Bible Commentaries
Mark 9

Verse 2

TRANSFIGURED!

‘He was transfigured before them.’

Mark 9:2

We will gaze for a brief while upon the luminous and glorious aspect of Christ’s body in the moment of His Transfiguration.

I. The unveiling of Christ’s Divinity.—We will see first of all the revelation, the unveiling of His Divinity. The flesh of our Blessed Lord was as a veil drawn over His Divine nature. It half concealed and half revealed what lay beneath, but it is difficult to read the Gospels and not to become aware that ever and again the Divinity flashed forth from beneath the bonds which held it.

II. The foreshadowing of resurrection.—It is also the foreshadowing of our resurrection. The Christian Church teaches Jesus Christ, being dead, came to life. It teaches also that, being buried, He rose from the grave; and it leads us to hope that as we shall live after our death, so shall our poor bodies be raised by His power into the likeness of His body. The Scripture speaks of two bodies, or more strictly two aspects of the same body. There is the body of our humiliation, and there is the body of Christ’s glory, the same body only etherealised, transfigured, and glorified. Does anybody ask what will be the likeness of our body at its resurrection? Look at the text: ‘He was transfigured before them.’

III. The essential majesty of sorrow.—Lastly, the Transfiguration of our Lord Jesus Christ reveals the essential majesty of sorrow. It might have been thought that, if the representative of the law and the representative of prophecy were summoned from the dead to meet the Lord, there were many topics upon which they and He might have conversed together. What a conversation might that have been, like none that ever took place upon earth! But it is told that they spake of His decease, His exodus, which He should accomplish at Jerusalem. The Transfiguration has been called the dividing line in the life of Jesus Christ. From that mountain He descended with painful steps into the valley of the dark shadow. But was He not more royal upon Calvary than upon Hermon?

—Bishop Welldon.

Illustrations

(1) ‘There are incidents in the Divine story which cannot be satisfactorily explained except by supposing that it was the Divinity bursting forth which compelled the immediate result. It was so in the instant obedience which the first followers of our Lord rendered to His summons, “Follow Me.” It was so in the amazement with which the disciples beheld Him as He was going up to Jerusalem to suffer, and it was so in the garden of Gethsemane when, at the words “I am He,” the enemies, the soldiers who had been sent to arrest Him, went backwards and fell to the ground.’

(2) ‘The great painter who depicted the scene of the Transfiguration has conceived our Lord as being caught upwards from the mountain as it were heavenwards, and drawing to Himself the law-giver and the prophet who appeared with Him in glory. Such, perchance, will be our bodies at the resurrection. “There is a natural body,” says St. Paul, “and there is a spiritual body.” “As we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.” ’

(3) ‘He Who suffered for us men and for our salvation, He alone is potent to assuage all the anguishes of this mortal life. Jesus, it is said in the story of the Transfiguration, was left alone. He is alone still. There are many teachers in the world, but there is only one Saviour. It is to Him, and to Him alone, that the world must look for all that makes life worth living. It is in turning to Him, in leaning upon His Divine support, so, and so only, that we are made strong to overcome in the evil day.’

(SECOND OUTLINE)

THE HEAVENLY VISION

I. Days of prayer and days of vision.—The Transfiguration took place as our Lord was praying ( Luke 9:29). The Lord Jesus Christ was the most prayerful Man that ever lived. He had special places for prayer: the Temple, the synagogue, a mountain, the garden of Gethsemane ( John 18:2). Several times in Mark we are told He went away for communion with God. He is the great Teacher of prayer; He is Master of the art of prayer. Certainly days of prayer are days of vision. If you want to see heavenly visions, you will see them best on your knees.

II. Transfigured in the night.—It is worth while remarking, too, that the Transfiguration was in the night. The topic of conversation was the Cross ( Luke 9:31). The entire conception of Christ in the Bible is sacrificial. He is the Lamb of sacrifice—the sin offering. This is the central truth of both Testaments.

III. A foregleam.—The Transfiguration was a foregleam of what the appearance of Christ will be when He comes again. Archbishop Anselm beautifully said: ‘If the contemplation of Christ’s glorified Manhood so filled the Apostle with joy, that he was unwilling to be sundered from it, how shall it fare with them who attain to the contemplation of His glorious Godhead?’

