Matthew 23:37 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Matthew 23:37

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(Synoptics: Matthew 23:37-39)Jerusalem, the city where so many of the prophets had been killed by the Jews who refused to hear their message from God. In response to the report of Herod’s intention to kill him, Christ had expressed his complete confidence in the providence of God, and stated that it could not be that a prophet should perish out of Jerusalem (Luke 13:31-33). That was where he knew he would lay down his life, as he several times told his disciples (Mark 10:33). It is with this in mind that he wept (Luke 19:41) and poured out these intense words of pity for the city. What feeling he had for them! Although God is angry with us, yet he is so concerned. He cannot put up with us in heaven in our sinful state, so he went to Calvary and hung to make possible our salvation. Though they need his hard speeches, yet the Son of God would rather save than destroy. In spite of all her intransigence and murderous hostility, he still felt tremendous sorrow for her. Even on the verge of her destruction he could weep for her. This verse says that Christ was willing, but Jerusalem was not. The plan of God for the world is fixed, but it does not unfold with cold indifference. He does not simply bark out, ‘You will get what is coming!’ Christ is moved by man’s refusal to respond. He will indeed judge the world, but it is as if he does so with tears in his eyes. We are given an insight into the feelings of God for the lost. His heart is moved at the plight of all who fail to find him. This shows us that it is not hard to appeal to his mercy. ‘How often would I …’ Yes, it was the Son of God who time and again sent prophets to warn Israel, and waited for their response. He speaks here as God who had pleaded with them for so long. He uses the most tender expression to describe what he would have done for them. When the fox prowls around, the mother hen calls for the little chicks to run to her and hide under her wings. All the hen’s motherly instinct are aroused at their vulnerability, and their need of protection. But the chicks can be foolish; they may not see the danger. We also don’t have sense to say, ‘Lord, bless me.’ It ought to have been easy for Israel to appeal to the protective feelings of the Lord to surround them with his walls of defence, but they would not sincerely call on him for help. If we don’t come to him, there is no other helper; he is the only mediator between us and God. Christ could remember all his pleas and all their rejections of his kindness and longsuffering. How fully deserved was judgment when it came!

Application

Note that he did not say, ‘You could not come’, but, ‘You would not come.’ The reason that anyone refuses the Lord is not that they lack the capacity to respond to the gospel, but that they refuse to do so. The will is involved. Our wills are so set against God, that we will not come to him. This makes us entirely responsible for unbelief. I am accountable before God; I must respond. One day, if we do not respond, we will hear the terrible words, ‘You would not come.’ Each one of us must now go to him and yield our souls to him.

As you read of Operation Market Garden during the Second World War, it strikes you that they spoke so lightly of losses. ‘We may have this loss’, said one, ‘Yes,’ said another, ‘but we gain more if our losses are higher.’ We don’t criticise them, because war alters thinking, but they spoke casually of it. But God is so moved. Jerusalem killed the prophets. Why? Because of what they said: they warned that the nation would suffer if it continued in its sin. God is slow to anger – he appealed through the prophets for centuries to this nation. They didn’t just announce destruction; they pleaded. But because their message was searching and put a finger on spiritual wickedness, the people were furious. ‘That man must be silenced.’ The Jews wanted to invent a religion of their own; they relied on the religion that God gave them, but they changed it. You would think that God would long since have said, ‘No more delay.’ It is God’s plan to give repeated opportunity.

Today people don’t say, ‘Get rid of that preacher’, but they say, ‘I won’t listen to any message that says I am a poor lost sinner that needs to repent.’ There is still a great resistance to this message. God says, ‘You and I are not on the same side.’ You may have this woolly idea that all are going to heaven, but no: God is here and we are there. We need to have messengers sent to us, for we are apart from God. Why don’t people take seriously the gospel? Because they don’t feel at a distance from God. The Jews here are only a picture of us. Many times God moves towards us. We are afraid for a time and maybe pray, but soon we revert. Or he touches our consciences or a Christian friend speaks to us, and we are troubled, but we throw it all away.

If God does not make us see the emptiness of life, we will not let go of this world. The child plays with another child’s toy, and won’t give it up. We want to keep our hands on personal aggrandizement. God says, surrender your hold on this life and come to me.’ I will give you untold blessings, but make me your Lord.’ How we should praise God for the message of grace.

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Matthew 23:37 Commentary and Bible Study