To this chapter belong many of the sayings of Jesus. He spoke in proverbs
as well as in parables.
"It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a
rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven."
"Many are called, but few are chosen."
"The first shall be last, and the last first."
"A prophet is not without honor save in his own country and among his
friends."
"He that humbleth himself shall be exalted; he that exalteth himself shall
be abased."
"Be ye wise as serpents and harmless as doves."
"Physician, heal thyself."
"Ye are the light of the world; a city that is set on an hill can not be
hid. Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on a
candlestick and it giveth light unto all that are in the house."
"Let the dead bury their dead."
"No man having put his hand to the plough and looking back is fit for the
kingdom of God."
"And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but
considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?" There are several
proverbs in other literatures very like this. The Russian:--"A pig came up
to a horse and said, Your feet are crooked, and your hair is worth
nothing." The Bengal:--"The sieve said to the needle, You have a hole in
your tail." The Chinese:--"Let every one sweep the snow before his own
door, and not busy himself with the frost on his neighbor's tiles."
"Ye can not serve God and Mammon."
"A house divided against itself can not stand."
"Beware of false prophets which come to you in sheep's clothing, but
inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know, them by their fruits. Do
men gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles?"
"For unto every one that hath to him shall be given and he shall have
abundance; but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which
he hath."
"Wheresoever the carcass is, there are the vultures gathered together."
"Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls
before swine, lest they trample them under foot and turn again and rend
you." Similar proverbs may be gathered from other sources. The Persian
says, "It is folly to give comfits to a cow;" the Veman, "Though you
anoint an ass all over with perfumes, it feels not your fondness, but
will turn again and kick you;" the Telugu asks, "What can a pig do with a
rose-bottle?" the Tamul says, "Like reading a portion of the Veda to a cow
about to gore you;" and again, "Though religious instruction be whispered
into the ear of an ass, nothing will come of it but the accustomed
braying."
"They that are whole need not a physician, but they that are sick." Such
sayings of Jesus are true proverbs and instances of genuine wit.
Archbishop Trench says, "Any one who by after investigation, has sought to
discover how much our rustic hearers carry away even from sermons to which
they have attentively listened, will find it is hardly ever the course or
tenor of the argument, supposing the discourse to have contained such; but
if anything is uttered, as it used so often to be by the best Puritan
preachers, tersely, pointedly and epigrammatically, this will have stayed
by them while all the rest has passed away. Great preachers to the people,
such as have ever found their way to the universal heart of their
fellows, have ever been great employers of proverbs." This principle helps
to explain why, in the case of Jesus, "the common people heard him
gladly."