Helpers and Hinderers
INTRODUCTORY WORDS
1. Back in Capernaum. Once more we find our Master in the city by the sea. He loved Galilee. So many of His wonderful messages and marvelous miracles took place there. He also loved Capernaum, although Capernaum early rejected Him, and forced Him to pronounce a curse upon it.
As He came into the city, He blew no trumpet, He advertised in no newspaper, but we read, "It was noised that He was in the house." Straightway many were gathered together, insomuch that there was no room to receive them, no, not so much as about the door. He preached the Word to them. This was His great delight. His Word was a Word of power and spiritual light. It was the Word of salvation.
2. Healing the sick of the palsy. We are not taking this part of the chapter, verse by verse, inasmuch as we had just previously a whole study on it. Just now it will suffice to say that the One who wanted to preach, was forced to heal. As He was speaking, the roof was uncovered where He was, and they let down a bed whereon lay one sick of the palsy. Jesus Christ did not reprove them. He saw their faith, and faith cannot be reproved. Thus the Lord said, "Thy sins be forgiven thee." Then, afterward, He said, "Arise, and take up thy bed, and go thy way."
3. The harping of the critics. Among those who filled the house where Christ spoke were certain of the scribes. They sat there reasoning in their hearts. They heard Him say to the palsied man, "Thy sins be forgiven thee," and they reasoned thus: "Who can forgive sins but God only?"
It is easy to discover that they did not accept the Deity of the Lord. They were scribes who should have known the truth concerning Christ, but they knew it not. If they had heard the account of the birth of Christ, the announcement of the angels to the shepherds, the visit of the Wise Men, the baptism of Christ, and the Voice from Heaven, they should have believed them. However, they believed not.
4. "And He went forth again by the sea side." We mention these words because they are so suggestive. The common people indeed glorified God, saying, "We never saw it on this fashion." The scribes, however, shrank back under Christ's reproof, with bitterness of heart and spirit.
As Christ arose and went forth out of the house, and down by the sea, He seemed by His action to be saying, "How often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not." He went forth from them as much as to say, "Your house is left unto you desolate."
It is an awful thing to see the Lord turning away from any human heart, from any town, or city, or people, or nation. We believe that this is often done. He is still saying, "Because I have called, and ye refused, I have stretched out My hand, and no man regarded; * * I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh."
Sometimes it is necessary for Christ to turn away from hard and impenitent hearts.
Christ took our place upon the Cross and bore our curse. This He did for us. However, when we turn from that Calvary work, the curse remains upon us, and we are yet in our sins. O that men would repent, and turn to God. O that men would praise the Lord for His goodness, and for His mercies which endure forever!
Men, however, loved darkness rather than light. Jesus Christ said, "Ye will not come to Me, that ye might have life." He also said, "Ye have not the love of God in you." Then He said, "Ye receive Me not."
There came a day when Noah was commanded to go into the ark and God shut the door to others. There came a day when God said of Ephraim, "Ephraim is joined to idols: let him alone." There came a day when God said, "My Spirit shall not always strive with man." It is all this that we see in the verse which says, "And He went forth again by the sea side."
I. THE COMMON PEOPLE HEARD HIM GLADLY (Mark 2:13)
"And He went forth again by the sea side; and all the multitude resorted unto Him, and He taught them."
1. Why the common people followed after the Master. It seems, at first, peculiar when we observe that it was the masses who loved the Lord. He certainly had no pets or favorites among them. The Bible distinctively states that God is no respecter of persons, and yet it was true then, and it is true now, "The poor have the Gospel preached to them." Is it because they felt the need of Him the more, that they followed Him so readily? Was it because they found in Him a sympathetic heart which went out to them in their downtrodden and distressed condition?
The thing which concerns us is the fact that there were two classes. Why should people be divided the world over, into different compartments? Why should there be those who rule, and those who are the ruled; the ones who lead, and the ones who are led? Why should there be the ones who are the head, and the ones who are the feet?
2. Why the scribes and Pharisees despised Him. They were the religious people, supposedly. They were the educated classes, the upper class. Surely, with their brains, their knowledge of the Word, their culture, they should have found in Christ One whom they could love, and hear, and follow. Yet they went about to slay Him. There is a little passage which says "For envy they had delivered Him." They did not want to be displaced from their positions of authority and power. Therefore they rejected the Son of God.
II. THE LORD'S ALL-SEEING EYE (Mark 2:14)
1. What Christ saw. Our verse says, "As He passed by, He saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the receipt of custom." Here was a man that was not loved in Israel. He was a representative of the Roman government. He served the nation which held the Jew in bondage. He was an appointed taxgatherer. As such he was a man of ill repute. We wonder, therefore, what Christ saw in him that made Him say, "Follow Me." We wonder just as much what He sees in any of us. It is while we were yet sinners that He loved us. He loved us when we were clothed in rags. He loved us when we were enemies.
We wonder if Christ beheld in this Levite the finished product of grace; not what he was before grace touched him, but what he would be after the Blood of Christ had washed him, and made him whiter than the snow. When. Christ saw you, and when He saw me, and loved us, did He not look down through the years and see us in His service, proclaiming His Word, accomplishing His work? Did He not even look into the Glory World, and see us robed in the white robes around His throne?
2. What Christ said. The words were simple, yet they were words which meant a great deal. He said to the Levite, "Follow Me." Was He going to add another to His train from the lower ranks of life, as men reckoned ranks? He had called Peter and Andrew, James and John, from the fishermen's nets, and now He called Levi from among the publicans and sinners.
What was the deeper meaning of the words, "Follow Me"? They certainly meant to Levi, the son of Alphaeus, the leaving of a career, a place of money-getting, an assured position in the Roman world.
The words also meant a new obedience. There was a new yoke to wear, a new servitude to fulfill, a new task to do.
We wonder if there was, in the mind of the Levite, any far-flung vision. Did he see what it might mean in the coming ages to follow Christ in this age? Did Heaven take hold upon him?
3. The immediate response. "And he (Levi) arose and followed Him." Here was a convert who believed that the commandments of the Lord require haste. He left everything, and he left gladly. Was he wise? Should he have set aside so much financial power and position to follow the Master? He at least thought so.
III. CHRIST RECEIVING SINNERS (Mark 2:15)
1. Christ at meat in the house of Levi. Mark 2:15 begins with these words, "And it came to pass, that, as Jesus sat at meat in his house." Levi then had a house, and he also had food in his house, and Jesus went in with him to eat. Is He not always asked to eat with those who follow Him? Has He not said, "I will come in * * and will sup with him?" Did He not also say that "My Father will love him and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him"? All this means that Christ is willing to share our position in life with us. He is happy to become the Guest in our homes as well as in our hearts. If we are poor, He will share our poverty. Thank God for such a Saviour!
2. Christ eating with publicans and sinners. Into the house of Levi came many publicans and sinners, and they sat also with Jesus and with His disciples. We remember how this upset the scribes and Pharisees, "He eateth and drinketh with publicans and sinners"? The Lord knew what they said, and why they said it. They would not eat with publicans and sinners. He would.
We must remember that He came to seek and to save sinners, but not to fellowship with them. He came to seek and to save the lost, but not to walk as they walked. He was perfectly willing to sit down with them, so long as they were ready to hear His words of love and mercy.
He would become all things to all men in order to gain some. He never entered, however, into their evil ways, for He was the blessed Man of Psalms 1:1-6 who walked not in the way of sinners, who sat not in the seat of the scornful, and also walked not in the counsel of the ungodly.
Had they proposed some plan of evil conduct, or of evil gain, think you for one moment that He would have listened in? Far be it from Him. He could tell them the parable of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and that of the lost son. He could allow Himself to be numbered with sinners on earth, whether it was in the home, or on the Cross; but He was numbered there as their Saviour.
3. Christ followed by publicans and sinners. These are the last words of our verse. He ate with them; He preached to them; and they followed Him. Was it not worth the while? If we expect to save men, and cause them to follow the Master, we must get down where the people are, whom we want to help and reach for God. If we get up into the high church steeple, and wrap our priestly garments about us, we will never reach the men of the street.
IV. THE FAULTFINDING SCRIBES AND PHARISEES (Mark 2:16)
1. Are not all sinners? When the scribes and Pharisees saw Christ eating with the publicans and the sinners, they said to His disciples, "How is it that He eateth and drinketh with publicans and sinners?" What were they insinuating? They were insinuating that they were themselves not sinners. They would have considered it utterly proper for Christ to have eaten with them, or with any of their class.
But they criticized Him when He ate with the publicans and sinners. Is it true that some men are sinners, and others are not? Some are inherently holy, others not? This is not true according to the Word of God, for the Bible says, "All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." It also says, "There is none righteous, no, not one."
Deep down in our hearts, we cannot but feel that many of those who have not sunk to the depths of immorality to which some have sunk, are yet even more wicked in the sight of God. To be morally superior does not mean that one is necessarily more righteous. Sin is not merely the transgression of the moral law. Sin is sin magnified, when it rejects Christ, tramples Him beneath the feet, and refuses to yield to Him in loving obedience.
2. Are sinners to be labeled as "good," and "bad"; "worse," and "worst"? Are there some who are little sinners, and some who are big sinners? We believe so; but we would hate to have the job of putting the label upon them, because our standards of judgment may be altogether wrong in the sight of God and altogether biased. We must remember that the Lord said that he who knew not his Master's will, and did it not (and this would certainly include the publicans and sinners) shall be beaten with few stripes; but he who knew his Master's will, and did it not (and this would include the scribes and Pharisees) shall be beaten with many stripes."
Which one was received, the publican who beat upon his breast, and sued for mercy, or the Pharisee who prayed within himself, and boasted his righteousness? Think you that a sepulcher that is beautiful without is any less a sepulcher? Is the stench of the tomb lessened by the beautiful grass plot that covers it? Can a Pharisee cover up his sins with long prayers, and gifts of mint and anise and cummin? Nay! It was against such as these that Christ uttered the strongest curses which ever fell from His lips.
3. A question. They asked in substance, "Why eateth He with them?" They were misjudging the very character of the Son of God, and discounting Him because He came to be the Saviour.
V. A GREAT STATEMENT (Mark 2:17)
1. "They that are whole have no need of the physician." Were the Pharisees whole? Not at all. Were they well? Not at all. Why, then, did Christ say, "They that are whole have no need of the physician"? He certainly said it of the scribes and of the Pharisees. However, He said it in irony. He said it in sarcasm. They claimed that they were whole. He said, "Why then should I trouble you? If ye think yourselves whole, ye have no need of a physician. You have put yourselves outside of the pale of My help. I cannot come to you, unless you need Me, for I am looking for the lost sheep of the House of Israel. If you will confess yourselves as sinners, I will gladly become your Saviour."
2. They that are sick need a physician. Is there a doctor anywhere who wants to go around giving his medicines to those who are in perfect health? If he finds such a one, he may want to collect his fee, and so he will give a little water with some kind of coloring in it with instructions to take a spoonful an hour.
However, Christ is sincere. He came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. This tells the story of why Christ went to the common people, to the outcasts, and to sinners. It was for this reason that He was sent into the world. At the same time, this explains why Christ went not to the upper classes, the religious people of His day. It was because they were self-satisfied, content, as they were. They knew not that they were miserable and poor, and blind, and naked; and the Son of God could not convince them that they were.
The call of God is, "Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." The call of God is "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come!" Thank God, what a Saviour is ours.
VI. QUESTIONS ON FASTING, AND A REPLY (Mark 2:18-20)
1. The question: "Why do * * Thy disciples fast not?" Mark 2:18 says, "The disciples of John and of the Pharisees used to fast: and they come and say unto Him, Why do the disciples of John and of the Pharisees fast, but Thy disciples fast not?" Here was a seemingly vital question, but it was asked with a spirit of faultfinding, and of criticism. They were parading themselves, in this question, as more spiritual and more religious than the men who followed Christ. They fasted. Christ's disciples did not fast. We will be interested to see how Christ explained this matter.
