NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

by Dr. Robert R. Seyda

GOSPEL OF MATTHEW

CHAPTER EIGHT

Part III

Verse 18: When Jesus saw the great crowd gathered around Him, He gave orders to sail across the lake to other side.

Although it is unwritten, we can safely assume that after Jesus ate the light meal Peter’s mother-in-law prepared for Him, and people began showing up at Peter’s house seeking healing, that He moved outside to a more open area, which could have been down on the shore where He had preached to crowds before. The gathering masses soon made even this spot too small, so our Lord decided to go across the lake to the SE of Capernaum area where He fed the 5,000.

You can imagine why a healer with the reputation of Jesus of Nazareth would soon attract a tremendous following. Apparently His disciples were not all that keen on the idea. Remember, they had had a frightening experience on such a trip once before. So from the tenor of the text, it appears that while He might have hinted at this earlier in the day, now He “commands” that they go. From this we may conclude that He did not want the crowds to become a problem in restricting His ministry, but a potential for expanding His ministry.

Early church preacher Chrysostom believes that with this action on Jesus’ part to leave the crowd behind, He was teaching them self-constraint. He writes: “Note once again His freedom from pretentiousness, in that as others say, ‘He charged the devils not to say it was He,’¹ so this writer says, He repels the multitudes from Him. Now in so doing, He was at once both training us to be moderate, and at the same time allaying the envy of the Jews, and teaching us to do nothing for display. For He was not, we know, a healer to bodies only, but also a healer of the soul, and a teacher of self-restraint; by disclosing Himself, both by putting away their diseases, and by doing nothing for display. Because they indeed were clinging to Him, loving Him, and marveling at Him, and desiring to look upon Him. For who would depart from one who was doing such miracles? Who would not long, were it only to see the face, and the mouth that was uttering such words?”²

On a personal note, I once was invited to be the guest speaker at an evangelism outreach in a German town near to the city where my father pastored after WWII. The Holy Spirit anointed the effort and crowds such as they had never seen before packed into the small auditorium. Soon the whole town was talking about it and the pastor was thinking about moving to a larger venue. When the planned time came for the meetings to be over, the pastor pleaded with me to stay on and continue the campaign. But I told him that when I prayed about it, I felt peace in my spirit to commit to the two weeks that he asked for. He just couldn’t understand how I could walk away from such an outpouring, and needless to say, nor could I. But the Spirit would not bear witness with my spirit to stay longer. Later on it appeared that his reason for wanting me to stay was that he did not feel qualified or capable in keeping the awakening going on his own.

When we see how the disciples reacted when Jesus told them He must go away, they didn’t understand that either. But the one factor I always had to keep in mind was this: it wasn’t I that brought the spiritual resurgence, it was the Holy Spirit. So I must never assume that He cannot carry on without me, and trust Him to do what I cannot do after I’m gone. We see that 40 days after our Lord ascended, the Holy Spirit came down on the Day of Pentecost, and the Gospel exploded into all the world without Him physically being here on earth.

Cyril of Alexandria also makes a point that shows the necessity of our Lord leaving at this particular moment. He writes: “It is only to the disciples that Jesus gave orders to cross over to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, lest, by the crowds pressing about Him, His disciples would be prevented from hearing those very teachings that were most appropriate for them. To the disciples He revealed God’s future mysteries more deeply than in the things that were spoken to the crowds only in ‘parables.’ Only the disciples had left behind all present goods and followed Him through love of learning. He commands them to cross over from temporary things to eternal things, from the earthly to the heavenly, from the carnal to the spiritual.”³

To continue my story on the revival, at that time I was teaching at the European Bible Seminary in Switzerland. After returning I was able to teach those Bible school students, many of who were along with me as part of the evangelism team, deeper truths about what happened so that they too could go out and let the Holy Spirit duplicate such soul-winning efforts through their ministry. In doing so, I was able to multiply myself through them so that instead of one outreach going on, there could be ten or twenty of the same kind of evangelism efforts occurring simultaneously in different places.

Verses 19-20: Just then a teacher of the law came up to Him and said, “Rabbi, I will follow You wherever You go.” Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of man has no place to lay His head.”

Immediately after Jesus had given the order to go over to the other side of the Sea or Galilee, He was approached by a man in the crowd who had been watching and listening to Him minister. It seems paradoxical then that this very committed person who came to Jesus to be His disciple, was rebuffed so quickly by our Lord, who enumerated the sacrifices involved in following Him. This teacher of the law was one of those who became known as a “scribe.” This was the description of Ezra, “He was a teacher (scribe) and knew the Law of Moses very well. The Law of Moses was given by the Lord, the God of Israel.”⁴ They had no political or sectarian allegiances, but were dedicated to interpreting the Scriptures, which they divided up into three section: The Torah, The Prophets, and The Holy Writings.

