Ver. 1. And when he had called the twelve] He had set them to pray, Matthew 9:38, and now he sets them to work. Ora et labora, pary and work, is an old proverb, and Admota manu invocanda est Minerva said the heathens. To pray to pray, is to mock God and lose one’s labour. Solomon saith, we must as well dig as beg for knowledge, Proverbs 2:2,4, else to beg is bootless. The talk of the lips only brings want, Proverbs 14:23. Christ seemed here to say to his praying disciples, as once he did to Moses, “Why criest thou unto me? speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward,” Exodus 14:15; or as afterwards he did to Joshua, (Joshua 7:10) “Get thee up, wherefore liest thou thus upon thy face?”
Ver. 2. Now the names of the twelve, &c.] Their names are registered and had in honour; when the grandees of the earth, those men of renown in their generation, lie either buried in oblivion or wrapped up in the sheet of shame: their memory, haply, is preserved, but stinks in the keeping, as that rich glutton, Luke 16:19-31, who is not so much as named, as poor Lazarus is. Peter, and Andrew his brother, &c.] They go coupled two and two together. And this first for their own sakes. “Two are better than one,” saith Solomon, Ecclesiastes 4:9-12. For, 1. If they fall, the one will lift up his fellow, as that which is stronger shoreth up that which is weaker. 2. If two lie together, then they have heat. When Silas came, Paul burned in spirit, Acts 18:5. Whiles Jehoiada lived Joash was free and forward for God; he was the first that complained of the negligence of his best officers in repairing the temple, 2 Chronicles 24:4-6. While Bradford was alive he kept up Ridley, and so did Latimer, Cranmer, from thinking upon defection. 3. If one prevail, two shall withstand him. The enemy is readiest to assault where none is by to assist; and much of our strength is lost in the loss of a faithful friend; whence Paul so rejoiced that Epaphroditus recovered, Philippians 2:27. For their own mutual help and comfort was it therefore that they were sent out by pairs: ουν τε δυω ερχινεβω, as the poet speaks of his Ulysses and Diomedes, sent to fetch in the Palladium. Secondly, for the sake of others, that the bad might be the sooner set down and convinced, the better confirmed and settled in the truth, since “in the mouth of two or three witnesses,” &c. For this it was that God sent forth those noble pairs, Moses and Aaron, Zerubbabel and Joshua, Paul and Barnabas, the two faithful witnesses, Revelation 11:3, Luther and Melancthon, Zuinglius and Oecolampadius, &c. Divisae his operae sed mens fuit unica, pavit Ore Lutherus oves, flore Melancthon apes.
Ver. 3. Bartholomew] This, say some, was that Nathanael, John 1:45-49 He is by Dionysius quoted to have said of divinity, Et magnam esse et minimam (και πολλην, και ελαχιστην), that it was large in a little room. Ambrose Chircher the Jesuit tells of a tradition they have in China, that one Olo Puen (or Bartholomew) was brought thither from Judea in the clouds, and preached Christianity among them; whereof he left twenty-seven tomes behind him. Sed fides sit penes authorem. But let faith belong to authority. Matthew the publican] See here, as in a mirror, Christ’s free grace in such a choice, and Matthew’s true grace in not dissembling his old trade, but shaming himself, that God might be glorified; and thankfully crying out, with Iphicrates, εξ οιων εις οια, from how sinful and shameful to how high and honourable a calling and course of life am I advanced!
Ver. 4. Simeon the Canaanite] Or a man of Cana in Galilee (as Judas Iscariot), that is, a man of Kerioth: see Joshua 15:25. Simon the zealot, St Luke calls him. Christ, when he called him to the apostleship, either found him or made him zealous. Tardis mentibus virtus non facile committitur. Cic. 5. Tusc. “ Mediocribus esse poetis Non Dii, non homines, non concessere columnae.” (Her. de Art. Poet.) אכק significat zelum, means jealousy.
Ver. 5. These twelve Jesus sent forth] Out of deep commiseration of those poor scattered sheep, that lay panting for life, and well nigh gasping their last (εσκυλμενοι), Matthew 9:30. Saul, that ravening wolf of Benjamin, and his fellow Pharisees, not only breathed out threatenings, but worried Christ’s sheep, that bore golden fleeces, Acts 9:1. Now, because he could not go to them all himseff in person, he sends out the twelve. Thereby also to teach them and us that no minister is so “thoroughly furnished to all good works,” 2 Timothy 3:17, but that he may need the advice and help of his fellow labourers. And this, I conceive, was at first the end of erecting colleges and cathedrals.
Ver. 6. To the lost sheep] This is the common condition of us all. “All we like sheep have gone astray,” Isaiah 53:6. The prophet saith not, like dogs; for these, though lost, will find their way home again, Nor like swine; for these also, when lugged, or against a storm, will hie to their home. But like sheep, that silly creature, than the which as none is more apt to wander, so neither any more unable to return.