Matthew 26
WesleyMatthew 26:6
I knew thou art a hard man - No. Thou knowest him not. He never knew God, who thinks him a hard master. Reaping where thou hast not sown - That is, requiring more of us than thou hast given us power to perform. So does every obstinate sinner, in one kind or other, lay the blame of his own sins on God.
Matthew 26:7
And I was afraid - Lest if I had improved my talent, I should have had the more to answer for. So from this fear, one will not learn to read, another will not hear sermons!
Matthew 26:8
Thou knewest - That I require impossibilities! This is not an allowing, but a strong denial of the charge.
Matthew 26:9
Thou oughtest therefore - On that very account, on thy own supposition, to have improved my talent, as far as was possible.
Matthew 26:11
To every one that hath shall he given - So close does God keep to this stated rule, from the beginning to the end of the world. Matthew 13:12.
Matthew 26:12
Cast ye the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness - For what? what had he done? It is true he had not done good. But neither is he charged with doing any harm. Why, for this reason, for barely doing no harm, he is consigned to outer darkness. He is pronounced a wicked, because he was a slothful, an unprofitable servant. So mere harmlessness, on which many build their hope of salvation, was the cause of his damnation!
There shall be the weeping - Of the careless thoughtless sinner; and the gnashing of teeth - Of the proud and stubborn. The same great truth, that there is no such thing as negative goodness, is in this chapter shown three times: In the parable of the virgins; In the still plainer parable of the servants, who had received the talents; and In a direct unparabolical declaration of the manner wherein our Lord will proceed at the last day. The several parts of each of these exactly answers each other, only each rises above the preceding.
Matthew 26:13
When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him - With what majesty and grandeur does our Lord here speak of himself Giving us one of the noblest instances of the true sublime. Indeed not many descriptions in the sacred writings themselves seem to equal this. Methinks we can hardly read it without imagining ourselves before the awful tribunal it describes.
Matthew 26:16
Inherit the kingdom - Purchased by my blood, for all who have believed in me with the faith which wrought by love. Prepared for you - On purpose for you. May it not be probably inferred from hence, that man was not created merely to fill up the places of the fallen angels?
Matthew 26:17
I was hungry, and ye gave me meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink - All these works of outward mercy suppose faith and love, and must needs he accompanied with works of spiritual mercy. But works of this kind the Judge could not mention in the same manner. He could not say, I was in error, and ye recalled me to the truth; I was in sin, and ye brought me to repentance. In prison - Prisoners need to be visited above all others, as they are commonly solitary and forsaken by the rest of the world.
Matthew 26:19
Then shall the righteous answer - It cannot be, that either the righteous or the wicked should answer in these very words. What we learn herefrom is, that neither of them have the same estimation of their own works as the Judge hath.
Matthew 26:22
Inasmuch as ye did it to one of the least of these my brethren, ye did it to me - What encouragement is here to assist the household of faith? But let us likewise remember to do good to all men.
Matthew 26:23
Depart into the everlasting fire, which was prepared for the devil and his angels - Not originally for you: you are intruders into everlasting fire.
Matthew 26:26
Then will they answer - So the endeavour to justify themselves, will remain with the wicked even to that day!
Matthew 26:28
And these shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life everlasting - Either therefore the punishment is strictly eternal, or the reward is not: the very same expression being applied to the former as to the latter. The Judge will speak first to the righteous, in the audience of the wicked. The wicked shall then go away into everlasting fire, in the view of the righteous. Thus the damned shall see nothing of the everlasting life; but the just will see the punishment of the ungodly. It is not only particularly observable here, That the punishment lasts as long as the reward; but, That this punishment is so far from ceasing at the end of the world, that it does not begin till then.
Matthew 26:30
When Jesus had finished all these discourses - When he had spoken all he had to speak. Till then he would not enter upon his passion: then he would delay it no longer. Mark 14:1; Luke 22:1.
Matthew 26:31
After two days is the passover - The manner wherein this was celebrated gives much light to several circumstances that follow. The master of the family began the feast with a cup of wine, which having solemnly blessed, he divided among the guests, Luke 22:17. Then the supper began with the unleavened bread and bitter herbs; which when they had all tasted, one of the young persons present, according to Exodus 12:26, asked the reason of the solemnity. This introduced the showing forth, or declaration of it: in allusion to which we read of showing forth the Lord’s death, 1 Corinthians 11:26. Then the master rose up and took another cup, before the lamb was tasted. After supper, he took a thin loaf or cake, which he broke and divided to all at the table, and likewise the cup, usually called the cup of thanksgiving, of which he drank first, and then all the guests. It was this bread and this cup which our Lord consecrated to be a standing memorial of his death.
Matthew 26:32
The chief priests and the scribes and the elders of the people - (Heads of families.) These together constituted the sanhedrim, or great council, which had the supreme authority, both in civil and ecclesiastical affairs.
Matthew 26:34
But they said, Not at the feast - This was the result of human wisdom. But when Judas came they changed their purpose. So the counsel of God took place, and the true paschal Lamb was offered up on the great day of the paschal solemnity.
