient number of active and indefatigable labourers into his harvest, by whom it may be successfully carried on, to his own greater glory, and the edification and salvation of souls.” Whoever considers the immense difficulties and oppositions which every minister of Christ’s kingdom was sure to encounter in those early days of it, willsee the necessity of some unusual impulse on the mind to lead any to undertake it. See on Mat 9:9. Ministers may learn of their Redeemer, who is represented in so amiable a light here before them, tenderly to pity those who are faint and exposed to danger, and are as sheep having no shepherd. The extreme necessities of his churches in many places are but too apparent. It is our duty earnestly to pray to God that he would behold them with compassion; that he would graciously provide for their instruction, and would thrust forth such labourers among them, as may be faithful and diligent in their work, and prove the happy instruments of gathering in fruits to everlasting life. See Doddridge and Chemnitz.
Inferences.The first and most obvious use intended by the miraculous cures which our Lord performed, was, to convince men of the truth of his doctrine; and that they might have sure ground to reason as Nicodemus did, when he said to him, “Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God; for no man can do these miracles which thou doest, except God be with him.” The first effect, therefore, which his miracles ought to have with us, should be, to make us cordially embrace his doctrines, experience their power through divine grace, and exert our utmost endeavours to put them in practice. Those who apply themselves to this with the greatest fidelity and earnestness, will sooner or later meet such difficulties, or perhaps real obstacles in their religious course, as will convince them that mere instruction is not sufficient; that besides advice, they must have constant assistance from above; and that the same divine power which was exerted to convince them of the truth of his doctrine, and to bring them into the liberty of the children of God, must concur to enable them to practise it, and grow in grace and the divine life. Here then a second lesson is to be learned from the miraculous cures wrought by Christ; for those great instances of his goodness and power will raise the languishing hopes of his tried and tempted servants. And as every man naturally transfers the notions that he is full of to the objects that come in his way, and our minds are ever quick at applying things to what we have most at heart; so when they reflect upon his bounty to the diseased of every kind, that addressed themselves, or were brought to him in Palestine, they too through grace will hope for some share in his favours, and accordingly address themselves to him as the great Physician of Souls. This is a general consideration, applicable to every miraculous cure which he performed. See on ch. Mat 7:7.
When we read with what success the blind, the lame, the deaf, the lepers, and in short the diseased of every kind, addressed themselves to him, so that no patient ever came to him in vain; but all distempers, though of the most malignant nature, though most obstinate, and of many years’ continuance, though such as had baffled all other remedies, were infallibly cured by him;when, I say, we read these instances of his Almighty power and goodness, our own spiritual infirmities should occur to our thoughts.
Have you nothing to ask of this divine Physician? Do you not with a sigh, and as it were some sort of envy, think how fortunate they were, who had such easy access to him in Palestine? And does not their success raise some hope in your breast? In reason it ought to do so; for spiritual maladies are his proper province; and it is in the cure of these that his goodness principally delights to exert itself.
I say, that to be a healer of bodily distempers was a foreign character, which our Lord assumed only to make way for what is his genuine office, even to heal souls. For he wrought the outward cures only to convince us of his divine power, because such cures were visible to all: they were, as he said himself to John’s disciples, such things as they could hear and see; they were such gross palpable proofs, as suited all capacities; whereas the operations of his Spirit are invisible, and are no ground of faith to any but those who experience them, or are awakened to a sense of their want of them. In condescension, therefore, he gave those outward demonstrations of Omnipotence, restoring senses, limbs, and life itself; but these temporal favours may be accounted as very trivial, even as crumbs that fall from his table, in comparison of what he then did, and still actually does, in the souls of those who apply to him with the proper disposition, even in simple humble faith. He cures the spiritual blindness and insensibility to divine truth: he takes away hydropic avarice, paralytic laziness, the leprous pruriency of soul desires, and every evil lust and passion. To cure these is his profession and character: it is the work for which he came into the world, as the name of Jesus testifies; and so the angel, who appointed that name, did at the same time explain it: Thou shalt call his name Jesus, that is to say, Saviour, for He shall save his people from their sins.
