Our passage today from Matthew 21 is the first of three parables that Jesus spoke to the chief priests and elders in Jerusalem. We have already seen in Matthew 21 how Jesus’ actions and words have provoked the religious leaders in Jerusalem. First, Jesus rode into the city of Jerusalem on a donkey’s colt while the people declared Him to be the Messiah and King (Matt. 21:8-11). He had purposefully arranged the details carefully to fulfill the prophecy of Zechariah 9:9, thus, proclaiming Himself to be the King of the Jews (Matt. 21:1-7). Next, Jesus entered into the temple and overturned the tables of those buying and selling there, saying “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’ ” (Mat. 21:13). In so doing, Jesus stood against their hypocrisy and false worship.
Jesus then showed what true faith in God looks like when He healed the blind and lame in the temple and received the praise of children over the objections of the chief priests and scribes (Matt. 21:14-16). Then, He cursed the fig tree as a sign of God’s judgment coming on the Israelites for their lack of fruit and lack of faith.
In Matthew 21:23, the chief priests and elders in the temple pushed back, confronting Jesus in the temple and asking Him, “By what authority are You doing these things? And who gave You this authority?” It was an insincere question designed to trap Jesus and accuse Him. But Jesus, knowing their unbelieving hearts, didn’t fall for it. Instead, He turned the tables on them and asked about John’s baptism, was it from heaven or from men? (Matt. 21:25). Jesus said if they answer His question, He would answer theirs (Matt. 21:24). In fact, if they truly answered Jesus’ question, it would answer their own question because John had testified that Jesus was the Christ and the Son of God. But they did not want to recognize Jesus’ authority, so they answered, “We do not know” (Matt. 21:27). Therefore, Jesus would not tell these unbelieving leaders the answer to their question either.
Yet Jesus doesn’t simply drop the matter. Instead, He tells a series of parables and continues to question them in order to highlight the real issue, namely their stubborn refusal to repent and believe.
I love the Lord’s Church. There is no other assembly of people who will love you, pray for you, fellowship with you, teach you, correct you, and help you like the church of Jesus Christ. And generally, we find very little problem maintaining our Christian relationships when other believers do the right thing and behave toward us and others as they should. The problems arise when we and they sin—sin against God and sin against one another. How do you respond when a fellow Christian wrongs you? What do you do when a Christian brother or sister is caught in sin?
I have seen Christians and churches respond in a number of ways to sinning members—not all of them beneficial or biblical. Some respond with indifference, saying things like, “Well, we can’t be judgmental. We all sin. It’s none of my business.” Jesus shows that this response is neither loving nor scriptural. Some respond with self-righteous hypocrisy, trying to remove the speck from your brother’s eye with a plank in your own eye (Matt. 7:1-5). Others respond by spreading gossip or slander about them to others. Regrettably, that is just adding more sin and division in the church. How does Jesus teach us to respond to a brother or sister who sins against us? In Matthew 18:15-20, Jesus teaches to humbly, gently, and firmly seek to restore a brother or sister.
In Matthew 12, we are in a narrative section of Matthew that focuses on mission and conflict.[1] As Jesus and His disciples go about the mission of preaching the kingdom of God, conflict arises and intensifies with the religious leaders of the Pharisees and scribes. At the beginning of Matthew 12, the Pharisees were provoked because Jesus and His disciples did not follow their Sabbath traditions. When Jesus healed a man with a withered hand on the Sabbath in their Synagogue, the Pharisees were so enraged that they began to plot with their rivals, the Herodians, to murder Jesus (Matt. 12:14).
Then, when Jesus healed a demon-possessed man who was blind and mute so that the man could speak and see, the Pharisees accused Jesus of casting out demons by Beelzebub, the prince of demons. Jesus, knowing their thoughts, responded by disproving their ridiculous and blasphemous accusation, and by warning them that they were demonstrating themselves to be evil men who speak from evil hearts. Jesus warned them against blaspheming the Holy Spirit and committing the unpardonable sin. This warning troubled them, but they were still not convinced that He was the Messiah—far from it. So, in this next section, they demanded a sign from Jesus. In return, Jesus rebukes them for asking for a sign instead of believing, assesses their spiritual condition, and warns them of judgment.
Have you ever asked God for a sign? If you have, you’re not alone. In the Bible, God sometimes gave signs to both believers and unbelievers. To Noah, God said, “I set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth.” (Gen. 9:13). At the burning bush, God said to Moses, “I will certainly be with you. And this shall be a sign to you that I have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.” (Exo. 3:12). Gideon asked for a sign that God would use him to save Israel by laying out a fleece of wool and asking that it be wet or dry. And God graciously gave him what he asked (Judges 6:36-40).
God actually told unbelieving King Ahaz, “Ask a sign for yourself from the LORD your God; ask it either in the depth or in the height above.” (Isa 7:11). When he refused, God Himself gave the sign of Immanuel in the virgin’s birth (Isa. 7:14).
And of course, Jesus did work signs. His miracles were signs of who He is. Peter, preaching on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2, says, “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a Man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves also know.” Even His enemies could not deny that Jesus did miraculous signs. In John’s Gospel, after Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, the chief priests and Pharisees gathered a council and said, “What shall we do? For this Man works many signs.” (John 11:47). In the next chapter John writes, “But although He had done so many signs before them, they did not believe in Him,” (John 12:37).
We see from the scriptures that signs from God can be good things. But they are no guarantee of faith. Faith is believing what God has said not seeing what God has done. The person who believes what God says is one who trusts the very nature and ability of God. The skeptic is uncertain whether God will or God can do something—and so he asks for a sign. In the case of the scribes and Pharisees, they asked for a sign, not because they wanted to believe in Jesus, but because they were determined to disprove and reject Jesus.
First, we see that…
1. They ask a sign from Jesus (Matt. 12:38)
“Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered, saying, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from You.” (Matt. 12:38).
Think about when they said this. Jesus had just cast a demon out of a man who was blind and mute, so the man could see and speak. And they ask Jesus for a miraculous sign? Since no previous signs had been enough to convince them, they are apparently asking for something more spectacular than what they had seen.[2] So they ask to see a sign, presumably a miracle performed just for them, something that would amaze them while presenting irrefutable evidence that His claims were true (cf. John 6:30). In Luke’s parallel account, he writes, “Others, testing Him, sought from Him a sign from heaven.” (Luke 11:16). They demanded something that required no faith but just sight. What did they want? – “that the heavens be moved, the clouds made to gyrate, sun, moon, and stars to perform antics, visions to be painted in the sky with unearthly colors, angel hosts to parade down the milky way?”[3]
Doesn’t their attitude sound a lot like what the devil said when he tempted Jesus in the wilderness in Matthew 4? Satan said, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread,” (Matt. 4:3). And again, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written: ‘He shall give His angels charge over you,’ and, ‘In their hands they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone.’” (Matt. 4:6). The scribes and Pharisees were also daring Jesus to do a sign on demand for them. But they had no more intention of believing in Jesus than the devil did. It would do no good to give such a sign. Lenski writes, “Suppose for a moment that Jesus had met this demand…” Such a sign would “… meet no spiritual need, point to no deliverance from sin, have no affinity with saving faith…”[4] Even if Jesus did some sign in the heavens, they would soon be asking for more. It would only further fuel their unbelief and rejection of Jesus because their attitude came from an evil heart.
Look at how Jesus answers their request.
2. He announces the sign of Jonah (Matt. 12:39-40)
Matthew 12:39 says, “But He answered and said to them, ‘An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.’” Jesus exposed the evil hearts of these scribes and Pharisees. Their craving for a sign only indicated that they did not trust God as they claimed.
They were “an evil and adulterous generation.” Earlier generations of the children of Israel had been declared adulterous because of their worship of the false gods of Baal, Molech, and Asherah. They had been unfaithful to God. Although this generation had abandoned the Canaanite gods, they were still unfaithful. Instead of following God, they placed their hope and trust in the idol of man-made religious tradition. They were spiritual adulterers.
So, Jesus refuses to give them the sign they are demanding. Jesus did not perform signs like magic tricks just to entertain the stubborn-hearted. He said, “no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.” They would not get the convincing sign they demanded, but God would give a confirming sign. Jesus was telling them that they would have one more opportunity to believe—the sign of His resurrection would prove who He is and what His life and death were all about. They had rejected every other sign that Jesus had given them, so there was one more, but they would have to wait for it.
Jesus calls it “the sign of the prophet Jonah.” If you remember, Jonah was a prophet of Israel who was appointed by God to go to Nineveh, the capital of Israel’s enemies, the Assyrians, and warn them of God’s coming judgment. Jonah did not want to go. The Assyrians were a wicked and violent nation, and nothing would have pleased Jonah more than to have God destroy them. So, Jonah got on a ship heading in the opposite direction. God caused a severe storm to arise and eventually, Jonah is tossed overboard. God saves Jonah from drowning by preparing a great fish to swallow the prophet. After three days and nights in the belly of this sea monster, it spits him out on the land. Jonah then goes to Nineveh and completes what God told him to do in the first place.
In Matthew 12:40, Jesus explains what He means by “the sign of Jonah”, saying, “For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” This was a prediction of Jesus’ coming death, burial, and resurrection. That would be the sign God would give.
No miracle Jesus worked proved Him to be the Messiah more than His resurrection from the grave. Paul writes in Romans 1:4 that Jesus was, “declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.” The resurrection proved Jesus is the Son of God.
Would they look for it and heed it? Sadly, No. Jesus said in His story of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16:31, that “If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead.” God’s word is sufficient. God’s word is enough. If you don’t believe God’s word, then even if someone rises from the dead, you’re not going to believe. And looking at the end of the Gospel of Matthew, that is exactly what happened. When the guards came and reported the empty tomb, the angels, and all that happened, the religious leaders paid them to spread a lie that the disciples had stolen Jesus’ body while the guards slept. Even the resurrection wouldn’t work to prove who Jesus was to them. It would only confirm them in their evil unbelief.
Jesus’ own resurrection from the dead would be the sign given to them – but they would reject that too and it would be part of the judgment against them. Jesus now explains how certain their judgment would be because of their hardness of heart to see and respond to what has already been given to them.
3. He assures them of judgment (Matt. 12:41-42)
Jesus says, “The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and indeed a greater than Jonah is here. The queen of the South will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and indeed a greater than Solomon is here.” (Matt. 12:41-42).
Jesus has just spoken about the sign of Jonah, and now he draws another lesson from Jonah’s life. The people of Nineveh repented at Jonah’s preaching. We read about this incident in Jonah 3. The Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land. Jonah obeyed God and went to Nineveh to proclaim the word of the Lord. Jonah 3:4 says, “And Jonah began to enter the city on the first day’s walk. Then he cried out and said, ‘Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!’” Jonah just preached God’s judgment. He didn’t tell them why they would be destroyed or even call them to repent. And Jonah certainly did not prove his prophecy with signs and wonders. Yet, Nineveh repented. The Gentile, pagan people of Nineveh repented at the reluctant preaching of Jonah.
Now, this generation has the Messiah in their midst–“a greater than Jonah is here.” Infinitely greater! The Son of God has preached the gospel of the kingdom, taught the word of God, and demonstrated His authority by signs and wonders. He has called them to repent. But unlike Nineveh, they would not repent.
The Queen of the South is the Queen of Sheba mentioned in 1 Kings 10:1-13 and 2 Chronicles 9:1-9. She was from the country of the Sabeans located in lower Arabia some 1,200 miles southeast of Israel. At that time considered the “ends of the earth.” She, like the Ninevites, responded to what little she heard. She heard reports of the fame of King Solomon concerning the name of the LORD (1 Kings 10:1). She had no invitation, but she wanted to hear His wisdom. So, she made a long journey carrying gold, jewels, and spices as gifts for Solomon. All she had was a second-hand report. And the report didn’t even do justice to the truth, but she came.
The Queen of Sheba’s lavish respect for Solomon stood in stark contrast to Israel’s flat-out rejection of Christ. Yet Christ is greater than Solomon (Matthew 12:42). Solomon was a son of David, but Jesus is the Son of David who is also the Son of God. Solomon was rich, but Jesus is the Creator of all riches. Solomon possessed the gift of wisdom, but Jesus is “the power of God and the wisdom of God” (Col. 1:24). Solomon built a temple for God, but Jesus is the temple of God (John 2:21).
Jesus warns the Pharisees that the people of Nineveh and the Queen of Sheba will both condemn them at the day of judgment. Why? Because Jesus is greater than either Jonah or Solomon. Nineveh repented, the Queen heard, came, and praised God. This evil and adulterous generation would do neither.
Finally, In Matthew 12:43-45 Jesus describes the judgment that would come upon them because of their neglect to repent and believe.
4. He alerts them to the danger of empty religion (Matt. 12:43-45)
Jesus illustrates His warning to the scribes and Pharisees for their refusal to repent and believe in Him. He uses a rather disturbing illustration of an evil spirit who returns and finds his former home empty. Listen to it:
43“When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest, and finds none. 44Then he says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when he comes, he finds it empty, swept, and put in order.45Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first. So shall it also be with this wicked generation.” (Matt. 12:43-45)
First, let me say that Jesus is not teaching a course on demonology in this passage.[5] Jesus is not giving any teaching about demons here other than that they can inhabit a man, go out of the man, and then return later with more demons. He does not tell us why the demon left. Nothing explains what the “dry places” are or why the demon is wandering around in them. We can discern that it is not the kind of place the demon wants to be because the demon wants to go back to the man he had inhabited before. Let’s not get lost in trying to figure out the demon. Remember the context. Why did Jesus tell this story? His conclusion is, “So shall it also be with this wicked generation.” Jesus’ purpose in telling this illustration is to point out the judgment that would come upon that generation. They would end up in a worse condition than what they had started out in.
Remember the history of the Jewish people. In the centuries that preceded Jesus’ coming, the Jewish people had fallen into the sin of idolatry. They worshiped the false gods of the pagan nations around them. As a result, just as He had warned through the prophets, God cast His people out of their land and sent them into exile in Babylon for seventy years.
After the exile, again, just as God promised, God restored them to their own land. Historically, they never again fell into the sin of idolatry as they had before the exile. They had, you might say, “cleaned up their act” they “swept” and “put it order” their lives and their nation. They reformed.
But by the time of our Lord’s earthly ministry, their religion had all become a merely external ‘moral reform’. They had developed, and had carefully articulated, all the “do’s” and “don’t’s” of the law. They built up traditions that took the place of the word of God. They prided themselves on their strict obedience to their traditions. But it was not a matter of the heart. It was not a matter of “relationship” with the living God. They had drawn near with their mouths, and honored God with their lips; but their hearts were far from Him (Matthew 15:8). They were “empty, swept, and put in order,” but far from God.
Think about the remarkable times in which these Jewish people lived! They heard the preaching of John the Baptist as he pointed to Jesus as “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). The Son of God walked among them. They beheld His miracles and heard His teaching. And yet, they rejected Him. They saw Him work miracles in the power of the Holy Spirit, and yet they dared to accuse Him of working in the power of the devil.
They were morally upright but spiritually empty. You see, it’s not enough to be empty. You need to be filled. It’s not enough to be empty of evil or wickedness. You need to be filled with Christ’s righteousness. It’s not enough to hear the gospel. You need to respond to the gospel. What good does it do you to get your life together, if you don’t give your life to Christ?
Those who hear the gospel and reject Christ are worse off than they were before. The apostle Peter describes such people in this way:
For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning. For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them. But it has happened to them according to the true proverb: “A dog returns to his own vomit,” and, “a sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire” (2 Peter 2:20-22).
You need to respond to the gospel. It’s not enough to be empty; you need to be filled. Just like the man with the evil spirit, those who hear the gospel and reject Christ are worse off than they were before. It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God (Heb. 10:31).
It should also serve as a warning to us in our daily duty of presenting Christ to the lost people of this world—to our family members, our friends, our workmates, and our neighbors. Our goal is not to simply help the people around us to live “better lives”. That’s certainly a good thing in the right context; but if that alone is all that happens, then it’s a dreadfully bad thing! If that’s all we do—if all that we do is help them live moral lives, but do not help them trust in Jesus Christ as Lord in their hearts—then all we’ve done is, as our Savior has put it, made them “empty, swept, and put in order” . . . and also dangerously open and vulnerable to even worse evil.
If you have never responded to the gospel, what are you waiting for? Are you waiting for a sign? God already gave you the best sign he could ever give. Two thousand years ago Jesus Christ rose from the dead. Jesus died on the cross for your sins, and he rose again on the third day, triumphant over sin and death and the grave. He offers you new life through the Spirit, forgiveness of sins in the present, and eternal life with him when you die.
Are you seeking signs from Christ? Or are you seeking Jesus Himself? Don’t leave today, whether believer or non-believer, until you can leave knowing that your life is right with God.
[2] Hal M. Haller Jr., “The Gospel according to Matthew,” in The Grace New Testament Commentary, ed. Robert N. Wilkin (Denton, TX: Grace Evangelical Society, 2010), 59.
One of the most joyful occasions you can experience as a follower of Christ is when you share the gospel with someone, and they believe. One of the saddest occasions you can experience as a follower of Christ is when you share the gospel with someone, and they do not believe but reject the salvation offered to them in Christ.
In Matthew’s Gospel, we have seen that both John the Baptist and Jesus preached the same message, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matt. 3:2; 4:17). Jesus showed that John was the promised Elijah who prepare and announce the coming of the Messiah. If John is the promised messenger, then Jesus is the Messiah. Jesus affirmed that John’s message was true and that they should take heed. They should, “Repent, and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15). But not everyone accepted John’s message (Matt. 11:14). Jesus warned them in Matthew 11:15, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” In Matthew 11:16-24 Jesus described some of those who would not listen or take heed to John’s message or Jesus’ message. Two major groups who would not repent and believe were those who were critical and those who were unrepentant. Both attitudes display the peril of indifference to Jesus and His kingdom.[1]
1. The Critics (Matt. 11:16-19)
Jesus says in Matthew 11:16, “But to what shall I liken this generation? …” How can he describe the nature of this generation that has been privileged to see and hear both John the Baptist and Jesus, and yet still reject them and their message? In what way can Jesus describe their behavior? Jesus chooses a comparison that demonstrates their childishness: “… It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to their companions and saying: ‘We played the flute for you, And you did not dance; We mourned to you, And you did not lament.’” (Matt. 11:16-17).
Children like to play games and what Jesus described here are two games that were often played by the children who gathered in the marketplace while their parents transacted the business of buying and selling and such. If you have watched a group of children for any length of time, you have witnessed the kind of scene that Jesus described here. Some children want to play one game and others don’t want to play that game so they criticize the first game. Then other children think of another game and some of the children don’t want to play that other game so they criticize it.
The two games here are “Wedding” and “Funeral.” The reference to the playing of the flute and the dancing describes a wedding, while the singing of the dirge and the mourning refer to a funeral. Weddings and funerals were the big social events of the time. Each lasted several days, and each involved large numbers of people. Funerals and weddings were about the most excitement that children saw on a regular basis.
I think we can easily imagine the scene that Jesus is painting for us. A group of children saying, “Let’s play wedding.” So, they pick a boy to play the groom and a girl to play the bride, others to play the attendants, friends, family members, and musicians. They say, “Play the music, let’s dance!” But some of the kids (probably nine and ten year old boys) don’t want to play wedding—maybe they think only girls want to play that. So they say, “Let’s play funeral.” So, they pick someone to play the corpse, others get chosen to be pall bearers, musicians, and mourners. They say, “Play the sad music, let’s all mourn.” But the other children say, “We don’t want to play funeral, that’s sick!” So back and forth the arguments go.