IV. After the vision.—At last the vision faded, the heavenly visitors returned home, and Jesus only was left. He abides for ever. On the next day as they went on their journey down the hill Jesus went with them. And if we believe in Him He will go with us every day.

—Rev. F. Harper.

Illustration

‘Lord, it is good for us to be

Entranced, enwrapped, alone with Thee,

Watching the glistening raiment glow

Whiter than Hermon’s whitest snow,

The human lineaments that shine

Irradiant with a light Divine;

Till we, too, change from grace to grace,

Gazing on that transfigured Face.’

(THIRD OUTLINE)

THE WAY TO THE MOUNT

How shall we get on to the mount? how obtain these glorious views of Christ? Be guided by the circumstances before us. It comes—

I. By abiding with Christ.

II. By free communion with Christ.

III. By increasing devotion to Christ.

The excellence of a great picture, or book, or character does not always appear at first. So we must have some good knowledge of Christ, some acquaintance with Him. Let there be an earnest study of the Gospel. Be not impatient. See how freely these three talked with Christ. There must not only be thought about Christ, but free talk with Him.

Verse 5

AN IMPETUOUS ANSWER

‘And Peter answered and said to Jesus, Master, it is good for us to be here.’

Mark 9:5

Certainly, as far as we can judge, this is an instance in which silence would have been much better than words. It was childish to speak. For what he said was both ill-timed and ill-advised. There are many occasions in which silence is the truest wisdom and the best eloquence. This, for instance, was a case in point—‘for he wist not what to say; for they were sore afraid’; and when you are ‘afraid’ it is often best not to speak. The expression of the feeling will act back upon the feeling and increase it. There is great force at such times in the counsel: ‘Be still, and know that I am God!’

I. What is the moral?

( a) Outward things have very little to do with the inner life. They spring from different sources, and they run in separate channels. No external advantages will ever make a man wise, or good, or happy. You utterly mistake it, if you think that the heart can be so influenced from anything without. If you talk with saints, if you company with angels, if you wear heaven’s dress, if you saw God, it would not do it.

( b) The work is within. Only the Holy Ghost can make things heavenly. God will put contemptibleness upon human thought, and cross the hands of man’s expectation. The very men who were still men, and nothing but men, and merely children at the Transfiguration, were more than men after Pentecost. Then, their prisons and their miseries gave them an elevation, and a tone, and a joyous influence, which that wonderful mount utterly failed to give.

II. A change must pass over a man before he can go to heaven.—If St. Peter was what he was in the Transfiguration, what should you and I be at this moment in heaven? How inappropriate would be our words! how incapable our power! how discordant our sentiments! I have no doubt we should be afraid; we should be ashamed; we should make mistakes; we should speak foolishly; we should misuse our occasion—just like St. Peter. No wonder that there is so much teaching, and so much discipline; so much to empty, and so much to purify in life; seeing we want so much to make us capable of, and to adapt us for, the places whither we are going.

III. Take care lest you run into exactly St. Peter’s error.—He thought that it would certainly be ‘good’ to be in a place where, assuredly, it would have turned out very badly for him if he had continued. One of you has been leading for some time a very calm and meditative life. It has been almost like sitting at the feet of Jesus till it has grown into a pleasure, which amounts almost to a necessity to your feelings to be quiet. When, presently, a call comes for more active exercise, you shrink back from the contrast. You feel, ‘This calm so suits my soul—why should I go down again into that plain?’

Illustration

‘No doubt there was much in this saying which cannot be commended. It showed an ignorance of the purpose for which Jesus came into the world, to suffer and to die. It showed a forgetfulness of his brethren, who were not with him, and of the dark world which so much needed his Master’s presence. Above all, the proposal which he made at the same time to “build three tabernacles” for Moses, Elias, and Christ, showed a low view of his Master’s dignity, and implied that he did not know that a greater than Moses and Elias was there. In all these respects the Apostle’s exclamation is not to be praised, but to be blamed. But having said this, let us not fail to remark what joy and happiness this glorious vision conferred on this warm-hearted disciple. Let us see in his fervent cry, “It is good to be here,” what comfort and consolation the sight of glory can give to a true believer.’

Verse 7

HEAR HIM!

‘This is My beloved Son: hear Him.’

Mark 9:7

The voice of Christ is still heard in the world.

I. He has a right to speak.

( a) Who has a higher claim on our bodies and souls? Whose words can bring so much profit at all seasons and under all circumstances? Who will be so patient, so loving, so gentle with us?