Maximus, early church Bishop of Turin, a theologian and preacher made this observation: “The scribe’s declaration is prompt indeed, but proud. The Lord was on His way toward His final suffering, descent into hell and ascent into heaven. Is human frailty really prepared to follow Him ‘wherever He goes’? This is more a foolish presumption than a confession of faith. Later the Lord would say to the apostle Peter, when he thought that he would follow the Savior in every circumstance: ‘Where I am going you are not able to follow Me now.’⁵ And when Peter obstinately insisted and said that death would not separate him from [Jesus], he heard that he would deny the Lord three times. In this he was censured, as it were, for his pride. Thus the one who promised, while confessing Christ, that he would not be separated from Him by death, is cut off from fellowship with Him by a little maidservant’s question.”⁶

I read in one Jewish commentary on the Book of Joshua by Rabbi Chiam Dov Rabinowitz, where the writer commented on Joshua 1:18 and the penalty imposed on those who might rebel against Joshua’s leadership. In response to the encouragement Joshua received from the Reubenites, Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh to remain strong and courageous, Rabbi Rabinowitz adds: “Even the people perceive the many obstacles, yet they place their trust in their leader, who will know how to overcome these challenges. Only if Joshua succeeds in handling these difficulties will they agree to accept his authority.”⁷ No doubt it was by watching Jesus succeed in overcoming all the obstacles placed in His path that inspired His disciples to grow in faith of His being the Messiah, and no doubt motivated this scribe to join them.

Just taking a prophet at his word was a major step. Scribes placed emphasis on the smallest of nuances and shades of meaning. For instance, there is a small Hebrew tractate on how to copy the Torah. In one section instructions are given on what to do: “One leaves between line and line the amount of a line; and between word and word as much as a letter; and between letter and letter as much as a hair; and between column and column as much as a thumb’s-width; if one made the trailing edge of a column up against the leading edge it is unfit to read. If one joined the letters, or made a gap in the middle of a word, it is not to be read from.”⁸ They were particular in everything. We can only imagine what message Jesus was trying to send to this scribe when He talked about fox dens⁹ and bird nests.¹⁰

Maximus, whom we just referenced, goes on further to write about how what Jesus said about foxes could be interpreted in his time period: “Every Christian who wishes to hid his sins is spiritually a fox. For just as the fox lives in a hidden place because of its deceit, so also the sinner conceals himself in dens, keeping silent because of his knowledge of his sins. Just as the fox dare not manifest the deceitfulness of its deeds in the midst of society, so also the sinner is ashamed to confess the wickedness of his life in the midst of the church. One is a fox who sets up a snare for his neighbor, who daily strives to nibble away at others’ property, steal their fruits and devour their animals and – what is common in our day – seize wine like wolves and not only chickens, as the foxes do. Although he is strong enough to live by his own labor, he prefers to take pillage like the madness of a wild beast.”¹¹

But Jesus knew this scribe was familiar with Scripture, so this may have given him a clue to look in Isaiah 53. For someone as familiar with the Torah, the Prophets, and the Wisdom Writings as a scribe, to come to Jesus and offer to follow Him there must have been some compelling reason. Was it due to the fact that the Scriptures were clearly in favor of Jesus being the Messiah? Or was it that Jesus was proving to be so popular a teacher that this scribe wanted to be part of His entourage? We are not told, but the answer Jesus gave the scribe may hold a clue.

But first let’s look at the issue of Jesus referring to Himself as the “Son of Man.” One Jewish polemic writer had this to say in opposition: “This passage we deem as strong proof of the consciousness of Jesus that He was not God. For, if He had really been filled with such a conceit, why should He have called Himself the Son of Man? And moreover, why should He have dissuaded others from relying on Him? Perhaps He bore in mind the admonition given in Psalm 146:3, ‘Do not rely in princes nor trust in the son of man, for a salvation that does not belong to him.’ Or perhaps the words of Jeremiah in chapter 17:5, ‘Cursed is the man who relies on man.’ Had He imagined He was God, why should He have said He had nowhere to lay His head? Would He not have considered the whole earth to be His own resting-place; for does not the Psalmist remind us in Psalm 24:1, ‘That the earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof, the world, and the inhabitants therein’?”¹²

This certainly serves as an example of what the opponents of Jesus thought about His use of this phrase, “Son of Man.” However, according to British scholar John Gill, in the Targum of Abraham ben Ezra and the writings of Isaac Abravanel on the Mashmia Yeshua and others such as the Book of Enoch and Esdras, the Son of Man was considered part of the title for the Messiah. But we must also understand that often Jesus used familiar phrases and expressions to make a point, not make it the point. In this case, our Lord may have been saying in a sly way that this scribe must understand that Jesus was not staying long on this earth in order to establish a school or build a great center of learning. He was just passing through, so this scribe needed to know that once Jesus went away, he would be on his own just like all the other disciples following Him.

As far as we know from Scripture, none of Jesus eleven surviving disciples ever founded a school or learning center, as was common among the Jews of that day. Even the apostle John, who became pastor of the church in Ephesus, did not turn it into a synagogue for Christians to hang around and never go out to preach the good news. Like their Master, they too went where the Spirit led them and lived off of what was given them for support.

This was also true of the apostle Paul. The great educator that he was never led him to settle down and build a seminary in honor of himself. Does that mean we should abandon our Bible Schools and Seminaries. Of course not! They are places which draw people with a desire and commitment to know more about God and His Word, just as Jesus drew disciples to Himself. But once trained, those who attend these institutions should be ready to give their all in spreading the gospel and truth dispensed to them by their teachers, whether it’s at home, across town, across the nation, over in some foreign country or around the world. To be ready to endure whatever inconveniences they may encounter for the glory of God and the spreading of the gospel.

That’s what this scribe had to consider, but was he willing to do so? Was he ready to give up whatever position he had at the local synagogue, leave home and family behind, and embark on a journey without a road map, only the hand of Jesus to guide him? We’ll see shortly.