Matthew 26:35
Matthew 26:37
His disciples seeing it, had indignation, saying - It seems several of them were angry, and spoke, though none so warmly as Judas Iscariot.
Matthew 26:40
Ye have the poor always with you - Such is the wise and gracious providence of God, that we may have always opportunities of relieving their wants, and so laying up for ourselves treasures in heaven.
Matthew 26:41
She hath done it for my burial - As it were for the embalming of my body. Indeed this was not her design: but our Lord puts this construction upon it, to confirm thereby what he had before said to his disciples, concerning his approaching death.
Matthew 26:42
This Gospel - That is, this part of the Gospel history.
Matthew 26:43
Matthew 26:44
They bargained with him for thirty pieces of silver - (About three pounds fifteen shillings sterling; or sixteen dollars sixty - seven cents,) the price of a slave, Exodus 21:32.
Matthew 26:46
On the first day of unleavened bread - Being Thursday, the fourteenth day of the first month, Exodus 12:6,15. Mr 14:12 Lu 22:7
Matthew 26:47
The Master saith, My time is at hand - That is, the time of my suffering.
Matthew 26:49
Matthew 26:52
He that dippeth his hand with me in the dish - Which it seems Judas was doing at that very time. This dish was a vessel full of vinegar, wherein they dipped their bitter herbs.
Matthew 26:53
The Son of man goeth through sufferings to glory, as it is written of him - Yet this is no excuse for him that betrayeth him: miserable will that man be: it had been good for that man if he had not been born - May not the same be said of every man that finally perishes? But who can reconcile this, if it were true of Judas alone, with the doctrine of universal salvation?
Matthew 26:54
Thou hast said - That is, it is as thou hast said.
Matthew 26:55
Jesus took the bread - the bread or cake, which the master of the family used to divide among them, after they had eaten the passover. The custom our Lord now transferred to a nobler use. This bread is, that is, signifies or represents my body, according to the style of the sacred writers. Thus Genesis 40:12, The three branches are three days. Thus Galatians 4:24, St. Paul speaking of Sarah and Hagar, says, These are the two covenants. Thus in the grand type of our Lord, Exodus 12:11, God says of the paschal lamb, This is the Lord’s passover. Now Christ substituting the holy communion for the passover, follows the style of the Old Testament, and uses the same expressions the Jews were wont to use in celebrating the passover.
Matthew 26:56
And he took the cup - Called by the Jews the cup of thanksgiving; which the master of the family used likewise to give to each after supper.
Matthew 26:57
This is the sign of my blood, whereby the new testament or covenant is confirmed. Which is shed for many - As many as spring from Adam.
Matthew 26:58
I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, till I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom - That is, I shall taste no more wine, till I drink wine of quite another kind in the glorious kingdom of my Father. And of this you shall also partake with me.
Matthew 26:59
And when they had sung the hymn - Which was constantly sung at the close of the passover. It consisteth of six psalms, from the 113th to the 118th. Psalms 113:1 &c. The mount of Olives - Was over against the temple, about two miles from Jerusalem. Mark 14:26; Luke 22:39; John 18:1.
Matthew 26:60
All ye will be offended at me - Something will happen to me, which will occasion your falling into sin by forsaking me. Zechariah 13:7.
Matthew 26:61
But notwithstanding this, after I am risen I will go before you (as a shepherd before his sheep) into Galilee. Though you forsake me, I will not for this forsake you.
Matthew 26:63
Before cock crowing thou wilt deny me thrice - That is, before three in the morning, the usual time of cock crowing: although one cock was heard to crow once, after Peter’s first denial of his Lord.
Matthew 26:64
In like manner also said all the disciples - But such was the tenderness of our Lord, that he would not aggravate their sin by making any reply.
Matthew 26:65
Then cometh Jesus to a place called Gethsemane - That is, the valley of fatness. The garden probably had its name from its soil and situation, laying in some little valley between two of those many hills, the range of which constitutes the mount of Olives. Mark 14:32; Luke 22:40.
Matthew 26:66
And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee - To be witnesses of all; he began to be sorrowful and in deep anguish - Probably from feeling the arrows of the Almighty stick fast in his soul, while God laid on him the iniquities of us all. Who can tell what painful and dreadful sensations were then impressed on him by the immediate hand of God? The former word in the original properly signifies, to be penetrated with the most exquisite sorrow; the latter to be quite depressed, and almost overwhelmed with the load.
Matthew 26:68
And going a little farther - About a stone’s cast, Luke 22:41 - So that the apostles could both see and hear him still. If it be possible, let this cup pass from me - And it did pass from him quickly. When he cried unto God with strong cries and tears, he was heard in that which he feared. God did take away the terror and severity of that inward conflict.
Matthew 26:70
The spirit - Your spirit: ye yourselves. The flesh - Your nature. How gentle a rebuke was this, and how kind an apology! especially at a time when our Lord’s own mind was so weighed down with sorrow.
Matthew 26:74
Sleep on now, if you can, and take your rest - For any farther service you can be of to me.