( b) The words of none other are so dangerous to resist. No other’s words press for so immediate attention.

( c) Whether we hear or forbear He must deal with us according to His laws.

( d) Shall we not wisely hear and obey at once? Shall we not throughout life seek daily and hourly to hear His voice and follow His guidance?

( e) Must we not, therefore, follow out His commands in regard to the world outside His Church? His words are for them as well as for us.

II. It is the Father’s command—‘Hear Him.’

( a) Hear Him tell that the Father hath sent Him; that He has died, yea, rather, has risen again; that He ever liveth to make intercession for us; that He is ever with those who proclaim Him; that the reward of the faithful worker is sure.

( b) The non-Christian world sees intimations of the Godhead, and worships blindly. Now God would show to it Jesus Christ as the Saviour, and bid it ‘Hear Him.’

( c) With what profit of personal peace, of a new life for the society as well as the individual convert, has this command been followed!

III. Our own duty.—In the matter of missions, let us no longer hesitate or lend perfunctory help. But rather

( a) Hear Him and obey instantly—like the Apostles leaving their callings;

( b) Hear Him and obey joyfully, casting away all that may obstruct our movements;

( c) Hear Him with submission.

Illustration

‘One who “heard Him,” and went forth not knowing whither she went, was Miss Hester Needham, an English lady of means, and the head of flourishing Y.W.C.A. work in Brompton. She attended a public meeting, at the close of which a small pamphlet was put into her hands. In it was mentioned “some place in Sumatra, which forty years before had asked for Christian teaching, and to which all these years no answer had gone. Before twenty-four hours had passed Hester had said ‘Yes’ to the call, though what or where the place was, or under what Society she could go, she knew not.” Writing from Mandailing eight years later, she said, “I was obliged to confess … that I had pledged myself to go to some place in Sumatra, the name of which I did not know, and did not know how to obtain.” After much inquiry she found that the country was under Dutch control, and missionaries had been sent out by the Rhenish Mission at Barmen, in Germany, though not to Mandailing, the district in question. She went to Barmen and offered herself, and was accepted as an honorary missionary, being then at the age of forty-six. She worked for a time at Pansurnapitu, in Sumatra, and then went on to Mandailing, where she died in 1897.’

Verse 8

CHRIST ALL IN ALL

‘Jesus only with themselves.’

Mark 9:8

It is clear that this is one of the most solemn and suggestive passages in the whole Scriptures. Let us take a view of the Transfiguration as a whole, so that we may understand this concluding lesson of it.

I. Historical meaning of the Transfiguration.—We shall see that it was a very real event in our Lord’s history. It is recorded in detail by three Evangelists and with absolute independence. We must lay hold of the fact that our Lord was transfigured visibly, physically, so that the brightness of His Transfiguration passed through His raiment. We must lay hold of the reality of the Transfiguration. Of what value is the reality of the Transfiguration? It is first of all valuable as history.

II. Doctrinal significance of the Transfiguration.—The Transfiguration is also important doctrinally. St. Peter said, in answer to our Lord, ‘Let us make three tabernacles; one for Thee, one for Moses, and one for Elias.’ But then came the Divine voice which peremptorily forbade the making of the tabernacles. ‘This,’ said the Father’s voice, ‘is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased: hear ye Him,’ and you will observe that whenever St. Peter refers to the Transfiguration he makes no reference to Moses and Elijah. He did not want to learn the lesson twice. ‘This is My beloved Son: hear ye Him.’ Now you see the meaning of the text, ‘They saw no man, save Jesus only with themselves.’

III. Personal application.—‘Jesus only with themselves.’ Christ must be all in all to each one of us. That is the lesson of the Transfiguration. Our Lord Jesus Christ must be the chief among ten thousand. It seems as if St. Peter was thinking of the Transfiguration when he said, ‘There is none other name under Heaven given amongst men whereby we must be saved.’ Jesus Christ must take first place before everything else. We must remember that Jesus Christ alone can save us. I think that is why the whole of the Evangelists wrote the text like this in order that they might put down their testimony to what the great voice of the Father meant.

—Rev. H. J. R. Marston.