Nor let us imagine that he is less powerful, now that he sitteth at the right hand of God, than he was formerly, when, in the days of his flesh, he sojourned in Judaea. The fulness of the Godhead does actually reside in him for our use; I say, the fulness of the Godhead; that is, Deity in its plenitude of power does actually reside in the person of Christ for our use: and he is ready, he is ever desirous to communicate it; so that there is nothing wanting but capacities on our part to receive it. What those are, we may shew in the following particulars:
First, Whosoever would be cured of any spiritual malady must go to Christ.
It is a wretched mistake of ordinary Christians, so called, that they consider Christ as inaccessible since his ascension, and conceive of him only as highly exalted, and remote at an unmeasurable distance from us: but this comes from not effectually believing, or, what amounts to the same thing, not considering the SUPREME DIVINITY of our Saviour.
The divine nature of Christ has been treated of late as a speculative question to dispute about: but it is really one of the most practical, as well as one of the most important points of our religion. For by this he is ever everywhere present: Christ, I say, by his divine nature, is omnipresent: he is therefore present with us; he is present within our minds; and we ought not to search after him as far distant from us. So St. Paul to the Romans: Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is to say, to bring Christ down from above;) or who shall descend into the deep? (that is to say, to bring up Christ from the dead;) for Christ is nigh thee, even in thy heart.
Secondly, When by devotion we are thus introduced into the presence of Christ, we must declare our wants to him, we must humbly expose our miseries before him, with earnest prayer for deliverance. For this there is no need of studied speeches: let us only imitate some of those diseased persons whose history we read in the Gospel,the paralytic for instance, whose double cure has been already mentioned. Though great efforts, and even violence, had been used to introduce him to Jesus, for the roof of the house had been opened, and he was let down through the tiling, yet, when he was presented before the Lord, all the difficulty was over; his circumstances spoke for him sufficiently, they needed no interpreter: prostrate on his bed he turned his eyes to our Lord, and our Lord beheld him with compassion. He saw his misery, his helpless misery, and that he had no hopes but in the mercy of his Saviour. This sufficed to obtain his mercy. All his maladies were cured; his sins, the source of all, were forgiven; and he was restored to all that is valuable, health and favour with God. We too shall find the same success, if to the dispositions before recommended we add,
In the third place, faith, that is to say, a worthy opinion of Christ. This is apparently necessary; for, to distrust his power or his goodness is an injurious thought, which renders us unworthy of his favour. And it is remarkable, that he insists upon faith, more than any other qualification, in the persons who apply to him for relief.
To teach us this (besides the apparent reasonableness of the thing), our Lord, in working his miraculous bodily cures, which, as I said, are emblems of his divine operations on souls, frequently required a public declaration of such devout confidence in his goodness and power, before he exerted them for the relief of those who implored his assistance. So, when two blind men had followed him home, with cries soliciting his mercy, he said unto them, Believe ye that I am able to do this? They say unto him, Yea, Lord. Then touched he their eyes, saying, According to your faith be it unto you. And straightway their eyes were opened. We have another very edifying instance of the efficacy of faith in disposing us for supernatural graces, in the man who besought our Lord for his son, who had been distracted from his infancy by the possession of a malignant spirit, that had often endangered his life. If thou canst do any thing (said the father, after representing the deplorable condition of his child), have compassion on us, and help us. Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth. And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe, help thou my unbelief. Jesus accepted his humble faith, and ratified it in the cure of his son.
Many other instances of the same kind are recorded in the Gospel for our instruction and encouragement, that we sink not into despair upon the sad experiment of our weakness and misery; but that we should approach with holy confidence to the throne of grace, secure in the goodness of our Lord, and careful not to distrust him.
And lest we should fondly imagine that the supernatural assistance which Christ communicates to believers, was confined to the days of his flesh; even after his resurrection he declared to his disciples, as a fundamental principle of his religion, That all power was given to him in heaven and in earth. All Christians so called acknowledge his power in heaven: but many forget it upon earth; they forget to have recourse to it for their justification and sanctification, which are the works in which he principally delights to exercise it. He therefore ordered his apostles to publish it through the world; and at the same time that they instructed men to obey his commands, lest the persons instructed should be discouraged by the seeming difficulty of his sublime precepts, they were to deliver down, as an article of faith, to all his true disciples, That he would be with them always, even unto the end of the world: that hehe who hath all power in heaven and in earth,he would be with them unto the end of the world.
Fourthly, and lastly, That the cure may be perfected, which we seek and expect from the divine physician; we must, as becomes every reasonable patient, and the nature of the case requires, give ourselves up to his management, resign ourselves wholly to his care, and endure his operations, though painful to our corrupt nature. We must drink of the cup which he presents to us, even if it be the cup of suffering. Fear it not, when his hand administers it. He has tried the utmost force of it, and drank it to the dregs himself: but, tenderly compassionate as he is, and conscious of our weakness, he will administer it to us in such due proportions, and with such sweet infusion of heavenly peace and consolation, or other spiritual support, that it will prove the cup of health, the cup of salvation.
REFLECTIONS.1st, Jesus will not abide where he is an unwelcome guest; but woe to those who bid him to depart, for nothing but wrath and misery are left behind him! Leaving the country of the Gergesenes, he returned to Capernaum, the usual place of his residence, where we find him curing a poor paralytic; for his work was ever to be doing good.
1. His friends brought him to Jesus, unable himself to stand or walk: they had compassion for their brother, and counted no pains too great to obtain his cure, and they were persuaded the Lord both could and would relieve him from his misery. Note; those of our dear friends and relatives, who are themselves benumbed in spirit as with the palsy, and cannot come to Christ, we must carry in the arms of prayer and love, and spread their case before him: perhaps in so doing we may save a soul from death.
2. Christ kindly received them: seeing their faith, either of those who brought him, or of the sick man also, and to revive the heart of the poor afflicted patient, more distressed probably by his sins than his sufferings, Jesus saith, Son, be of good cheer, thy sins be forgiven thee. Note; (1.) Sin is the bitterest of all our burdens; the sting of sickness and of death itself is taken out when our iniquity is pardoned. (2.) They who come to Christ are called upon to be of good cheer; no poor beggar ever went from his door with a denial. (3.) God sometimes severely afflicts his dearest children; they must not question their adoption because of their sufferings; but should rather conclude, that God then dealeth with them as sons. Heb 12:5; Heb 12:29.
3. The Scribes, who were the doctors of the law, and expounded it to the people, highly offended with what Jesus had said, though they did not speak their sentiments, yet in their hearts regarded him as a blasphemer, for presuming by his own authority to forgive sins, which is the prerogative of God alone, and contains a strong argument for his Divinity; in which light these men evidently regarded his declaration. Note; many among us are like these Scribes; though they will not say it is blasphemy in Jesus to pardon our sins, they are ready to brand those as blasphemers, who say they have the pardon that Jesus pronounces.
4. To give them a proof of his Divinity, and confute their vain imaginations, Jesus lets them know he perceived their thoughts. Wherefore think you evil in your hearts? censuring him as a blasphemer; For whether is easier to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee? or to say, Arise and walk? He that by his own power could effect the one, evidently proved that he had a right to pronounce the other. Note; our hearts are naked and open before the Lord; and he observes and is displeased at every evil thought which rises or lodges there.
