Mark 7 - James Nisbet's Church Pulpit Commentary

THE INFLUENCE OF TRADITION

‘Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition: … and many such like things do ye.’

Mark 7:13

Such was our Lord’s word to the Pharisees; and if we turn to our own life it is difficult, if not impossible, for us fully to estimate the influence which traditions exercise upon it. A good tradition is a great help, yet the Saviour gives us no encouragement to depend upon those helps that tradition might bring us. His language shows how dangerous He felt the influence of tradition to be.

I. Tradition a bar to progress.—If the spirit of traditional usage and influence holds the citadel of a man’s life, the spirit of progress cannot gain an entrance. That is the lesson which the Saviour presses upon our attention by His denunciation of the Pharisaic usage, habit, and attitude, and it is hardly possible to overestimate the importance of the lesson, because this same spirit of Pharisaic tradition is constantly laying its hand upon every human institution, and it has contributed to every abuse or perversion that has taken possession of the Christian Church.

II. Two contending principles.—Our life is, in fact, a continuous struggle between the two principles here represented. Which is to prevail in it and fix its character—traditional custom, or personal inspiration? The tendency of our life will be determined in one direction or the other according as we surrender our will to the rule of traditional notions and usages, the power of the external world, or as we seek for direct illumination of mind, conscience, and spirit at the Divine sources of truth and light. The Christian man’s attitude towards all traditions or customs is that of independence; his thought and his judgment are as free in regard to them as if they were newly born. He is, in fact, bound to judge them according to their deserts; and no society can hope to prosper unless this is recognised, so that evil customs may not corrupt the common life. It is the danger of such corruption that makes the Saviour denounce the traditional habit, and summon His followers to live by the rule of close personal communion with God.

—Bishop Percival.

Illustration

‘This episode was critical both for Jesus and for Christianity. It secured for the Church independence of Judaism, and on the part of Jesus it involved a larger claim of authority, and a more hopeless breach with current orthodoxy. From the outset Jesus set His authority above that of the Pharisees. He now asserted His right to overrule Moses. It was due to the recognition of this claim that the Christian Church did not remain a Jewish sect, but became an independent organisation.’

EVIL FROM WITHIN

‘And He said, That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man.… All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.’

Mark 7:20; Mark 7:23

It is a notable characteristic of our Lord’s teaching that He fixes our attention not on outward results, but on inward motives.

I. The nature of the evil.—What are the evil thoughts which we must guard against? Out of the terrible list which our Lord gives us in our text we may select three types.

(a) Pride, foolishness. How easy it is, especially in our leisure moments, to dwell with self-complacency on our own excellencies. At the worst the ‘pride and foolishness’ which proceed from the heart may so exalt the miserable idol of self as to expel God from His rightful throne; in any case they destroy the most characteristic virtue of the Christian heart—humility.

(b) Thoughts of bitterness, ill-temper, and jealousy. The gossip of some idle tongue is accepted and believed; suspicion passes into ill-tempered resentment, and resentment turns into dislike verging upon hatred. There is no end to the mischief which arises from bad-tempered thoughts and perverse imaginations. ‘Out of the heart proceed murders.’

(c) Lasciviousness. It is not always easy for a man to keep his mind clean. But you can hardly exaggerate the disaster of a habit of unclean thinking, and a pure heart is worth any effort to those who remember what is promised to its possessor.

II. The remedy for the evil.—What is the remedy for the evil?

(a) It is necessary to recognise the mischief, and to call things by their right names. There is still a great deal of unconscious Pharisaism in the world; not, indeed, the Pharisaism which makes a show of religious profession (that is no longer the fashion), but the Pharisaism which is almost blatantly satisfied with a miserably poor moral standard.

(b) Let us learn the necessity of a disciplined will, and recognise that it is possible, by vigilant determination, to keep the rein on our thoughts and imaginations. After all, we are members of Christ, and the Spirit of God dwells within us.

(c) Let us remember that in the spiritual as well as the material world, nature abhors a vacuum. The best way to keep out what is evil and unwholesome is to occupy the mind with good and wholesome subjects. A man who gives a few minutes every morning to meditation on some feature of the character of our Lord, or some incident in that wonderful life, is not likely to be a victim of bitter, or self-conceited, or gross imaginations.

III. The conclusion of the whole matter.—Happy is that man who by consistent watchfulness against the first beginnings of evil, and willingness to dwell on what is best and healthiest, prepares himself—or lets Christ prepare him—to be a worthy temple of the Holy Ghost. There is no limit to the possibilities of Christian character, and of lasting usefulness for those whose minds are free to hear God’s call.

—Rev. Canon Kempthorne.

Illustration

‘There was an outbreak of typhoid fever in a country village. The inhabitants, in their panic, made every sort of effort to arrest the mischief. They examined their drains, they scrutinised their supplies of food and drink, they deluged their houses and yards with disinfectants. The fever still went on. At last they called in an expert, who commended the efforts that they had made, but asked some questions which were new to them. Where did their water come from? Was it polluted somewhere up stream? Had they traced it to the source! He answered these questions for himself, and found the cause of pollution near the source of the stream which supplied the village. The mischief was removed, and health returned. When our moral health is suffering, let us look to the source of the mischief.’

EVIL FROM WITHIN

‘And He said, That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man.… All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.’

Mark 7:20; Mark 7:23

It is a notable characteristic of our Lord’s teaching that He fixes our attention not on outward results, but on inward motives.