Illustration

‘The words “Jesus only with themselves,” conclude Mark’s narrative of our Lord being transfigured upon the Holy Mount. Luke’s words, concluding the same narrative, are very closely like those of Mark, “Jesus was found alone.” Matthew’s words contain this same striking expression: “They saw no man, save Jesus only,” but omits “with themselves,” which Mark uses to show how Jesus was found, identified by the three chosen Apostles, who were participators in that mysterious and glorious scene: St. Peter, St. James, and John. Of the three, St. James was not permitted to contribute to the New Testament, for he fell by the sword of Herod. St. Peter refers in his Second Epistle in explicit terms to the Transfiguration; John in a passage in the opening of his Gospel speaks of the same event. This is a very striking and magnificent part of the Scriptures, and the event itself was a very striking and magnificent event in the Lord’s life on earth, and the narratives of Matthew, Mark, and Luke are very striking and beautiful. The more we consider them the more do we see the import of of the closing sentence. Evidently the three Evangelists were guided by the Holy Spirit to put particular emphasis upon that little sentence, “Jesus only.” It cannot be by accident, it cannot be a mere coincidence, and it cannot be—as it might have been if it had been mentioned by only one of the Evangelists—only a subordinate phase of the Transfiguration.’

Verse 10

THE RISING OF THE DEAD

‘Questioning one with another what the rising from the dead should mean.’

Mark 9:10

The resurrection from the dead was not realised by even the very chiefest of the Apostles. Their difficulty was substantially the same with that which was afterwards felt by some of the Corinthian Christians, and to a certain extent is now felt by many and many a Christian of our own days. The difficulty lies centred, not in the conception of a continued existence after death, but in the conception of a bodily existence when our present bodily existence—which observe, makes up the sum total of all that we know of such a form of existence—has come utterly to an end.

I. The teaching of Scripture.—In respect of all such questions even Scripture is either silent or reserved. Holy Scripture mentions only the blessed facts of the future, but gives no indication of the manner it which they will take place. It teaches us plainly and clearly that we shall rise again with our own bodies; and it teaches us this by the great object-lesson that is ministered by God’s book of Nature, by the seed that is placed in the earth, and the plant that rises out of it. This resurrection parable shows:—

( a) That the perishing of our mortal body is like the perishing of the grain of corn that is put into the earth: it sets free the germ that is designed to become the body of the future. So with our mortal bodies. No eye can ever see it; but we cannot doubt that it is here, in the body of each one of us, and that death will set it free to become, how, we know not, the body of glory or the body of shame.

( b) That as the plant differs from the seed from which it sprang, so widely will the body that is to be differ from the earthly body.

But on these deep mysteries we do not presume to speculate. All that it is right for to know, we know. We shall all be changed, but we shall all be ourselves.

II. The appeal to fact and truth.—The doctrine of the resurrection of the body is easy when viewed in connection with the Resurrection of the Lord, We here appeal to no parable; we appeal to a fact—the Resurrection of Christ; and to a truth—that ‘Christ is the firstfruits of them that slept.’

—Bishop Ellicott.

Illustration

‘For Christians the belief in another life rests on the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. He came to show man what God is, but also to show what man himself is, and should be, and shall be. He is spoken of as the firstfruits of the dead, which means that all mankind shall rise some day as He rose. Further, the power which raised Him will raise us, and the change which passed over His body is the change which will pass over ours. St. Paul rests his teaching of the life of the world to come very plainly on the actual fact of our Lord’s Resurrection, which he describes in a very solemn way as having been specially “received” by him. Furthermore, we are to believe, not merely in the immortality of the soul, but in the resurrection of the body. We do not regard our bodies as evil things to be thrown off some day as a snake casts its slough, but as destined to share in our future. As He ascended with our whole nature to heaven, so our whole nature, body, soul, and spirit is to be redeemed. The spirit of which we always think as associated with our body is not in that other world to be left naked, but to be “clothed upon,” to have, as it were, a dwelling-place, a body, which body, though in wholly changed condition, will yet have some mysterious relation to the bodies which we have now.’

Verse 23

THE POSSIBILITIES OF FAITH

‘Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.’

Mark 9:23

Christ’s ‘if’ answered, and more than answered, the man’s ‘if.’

I. Faith the condition of God’s gifts.—Observe the expression, ‘If thou canst,’ not ‘if thou dost,’ ‘believe.’ Cannot, then, every one believe? Is or is not a man responsible for the character of his faith and its degree?

( a) Every man has some faith—unless he has made himself lower than a man.

( b) Every man who uses the faith he has will increase its power and acquire more.

II. Faith the limit of God’s gifts.—The outside boundary line of the province of faith, properly so called, is promises. Faith is laying hold of what God has covenanted Himself to us, what God is to His people. The promises are what God is to His Church, therefore faith confines itself to promises. The other side of promises you may go—you may go over the boundary, you may hope, you may modestly and conditionally ask, you may expect, you may have—but you cannot carry faith, in its highest signification, into the high region beyond the promises.

III. Faith the circumference of God’s gifts.—Within that circumference the range of God’s undertakings for us is infinite. Only I wish you to note one thing—that it does not say, ‘all things are given to him that believeth,’ but ‘all things are possible to him that believeth.’

IV. How to get this faith:—

( a) Be sure you are living a good life.

( b) Do God’s will, whatever in your conscience you feel God’s will is.

( c) Cherish convictions, and obey the ‘still small voice.’

( d) Act out the faith you have, and let it be a constant prayer, ‘More faith, Lord; more faith.’

( e) Go up and down among the promises, and be conversant with the character and the attributes of God.

( f) Wrestle with some one promise in spirit every day till you get it.

( g) Take loving views of Jesus, make experiments of His love, and always sit and wait, with an open heart, to take in all that He most assuredly waits to give.

—Rev. James Vaughan.

Illustration

‘Faith is a faculty we already have, we must not wait for it, e.g. the Philippine jailor. “Believe,” said St. Paul to him, “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ;” that is, “Use the faith you have to lay hold of Christ.” The complaint is often made, “I cannot believe.” But do people always recognise and use the faculty they have? Remember the mind and heart with which we do our business, is the very same with which we must also do our spiritual work. We must employ prayerfully, then, faculties we now possess.’

Verse 24

MODERN UNBELIEF

‘Help Thou mine unbelief.’

Mark 9:24

These words afford a fit starting-point for some remarks upon present phases of unbelief, showing, as they do, man’s need of faith. Unbelief in an active form seems to exist more round Christianity than any other religion. It is only Christianity that excites conflict.

I. Modern unbelief.—Unbelief may have its rise in three directions—( a) the external world; ( b) man; or ( c) the nature of Christianity itself. The present age being so much devoted to the study of nature, unbelief is mainly of a materialistic character. One meets constantly the words Agnosticism and Positivism, and these words indicate the channels in which unbelief flows.

II. And its remedy.—Our age supplies in its spirit and tendency three antidotes to its own phases of unbelief.

( a) The study of the comparative science of religion. The effect of this study is to deepen on the mind the conviction that religion is an essential part of human nature, and the dominating part. Its tendency is against the doctrine of development. Whatever may be true in other directions, religions do not develop into higher forms, but degenerate. The oldest forms are the simplest and highest. To publish the other sacred books of the world is not only to demolish their claims, if that were needful, but to show the Divinity of the Bible.

( b) The strongly ethical character of the time and the deep interest taken in the discussion of ethical questions is on the side of religion. The ethical finds that it requires the religious. Religion draws it out, and gives it not only intensity but courage, hopefulness, freedom, and joy.

( c) The poetry of our time must be taken into account. The best poets are among the best friends of religion in our day. Far more and more the question is coming to this: Is the materialistic, or the spiritual and religious view of life the true one? If men are but convinced that the deep ethical and spiritual view of life is true they must gravitate to Christ. Where else can they go?

Illustration

‘Mr. Lecky in his History of Morality says that it was reserved for Christianity to present to the world an ideal character, which through all the changes of eighteen centuries has filled the hearts of men with an impassioned love, and has shown itself capable of acting upon all ages, nations, temperaments, and conditions, has not only been the highest pattern of virtue, but the highest incentive to practice, and has exerted so deep an influence that it may be truly said that the simple record of the three short years of active life has done more to regenerate and soften mankind than all the disquisitions of philosophers and all the exhortations of moralists.’

Verse 29

THE LENTEN FAST

‘This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting.’

Mark 9:29

Here we have set before us a very striking and significant contrast: the contrast between the spiritual power of Jesus fresh from the Mount of Transfiguration, and the want of such power in His disciples, who represent to us the common life of the multitude and the plain. It is in our religious life just as in everything else—spiritual carelessness or neglect must mean spiritual weakness.

