Matthew 21:46

But when they sought to lay hands on him, they feared the multitude, because they took him for a prophet.

But when they sought to lay hands on him - which Luke (Luke 20:19) says they did "the same hour," hardly able to restrain their rage.

They feared the multitude (rather 'the multitudes' [ tous (G3588 ) ochlous (G3793 )]), because they took him for a prophet - just as they feared to say John's baptism was of men, because the masses took him for a prophet (Matthew 21:26.) Miserable creatures! So, for this time, "they left Him and went their way" (Mark 12:12).

Remarks:

(1) Though argument be thrown away upon those who are resolved not to believe, the wisdom that can silence them and thus obtain a hearing for weighty truths and solemn warnings, is truly enviable. In this our Lord was incomparable, and He hath herein, as in all else, left us an example that we should follow His steps.

(2) The self-righteousness of the Pharisees, which scornfully rejected the salvation of the Gospel, and the conscious unworthiness of the publicans and sinners, which thankfully embraced it, reappear from age to age as types of character. Wherever the Gospel is faithfully preached and earnestly pressed, the self-satisfied religious professors show the old reluctance to receive it on the same footing with the profligate; while there great sinners, conscious that they deeply need it, and cannot dare to hope for it on the footing of merit, gladly hail it as a message of free grace.

(3) A purely democratic form of the Church seems inconsistent with the representations of our Lord in this section-in which official men are supposed, to whom the Great Proprietor of the vineyard "lets it out," and to whom He will naturally look that they should render Him of its fruits. And though the language of parables is not to be stretched beyond the lessons which they may naturally be supposed intended to teach, it is difficult to make anything out of the parable of the wicked husbandmen-at least as regards the Christian Church-on to make anything out of the parable of the wicked husbandmen-at least as regards the Christian Church-on anything short of the above view.

(4) Though our Lord-to meet the charge of setting Himself up against God, by the loftiness of His claims-represents Himself invariably as the Father's commissioned Servant in every step of His work; yet, in relation to other servants and messengers of God, He is careful so to sever Himself from them all, that there may be no danger of His being confounded with them-holding Himself forth as the Son, Only and Well-beloved (Mark 12:6), in the sense of a relationship of nature not to be mistaken, a relationship manifestly implying proper Personal Divinity.

(5) The inheriting of Israel after the flesh, and the substitution or surrogation of the Gentiles in their place, must not be misunderstood. As Gentiles were not absolutely excluded from the Church of God under the Jewish economy, so neither are Jews now shut out from the Church of Christ. All that we are taught is, that as it was the purpose of God to constitute the seed of Abraham of old to be His visible people, so now, for their unfaithfulness to the great trust committed to them, it has been transferred to the Gentiles, from among whom, accordingly, God is now taking out a people for His name. When, therefore, we are assured that the time is coming when "all Israel shall be saved" (Romans 11:26), that cannot mean merely that they will drop into the Christian Church individually from time to time-for that they have been doing all along, and have never ceased to do-but that they shall be nationally re-engrafted into their own olive tree, not now to the exclusion of the Gentiles, but to constitute along with them one universal Church of God upon earth. (See the notes at Romans 11:22; Romans 11:26; Romans 11:28.)

(6) "If some of the branches be broken off, and thou," O Gentile, "being a wild olive tree, wert graffed in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree; boast not against the branches. Thou wilt say, The branches were broken off, that I might be graffed in. Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear: for if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest He also spare not thee. Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in His goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off" (Romans 11:17; Romans 11:19). Nor is this a mere threatening in case of Gentile unbelief; because Scripture prophecy too clearly intimates, that at that great crisis in the history of Christendom when "all Israel shall be saved," a vast portion of the Gentile Church shall be found equally unfaithful to the trust committed to them with Israel of old, and will be judged accordingly. "Wherefore, let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall."