And when the chief priests and Pharisees had heard his parables, they perceived that he spoke of them.
All Commentaries on Matthew 21:45 Go To Matthew 21
John Chrysostom
AD 407
But they did not become so, but what do they after these things? When they had heard it, it is said, they perceived that He spoke of them. And when they sought to lay hands on Him, they were afraid because of the multitudes, for they took Him for a prophet. For they felt afterwards that they themselves were intimated. Sometimes indeed, when being seized, He withdraws through the midst of them, and is not seen; and sometimes while appearing to them He lays a check upon their laboring eagerness; at which indeed men marveled, and said, Is not this Jesus? Lo, He speaks boldly, and they say nothing unto Him. But in this instance, forasmuch as they were held in restraint by the fear of the multitude, He is satisfied with this, and does not work miracles, as before, withdrawing through the midst, and not appearing. For it was not His desire to do all things in a superhuman way, in order that the Dispensation might be believed.
But they, neither by the multitude, nor by what had been said, were brought to a sound mind; they regarded not the prophet's testimony, nor their own sentence, nor the disposition of the people; so entirely had the love of power and the lust of vainglory blinded them, together with the pursuit of things temporal.