I. The great surrender.—Do we desire to cast any evil influence or any weakness out of our life? Do we ask despairingly how it is that we have not been able to cast it out? Our Lord’s answer comes to us in these emphatic words—‘This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer.’ In other words, if we really desire that our soul shall be cleansed and strengthened, we must surrender it to Him in prayer and self-denial, in spiritual exercises and communion, that He may cure it of its sin or its weakness, and inspire us with new life.

II. Christ’s example.—Christ’s own practice corresponds with His warnings and injunctions. These withdrawals of Jesus into the solitude of the desert or the mountain, these hours in which He was alone with the Father, are but another name for those exercises of prayer, fasting, meditation, communion with God, without which it is not possible to eradicate from the soul those influences of sin which destroy its harmony and undermine its strength.

III. The Lenten Fast.—Let us not fancy that we can allow such seasons as Lent to come and go, year by year, giving them no thought or attention, without some corresponding loss. The voice of humanity, and the experience of centuries, the practice of holy men, and the example and the words of Christ Himself, have all testified to the need there is for the spiritual observance of such times, if men are to keep their soul alive in them—and who are we that we should venture to set ourselves against such overpowering testimony?

—Bishop Percival.

Illustrations

(1) ‘In prayer and fasting let us strive

To keep our bodies down,

To save our precious souls alive,

And win a glorious crown.’

(2) ‘Matthew ( Matthew 17:21) gives our Lord’s answer more fully. His first words are, “Because of your unbelief.” In this, the latter part of His answer, He takes the Apostles yet farther back, namely to the cause of their want of faith. They lacked faith, because they had been slack in those spiritual exercises which keep faith bright and strong.… We may note that “prayer and fasting” are as blessed in gaining the Holy Spirit as they are in expelling the evil one ( Acts 13:3; Acts 14:23).’

Verses 36-37

CHRIST IN THE CHILD

‘And He took a child, and set him in the midst of them: and when He had taken him in His arms, He said unto them, Whosoever shall receive one of such children in My name, receiveth Me.’

Mark 9:36-37

As Christ’s days on earth, so now, He comes to us under various forms—as babe, as youth, as man, as a spiritual presence. Consider to-day His coming as a child. Notice:—

I. To receive a child in Christ’s name is to receive Christ.—He who receives a child, receives Christ under the veil of childhood. Your own nursery, in this light, may be as sacred a place as the inn at Bethlehem; they who take up their own treasure, in Christ’s name, as Christ’s disciples, certainly have hold of Christ. This word out of Christ’s mouth, like a two-edged sword, cuts through and cuts away a whole entanglement of sophistry and error. A mother’s heart is the best place to seek for a comment on Christ’s words. She knows that infancy is the time of innocence; she can fondle her infant in Christ’s name, and see His innocency reflected in it. This view has a bearing on education. So much depends upon what you have to educate. If an infant is like the Infant Christ, you will give it one kind of education, if it is like a half-hatched basilisk, your training must of necessity be different.

II. What it is to receive a child in Christ’s name.

( a) As His representative should receive him. To act as He would act in the like case ( Cf. Mark 10:13, etc.). How often when confronted with children we resemble rather St. Peter than Christ! They distract the attention, and we have more important matters to attend to! Can anything be more important? Trees, no doubt, are greater things than seedlings, but the gardener who postpones attention to his seedlings in order that he may prune and guard his trees, will find the seedlings sustain more hurt than any good to his trees can compensate. Trees will endure delay, but the same delay may kill seedlings. Children are the seedlings of humanity; and as such Christ would have you treat them. You can do more good through them than is possible if their claims should be ignored.

( b) To receive him as himself Christ’s representative. Respect and reverence due to children on this ground. We have as much to learn from them as they from us; nay more, for they are more like Christ than we are. Many things hidden from the wise and prudent have been revealed to babes. They who would learn to follow the Lamb must be content that a little child shall lead them.

Illustration

‘Christ’s words about children are not metaphor, but fact; it is for us to reverence children that we may again become like them. If we do not thus reverence childhood, and Christ under the veil of childhood, what do we but reject Christ, and offend those who represent Him? True, we may have to rebuke, or even punish children, as a means of guarding them from evil; but, with love to temper and direct the discipline, this cannot do them hurt. Thoughtlessness, neglect, caprice, impatience, selfishness in some one of its many forms—this it is which offends the little ones, and tends to make them unchildlike. It is not love that spoils, it is carelessness and lack of love. Remember, it is Christ through children Who appeals to us for help and sympathy.’