And any adult watching those kids understands some of these children are just being selfish. And Jesus says, “That is what you are like”. You are like a bunch of spoiled children who are only interested in doing what you want and you are unwilling to change your mind. Jesus says they are like a bunch of spoiled, selfish kids who are unwilling to change to enter the kingdom.
Obviously, that is a harsh rebuke. They are being childish, selfish, and unbending. Is that true of their generation? Jesus shows it is by following up His comparison with the evidence. In Matthew 11:18-19 Jesus applied the analogy to the way they criticized the ministries of both John the Baptist and Jesus: “For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’ The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look, a glutton and a winebibber, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’” John came with a very serious message of repentance while living an austere life as a Nazirite. He didn’t eat or drink the pleasant common foods, but instead ate locust and wild honey. John came abstaining from all worldly desires and commanding them to repent. How did they respond to John? They wrote him off as demon-possessed and rejected his message.
By contrast, Jesus came as the opposite. If John was the funeral, then Jesus was the wedding. Jesus was a man among men. He lived in the city; and ate and drank and feasted. He enjoyed people. He even reached out to the outcasts of society—tax collectors and sinners—with His message of grace and mercy. He loved people and called them to repent. How did they respond? They said that Jesus could not be a holy man from God since He ate and drank with the wrong kind of people. They called Him a glutton and a drunkard.
The point, of course, was that there was no way to please these critics. They were acting like spoiled, selfish children who were never satisfied. Jesus’ critics were not interested in the truth. They were childish people criticizing the men whom God had sent to bring the kingdom of God. Jesus and John both preached about repentance and entering the kingdom and they rejected the message by criticizing the messenger.
But look at Jesus’ closing words to them. He said, “But wisdom is justified by her children” (Matt. 11:19) or, as some of your translations may have it, “by her works”. As the NASB translates it, “Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.” Jesus says it is your deeds that show your wisdom. They may say and claim whatever they want, but the truth shows up in their actions.
Jesus says that generation was filled with people who refused to repent and accept the kingdom. They refused to change because they thought they were righteous. They were sure that they were right and could not possibly be wrong and therefore they were unwilling to listen, repent, or believe. Because they thought they were wise, many Jews refused to listen to John the Baptist or even the Son of God Himself. They thought they were wise.
But Jesus says, “No! wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.” When you do what is wise then you can be called wise. James echoes that thought in his epistle writing,
13 Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom. 14 But if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth. 15 This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic. 16 For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there. 17 But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. 18 Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. (James 3:13-18).
True wisdom is shown through its “good behavior” and its “deeds”. Claiming to be wise means nothing if you do not do what is wise.
What could these people have done that would have demonstrated wisdom? They could have listened to John the Baptist and repented. They could have listened to Jesus and followed Him. But they didn’t do that. They called John a demoniac and Jesus a drunk. Was that wise? It is not wise to cling to the sin God commands you to let go. It is not wise to reject the only Savior this world will ever have. These people weren’t wise. They were selfish, naïve, foolish children. And they proved it by their rejection of both John and Jesus.
But the critics were not the only people who rejected Jesus. Next Jesus condemns …
2. The Unrepentant (Matt. 11:20-24)
Matthew 11:20 says, “Then He began to rebuke the cities in which most of His mighty works had been done, because they did not repent.”
Notice Jesus denounces them not because they had sinned, but because they did not repent. We all sin, and if sin was an unrepairable breach between us and God, we would all be lost. But fortunately, sin is repairable. Jesus came into the world to die for sin so that we could be forgiven. Jesus doesn’t denounce those who sin. He denounces those who do not repent.[2]
Jesus particularly singles out the cities in which most of his miracles had been performed – Chorazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum. These three cities had greater privilege and opportunity than many other cities where Jesus had performed less miracles or no miracles at all. We know from the gospels that crowds of people followed Jesus, fascinated by His miracles. But Jesus was not looking for people to be amazed—He was looking for people to repent.
I’d like to take just a moment to explain that word “repent”. The word “repent”, in the original language, combines the prefix “meta” which means “with or after” and “nous” which means “the understanding”, or “the mind”. The combination of those two words gives the idea of “understand after” or “with”, and thus, the word metanoeõ came to mean “to change one’s mind” or “understanding”. It usually involved the idea of “remorse” or “regret” for having had the wrong thinking in the first place.[3]
“Repentance”, then, first of all, involves a change of mind or attitude—a change on the inside. It’s a change of heart and mind that results in a change in behavior. An inner change that produces an outer change.
In short, “to repent” would mean that you change your mind toward Jesus. It means that, from the heart, you have seen who Jesus is and what He is like. You have come to understand that by His glorious works, He has proven Himself to be the Son of God and the Savior of the world. And now, understanding that truth, you yield to His rightful lordship over you. Obviously, this will involve a change of action. You will, by necessity, turn away from sin. Your behavior will change. But it is, first and foremost, a change of mind – a change of attitude.
Here is the problem with the cities of Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum. Remember that a large portion of Jesus’ ministry was done in Galilee where all three of these cities were located. Capernaum was located on the northwest shore of the Sea of Galilee. Capernaum was the town that Jesus had chosen to be His home during the period of His Galilean ministry (Matt. 4:13). Chorazin was a small village nestled in the hills about 2 1/2 miles north of Capernaum. It may be near where Jesus taught the Sermon on the Mount. Bethsaida was located farther north and to the west in the plains of Gennesaret and was the original hometown of Philip, Andrew, and Peter (John 1:44).
Not only had Jesus been to each of these towns teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness (Matthew 10:35), but Capernaum was the site of many of the Lord’s miracles including the healing of the Centurion’s servant (Matthew 8:5-13), the healing of the nobleman’s son (John 4:26-54), the healing of Peter’s mother-in-law (Matthew 8:14, 15) and the healing of the paralytic (Matthew 9:2-8). Matthew 8:16 records that it was in Capernaum that ” they brought to Him many who were demon-possessed. And He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were sick.” It was also probably in Capernaum that Jesus raised Jairus’ daughter from the dead (Matt. 9:18-26).
Capernaum, Chorazin, and Bethsaida would have no excuse for not responding to the Lord. They had heard His message with their own ears and seen His miracles with their own eyes. Yet their response was largely indifference. Oh, they rejoiced when they were physically healed, and they were amazed by all that Jesus did, but there was little to no personal commitment to Jesus. They were fickle like the crowds that followed Jesus after He had fed the five thousand. They liked the miracles, they ate the food, and enjoyed the show, but when the call to follow in Jesus’ footsteps was made, they were quick to retreat (John 6:66). There was no true belief on their part, only a passing interest in Jesus. Life went on and they quickly returned to their daily activities with no further thought of Jesus.
Jesus’ condemnation of them is strong. Listen to Matthew 11:21-22: “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you.“
Consider that Tyre and Sidon were two gentile cities inhabited by the Phoenicians. These two cities epitomized pagan gentile corruption and worthlessness. They were centers of Baal worship and were noted for their immorality and godlessness even by pagan standards. In the past, they had sold Jews into slavery (Amos 1:9) and one king was so wicked that he was used by the prophet Ezekiel as an illustration of Satan (Ezekiel 28:11-15). God destroyed Tyre according to the word of the prophets (Ezekiel 28:16-19, cf. Jeremiah 25:22; 47:4). Yet we find here that Jesus says that these cities would have responded better than Chorazin and Bethsaida to the Lord’s ministry. Therefore, it would be more tolerable for them in the day of judgment than for the cities that were indifferent to Jesus.
In the same manner, Jesus denounces Capernaum in Matthew 11:23-24, “And you, Capernaum, who are exalted to heaven, will be brought down to Hades; for if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day.But I say to you that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for you.”
The people of Capernaum were proud and thought themselves worthy of being exalted to heaven. Jesus says that instead, they would descend to Hades, here a reference for eternal hell. It would be better for Sodom in the day of judgment than for Capernaum. Sodom was and is the prime illustration of moral depravity. Its name came to describe the most extreme forms of homosexuality and sexual depravity. Genesis 19 describes them being so utterly corrupt that even after they were supernaturally blinded by angels, they were so enslaved to their immorality that they ” became weary trying to find the door” in order to satisfy their perverted lusts. God totally destroyed Sodom and its sister city of Gomorrah through a rain of fire and brimstone which came out of heaven (Genesis 19:24).
Sodom was immoral, but Israel was indifferent, and so Israel’s judgment will be worse. The immoral are judged but a more severe judgment is for the indifferent. These cities thought that they were elevated to the heavens because of what they were privileged to see, but Jesus lets them know that they stand condemned, not because of what they saw, but because of what they did not do BECAUSE of what they saw.
Later, in Matthew 12, Jesus will say;
The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and indeed a greater than Jonah is here. The queen of the South will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and indeed a greater than Solomon is here. (Matt. 12:41-42).
These never saw Jesus’ mighty works. They saw lesser works of God through Jonah and Solomon. And yet, they responded with repentance and a seeking after God because of what they saw. Their response to what they saw revealed the character of what was truly in their hearts. And yet, those of Chorazin and Bethsaida and Capernaum who had a clearer blessing from God—the blessing of seeing the mighty works of Jesus firsthand—did not respond with genuine repentance. Their response of indifference revealed the sinful unbelief in their hearts.
You and I have the testimony of Jesus in an even clearer way than they did. What does our response reveal to be the condition of our hearts?