I. The nature of the evil.—What are the evil thoughts which we must guard against? Out of the terrible list which our Lord gives us in our text we may select three types.

(a) Pride, foolishness. How easy it is, especially in our leisure moments, to dwell with self-complacency on our own excellencies. At the worst the ‘pride and foolishness’ which proceed from the heart may so exalt the miserable idol of self as to expel God from His rightful throne; in any case they destroy the most characteristic virtue of the Christian heart—humility.

(b) Thoughts of bitterness, ill-temper, and jealousy. The gossip of some idle tongue is accepted and believed; suspicion passes into ill-tempered resentment, and resentment turns into dislike verging upon hatred. There is no end to the mischief which arises from bad-tempered thoughts and perverse imaginations. ‘Out of the heart proceed murders.’

(c) Lasciviousness. It is not always easy for a man to keep his mind clean. But you can hardly exaggerate the disaster of a habit of unclean thinking, and a pure heart is worth any effort to those who remember what is promised to its possessor.

II. The remedy for the evil.—What is the remedy for the evil?

(a) It is necessary to recognise the mischief, and to call things by their right names. There is still a great deal of unconscious Pharisaism in the world; not, indeed, the Pharisaism which makes a show of religious profession (that is no longer the fashion), but the Pharisaism which is almost blatantly satisfied with a miserably poor moral standard.

(b) Let us learn the necessity of a disciplined will, and recognise that it is possible, by vigilant determination, to keep the rein on our thoughts and imaginations. After all, we are members of Christ, and the Spirit of God dwells within us.

(c) Let us remember that in the spiritual as well as the material world, nature abhors a vacuum. The best way to keep out what is evil and unwholesome is to occupy the mind with good and wholesome subjects. A man who gives a few minutes every morning to meditation on some feature of the character of our Lord, or some incident in that wonderful life, is not likely to be a victim of bitter, or self-conceited, or gross imaginations.

III. The conclusion of the whole matter.—Happy is that man who by consistent watchfulness against the first beginnings of evil, and willingness to dwell on what is best and healthiest, prepares himself—or lets Christ prepare him—to be a worthy temple of the Holy Ghost. There is no limit to the possibilities of Christian character, and of lasting usefulness for those whose minds are free to hear God’s call.

—Rev. Canon Kempthorne.

Illustration

‘There was an outbreak of typhoid fever in a country village. The inhabitants, in their panic, made every sort of effort to arrest the mischief. They examined their drains, they scrutinised their supplies of food and drink, they deluged their houses and yards with disinfectants. The fever still went on. At last they called in an expert, who commended the efforts that they had made, but asked some questions which were new to them. Where did their water come from? Was it polluted somewhere up stream? Had they traced it to the source! He answered these questions for himself, and found the cause of pollution near the source of the stream which supplied the village. The mischief was removed, and health returned. When our moral health is suffering, let us look to the source of the mischief.’

THE EPIPHANIES OF THE MINISTRY

‘He could not be hid.’

Mark 7:24

The Divine in Christ was revealed by the holiness of His character, by His mighty works (John 2:11), by the authority and originality of His utterances, by the influence He exerted. Ultimately He could not go anywhere, even when seeking to conceal Himself, but some recognised Him. Christ was not hid—

I. From His disciples.—‘These beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father’ (John 1:14). They confessed Him to be God’s Son. It was not before but after this confession (Matthew 16:16) that they were admitted to see His glory in the transfiguration (Matthew 17:1).

II. From the multitude.—The extraordinary effect produced on the multitude by Christ’s miracles and teachings is frequently recorded. They were amazed, they marvelled, they praised God; they said it had never been so seen in Israel.

III. From His enemies.—Those sent to take Him testified, ‘Never man spake like this man’ (John 7:46). The council owned to His miracles (John 12:47). His would-be captors fell back before Him in Gethsemane (John 18:6).

IV. Even from devils.—On the contrary, evil spirits were the first to recognise Him, and to bear testimony to Him as the One Who came for their overthrow (Mark 1:24).

Illustration

‘The Sun of Righteousness has arisen with healing in His wings, and therefore the Lord Jesus is not hid. He is plainly seen by those who have eyes to see, and plainly heard by those who have ears to hear, although He is in the highest heavens. Who shall declare how wicked is the attempt to hide the Lord Jesus, Who said, “I am the Light of the World”? Do any attempt it? Yes, many have done so, and still do so.’

PERSEVERANCE IN PRAYER

‘And she answered and said unto Him, Yes, Lord: yet the dogs under the table eat of the children’s crumbs. And he said unto her, For this saying go thy way; the devil is gone out of thy daughter.’

Mark 7:28-29

I. The example of faith.—Though apostles entreated that she might be sent away, yet this woman ‘cries unto’ our Lord, because He alone could save her. And though she had heard Him say He was not sent to those of her race, yet she repeats her entreaty, as confident He could help whom He would; she did not say, ‘Pray for me,’ or ‘Entreat for me,’ but ‘Help me,’ as believing the help was in Himself to bestow. Our Lord was pleased to try her yet further and more sharply. But the woman, so far from being disheartened, makes for herself a fresh plea from those very words of His. She acknowledges herself a dog, and the Jews children, nay masters; but on this very ground she claims to partake a little of the blessed privileges of His presence and healing, so fully enjoyed, though so little valued by the Jews.

II. It was His gracious will to give her occasion to exercise and show forth this faith and humility. