Mark 3

Subdivision 3. (Mark 3:7-35; Mark 4:1-41; Mark 5:1-43.)Things made apparent. We have had then; thus far, the general features of the ministry of Christ among men; we are now called to consider the results of it, or what is made apparent by it as it goes on. And here we must remember, and as of wider application; the words prophetically spoken by Isaiah as to Israel: “Then I said, I have labored in vain; I have spent my strength for nought and in vain; yet surely my judgment is with Jehovah, and my work with my God.” Not only was it true of Israel, but, all through the present time, apparent failure attaches to His work. Until He comes again in the clouds of heaven, the world remains the scene of His rejection, and none the less because whole countries are covered with nominal Christianity. Nay, this nominal reception only makes more manifest, where it is but that, how obdurately, when no plea for it is any longer possible, the citadel of the heart can stand out against Him. Thus, to follow one’s own will, and justify it, truth is perverted and Christianity debased. “The corruption of what is best becomes the worst corruption.” And yet the end shall speak for Him, that neither His love nor His power has failed. Heaven is filling with the fruits of His travail. By and by the earth also shall have its harvest. Meanwhile faith and patience are exercised and needed constantly.

Mark 3:7-4

Section 1. (Mark 3:7-35; Mark 4:1-34.)God only sufficient. The whole subdivision is divided into seven parts; but the 4+3 into which the seven so often resolves itself, is so strongly marked that these become two sections. The first, as characterized by its 4, shows that external view of results which seems so much stamped with failure, but in which (man being fully proved) the sufficiency of God is seen as alone to be relied on. The second, stamped with its 3 of spiritual energy and resurrection, shows us the work of God itself in its salvation character, unhindered by the power of evil.

1. At the commencement we see once more divine power flowing forth in grace to meet all the effects of sin, in a world disorganized and ruined by it. A witness this which has a certain, present effect in attracting multitudes from all the country round. (1) First, we have this as seen in the Lord Himself; where, notice, as to its significance in connection with what has been already said, that Jesus “withdraws with His disciples to the sea:” a hint, as we have seen reason to believe, of that going out to the nations which, however implied in the very character of the grace which is coming in; actually takes its form from Israel’s rejection of Him. At present it is Israel that is crowding after Him, but (notice again) in such a manner that He must take to the little ship because of the crowd. The power of Satan, too, is everywhere manifest, though as manifestly subject of necessity to Him. After the manner we have seen, still they declare Him, - only to be rebuked and silenced by Him, as unfit to be His witnesses. Indeed we may see in it already an indication of how by and by the unclean birds would get lodgment in the branches of the overgrown “tree” of a parable which we find shortly given us in this very section. (2) Next we are shown this ministry of the Lord extended by means of those called and empowered of Him to represent Him. For this they are ordained, first of all to be “with Him;” then that He might send them out to preach; the power to heal sicknesses and cast out demons being the accompaniment of this. The list of the twelve which follows is not in the same order as that in Matthew, except that Simon Peter’s is the first name, while that of the unhappy Judas is the last.
2. What follows here is still for the most part in Matthew, who however gives a much fuller account. Mark omits much that came after the choice of the twelve. Of the so-called “sermon on the mount” he has nothing, and little detail of the breach which is now becoming apparent between the nation led by its Pharisaic teachers and the Lord. All this has more its place in Matthew as the dispensational Gospel, while Mark comes almost at once to the conclusion when the scribes impute His miracles to demon power. This exhibits so clearly the heart hardened against all conviction that Christ warns them that blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, by whose power His mighty works were done, is the unpardonable sin.

The expression in Mark, if the best accredited text is in fact the true one, is that it is “an eternal sin” - a sin which in its mark of a soul stiffened in determinate resistance to God speaks of an ultimate, eternal condition. Alas, it was demonic power in Israel that was asserting itself, and only One stronger than Satan could bind and deprive him of his prey. Satan would not cast out Satan; and the fact of his being cast out, that very slander admitted. They had thus, in fact, condemned themselves. 3. But all this was but the demonstration of man’s condition, which only the power of God is competent to meet. Even his kindred according to the flesh thought of the glorious Worker as “beside Himself;” and now they press upon Him in the midst of His labor with their supposed (at least) prior claim. With Him they could not plead it: the Son of God, this relationship to God governed all. It was on account of the state of man. Godward He had come, and His very presence among them argued, not their being right in this, but the reverse.

For Him the spiritual condition was that upon which all else depended, and the spiritual link was all that He could acknowledge. In the most decisive way, therefore, He rejects the mere fleshly claim: “Who,” He asks, “is My mother, and My brethren? And looking round on those sitting round about Him, He saith, Behold My mother and My brethren: for whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is My brother and sister and mother.”*
4. There follows, as in Matthew, the parable of the Sower and the seed, but only one other of what there is a series picturing the Kingdom of heaven as it would take shape in the absence of the King. The Lord’s last announcement of necessity brings in the Gentiles; if at least the work of the Spirit of God should be found among them: it contains, as is evident, a fundamental principle of Christianity; and Matthew traces the history of this till the coming of the Son of man in the clouds of heaven. Mark has one parable, indeed, which Matthew has not, and showing explicitly the absence of the King until the time of the harvest; but Matthew does not need this, as what he does give sufficiently declares it. Mark gives only so much of the history as to develop the principles; pressing all into a moral dealing with the individual conscience. Here we are still upon the same track as before: the lesson is of the vanity of man; of the sufficiency of God alone. The parables here show this under the test of the word of God. The ground of the human heart yields nothing for God save as the Word is sown in it. Even then there are many causes of unfruitfulness, and foes of the new life that has sprung up. Nay, the general result as to the earth at large is mingled and dubious. What, in fact, has the history of the Church shown, if it be not this?

How great the comfort of knowing, however, that this is no unforeseen, unaccountable happening. Before the Church began, the history of professing Christianity had already been outlined, and the causes of failure pointed out; and in the New Testament, parable, literal prophecy and vision have all been used to give us warning - a warning which is encouragement as well. (1) The causes of barrenness are depicted for us in the parable of the Sower and the seed; and we have already gone through it in Matthew. From the word of God all fruit in man is to be found, yet from man himself opposition comes. The devil, the flesh, and the world are confederates against Christ; and the same hindrances, even where the word is received, prevail to hinder in different degrees the proper fruit of it. Notice in the Lord’s rebuke to His disciples, how little the parabolic form should hinder intelligence for one of His own. “How then will ye know all parables?” shows what on the Lord’s part He designs for us. And everywhere, it need not be doubted, in Nature as well as in Scripture, such parables are to be found awaiting the interpretation of faith. Alas, we may, on the other hand, be ignorant of their very existence, and reason may deny what without such guidance it can never find; but agnosticism of whatever quality has no power of conviction for the man that sees; were the prayer oftener with us, “Open Thou mine eyes,” we might at least realize more the immeasurableness of our inheritance. (2) After the causes of barrenness the Lord goes on to warn of hindrances to testimony. If the word of God is that from which all fruit is to come, how great the responsibility to minister it. If a lamp is brought, what do you do with it? It is for illumination doubtless. Do you put it, then, under a bushel measure, or under a bed? Clearly not, but upon its stand.

Activity and slothfulness as typified in these two ways may both hinder testimony: the heart bent upon gain; and occupied with what is emphatically called “business,” like the thorny ground of the parable, may have little room for the Word, either to get hold of it or to scatter it. While Og’s great bed of ease and pleasure may keep men as securely from occupation with or ministry of the things unseen. Christ bids His disciples have before them the day of manifestation; in which all secret things shall be at last revealed. Again, in order to minister one must receive; and if the fruit take its character from the seed, must receive only the truth. How important, then; to heed what one hears! and what one measures out to others will be more than recompensed again: a thing as true of ministry of the Word, as of practical conduct; for heaven’s law is scattering for increase, - you do not alienate from yourself what you give to others, but gain the more; and still this opens the way to fresh gain: to him that hath shall more be given. Every bit of truth acquired leads on to fresh truth; every sphere of usefulness found prepares for more. (3) In a parable peculiar to Mark the Lord now goes on to speak of the day of manifestation at the reaping of earth’s harvest, and of what is implied in it for the present time. The seed put into the ground is left there by the sower as if he had no further thought about it. It springs up and grows, as it were, without his knowledge. So the Lord after sowing the seed of His word at the beginning, is gone up to heaven. How much, in fact, seems to be taking place without His knowledge. The crop goes on developing and ripening. When He sees that it is ripe, the sickle will be put in. Of this harvest time of earth Matthew gives us the fuller detail. The parable here simply emphasizes the time of responsibility and uncertainty - the earth bringing forth of herself; then the intervention; when the crop is ready. Of the general result nothing is said at present. All that has been already before us would imply one not unmixed. Matthew shows us correspondingly tares among the wheat; not even the failure merely of much of the right seed (a lesson which Mark has repeated), but the effect of the enemy’s sowing. Mark passes over this to the third parable in Matthew; and here we find what has more sorrowful interest for us. (4) We have already taken up in some detail the meaning of this third parable. It is that of the mustard-seed, and we have seen in it the picture, indeed, of success of a certain kind, a growth beyond expectation. The smallest of seeds develops into a tree; the Kingdom of heaven becomes (according to the constant use of the figure in Scripture) a world-power, - a thing of self-evident application; so long before our eyes that we have lost the sense of what it means. Christianity, we say, has a right of dominion over the earth: a claim which Rome has been most successful in making. Alas, if Christianity has ever ruled a nation upon earth, Christ Himself has never done so; and therefore nothing else than a debased Christianity. The success in this way has been dreadful failure: the well-rooted tree has given lodgment to the unclean birds of the air who in the first parable devour the good seed.

Here in the degradation of the Kingdom of heaven to a world-power with the prince of this world undethroned, we find what even comes of the word of God among those professedly accepting, not rejecting. And here the view of man as tested by the Word comes naturally to an end.