Matthew 11:19

Matthew 11:19

I. The idea of the essential badness of pleasure has been very commonly held and advocated by the propounders of ethical and religious systems. The religions of the Hindus and the Buddhists aim at the gradual suppression of the body, and the entire eradication of desire. Like many other views which find no warrant in the Christianity of Christ, this idea has had a considerable influence upon the Christianity of Christendom.

II. Asceticism in its extreme form, in which it is synonymous with the worship of pain, will scarcely bear a moment's examination. The supposition that God takes delight in agony is the foulest of all conceivable blasphemies. Asceticism, however, often takes a somewhat different form. Many persons seem to think that they ought by rights to care for nothing but heaven. They seem to think, as they lavish their affections upon those who are dear to them, that God is watching them with an angry, greedy jealousy, and will never be satisfied till He has concentrated the whole wealth of their love upon Himself.

III. Now this is not the kind of self-denial which Christ requires from us. Serious and earnest as the Saviour was, no one can say that He was a harsh or gloomy ascetic. Think of Him at the marriage festival. Think of His friendly visits to the family at Bethany. He never refused anything agreeable, except when it would have hindered Him in the accomplishment of His Father's work. "I pray not," said our Lord, "that Thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that Thou shouldest keep them from the evil." "The Son of man came eating and drinking." Ay, the very Man of Sorrows refused to join in the irrational worship of pain.

A. W. Momerie, The Origin of Evil,p. 123.

References: Matthew 11:19. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. x., No. 556; J. W. Lance, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xv., p. 129; F. W. Farrar, Contemporary Pulpit,vol. i., p. 46; F. W. Robertson, The Human Race and Other Sermons,p. 182.Matthew 11:20. J. Tulloch, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xxiv., p. 25.Matthew 11:20; Matthew 11:21. H. W. Beecher, Ibid.,vol. xxix., p. 233.Matthew 11:20. A. B. Bruce, Expositor,1st series, vol. v., p. 387; R. M. McCheyne, Additional Remains,p. 514; Parker, Inner Life of Christ,vol. ii., p. 173.Matthew 11:21; Matthew 11:22. C. Girdlestone, Twenty Parochial Sermons,2nd series, p. 275.