5. He demonstrates the power that he had to forgive sin, by removing that disease which was the punishment of it, and bids the paralytic arise before them all; and as a proof of his health and strength being perfectly restored, to take up that bed, on which as a cripple he lay, and go unto his house. And lo! to the astonishment of the multitude, who glorified God for so great a miracle, and to the confusion of these murmurers, the man instantly arose, took up his bed, and departed, cured of every infirmity. Note; (1.) Though we have no strength of ourselves to help ourselves; yet when Jesus speaks to the paralytic soul, power accompanies his word, and enables us for that which he commands. (2.) The mercies shewn to others demand our praises; and for every good gift bestowed on the sons of men, God is to be glorified.
2nd, The publicans were those who farmed or collected the customs imposed by the Romans, and were not only therefore odious to the Jews, who abhorred this mark of servitude, but were also for the most part men of infamous conduct, who enriched themselves by exaction, being sure of having the Roman government on their side. Hence publicans and sinners are so often used to include the most guilty and abandoned characters; yet such as these Jesus came to save, and out of them was pleased to choose one of his most eminent disciples, an apostle and evangelist, the penman of this gospel. We have,
1. His call. His name is Matthew, the gift of God, which some suppose was given him by our Lord on this occasion, when before he was known by that of Levi, as the other evangelists call him; though it was common for the same person to have two names. He was sitting at the receipt of custom, in the office where it was to be paid. One word, however, effectually wrought upon this publican’s heart: Jesus said, Follow me; and immediately he arose and followed him. Power accompanied the word of Jesus, and Matthew left all, and devoted himself intirely to the service of his new Lord and master. No doubt but he immediately, or very soon afterwards, tasted that the Lord is gracious, experiencing a large measure of converting grace.
2. Having tasted the grace of Jesus himself, he is solicitous that his brethren by profession should be acquainted with him also; and for this purpose made a feast for Jesus and his disciples, to which many publicans and sinners were invited: nor did the Lord disdain their company, but gladly sat down with them. Note; (1.) They who have truly experienced the Redeemer’s grace, from that moment begin to labour, that all who are near and dear to them may partake of their blessing. (2.) Where the heart is open to Christ, there all who are his disciples will be welcome for his sake.
3. The Pharisees with malignant eye marked the condescensions of Jesus, and wanted to cast a reflection upon his character, and prejudice his disciples against him. Why eateth your master with publicans and sinners? These proud and self-righteous creatures thought it infamous to be seen in such company, and would insinuate, that our Lord was like the men with whom he had sat down to meat. Note; (1.) The self-righteous formalists are ever the most rigid censurers of the conduct of others. (2.) The noblest acts of charity are liable to the basest misrepresentations.
4. Christ vindicates himself from their insinuations. He overheard their whispers; or his disciples, weak themselves, carried the question to him, that they might be furnished with an answer; for to him in all our difficulties we must have recourse; and he gives them an abundant vindication of his conduct. They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. He came into the world as the great physician of sin-sick souls; sinners are his unhappy patients, who groan under their spiritual maladies, incurable but for his healing grace: and those who feel their miseries and fly to him, he is ever ready to relieve; but the wilfully ignorant, and the self-righteous who know nothing of their deep corruption, guilt, and sinfulness, and conceit themselves whole; these, as they experience no want of him, and will not come to him that they may have life, are left to perish in their blindness and their pride. But go ye, says he, and learn what that meaneth, Hos 6:6. I will have mercy and not sacrifice; that is, in a comparative sense, acts of kindness and charity to men’s bodies or souls are much more acceptable to God than all the formalities of ritual devotion; and therefore Christ intimates, that his conversing with sinners for their good was, according to the word of truth, far more pleasing to God, than their scrupulous adherence to the tradition of the elders. For I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance; this being the very end of his mission, he was fully justified in receiving them into his company, that he might acquaint them with his salvation. Had man been naturally righteous, he never had needed a Redeemer; and those formalists who fancy that they are such, have nothing to do with him who came only to seek and save that which is lost. The Saviour’s errand is to sinners, the vilest of sinners, to invite them to return to God, with promises of pardon purchased by his blood, and to call them in virtue thereof to repent and turn from all their abominations. And to this a sense of his love engages the penitent, and for this his grace enables them; while they who vainly conceit that they are righteous, needing no repentance, are left to perish in their own deceivings.
