The indignant retort of the Jews.
Our Lord's last words inflamed their spirits beyond endurance.
I. THEIR INSOLENT RETORT. "Say we not well that thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil?"
1. The words suggest that they regarded Jesus as their national enemy, estranged from the hopes of Israel, and withal a rejecter of the full revelation made by God. The term "Samaritan" was always used by the Jews in an insulting sense.
2. The imputation that he had a devil implied that he was a fanatic and misguided enthusiast, influenced by essentially evil principles.
II. OUR LORD'S REPLY TO THE RETORT. "I have not a devil; but I honour my Father, and ye do dishonour me."
1. Jesus takes no notice of the imputation of his Samaritanism. That was pure insult, for the Jews knew that he was a Galilaean. "He, when he was reviled, reviled not again, but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously" (1 Peter 2:23). He teaches soon after that a Samaritan may be more truly a child of God than either priest or Levite. He thus makes light of the distinction of race which breathed so largely in Jewish conceptions.
2. He denies the imputation that he has a devil, because it was important to assure them that his words were those, not of wild or dark fanaticism, but of truth and soberness.
3. The true motive of his mission is not hatred to the Jews, but the honour due to his Father.
4. The union of Father and Son involved, through their faithless attitude, a deep dishonour to himself; for by refusing to honour the Father, they withheld the honour due to him, who is the Son and the Sent of the Father.
5. Yet the insults offered to himself would be divinely judged. "And I seek not mine own glory: there is One that seeketh and judgeth."