We live in a privileged time and place. We have access to the gospel. There are churches scattered throughout this land. There are numerous Christian radio stations and Christian television programs. Bookstores are filled with Christian books. Most of us have several copies of God’s word. We have access to more good Bible teaching and tools than any generation that preceded us. But most in our society have grown indifferent to that truth. And indifference is far more dangerous than ignorance.
The same is true for immorality. We imagine that God will judge abortion doctors, homosexuals, greedy lawyers, and corrupt politicians. And certainly, God judges those things. But there is a more severe judgment for those who had the privilege of hearing the Word of God and seeing the works of God and who then ignore it.
All of us are sinners, and so all of us need to repent of our sins. What will happen to those who do not repent? They will be punished, severely. If you do not repent of your sins, then you must pay the full penalty for your sins. Those who hear the gospel and reject Christ will receive the most severe punishment of all.
If you are not a Christian, this means that today is the day to repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Confess your sin to Him, believe that He died for your sin and was raised for your justification.
If you think you are a Christian, it means that obedience to Jesus’ commands is important. We cannot take from Him what we want and ignore what we don’t like. Being a Christian means to be like Christ and that comes through the regeneration of the Holy Spirit. You yield yourself to the Lord by submitting to His Spirit and doing His word.
Jesus’ invitation to sinners comes at the end of Matthew 11. “Come unto Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light” (Matt. 11:28-30). To obey those words from the heart–that’s a true response of repentance and faith.
In our verse-by-verse study of the Gospel of Matthew, we have seen that Matthew’s theme is that Jesus is the promised Messiah-King. In every narrative, every teaching of Jesus Matthew is continually stressing that point. In Matthew 8 and 9, we find that Matthew has carefully selected events in the life of Jesus without much concern for the chronological sequence of the stories. Instead, we find that Matthew is carefully building a case that Jesus demonstrates authority in areas that only God has authority, thereby demonstrating that Jesus must in fact be God in human flesh. These different areas of authority build in significance.
In Matthew 8, we saw Jesus healing a leper with a touch, a paralyzed boy with just a command without even seeing him, and Peter’s mother-in-law from a fever. Matthew then tells us that Jesus was healing every disease brought to Him and casting out demons as well. Jesus has authority over sickness and disease. Then Jesus demonstrated authority over nature itself by stopping the wind and calming the sea with a simple command. Next, Matthew showed that Jesus has power over the supernatural when He cast out a legion of demons from two men. Jesus has authority over sickness, disease, nature, and the supernatural. And then last week, we saw that Jesus has the authority to forgive sin. This power is of the greatest significance because sin is the root of all mankind’s problems, and more than anything else, people need their sins forgiven.
Recall that after Matthew showed the first three miracles of healing in Matthew 8, he presented Jesus’ dialogues with two would-be disciples where Jesus explained the cost of following Him. Now, after the second set of three miracles, Matthew again narrates two dialogues with Jesus focusing on discipleship. We will look at the first of these today and the second next Sunday. Today’s passage is also the second of three controversy stories that open up Matthew 9. Last time, some scribes thought Jesus was blaspheming when He forgave sins. In this week’s passage, the Pharisees accuse Jesus of eating with tax collectors and sinners.
There is also a similar theme between last week’s passage and our one today. Last week’s passage (Matthew 9:1-8) was about Jesus’ power to forgive sin. Today’s passage (Matthew 9:9-13) is about Jesus calling sinners. Let’s look at these verses in three sections today: 1) Jesus called sinners (Matt. 9:9); 2) Jesus associated with sinners (Matt. 9:10-11); and 3) Jesus came to heal sinners (Matt. 9:12-13).[1]
1. Jesus Called Sinners (Matt. 9:9)
Matthew gives us the setting in verse 9: “As Jesus passed on from there, He saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax office.” Matthew places this story right after Jesus proved something very important. He had proven that He had the authority to forgive sins. And right after Jesus demonstrated His authority to forgive sin, what does Matthew show Jesus does next? He demonstrates His mission by calling sinners to follow Him.
Matthew doesn’t tell us how much time passed, but that Jesus “passed on from there,” in Capernaum, His home base. Mark informs us that Jesus “went out again by the sea; and all the multitude came to Him, and He taught them.” (Mark 2:13). Then, returning from the lake, Jesus passed by Matthew’s tax booth (Mark 2:14).
This story is especially significant because Matthew is the writer of this Gospel account. Many people in the Bible had two names. And so, when Mark and Luke wrote of his ministry as an apostle, they called him “Matthew”, but when they told the story of his being called while a tax collector, they chose to refer to him by his lesser-known name “Levi” (Mark 2:13-17; Luke 5:27-32). Maybe they chose to do this out of respect for his apostolic ministry and from a desire to protect his ministry from the scandal of his dubious past. But Matthew himself had no such hesitancy. In telling his own story of his sordid past, he calls himself “Matthew”. In fact, even when he included his name in the list of apostles in Matthew 10:3, he identified himself with his sin calling himself, “Matthew the tax collector“.[2]
A tax collector, in Jesus’ day, was a Jewish man who collected taxes from his own Jewish kinsmen on behalf of the Gentile Roman government. He made his living by collecting not only the required revenue appointed by the Roman government but by also collecting a percentage above that required amount as his own cut.
Most Jews considered a tax collector a traitor to his own people. He was a sell-out to an occupying Gentile government. And he was doubly despised by his fellow Jews; because he not only collected taxes from his own people for the Roman occupiers, but also because collection of that tax was characterized by greed, extortion, deceit, bullying, and oppression. There was no such thing as an honest tax collector in that system. Other Jews considered tax collectors to be the worst of sinners in the same category as harlots, drunkards, and thieves. A tax collector was not permitted to serve as a witness in a court of law. Any money that came from him was to be considered “defiled”.
Someone has once said, “The church is the only fellowship in the world where the one requirement for membership is the unworthiness of the candidate.”1 The Holy Spirit has chosen to include this story in the Bible because it has great lessons to teach us about how merciful and loving our wonderful Savior is to those sinners that the world despises the most and considers the most unworthy.[3]
Where was Matthew when Jesus called him? He was “sitting at the tax office” (Matt. 9:9). Jesus didn’t wait until after Matthew changed his life and left the tax booth to call him. That’s the way that Jesus calls sinners—He calls them while they are still sinners. In fact, Paul writes in Romans 5, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Rom. 5:8). Do you know that that’s why our Savior Himself said He came? Jesus said about another tax collector, Zacchaeus, ” for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). Jesus doesn’t sit around and wait for the lost to come to Him, He seeks them and saves them.
Look at Jesus’ call to Matthew: “… And He said to him, ‘Follow Me.’” Matthew doesn’t tell us how much he knew about Jesus before He called him to follow. As we already saw, Jesus had done outstanding miracles in Capernaum and had regularly taught the word of God there. Surely Matthew knew all this. Still, it must have come as a shock to both Matthew and all those who were there that day that Jesus not only talked with him, but called him to be a disciple. “Follow Me” is the same call to discipleship that Jesus gave to the fishermen, Peter and Andrew, in Matthew 4:19.
How does Matthew respond? “… So he arose and followed Him” (Matt. 9:9). He left the tax collector’s booth. There was no going back for Matthew. The Gospel of Luke tells us he “left all” to follow Jesus (Luke 5:28). He left a cushy job that made him wealthy. He left his life of sin and stealing. He left all this and more to follow Jesus.
Listen, Jesus calls you as you are, but He doesn’t leave you as you are. He calls you while you are still in your sin, but He also calls you out of your sin. He calls you to follow Him, to be His disciple, to walk as He walked, and to live as He lived. This is the Christian life—following Jesus.
So first, Jesus calls sinners, and second,
2. Jesus Associates with Sinners (Matt. 9:10-11)
Matthew left his wicked profession behind, rose up, and followed Jesus. And next, he tells us, “Now it happened, as Jesus sat at the table in the house, that behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with Him and His disciples” (Matt. 9:10). When Mark tells this story, he lets us know that this was Matthew’s own house that Jesus went to. It must have been a very large house, considering that “many tax collectors and sinners” came and joined Jesus and His disciples at the meal. And Luke tells us even more – letting us know that Matthew was putting on a great feast in Jesus’ honor (Luke 5:29).
Matthew had found the Savior; and I believe he wanted to have a bunch of his former friends over to meet Jesus and be introduced to the Savior too! When one hopeless and needy sinner discovers the mercy of the Savior, he wants to share that mercy with other hopeless and needy sinners!
It’s important to understand what Matthew means by the word ‘sinners’ here. He’s not saying that some people are sinners and some people are not. The Bible is clear that we are all sinners. But the Jewish people used this word for those people whom they felt were the very worst of sinners –tax collectors, thieves, drunkards, and prostitutes. They called them ‘sinners,’ because they felt that those sins were so much worse than their own sins.
Now some people read passages like this one and use them to excuse sin. They say this passage shows that Jesus doesn’t care how you live. He accepts you as you are, and fellowships with you—sin and all. And then they say we also should accept people just as they are, without saying anything about their sin. After all, isn’t that what Jesus did? But we already saw from Matthew 9:9 that Jesus calls you as you are but he doesn’t leave you as you are. And Jesus will say that He came to bring sinners to repentance, not just to leave them in their sin.
The apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians about not associating with people who professed to be believers but were continuing to live immoral lives. He tells them: “I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people. Yet I certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world.” (1 Cor. 5:9-10). We shouldn’t be surprised when unbelievers are living immoral lives. They’re not believers! But true Christians are not to continue to live immoral lives.
Jesus shows us that we don’t avoid sinners who need Christ. Jesus didn’t avoid lost sinners, and neither should we.
Why did sinful people seem to flock to Jesus? For one thing, He loved them. He never condoned their sin, but they knew that He loved them. They knew they needed forgiveness. They knew that Jesus could forgive their sins. I believe they felt that Jesus looked past what they were right then, and saw them for what He had come to save them to be in glory.