(SECOND OUTLINE)

THE CHILD IN THE MIDST

I. Take care of the child.—Receive, help, cherish, or protect a child, make the way of gooduess easy to him, and shield him from evil, and Christ declares that inasmuch as you have done it to the least of all His little ones, you have done it unto Him. On the other hand, offend any such child, that is to say, hinder or mislead, spoil or degrade him in any way; do anything to rob a child of any of these Divine gifts, rob him of his innocence or trustfulness or his guileless heart, and sow the seeds of evil habits or tastes in their place, and you know the denunciation or curse which the Divine voice has laid upon you for your evil deed. A child is a living symbol of that which draws to us the love of Christ, and we cannot doubt that he is so by virtue of his innocence, his obedient spirit, his guilelessness, or simplicity of character, his trustfulness, and by all the untarnished and unspoilt possibilities of goodness in him.

II. A new force in our own lives.—As we contemplate such a scene as this in our Lord’s life with the little child in the midst, and listen to the Saviour’s words, all the commands and injunctions to keep innocency, to keep the spirit of obedience, to keep a guileless and trusting and loving heart, gain a new force. They seem to speak to us with new voices; for if the true life—the life that has in it the hope of union with Christ—must be a life endowed with these gifts, whether in youth or age, what a blessed thing it will be for you if you have never lost or squandered them!

III. A keener interest in social duty.—And if we turn our thoughts from our own separate personal life, and look for a moment at our duty as members of society, how this picture of Christ embracing the little child, and blessing those who receive or help one such should stir us to new and keener interest in social duty! Does not this example and teaching of the Lord carry in it the condemnation of a great many of our traditional notions about our duty to the young? We see the Lord’s tenderness and love and care for the little child; we see how He values the childlike qualities, and how He enjoins the nursing and the cherishing of these. If, then, we have really learnt the lesson which He thus presses upon us, we shall feel something like reverence for every young life as it begins its perilous and uncertain course on the sea of man’s experience.

Bishop Percival.

Verse 41

‘WHOSE I AM’

‘Ye belong to Christ.’

Mark 9:41

Who are they who belong to Christ?

I. Those who come to Christ.—So the Saviour said: ‘All that the Father giveth Me shall come to Me’ ( John 6:37). You are invited to come just as you are. Are you young? ‘They enter the narrow way easiest who enter earliest.’ Nothing is more delightful than to see a girl sitting where Mary sat, at the feet of Jesus—or to see a boy leaning where John leaned, on the breast of Jesus. Are you middle-aged? Victor Hugo said forty was the old age of youth and fifty the youth of old age. Now is the time to come to Christ, before the shadows of evening are stretched out, before the harvest is past, before the summer is ended. Are you old? Then come, ere the fading years are all gone, ere the falling fire has quite died out. For coming to Christ and believing in Him are the same thing—‘He that cometh to Me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on Me shall never thirst’ ( John 6:35).

II. Those who follow Christ.—If we are sincere followers of Jesus Christ we shall be willing to suffer for His sake. That is to say, if Christ and our own worldly interests clash and come into conflict we shall follow Christ at all costs. We shall put Christ first and be willing to part with everything rather than part with Him.

III. Those who long to see Him.—I think it was Samuel Rutherford who said: ‘His absence is like a mountain upon my heavy heart—O, when shall we meet?’ This longing to see Him is a third mark of belonging to Him. Only those who love Him want to see Him. ‘If I have had pleasant and profitable correspondence for years with one whom I have not seen, but who is known to me by his wisdom and kindness; if he has done me more good than all the men whom I have seen, taught me, helped me, and stamped the impression of himself on my mind and heart; do I not long to see him face to face, and eagerly wait for a day when I may be nearer to him who has become indispensable to me, the very life of my life? Surely it is so between Christians and Christ.’

Rev. F. Harper.

Illustrations

(1) ‘A young man of sceptical tendencies in the East End of London said: “I like this Jesus of yours, but what I cannot understand is that those who profess to be His followers aren’t a bit like Him.” In some cases this is true.’