3rdly, Our Lord was ever beset by insidious foes, yet his wisdom enabled him to confute and confound all their malicious designs. We have,
1. The question addressed to Jesus by some of John’s disciples. Why do we and the Pharisees fast oft, but thy disciples fast not? and herein they would insinuate, that they were not so strict and holy in their religious profession as they ought to be. It appears from Luk 5:33 that they were set on by the Pharisees, who joined them; for designing and wicked men study how to set good men at variance, and are happy if they can suggest any cause of discord between them. They seem to take a pride in proclaiming the frequency of their own fasts, and to look down upon the disciples of Jesus as far their inferiors in this respect; and this leaven of self-complacence effectually destroyed what otherwise might be laudable in their practice. Note; they who boast of their own good works, evidently shew that their religion is vain.
2. Christ vindicates his disciples by an appeal to themselves. Can the children of the bride-chamber mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? On such seasons of festivity fasting would be unseasonable. Christ was this heavenly bridegroom, as John had called him, Joh 3:29 he came now openly to espouse his church, even all faithful believers. His disciples were the children of the bride-chamber, who, while their Lord was with them, could not but rejoice; but the time would come, when the bridegroom should be taken from them, and then shall they fast; besides, at present they were young disciples, and therefore to be inured by degrees to harder services. As improper would it be to lay upon them at present these austerities; as to put a piece of new cloth on an old garment, which would soon make a worse hole than that which it covered; or new wine, which ferments most, into old bottles, which, being made of leather or skins, would by long use grow weak, and be liable to burst; but new wine must be put into new bottles, and then both are preserved. There must be a proper consideration had of the persons and their measure of grace; children and babes in Christ must not be set upon the services which require peculiar intenseness of mind, or the severest acts of self-denial, but gently led, as Jacob’s cattle, Gen 33:13 lest by being over-driven they should be destroyed.
4thly, While Jesus was vindicating the conduct of his disciples from the cavils of those who found fault with them, an agreeable avocation calls him from this unpleasing work of disputation.
1. A ruler of the synagogue, a man of rank and importance, applies to Jesus on the behalf of his daughter, who was either now in the very agony of death, as the other evangelists seem to intimate, or by this time, as the father concludes, actually dead. He therefore with deepest humility begs him to come to his house, and lay his hand upon her, persuaded that Jesus could easily restore her, desperate as the case appeared. Though few, very few, in his station respected Christ, he was one of those. Note; The breaches in our family should drive us to the Lord; if not to restore the dead to life, at least to sanctify the providence as a means of quickening our own souls.
2. Christ immediately complies with his request; for he is more willing to give, than we to ask, and none seek him in vain; and his disciples followed him, desirous to behold a fresh instance of the divine power of their Lord.
3. In the way, he heals a poor woman afflicted with a disease of long standing, which weakened her in body, rendered her ceremonially unclean, and impoverished her in seeking a cure, without obtaining any relief, from the physicians. As her disorder was of such a nature that she might be ashamed to mention it, and by the law should have kept her from mingling in society with others, she came behind our Lord, and touched the hem of his garment, persuaded that there was such a plenitude of healing virtue in Jesus, that if she but touched his garment she should certainly be cured. Nor was she disappointed of her hope; she immediately felt herself perfectly well, but must not steal off unnoticed. Though others observed her not, Jesus knew what was done, and, for his own glory and her comfort, addressed her with kind encouragement, saying, Daughter, be of good comfort, thy faith hath made thee whole. Note; (1.) The poor sinner who comes to Christ, ashamed, confounded, and distressed, shall be sent from him rejoicing. (2.) Those who honour Christ by believing in his name, he will honour, approving and rewarding their faith.