Now, contrast this with the attitude of the Pharisees. They were the religious leaders of the day. From the outside, no one looked more righteous than a Pharisee. One thing I can assure you is that the tax collectors and sinners weren’t flocking to the homes of the Pharisees! The name Pharisee itself comes from a Hebrew word that means to separate. They separated themselves from any who were not as religious as they were. The Pharisees did their best to avoid ‘sinners’. In fact, one of their sayings was this: “Keep far from an evil neighbor and do not associate with the wicked.” (Aboth 1:7).[4] These Pharisees objected to Jesus’ disciples having dinner with such riff-raff. Matthew 9:11 tells us, “And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to His disciples, ‘Why does your Teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?’” The way their question is phrased suggests that they viewed this as Jesus’ habit.[5] The Pharisees are probably a little jealous that instead of choosing to dine with them, Jesus chose to dine with the tax collectors and sinners.
Notice that the Pharisees don’t complain to Jesus directly but to His disciples. They don’t seem interested in getting an answer, they just want to undermine Jesus with His disciples. They call Jesus “your Teacher”. The title “teacher” meant much more than just someone who passes knowledge and information on to students. It referred to someone who also taught by example! Jesus once told His disciples, “You call Me Teacher and Lord, and you say well, for so I am;” and then He told them, “. . . I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you” (John 13:13, 15). The Pharisees were complaining to Jesus’ disciples that their “Teacher” was setting an unspeakable example to them – eating and drinking with tax collectors and sinners!
Jesus did set an example for His followers. Jesus’ close association with sinners is meant to be our example to follow. We are to love the poor, needy, despised sinners of this world so much that we welcome them into our presence so that they’ll know that they are loved. How else will they come to know Christ and follow Him?
We have seen that Jesus called sinners, He associated with sinners, and thirdly,
3. Jesus Came for Sinners (Matt. 9:12-13)
Matthew 9:12-13 says, “When Jesus heard that, He said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice.’ For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”
Jesus responds to the Pharisees’ criticism with three brief, striking statements, each of which highlights the fact that Jesus came for sinners.
First of all, Jesus tells them: “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.” (Matt. 9:12).
Could you imagine going to a doctor and complaining to him, “Listen, Doc. I don’t care too much for the kind of people you associate with. You always seem to be around sick people!” What a ridiculous statement! Who else would you expect a doctor to be associated with? In the same way, who else would you expect the Savior of sinners to be associated with than sinners who need to be saved? Jesus is saying, “Who else would you have me go to?”
If you think you are well, you probably are not going to seek help from a doctor. Medicine is for the sick, not the healthy. How many of you would go to a doctor and say, “Doc, I feel really healthy. Please give me a full course of chemotherapy.” Of course, you wouldn’t say that unless you knew you had cancer and it was the only treatment that would cure you! Jesus is saying to the Pharisees, “You don’t think you are sick, so you won’t come to me for healing. These ‘sinners’ know they are sick, and so I go to them.”
Jesus invites us to see Him as our spiritual physician. He does not set up an office and wait for people to come to Him. He makes house calls. Indeed, sometimes He walks up to people in the street and says, “I know you are sick; I have come to heal you.”[6]
Second, Jesus communicated from the scriptures that it was God’s purpose to be merciful to sinners. He quoted the words of God to them from the Old Testament prophecy of Hosea 6:6. He said (Matt. 9:13), “But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice’“.
Despite all their study of the scriptures, the Pharisees had obviously failed to ever understand God’s message. God’s message is all about redemption, not destruction. Even when you read those difficult passages of God’s judgment in the Old Testament, God gives them because He is calling men to repentance so that they won’t be ultimately judged. God is a God of great compassion, great mercy. And yet the Pharisees didn’t get that at all.
By quoting this verse, Jesus wasn’t saying that God did not require a sacrifice for sin. Clearly, the Old Testament teaches that He does. In fact, those sacrifices required by the law of Moses pictured for us the once-for-all sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. In His mercy, God gave the sacrifice of His own Son for sinners. In quoting this verse, Jesus is teaching that the sacrifice was all about mercy!
God doesn’t want mercy instead of sacrifice and obedience. Rather He wants mercy along with sacrifice and obedience. Jesus is saying that because God is merciful towards us, we also ought to be merciful to others.
And finally, Jesus communicates that He came for sinners by giving a clear affirmation of His own mission. He says plainly, “For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance” (Matt. 9:13). Jesus is not saying that the Pharisees were “righteous”, but that they saw themselves as “righteous”. Those who don’t see themselves as needy sinners have no interest in a Savior. They’re like the false believers in the church at Laodicea in Revelation 3:17, saying of themselves, “I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing“, not knowing that, in reality, they are “wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked“.
The Pharisees completely misunderstood Jesus’ mission. They thought that they were already righteous, so they didn’t need a Savior. They thought the Messiah would come to reward them for their righteousness, not call them to repent of their sinfulness. “Jesus did not come to this earth to write ‘A+’ on the moral report cards of all the good boys and girls. He came to call sinners, to invite the bad boys and girls to His gospel feast.”[7]
It wasn’t for the righteous that Christ relinquished His glory and stepped out of heaven. It wasn’t for the righteous that Christ suffered the temptation of Satan. It wasn’t for the righteous that Christ endured the hostility of man. It wasn’t for the righteous that Christ submitted to death on the cross. The righteous didn’t need it.
Christ came for sinners. Christ suffered for sinners. Christ endured for sinners. Christ died for sinners. Paul wrote, “This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.” (1 Tim. 1:15).
This is good news for us because the Bible tells us there is no one righteous. We read in Romans 3: “There is none righteous, no, not one … for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:10,23). We all have sinned. We all fall short of God’s glory. But praise God! Jesus came for sinners. The only qualification you need for Jesus to call you is that you are a sinner. Jesus came to call sinners because there is no one else to call.[8]
Jesus called sinners; He associated with sinners; and He came to save sinners.
What can we take to heart from this passage today?
Jesus can save anyone. It doesn’t matter how badly you’ve sinned against God or failed other people in your life. You do not need to get your life together before coming to Jesus. Jesus calls sinners, so if you’re a sinner, you qualify. The one who knows he is the worst sinner is the very best candidate for salvation.
You must acknowledge your sinfulness. Jesus did not come to call the righteous or those who think they are righteous. You must confess your sin to God. You must know that God is a holy God and you are condemned as a sinner. If you think for one minute that you are able to make yourself look good before God through good works or religious rituals, you are badly mistaken. No one looked better on the outside than a Pharisee, and Jesus condemned their self-righteousness. Jesus saves sinners but He rejects the self-righteous.
Finally, this passage has something to say to those who are followers of Jesus. We should be merciful to sinners, even as God was merciful to us. All of us are just beggars telling other beggars where to find bread. Jesus saved you not so that you would think you are better than others, but so that you would be merciful to others in their sin and point them to Christ who can save them from their sin.
[5] Daniel M. Doriani, Matthew & 2, ed. Richard D. Phillips, Philip Graham Ryken, and Daniel M. Doriani, vol. 1, Reformed Expository Commentary (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2008), 381.
In our study of the Gospel of Matthew, we have landed upon The Beatitudes at the beginning of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7). The Beatitudes is a section of Jesus’ great Sermon that describes what it looks like to be a true disciple of His. It serves as a very important introduction to The Sermon on The Mount; because it teaches us what to “be” before the Sermon itself tells us what to “do” We are taking our time in this portion of Scripture so we can carefully consider each of the eight assertions that are made in it.
The first Beatitude taught us that, in order to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, we must first come to God in the deep poverty of our soul, as a man or woman who realizes how truly needy he or she is. “Blessed are the poor in spirit“, Jesus said, “for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3). And in those words, we learn that the first aspect of being a disciple is to be someone who recognizes their spiritual bankruptcy and therefore their need for God’s grace. A great illustration of this was the tax collector in Jesus’ parable in Luke 18 who “standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’” (Luke 18:13).
The second Beatitude builds upon the first. It teaches us that a true disciple starts off not only realizing how desperately needy they are in the sight of God because of their sin but also goes beyond that to express deep sorrow and mourning over their sins. Jesus says, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted” (Matt. 5:4).
It’s not enough to simply recognize—in a merely intellectual way—that I am a bankrupt sinner before God. Once I realize the poverty of my soul, I must also feel God’s own grief and sorrow and pain for my sins. It’s not enough to have made confession; I must also experience contrition! And that sense of mourning over our sins is what this second Beatitude is meant to instill in us: “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”
I probably don’t need to tell you that such an idea as I’ve just described is contrary to almost everything we see in the world around us. The unbelieving world is very glad to embrace the ‘sentimental’ idea that those who “mourn” in a general sense will be comforted but certainly not if what they are “mourning” over is sin. The people of this world structure their lives around ignoring and avoiding the whole idea of feeling bad about their sin. Much sin in our society is not grieved. It’s not disapproved of. It’s not merely tolerated. They laugh at sin and scoff those who shun sin calling them prudes or kill-joys. Our society doesn’t mourn sin; it mourns those who mourn sin.
And please understand; it’s not that God is against laughter and joy. Far from it! He is the original inventor of laughter and joy. In fact, each of these Beatitudes begins with the announcement of eternal “blessedness” or “happiness”; and together, they all show us God’s way to true blessing. No; God is not opposed to real laughter and joy. Instead, God is opposed to the shallow versions of laughter that divert us from real, eternal joy Jesus said in Luke’s version of the Beatitudes, “Blessed are you who weep now,
For you shall laugh.” (Luke 6:21). But “Woe to you who laugh now, For you shall mourn and weep” (Luke 6:25).
The words of this beatitude fall into two parts, first, an assertion that mourners are blessed persons; second, a reason, because they shall be comforted.[1] Let’s look closer at this second Beatitude by asking[2] . . .
