Изображения страниц
PDF
EPUB

ration, and that those only who were on the watch would be finally blessed. In both parables, those to whom a difference of allotment is made are marked as members of the Church, or the "elect." In the parable of the virgins, they are the bridegroom's chosen friends, an image with which the disciples were, by this time, quite familiar. In the parable of the talents, the sametruth was conveyed, by the circumstance, that all who had the trust committed to them were the Lord's servants-the very title which the apostles, and especially St. Paul, afterwards applied to themselves, in reference to those many forms of instruction in which their Master had represented them under this image. St. Paul styles himself in his Epistle to the Romans,

[ocr errors]

Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ." St. Peter in his second Epistle, "Simon Peter, a servant of Jesus Christ." Of all his followers Christ spoke, when he told Pilate, "If my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight;" and of all, when he promised, "If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be "."

[blocks in formation]

The time is also fixed to the period which was to elapse between the ascension of Christ, and his re-appearance to judge the world. In the parable of the virgins, it is represented by the interval that is between the bridegroom's absence and return to celebrate the feast-the season of the Church's finished probation and completed joy. In the parable of the talents, it is marked by the similar temporary absence of the Lord who was to return and take account of his servants.

That St. Mark, in his obvious care to abridge and be concise, should have omitted the latter prediction, will not appear so strange, if we consider, that he wrote for a Church composed very much of heathen converts, and therefore less likely to require warning against the strong association which was felt by the Jewish converts, between the Messiah's kingdom and a state of immediate glory and happiness. The same motive might have influenced St. Luke. St. Matthew, on the other hand, was writing for those who had been converted from the centre of Judaism, and whose numbers were receiving additions continually from the same source.

It

is not the only common omission of St. Mark and St. Luke which may be accounted for from this circumstance of difference between their original readers, and those for whose use St. Matthew's Gospel was first composed.

CHAPTER XIV.

CHRIST ANOINTED FOR HIS BURIAL.

Ver. 3-9.

And being in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at meat, there came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard very precious; and she brake the box, and poured it on his head. And there were some that had indignation within themselves, and said, Why was this waste of the ointment made? for it might have been sold for more than three hundred pence, and have been given to the poor. And they murmured against her. And Jesus said, Let her alone; why trouble ye her? she hath wrought a good work on me. For ye have the poor with you always, and whensoever ye will ye may do them good: but me ye have not always. She hath done what she could: she is come aforehand to anoint my body to the burying. Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this Gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, this also that she hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her.

WHEN Saul was marked out by God for the holy kingdom of Israel, "Samuel took a vial of

oil, and poured it upon his head, and kissed him, and said, Is it not because the Lord hath anointed thee to be captain over his inheritance "?" Like to this in import was the action of the woman here recorded. Christ's death and burial formed the stage, which immediately led to that spiritual kingdom, over which he alone was to be Lord and Christ" for ever. Concerning the near approach of this kingdom, he had discoursed so continually of late with his disciples, that their minds were full of the subject, and their attention quickened to the excitement of any hint like this, which from its obvious connection with the divine appointments under the Jewish theocracy, bore no obscure reference to the event.

But who was the woman, who was made the agent in this transaction? Was it from a divine impulse that, like the prophet of old, she came to anoint one greater than Saul, to be captain over the Lord's inheritance? Or, did she merely intend a mark of respect to Jesus, and on this account draw on herself the commendation recorded, and the promise which is here fulfilled, that "wherever the Gospel shall be preached in

⚫ 1 Samuel x. 1.

i. e. Anointed.

« ПредыдущаяПродолжить »