4. He is pleased to raise from the dead the ruler’s daughter. At his arrival he found the house filled with mourners and minstrels, as was usual on those occasions, with melancholy notes of woe exciting greater grief and wailing; but he bade them cease their lamentations, and leave the room, since they would find the damsel not, as they supposed, dead and past hope, but as one asleep, whom he would soon awake; though they assured him she was dead, and, supposing the case desperate, treated what he said with utter contempt. But he quickly convinced them of their folly and wickedness herein; for, having ordered them to be put out of the house or room, as unworthy to be spectators of his miracles who thus derided him, in the presence of the father and mother, and three of his disciples, he went in, took her by the hand, and at his word she instantly arose, alive and well as if she had indeed awaked from a refreshing sleep. Note; (1.) Death is but a longer night, and sleep its lesser mysteries. They who die in the Lord, are said to sleep in Jesus; for, though dead to us, they live to him, and only wait for the resurrection-morn to wake up to eternal life and day, when sleep and death shall be no more. (2.) When our dear relatives go before us to their bed of dust, though nature cannot but feel the pangs of parting, believers sorrow not as those who have no hope. If their friends fall asleep in Christ, they may wake up together shortly, never to part again. (3.) Many scoff at Christ’s words, and, because they cannot comprehend them, brand them as foolishness, though they will be found the true sayings of God. (4.) He that by a touch, a word, raised the dead body, does thus by his word and spirit raise the souls of the penitent from the death of sin unto the life of righteousness.
5. The fame of this amazing miracle soon spread throughout that land, the certainty of the fact being put beyond doubt by the multitude of those who had been fully convinced of the damsel’s death.
5thly, Miracle upon miracle confirmed our Lord’s divine mission, and left those inexcusable, who, in the face of such evidence, rejected him. 1. We find him, immediately after raising Jairus’s daughter, giving sight to two blind men. [1.] They followed him with importunate cries, hearing of his fame, and hoping for a cure. He who gave life to the dead could surely give sight to the blind. Their address shewed their persuasion, that Jesus was the true Messiah, the promised Son of David; and all their prayers centered in one point, have mercy on us. All that the sinner needs is comprehended in this one word, and all he can hope for or ask, is of free unmerited grace. Being in the same distress, they joined their mutual supplications; fellow-sufferers should be joint petitioners: and, though their request was not, as usual, immediately granted, they did not desist; but with persevering earnestness followed him through the street, and then into the house. If the Lord Jesus for a while seem to disregard our prayers, it must not be interpreted a denial of our requests, but as designed to quicken our importunity, and to make the mercy sought more valued by us. We shall assuredly succeed, if we faint not.
[2.] In answer to the question of our Lord, they make a noble confession of their faith. Jesus asked them, Believe ye that I am able to do this? to open your eyes, and by my own divine power to cure your blindness? They said unto him, Yea, Lord; we are fully persuaded of it. Note; (1.) In all our trials, the full and fixed persuasion of Christ’s power to save us out of them, must be as an anchor to our souls amid the storm. (2.) Christ requires open profession of our faith, that we may give him the glory due unto his name.
[3.] Hereupon he grants their request. He touched their eyes, saying, According to your faith be it unto you: and their eyes were opened. He knew their sincerity, and he designed to express his approbation of their faith in conferring the cure. Whoever still comes to him with their wants, will find the same language from Jesus; according to our faith the blessings of the Gospel become possessed by us. Whatever we want, faith may ever draw it out of his fulness; and whenever we fail of strength or comfort, we may be assured it is owing to our unbelief.
[4.] He strictly charges them to conceal the miracle that he had wrought for them. Either he shunned all appearance of seeking popular applause, or he knew that the more his fame spread, the more his enemies would be exasperated; or perhaps he did it to prevent the Jews or his own disciples, too much disposed to expect in their Messiah a temporal prince, from crowding around him, or attempting, by insurrections, to set him on the throne of Israel.
[5.] They, notwithstanding, spread abroad his fame; so full of gratitude, they could not conceal the favour; and though their disobedience was not commendable, their motive no doubt pleaded their excuse. Well-meant zeal, though sometimes imprudently exerted, should not meet a harsh censure.