1. Who are the mourners?
MacArthur notes that in Greek there are nine words that express sorrow, but that “of the nine terms used for sorrow, the one used here (pentheo, mourn) is the strongest, the most severe. It represents the deepest, most heartfelt grief, and was generally reserved for grieving over the death of a loved one.[3] This word is found 45 times in the Greek translation of the Old Testament.
It describes the mourning of Abraham for his wife Sarah (Gen. 23:2) and Jacob mourning for his son Joseph whom he thought had been killed (Gen. 37:34, 35). Samuel mourns over Saul and his failure to obey God (1 Sam. 15:35, 16:1). David mourns for his son Absalom (2 Sam. 13:37, 19:1). All Judah and Jerusalem mourned for good King Josiah at his death (2 Chr. 35:24). Figuratively Jerusalem’s gates mourn over the coming destruction (Isa. 3:6). Several verses refer to “the land” (the land of Israel) mourning over the sin of God’s people (Jer. 23:10 because of the curse, Hos 4:3, Joel 1:10). God’s Messiah will come to comfort all who mourn (Isa. 61:2-3). Daniel mourned over Israel’s sin for 3 entire weeks (Dan. 10:1). Ezra mourns over the unfaithfulness of the exiles in marrying foreign women (Ezra 10:6). Nehemiah mourns over the great distress of the remnant who were back in Jerusalem (Neh. 1:4). The people weep and mourn upon hearing the Words of the Law read (Neh. 8:9). Zechariah prophesies a time when the Lord “will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn.” (Zech. 12:10).
So, although this word “mourn” can refer to grief and sorrow over death and other losses, in this context it particularly refers to sorrow over sin. Like those prophesied in Zechariah, this “mourning” is the agonizing realization that it was my sins that nailed to the cross the Lord of glory. When I look upon the cross and truly understand the great price my sins cost my precious Savior, how can I feel anything about my sins but great mourning, and sorrow, and deep remorse? If I’m truly a disciple of the Son of God, how could I be indifferent, or insensitive, or hard-hearted to the great price of the sins that resulted in so much of His own suffering?
Jesus mourned over sin. In Luke 19:41-44, Jesus approached the city of Jerusalem and wept over it. He wept over it because He had presented Himself to Israel as the Messiah, and they rejected Him, and that city and those people are going to be destroyed and devastated in God’s judgment. Jesus’ mourning is over sin and its effects in the lives of people.
James 4:8-9 confirm that this mourning should be over sin.
8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. (James 4:8-9).
What kind of mourning over sin does God bless?
The puritan, Thomas Watson, points out several kinds of false mourning over sin. First, a despairing kind of mourning. Judas Iscariot is the example. He confessed his sin, he regretted it, he justified Christ, he made restitution (Matthew 27). But it was a mourning joined with despair. His was not repentance unto life (Acts 11:18), but rather unto death.[4]
There is hypocritical mourning. King Saul said to Samuel, “I have sinned, for I have transgressed the commandment of the LORD” (1 Samuel 15:24). But Saul played the hypocrite in his mourning, for he did not take shame to himself, but said: “I have sinned; yet honor me now, please, before the elders of my people and before Israel” (1 Sam. 15:30). The true mourner makes the worst of his sin. Saul labours to make the best of sin.[5]
Also, forced mourning is not true mourning over sin. Such was Cain’s mourning after he murdered his brother Abel. He mourned, “My punishment is greater than I can bear!” (Genesis 4:13). His punishment troubled him more than his sin; to mourn only for fear of hell is like a thief that weeps for the penalty rather than the offense.[6]
Merely external mourning is fake. Later in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus will talk about the fasting of the hypocrites “with a sad countenance. For they disfigure their facesthat they may appear to men to be fasting” (Matt. 6:16). Such was Ahab’s mourning at the convicting words of Elijah, “he tore his clothes and put sackcloth on his body, and fasted and lay in sackcloth, and went about mourning.” (1 Kings 21:27). His clothes were torn, but his heart was not broken. He had sackcloth but no sorrow.[7]
Real mourning is a matter, not merely of empty words or external actions—it is the condition of the heart before God. True mourning is spiritual; that is, when we mourn for sin more than the suffering it brings. David cried out, “my sin is always before me” (Psalm 51:3). God had threatened that the sword should ride in a circuit in his family, but David does not say, “The sword is always before me,” but “My sin is always before me.” It was the sin against God that troubled him. He confessed “Against You, You only, have I sinned, And done this evil in Your sight” (Psa. 51:4).
True mourning for sin confesses sins in particular. The truly repentant person is like a wounded man. He comes to the doctor and shows him all his wounds, “Here I was cut with the sword; here I was shot with a bullet.” In Judges 10:10, “the children of Israel cried out to the LORD, saying, ‘We have sinned against You, because we have both forsaken our God and served the Baals!’” They mourned for their idolatry.
True mourning for sin is joined to a hatred for sin and a zeal for purity. True mourning begins in the love of God, and ends in the hatred of sin.[8] Paul writes to the Corinthians,
10 For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death. 11 For observe this very thing, that you sorrowed in a godly manner: What diligence it produced in you, what clearing of yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what vehement desire, what zeal, what vindication! In all things you proved yourselves to be clear in this matter. (2 Cor. 7:10-11).
True mourning for sin is constant. It describes not just our initial experience of conviction and contrition when we are justified. Notice the tense of the verb: it is not “have mourned,” but those who “mourn”—a present and continuous experience. We continue to mourn over the sins which we commit daily. We should have an ever-deepening awareness of the depravity of our flesh, the deceitfulness of our heart, and the corruption of our mind apart from Christ. Like Paul, we cry out, “O wretched man that I am” (Rom. 7:24).[9] Spiritual mourning continually operates in the life of the Christian. For as he sins it brings grief, and grief causes him to turn to Christ and the sufficiency of His death; then he is comforted again. “Whenever the Christian is conscious of his own sin,” writes Ferguson, “he will be grieved by it” [20]. Grief leads to repentance and comfort.
God wants us to mourn over how our sin has offended Him. The Bible tells us that sin is “lawlessness” (1 John 3:4); that it is the opposite of faith (Rom. 14:23); that it is the deliberate devising of foolishness (Prov. 24:9); that it is knowing to do good but not doing it (James 4:17); and that it is the expression of unrighteousness (1 John 5:17). It is an offense against our holy God! No wonder it should be grieved over! Do feel the pain of our sin against God?
There is a natural consequence to our inward focus of spiritual mourning. We are affected outwardly as well. God wants us to mourn over sin in our world as well. Like the Psalmist we cry, ” Rivers of water run down from my eyes, Because men do not keep Your law.” (Psa. 119:136). We realize that the kingdom of God encompasses the world, and we desire to see the glory of the Lord cover the earth as the waters covers the sea (Habakkuk 2:14). God wants us to mourn over all the injustice, and hurt, and alienation, and spiritual darkness, and war, and hatred, and conflict that sin has brought upon the people of this world that He loves. He wants us to mourn over the fact that there are so many people in this world – people that He has made for His own glory – who refuse to worship or honor Him. He wants us to mourn over the fact that people who reject His grace through Christ will suffer hell, weeping and gnashing of teeth for eternity, because of their refusal. God takes no delight in the death of the wicked (Ezek. 33:11). It breaks His heart and He wants us to have broken hearts as well.
Mourning is unpleasant. No one wants to mourn. But we note that Jesus says, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” The sort of mourning He calls us to in this Beatitude leads to something good. It leads to a great blessedness. It leads to God’s promise of comfort.
This leads us, next, to ask . . .
2. Why are they blessed?
First of all, understand that there’s nothing of sentimentalism in Jesus’ idea of “comfort”. These words aren’t meant as a mere pat on the head – a mere, condescending little “There, there . . .” – to those who mourn. The Greek word translated “comforted” is a strong word. It’s a compound word (parakaleõ) that basically means “to call for” or “to invite” someone to “come alongside” someone else. Figuratively, it means to “to exhort” someone, “to encourage,” “comfort,” or “console” someone. It’s related to the word used to describe the ministry of the Lord Jesus; “And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 2:1). It’s related to the name given to the Holy Spirit when Jesus said, “I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper . . .” (John 14:16).
Notice that we do not comfort ourselves, it is a comfort that God Himself gives. Paul writes, “For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounds through Christ” (2 Cor. 1:5). Jesus once quoted that comforting passage of Isaiah 61:1-2 in the synagogue at Nazareth and said it was fulfilled in Himself (see Luke 4:17-19). Those who truly mourn over sin will be comforted by Christ Himself. This is because Jesus deals completely with the sin over which true mourners mourn! He brings a complete comfort and consolation to those who mourn, because the cause of their mourning, their sin, is completely removed!
Therefore, King David wrote, “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the LORD does not impute iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit” (Psalm 32:1-2). He could affirm, “The LORD is near to those who have a broken heart, and saves such as have a contrite spirit” (Psalm 34:18).
“They shall be comforted.” This gracious promise comes first in that Divine consolation which immediately follows justification, the forgiveness of sins and the removal of the load of guilt we carry because of our sins. Jesus promised, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28).[10] We continue to receive this comfort of forgiveness throughout our sanctification process as disciples of Jesus.
And in an ultimate sense, God comforts those who mourn in that He promises one day to glorify them in the kingdom of heaven when Jesus comes again. He will bring them into the state of sinless perfection that He Himself enjoys; and then to take them to live with Him forever in a New Heaven and a New Earth in which every trace of sin will be forever removed. We’re told in the Book of Revelation this about the New Jerusalem; “But there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles, or causes and abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life” (Rev. 21:27). And of those who live there with Him, we’re told, “And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.” (Rev. 21:4)
Truly then, those who mourn will indeed be comforted!