2. The time for fasting explained: Christ said, "Can the children of the bridechamber fast, while the bridegroom is with them?" Christ said, in other words, "A wedding is no place for fasting. While the bridal nuptials are hastening, and everybody is filled with laughter and song, to appoint a day of fasting would be utter folly."
3. A time of fasting prophesied: The Lord added, "But the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then shall they fast in those days." How marvelously did our Lord bring in the story of His final rejection and death. He Himself was the Bridegroom who was to be taken away. He saw in the very criticism of the Pharisees and of the scribes the very spirit that would lead to His crucifixion.
When do we fast? Is it not in the hour of distress and of need? We enter into a city to preach the Gospel. We see people about us who are lost in sin. Our hearts are overwhelmed in their behalf. That is the time to fast and to pray.
A great scourge is upon our community. Thousands are being taken away by a plague. That is the time to fast and to pray.
A nation is under the throes of depression. People are crying for bread. Thousands, yea, millions, are without work. That is a time to fast and to pray.
Death is about to enter some home. A loved one lies sick unto death. That is the time to pray and to fast.
All this was in the mind of the Master when He spoke. When days of fasting and prayer are mere formalities, to be followed merely as a religious expression, they are altogether out of place with God.
VII. A DESERVED REBUKE (Mark 2:21-28)
1. A rebuke concerning false religious pretensions. Christ said that a man never puts a piece of new cloth on an old garment; or new wine into an old wine skin. In the case of the garment, the rent would soon be made worse. In the case of the old wine skins, they would burst. What folly it is for people to try to fasten religious rites and ceremonies, such as fasting and prayer, such as baptism and the Lord's Supper, such as singing in the choir, or holding a position of authority in the church, upon those who have never had a new heart.
The Lord Jesus wants to make us whole. He wants to give us a new heart and a new spirit. The old garment and the old wine skins stand for sin and for self. You can't sew the new cloth on such a garment, nor can you put the new wine of the joy of the Lord into such a bottle.
2. A rebuke concerning the keeping of the Sabbath. In Mark 2:23, the Lord went through the cornfield on the Sabbath Day. His disciples began, as they went, to pluck the ears of corn. The Pharisees immediately said, "Why do they on the Sabbath Day that which is not lawful?" The Lord replied, "Have ye never read what David did, when he had need, and was an hungered, he, and they that were with him?" David had gone into the House of God and had eaten the shewbread, which was not lawful for him to eat, it being reserved for the priests. The Lord did not condemn him for this!
Then the Lord said these memorable words: "The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath." In other words, the Sabbath came as a blessing to aid and to help, and whenever necessity made it impossible for a man to rest, he was allowed to take the ox out of the pit, to eat the ears of corn, to take the shewbread, because the Son of Man was Lord also of the Sabbath Day. The Pharisees, by their tradition, were making it impossible for people to follow God as the Holy Spirit led.
AN ILLUSTRATION
Let our chief desire be to receive His smile and His approval. After the Crimean War there was a great celebration in London, when Queen Victoria, with the Prince Consort by her side, gave out medals to the heroes. Some of the soldiers appeared with empty sleeves, some on crutches, some with bandaged foreheads; but there was the same sweet, royal smile, and the same reward for all. At last there was carried on a litter to the Queen a poor battered and bruised warrior. Both his arms and both his legs were gone. He was only a common soldier, but in the service of his country he had done his best. At the sight of him the Queen, with tears streaming down her cheeks, went to the litter, pinned a badge upon the poor fellow's breast, kissed his brow, and said: "Well done, good and faithful servant!" If such a message cheered the heart of the soldier on that day, what will it be on the Crowning Day to hear the King of kings and Lord of lords say, "Well done, good and faithful servant; * * enter thou into the joy of thy Lord" (Matthew 25:23). May this be my happy portion.