2. He cures a dumb man possessed of a devil. His friends brought him to Jesus as a truly pitiable object, just as the blind men, who were healed, went out; for Christ’s door was open to all the miserable, and he was never weary in doing good. The favour is no sooner asked than granted; the devil is dispossessed, and the dumb man speaks as freely as ever. Note; They who live in the neglect of prayer and praise and godly conversation are under the possession of this spirit of dumbness; but when the heart yields to the grace of Jesus, the tongue of the dumb will instantly sing, speaking his praises, and telling what great things God hath done for his soul.
3. These miracles had a very different effect on the spectators. The multitudes marvelled, and owned, to the glory of Jesus, that never had such miracles been seen before in Israel; so many, so immediate, and performed with such divine authority. But the malignant Pharisees, determined to find fault, though unable to deny the facts, imputed these miracles to diabolical agency, as if Christ was in league with the devil. They who are bent against conviction will always have something to object; and the more they are pressed with the evidence of the truth, the more enraged, inveterate, and blasphemous, is their abuse.
6thly, Christ did not long fix his abode at one place. We have an account,
1. Of his journeys, preaching, and cures, through all the cities and villages of Galilee. He taught, publicly in the synagogues, the doctrines of the Gospel, and the nature, blessings, and privileges of that kingdom which he came to erect; and, in confirmation of his mission, in every place performed the most miraculous cures on the bodies of all the diseased who applied to him, as his word was designed to heal the greater maladies of their souls.
2. Of the compassion that he expressed towards the multitudes who followed him. It grieved him to see the darkness, ignorance, and carelessness which everywhere appeared; they fainted, perishing through want of knowledge; instead of the bread of life and truth, fed with the miserable husks of pharisaical traditions, and misled in the most essential truths of God’s word, through the adulterations with which their scribes had corrupted it; and they were scattered abroad as sheep having no shepherd, exposed to the great destroyer of souls, and destitute of every faithful guide to bring them to the fold of God: they who should have directed them aright contributed to increase their errors, or by total negligence abandoned them to ruin. Our Lord, therefore, stirs up his disciples to pray, that since the harvest is so plenteous, and multitudes of immortal souls are willing to hear the good word of God, and so few to labour for their conversion, to gather them into God’s church,the great Lord of the harvest would send forth labourers qualified for their work, and bless them with success. Note; (1.) They who know the value of their own souls, cannot but feel with Jesus the tenderest compassion for those who live in ignorance, error, and sin, and pity them the more because they appear so insensible, and to have no pity on themselves. (2.) The neglect of ministers is an awful judgment upon the people, and must be attended with aggravated guilt and ruin on their own souls. (3.) When multitudes appear attentive, and willing to hear the Gospel, it is a grief to see them deprived of the means, and a double obligation is laid on the few faithful to exert themselves. (4.) The grievous neglect of men’s souls, which we observe, should excite our fervent prayers to God, that he would revive his work in the midst of the years, and send forth faithful shepherds to feed and guide his flock. (5.) Christ must appoint his own servants; he is the Lord of the harvest; none can call or qualify for the office but himself; and whom he sends, he is able and willing to support and bless; their labour shall not be in vain in the Lord. They who see no gracious fruits of their ministry, may justly conclude that the Lord of the harvest never sent them. (6.) All Christ’s servants are labourers; they are no loiterers who are of his appointing. Diligence, fidelity, and zeal, mark their ministrations.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
38 Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.
Ver. 38. Labourers into his harvest ] Harvestmen, of all others, have the hardest labour, a sore sweating labour. So have faithful ministers. “The householder hath somewhat to do,” said Luther, “the magistrate more, but the minister most of all. He labours more in a day many times, than the husbandman doth in a month. The sweat of the brow is nothing to that of the brain; the former furthers health, the latter impairs it, wearying and wearing out the body: wasting the vitals, and hastening old age and untimely death:” Labores Ecclesiastici alterani corpus, et tanquam ex imis medullis succum ex hauriunt, senium mortemque accelerant.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
38. ] ‘ , ,’ ; , , . , ‘ ’ . ‘ ,’ , , , , , , , . , , . Chrysost. Hom. xxxii. 2, 3, p. 367.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Pray. Greek. deornai. App-134.
power = authority. See App-172.
against = over. Greek Genitive of Relation. App-17.
spirits. Plural of Greek. pneuma. See App-101.
to = so as to.
all manner of = every. Put by Figure of speech Synecdoche (of Genus), App-6, for all kinds of, as in Mat 9:35.
sickness. See note on Mat 9:35.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
38.] , , ; , , . , . ,- , , , , , , , . , , . Chrysost. Hom. xxxii. 2, 3, p. 367.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Mat 9:38. , pray ye) See of how great value prayers are. The Lord of the harvest Himself wishes Himself to be moved by them. More blessings, without doubt, would accrue to the human race, if more men would, on mens behalf,[437] meet the ever ready will of GOD. See Gnomon on 1Ti 2:3. The reaping and sowing is for our advantage. The Lord Himself exhorts us to entreat Him. He prevents us, that He may teach us to prevent Him.[438] (Cf. Joh 16:5.) And forthwith, whilst He is commanding us to pray, He implants the desire, to which it is He too that hearkens. See ch. Mat 10:1. These same persons who are commanded to pray [for labourers], are presently appointed labourers themselves (ibid.)-, the Lord) see ch. Mat 10:1, Mat 13:37. Christ is the Lord of the harvest.- ,[439] to send forth) [440] does not always imply force, as it does in Mat 9:33.
[437] Those who are nearer to God praying in behalf of those who are further removed from Him.-V. g.
[438] Prevent is here used in the old Engl. sense of anticipate, be before another in doing a thing; as in the Book of Common Prayer, Prevent us, O Lord, in all our doings with thy most gracious favour. God would have us also, as it were, prevent Him, or be the first to ask those things, which He really knoweth and willeth to give us before we either desire or ask them, Isa 41:21; Isa 43:26.-ED.
[439] E. M. .-(I. B.)
[440] See Authors Preface. Sect. xiv. and footnotes.-(I. B.)
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Pray: Luk 6:12, Luk 6:13, Act 13:2, 2Th 3:1
the Lord: Mat 10:1-3, Joh 20:21, Eph 4:11
that: Psa 68:11, Psa 68:18, Jer 3:15, Mic 5:7, Luk 10:1, Luk 10:2, Act 8:4, 1Co 12:28
Reciprocal: Lev 26:5 – threshing Num 11:29 – that the Num 27:16 – set a man Isa 30:20 – yet shall Zec 10:4 – of him came forth Mat 6:5 – when Mat 20:1 – a man Joh 4:35 – for Rom 1:15 – I Rom 10:15 – And how Rom 16:12 – labour 1Th 5:12 – labour 1Ti 5:17 – labour 2Ti 2:6 – husbandman
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
9:38
The prayer intimated in this verse will call for something definite to be done. Jesus will himself bring about a fulfillment in the next chapter.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Mat 9:38. Beseech ye. A strong word.
The Lord of the harvest, i.e., God. The harvest included the Gentile nations, for the laborers sent forth at this time afterwards preached to them also.
That he send forth laborers into his harvest. Real laborers are needed, but only such as God sends forth. This prayer to the Lord of the harvest was first answered in the sending forth of laborers (the Twelve) by Christ. The mention of a shepherd (Mat 9:36) suggests that the prayer should be for efficient laborers who are good pastors. New pastors now came to replace the old, oppressive ones who were appointed by law and not impelled by the Spirit.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
9:38 Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will {i} send forth labourers into his harvest.
(i) Literally, “cast them out”: for men are very slow in a work so holy.