How do we experience this type of mourning which God comforts? First, much like I suggested last time when we talked about being “poor in spirit,” we should begin by seeing God for who He is. In Isaiah 6 when the prophet gets a vision of the glorious Lord who is “Holy, holy, holy,” he cries out “Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, The LORD of hosts.” (Isa. 6:5). Martyn Lloyd-Jones noted, “The way to become poor in spirit is to look at God,” and I would add, that is the way to spiritual mourning as well [Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, 52].
Sinclair Ferguson concurs, “It is this-his sight of God-that has made him mourn. Paradoxically, it is the same sight of God that will bring him comfort” [The Sermon on the Mount: Kingdom Life in a Fallen World, 19]. Where do we see God? We look into the pages of God’s Word, that infallible revelation of God. We meditate upon Scripture. We contemplate the Lord; see how He has worked in creation and most of all, in redemption. We look at the Incarnation of Jesus Christ, to His perfectly holy life, and then to the cross where He bears our sins in death.
Second, I would suggest we pray and ask God to take away any hardness of heart that we might have toward sin. Thomas Watson, wrote, “It is not heinousness of sin but hardness of heart that damns.”[11] The Bible says, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart – these, O God, You will not despise” (Psalm 51:17). Pray and ask God to take away your hardness of heart, so that you are then set free to feel the pain of sin and properly mourn over it!
Third, I would urge that, when God reveals it to us, we confess our sin immediately! King David wrote,
When I kept silent, my bones grew old
Through my groaning all the day long.
For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me;
My vitality was turned into the drought of summer. Selah
I acknowledged my sin to You, and my iniquity I have not hidden.
I said, “I will confess my transgression to the LORD,”
And You forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah (Psalm 32:3-5).
To “confess” our sins literally means “to say the same thing” about them that God says. We cannot mourn over our sins as God wants us to, until we submit to seeing them and speaking of them as He himself does. And we do this in a very personal way when we confess them to Him and call them for what they are.
For the world, grieving sin is regressive and constricting; for the Christian, it is the pathway to joy. In it is the promise of blessedness and eternal comfort. Imagine the implications. If Matthew 5:4 is true—if Jesus really meets repentance with comfort, not condemnation—then no longer do you need to fear being exposed. No longer do you have to present an airbrushed version of yourself to fellow redeemed sinners. No longer do you need to fear studying your heart and plumbing the depths of your disease.[12]
As we continue our study from the Gospel of Matthew, the Gospel of the King and His Kingdom, we come today to Matthew 3. Matthew 1-2 have been concerned with the infancy of King Jesus. In Matthew 1, he presented the human genealogy of the King, that He was the Son of David, the Son of Abraham (Matthew 1:1-17)—and thus the heir of the covenant with Abraham and of the throne of David. Matthew also presented the divine origin of the King—His virgin birth in fulfillment of Isaiah 7:14 (Matthew 1:18-25).
In Matthew 2 we saw the diligent search of the Magi for the King of the Jews and the worship they gave the young child, King Jesus. We also saw how God preserved this Messiah/King, protecting Him from the efforts of King Herod to destroy Him—all according to God’s sovereign plan in fulfillment of scripture. Matthew shows that Jesus is King because He embodies the history and purpose of the nation of Israel as presented and prophesied in the Old Testament. All of this is vital for us to know and understand our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Now in Matthew 3, the author jumps ahead about twenty-eight years.
Numbers 32:23 says, “… be sure your sin will find you out.” Moses spoke these words to the Israelite tribes of Gad and Reuben who had just pledged to fight until the land of Canaan was conquered for their brethren before they return to their inheritance east of the Jordan River. Moses’ full statement to them was: “But if you do not do so, then take note, you have sinned against the LORD; and be sure your sin will find you out.”
In the statement “be sure your sin will find you out” is revealed the mystery of sin and the necessity of repentance. The nature of sin is such that, whether or not others find out your sin, your sin will “find you out.” You cannot hide your sin from the all-seeing God. Sin carries within itself the power to pay the sinner back, and sin’s payback is death and hell. Don’t even think about toying with sin. It cannot be tamed, outrun, or shaken off. No matter how safe you think you are, if you are a sinner, your sin will find you out.[1]
Speaking about the hypocritical sins of the Pharisees, Jesus said, “For there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, nor hidden that will not be known.” (Luke 12:2). The only way to escape sin’s imprisonment and deadly grip is to be forgiven of your sin by faith in the death and resurrection of Christ (Romans 10:9; 1 John 2:2; Revelation 1:5).
This truth, “be sure your sin will find you out,” is illustrated profoundly in Genesis 44 with Joseph’s brothers. The reason this chapter is so vital to us centuries later is that repentance is an indispensable part of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Yet it seems in our day repentance is seldom discussed and frequently misunderstood. In Genesis 44, we get to see Joseph observing whether his brothers have real repentance in their hearts, as he tests them and tries their hearts. I invite you to come along and ask God the Holy Spirit to show you if indeed, your repentance is genuine, or not.
When last we left Joseph and his brothers, they were enjoying a great feast at Joseph’s house in Egypt (although they still didn’t know it was Joseph). For the first time in over 20 years, all 12 brothers were together. The last statement in Genesis 43 was, “So they drank and were merry with him.” Plenty of food, plenty to drink, much to celebrate. Everything seemed to finally be going well for Jacob’s sons. The trouble with this Egyptian governor has been resolved, they have Simeon back from prison and Benjamin is safe. For a moment they seemed to forget about their brother Joseph and what they had done to him.
Boy, are they in for a big surprise! They are about to be found out and set free from their guilty past, and they don’t have a clue that Joseph is behind it all. And behind Joseph stands God who has orchestrated every detail to bring them to this moment of repentance.[2] In the last two chapters of Genesis, Joseph had been testing his brothers, seeking to prove whether or not they were still the same jealous, hard-hearted men who had planned to kill him and sold him into slavery all those years before. Are they still willing to break their father’s heart to cover their guilt and save themselves? Had they changed?
In Genesis 44 Joseph gives one more soul-searching test of the hearts of his brothers. He desires to be reconciled with his brothers. Even through his testing of them, Joseph has shown great kindness and concern for his brothers. He had forgiveness in his heart. But as I said last time, when sin has broken a relationship, repentance is necessary for reconciliation. Forgiveness is only transacted when there is repentance. Will they not only regret what they did but will they truly repent of their sin?
This is the test. So, in Genesis 44:1-6 we have Joseph’s setup for the test. In Genesis 44:7-13 we see the response of the brothers. In Genesis 44:14-17 we have the sentence against Benjamin. Then finally in Genesis 44:18-34, the speech from Judah.
1. The Setup (Gen. 44:1-6)
While the brothers slept that night in anticipation of their departure for home the next morning, Joseph was busy with setting up their final test.
1 And he commanded the steward of his house, saying, “Fill the men’s sacks with food, as much as they can carry, and put each man’s money in the mouth of his sack. 2 Also put my cup, the silver cup, in the mouth of the sack of the youngest, and his grain money.” So he did according to the word that Joseph had spoken. 3 As soon as the morning dawned, the men were sent away, they and their donkeys. 4 When they had gone out of the city, and were not yet far off, Joseph said to his steward, “Get up, follow the men; and when you overtake them, say to them, “Why have you repaid evil for good? 5 Is not this the one from which my lord drinks, and with which he indeed practices divination? You have done evil in so doing.”‘ 6 So he overtook them, and he spoke to them these same words.
The brothers must have thought that they had it made. The great Egyptian had been so friendly to them; he filled their bags to the very top; they had Simeon back and Benjamin was safe with them. They could return to their father in peace. All of this, however, was part of Joseph’s strategy. The test would come out of the blue; it would devastate them; and it would force them to respond to this sudden disaster. In other words, Joseph had made the test as demanding as he could. Character is best tested in the heat of a crisis.[3]
The accusation was designed to provoke maximum fear. Joseph had instructed his servant to take his “cup, the silver cup” (Gen. 44:2) but then tells the servant to mention that Joseph used the cup for divination (Gen. 44:5). To practice divination is to uncover hidden knowledge by supernatural means. It is associated with the occult and fortune-telling, a practice later forbidden in the Law of Moses (Deut. 18:10). Divination by means of goblet is well known from the ancient world, something like reading tea leaves. I doubt that Joseph really practiced divination. Rather, this is just one more element of the carefully constructed disguise and strategy of Joseph. He wanted them to think that he was an Egyptian with the power to know their secrets until they confess their sin. He had already shown that he was able to seat his brothers at the table according to their age, an act that astonished and puzzled them (Gen. 43:33).
So he sets the stage for Benjamin to be found guilty in the sight of Joseph because Joseph is interested to see if they will treat Jacob’s favorite with as much jealousy, callousness, and contempt as they once did to him. Notice that twice the servant mentions their “evil” deed: “Why have you repaid evil for good?” (Gen. 44:4); and, “You have done evil in so doing” (Gen. 44:5). His words are designed to take the brothers back to the evil they did to Joseph, to prick their consciences, to remind them of their guilt before God.
2. The Search (Gen. 44:7-13)
7 And they said to him, “Why does my lord say these words? Far be it from us that your servants should do such a thing. 8 Look, we brought back to you from the land of Canaan the money which we found in the mouth of our sacks. How then could we steal silver or gold from your lord’s house? 9 With whomever of your servants it is found, let him die, and we also will be my lord’s slaves.” 10 And he said, “Now also let it be according to your words; he with whom it is found shall be my slave, and you shall be blameless.” 11 Then each man speedily let down his sack to the ground, and each opened his sack. 12 So he searched. He began with the oldest and left off with the youngest; and the cup was found in Benjamin’s sack. 13 Then they tore their clothes, and each man loaded his donkey and returned to the city.
