Charles Ellicott Commentary Matthew 8:11

"And I say unto you, that many shall come from the east and the west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven:" — Matthew 8:11 (ASV)

Luke does not include the words that follow, and this omission is significant. Either he did not know of them, in which case we must infer the complete independence of his record, or, knowing them, he, writing for Gentiles, thought it best to omit words here that our Lord later repeated, giving him another opportunity to record them (Luke 13:28). Such verbal repetition of previous statements was, it should be remembered, entirely in keeping with our Lord’s manner of teaching.

Many shall come from the east and west — It is clear that our Lord saw the centurion as the firstfruits of the wide, future harvest. Like the words of the Baptist in Matthew 3:9, what He now said contained, by implication, the entire gospel that Paul preached to the Gentiles. The phrase “east and west,” even without the formal addition of “north and south” found in the parallel passage of Luke 13:29, was used to signify the boundaries that included all the nations of the earth.

Shall sit down — Literally, shall recline, as one would at a banquet table. This imagery, like the phrase “Abraham’s bosom,” was the accepted parable for the blessedness of the kingdom.