(2) ‘Some of you remember Shakespeare’s wonderful story of the lady who was sought in marriage by many suitors. To test them, her father had made three caskets—one of gold, one of silver, and one of lead—and in one of the caskets the lady’s picture was placed. Each casket had a motto. On the gold one, this: “Who chooseth me shall gain what many men desire.” On the silver one, this: “Who chooseth me shall get as much as he deserves.” But on the lead one, this: “Who chooseth me must give and hazard all he hath.” The gold and silver caskets spoke of getting; the lead casket spoke of giving. He who gave most gained most, for the lady’s picture was in the casket that bade a man give and hazard all he hath.’

(3) ‘The first question in the Heidelberg Catechism is: ‘What is thy only comfort in life and in death?” And the answer, “That I, with body and soul, both in life and in death, am not my own, but belong to my faithful Saviour Jesus Christ, Who with His precious Blood has fully satisfied for all my sins, and redeemed me from all the power of the devil; and so preserves me that, without the will of my Father in heaven, not a hair can fall from my head; yea, that all things must work together for my salvation. Wherefore, by His Holy Spirit, He also assures me of eternal life, and makes me heartily willing and ready henceforth to live unto Him.” To put it in fewer words: “What is thy only comfort in life and in death?” Happy are they that with simple faith can answer—“That I … belong to … Christ.” ’

(SECOND OUTLINE)

NOT YOUR OWN

There are three thoughts suggested by this text: Proprietorship—Privilege—Responsibility.

I. Proprietorship.—There is a sense in which it may be said that all men belong to Christ.

( a) His claim to us is based primarily on His Creatorship.

( b) All are His by redemption.

( c) Baptism is a confirmation of all this—a sign and seal of Divine proprietorship.

( d) But believers belong to Christ also by an act of personal consecration.

II. To belong to Christ implies privilege.

( a) Special care. So precious is goodness in the sight of God that He rules the universe for the sake of the good.

( b) Identity of interests. If I am Christ’s my joys are His joys, my sorrows are His sorrows.

( c) Dignity. You may speak of a Diviner ancestry. You belong to Christ. The King of kings owns you, and calls you His child.

III. To belong to Christ involves responsibility.

( a) We are to live for Christ. All the disorder and misery in the world may be traced to the fact of men living for themselves.

( b) We are to live like Christ. By the assumption of our nature, by His life on earth, by His suffering and death, Jesus Christ exemplified a self-sacrifice which was positively sublime, and to which the world had been a stranger.

( c) We are to confess Christ. His mastery once owned, His Headship once acknowledged, it becomes our first and most obvious duty to confess Him before men.

Illustration

‘If you inflict pain upon the remotest and least significant joint of your finger, the whole body sympathises, the sense of pain courses like an electric current through the million ramifications of your frame. The union between Christ and His Church is as intimate, as vital, as the union of the head with the body. He is our Head, we are His members. You cannot touch the remotest, the humblest member in that spiritual body without sending a thrill of sympathy up to the common Head. “In all, our afflictions He is afflicted.” When Saul persecuted the saints, Jesus charges him with persecuting Himself. “Why persecutest thou Me?” Jesus, having ascended up on high, far above all principalities and powers, was personally beyond the reach of persecution; yet a bond of union, invisible but real, linked His holy ones not only to the throne, but also to the person of the Mediator, so that every touch of agony they felt thrilled its utterances to the throne and moved the heart of Him, Who sits thereon. “He that toucheth you toucheth the apple of His eye” ( Mark 9:42).’

Verse 50

PURITY AND PEACE

‘Have salt in yourselves, and have peace one with another.’

Mark 9:50

I. Let us make sure that we have in our hearts the saving grace of the Holy Ghost, sanctifying, purifying, preserving from corruption, our whole inward man.

II. Let us watch the grace given to us with daily watchfulness, and pray to be kept from carelessness and sin, lest we be overtaken in faults, bring misery on our consciences, and discredit on our profession.

III. Let us live in peace one with another,—not seeking great things, or striving for the pre-eminence, but clothed with humility, and loving all who love Christ in sincerity. These seem simple things. But in attending to them is great reward.

Illustration

‘The preceding verse appears to baffle all the commentators. I allude, of course, to the words, “Every one shall be salted with fire, and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt.” The true meaning of these words and their connection with the context, are problems which seem not yet solved. At all events, not one of the many interpretations which have been hitherto proposed is entirely satisfactory. We must confess that it is one of those knots which are yet untied in the exposition of Scripture.’