Overtaking these Hebrew men as they headed back to their father, the steward accused them of stealing the silver “divining” cup. With smug confidence and self-righteousness, the brothers assured the steward that such a thing was beyond them. After all, had they not attempted to return the money which they found in their sacks from the first journey?
The brothers are so confident that none of them had stolen the cup that they make a bold statement: “With whomever of your servants it is found, let him die, and we also will be my lord’s slaves.” (Gen. 44:9). Slavery was what these men had most feared (cf. Gen. 43:18), and yet they were willing to risk it because they were certain of their innocence. Knowing where he would discover the cup and knowing the intent of his master test the brother’s loyalty to Benjamin, the steward modified their self-imposed sentence: “Now also let it be according to your words; he with whom it is found shall be my slave, and you shall be blameless.” (Gen. 44:10).
Each man hastened to take down his sack and open it, for they were certain that their innocence would be proven. While nothing is said of the gold which was placed in each man’s sack (Gen. 44:1), the discovery of their money in each of their sacks must have made their hearts sink just as it had before (Gen. 42:28, 35). Their logic had been, “Look, we brought back to you from the land of Canaan the money which we found in the mouth of our sacks. How then could we steal silver or gold from your lord’s house?” (Gen. 44:8). And yet, they did have his money. Imagine the sense of dread that must have come over these men as each sack was opened. The basis for their righteous indignation was gone. But the steward makes no mention of their money. All he wished to discover was the thief of the cup. From the oldest to the youngest, the steward made his way down the line until he reached Benjamin, the last. So Genesis 44:12 says, “the cup was found in Benjamin’s sack.”
Now this word, found, that “the cup was found” is a key word in this chapter. It shows up eight times in Genesis 44. God is finding out, he’s searching through and finding out their sin, their evil, so that what was hidden is now being found. The brothers will be brought face-to-face with their sin.
Here was the first phase of the final test of Joseph’s brothers. Would they renounce Benjamin as a thief, abandon him, and get safely out of Egypt as quickly as possible? More than twenty years had passed since they had sold Joseph into slavery, and yet it was as though they were reliving the event. Benjamin, Jacob’s beloved, was in their care, far from Jacob’s protection. He was accused of a terrible crime for which there was no opportunity to establish his innocence. They, without any real guilt, such as they deserved before, could choose to walk away and be free at Benjamin’s expense. They could return to their father just as they had done so long ago and break his heart with the news that his other son was “no more.” More than twenty years later, the same temptation faces these men. Will they evidence a change of heart, or will they act in self-interest? That is what Joseph must know. The moment of truth has arrived. “Their life seemed to hang by a thread, but oh how strong the thread!”[4]
3. The Sentence (Gen. 44:14-17)
Here Benjamin is sentenced, but the brothers all admit their guilt.
14 So Judah and his brothers came to Joseph’s house, and he was still there; and they fell before him on the ground. 15 And Joseph said to them, “What deed is this you have done? Did you not know that such a man as I can certainly practice divination?” 16 Then Judah said, “What shall we say to my lord? What shall we speak? Or how shall we clear ourselves? God has found out the iniquity of your servants; here we are, my lord’s slaves, both we and he also with whom the cup was found.” 17 But he said, “Far be it from me that I should do so; the man in whose hand the cup was found, he shall be my slave. And as for you, go up in peace to your father.”
The brothers all fall prostrate before him, no longer seeking justice, but mercy. Joseph rebuked them for their wicked deed, again reminding them of his ability to know the truth (by “divination”). They could not deceive him; he knew all. That is the thrust of his words.
Judah seeks to convey their brokenness. They are without any defense. The key sentence in this chapter is in Genesis 4:16, “God has found out the iniquity of your servants.” The word iniquity speaks of perversity, depravity, in-dwelling sin, and the guilt that accompanies it. It is God against whom they have sinned. They see that it is not for the theft of Joseph’s cup that they are now in trouble, but for their hidden sins of the past. “True repentance doesn’t make up a defense for the small area where you’re innocent, but rather admits the larger sphere where you’re guilty.”[5]
As all were guilty of that past sin (except Benjamin, interestingly), so they are all guilty before the governor of Egypt, and thus all are his slaves. They will suffer together since they shared in a common act of sin. But Joseph would not hear of this. Instead, he twists the knife when he says, “Far be it from me that I should do so; the man in whose hand the cup was found, he shall be my slave. And as for you, go up in peace to your father” (Gen. 44:17). Will they continue to take responsibility for their sin or will they abandon Benjamin to save themselves?
4. The Speech (Gen. 44:18-34)
Judah once again assumes the role of spiritual leader among his brothers. It was he, after all, who had offered himself as surety for Benjamin’s safe return (Gen. 43:9). When the Egyptian offered him and his brothers their freedom at Benjamin’s expense, Judah rose to speak and to plead. And what follows, in Gen. 44:18-34, is the longest speech and the most passionate speech in the book of Genesis. Here Judah will declare his willingness to suffer on behalf of his brother, and he reflects a heart which has been changed by the hand of God.
18 Then Judah came near to him and said: “O my lord, please let your servant speak a word in my lord’s hearing, and do not let your anger burn against your servant; for you are even like Pharaoh. 19 My lord asked his servants, saying, “Have you a father or a brother?’ 20 And we said to my lord, “We have a father, an old man, and a child of his old age, who is young; his brother is dead, and he alone is left of his mother’s children, and his father loves him.’ 21 Then you said to your servants, “Bring him down to me, that I may set my eyes on him.’ 22 And we said to my lord, “The lad cannot leave his father, for if he should leave his father, his father would die.’ 23 But you said to your servants, “Unless your youngest brother comes down with you, you shall see my face no more.’ 24 “So it was, when we went up to your servant my father, that we told him the words of my lord. 25 And our father said, “Go back and buy us a little food.’ 26 But we said, “We cannot go down; if our youngest brother is with us, then we will go down; for we may not see the man’s face unless our youngest brother is with us.’ 27 Then your servant my father said to us, “You know that my wife bore me two sons; 28 and the one went out from me, and I said, “Surely he is torn to pieces”; and I have not seen him since. 29 But if you take this one also from me, and calamity befalls him, you shall bring down my gray hair with sorrow to the grave.’ 30 “Now therefore, when I come to your servant my father, and the lad is not with us, since his life is bound up in the lad’s life, 31 it will happen, when he sees that the lad is not with us, that he will die. So your servants will bring down the gray hair of your servant our father with sorrow to the grave. 32 For your servant became surety for the lad to my father, saying, “If I do not bring him back to you, then I shall bear the blame before my father forever.’ 33 Now therefore, please let your servant remain instead of the lad as a slave to my lord, and let the lad go up with his brothers. 34 For how shall I go up to my father if the lad is not with me, lest perhaps I see the evil that would come upon my father?”
Judah humbly asks for an opportunity to tell the whole story from the beginning to the end (Gen. 44:18). So Judah retells their situation in Genesis 44:19-26. Then in Genesis 44:27-32 he conveys the accurate picture of the effect that Benjamin’s capture would have on their father Jacob. Then at last Judah offers to substitute himself in place of Benjamin (Gen. 44:33-34).
Twenty-two years earlier Judah, bitterly resentful of his father’s favoritism, had engineered the selling of Joseph into slavery in Egypt. Now he was prepared to offer himself as a slave so that the other son of Rachel, the other favored son of Jacob, could be set free. Twenty-two years earlier, Judah had stood with his brothers and watched when the bloody tunic they had brought to Jacob as a means of covering up their crime, sent their father into a fit of anguish that was to last for years on end; now he is willing to do anything in order not to have to see his father suffer that way again.[6]
Judah was not the same man he once was. He was not the man any longer whose idea it was to get rid of their brother and make some money on the side. He was no longer the man who raised boys so evil that God executed them in the middle of their lives. He was no longer the man who refused to fulfill the duties of a patriarch and see to the needs of his daughter-in-law and, as a result, later committed incest with her, thinking her a prostitute.
Judah’s speech represents nothing less than a shocking and sublime transformation. From a betrayer of his family, he became the savior of it. From a selfish and indifferent son, brother, and father, he had become a man whose love for others was a power sufficient to make him offer his own life for theirs.
There are two ways you can tell that repentance is genuine[7]: First, there will be the absence of any blame, except toward yourself. Judah didn’t blame Jacob for playing favorites; he didn’t blame Benjamin for the stolen cup; he didn’t blame Joseph for being cruel. That’s the first mark of genuine repentance, when a person says, “I have sinned. I take full responsibility for what I have done.”
The second mark of genuine repentance is that it always affects your relationships, both with God and with others. Judah here sees that God is behind all these circumstances. If you have repented of your sin toward God, it will show in a change of heart toward those who have wronged you. Instead of bitterness, there will be a concern for their feelings and an absence of concern for your own feelings. Judah never complains about what will happen to him as a slave, because his focus is on what would happen to his father if Benjamin becomes a slave.[8]
It is interesting, isn’t it, here, the guilty offers himself as a substitute for the innocent. But there would be another lion of the tribe of Judah who was innocent, but who would offer himself as a substitute for his guilty brothers. And that substitute would be accepted and He would live and die in their place that they might experience His glory.[9]
The Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was without sin, and yet He offered Himself to take the penalty you and I deserve for our sin. He bore God’s wrath so that we who are sinners could go free. “Be sure your sins will find you out.” You cannot escape from the consequences of your sin. All you can do is to plead for mercy and the grace of God. Jesus Christ has already atoned for your sin by His death on the cross. Have you repented of your sin and believed on Him for forgiveness and the gift of eternal life? The only way we can approach God is by submitting to His authority over us, by owning up to our sin, and by appealing to His great compassion as demonstrated in the sacrifice of His own Son on the cross. If we approach Him on that basis, He will never turn us away.
