MPV Commentary

Healing.

12, 13. The Lord went out from Capernaum, probably at night, and spent all night in prayer. When day broke, he called his disciples to him.

The work that began the next day shows what had been the burden of this night's devotions. As He directed His disciples to pray for "laborers" just before sending themselves forth (see Matthew 9:37; 10:1), so here we find the Lord Himself in prolonged communion with His Father in preparation for the solemn appointment of those men who were to give birth to His Church, and from whom the world in all time was to take a new mould. How instructive is this!

13-16. (See on Matthew 10:2-4.)

17. The Lord delivered this sermon in the plain, by some rendered "on a level place," that is, a piece of high tableland. This discourse contains little more than a fourth of the Sermon on the Mount recorded by Matthew, but it has woes of its own, as well as the beatitudes common to both.

19. The Lord continued healing, denoting successive acts of mercy till it went over all that needed. There is something unusually grand and pictorial in this touch of description.

20, 21. In the Sermon on the Mount the benediction is pronounced upon the "poor in spirit" and those who "hunger and thirst after righteousness." Here it is simply on the "poor" and the "hungry now." Our Lord seems to have had in view "the poor of this world, rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which God hath promised to them that love Him," as these very beatitudes are paraphrased by James (James 2:5).

21. The word "laugh" is used here to express what in Matthew is called being "comforted."

22. Those who separate themselves from others for the Son of man's sake will be rewarded. Christ binds up the cause of righteousness in the world with the reception of Himself.

23. Those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake will leap for joy, a livelier word than "be exceeding glad" or "exult."

24, 25. The rich and full will laugh now, but they will receive their consolation here and now, and then shall hunger and thirst forever.

26. All people will speak well of the false prophets, alluding to the court paid to them in old times (Micah 2:11). For the principle of this woe and its proper limits, see John 15:19.

27-36. (See on Matthew 5:44-48; 7:12; and 14:12-14.)

37, 38. See on Matthew 7:1, 2; but this is much fuller and more graphic.

39. Can the blind lead the blind? Not in the Sermon on the Mount, but recorded by Matthew in another connection (Matthew 15:14).

40. The disciple aims to come up to his master, and he thinks himself complete when he does so: if you then be blind leaders of the blind, the perfection of one's training under you will only land him the more certainly in one common ruin with yourselves.

41-49. (See on Matthew 7:3-5, 16-27.)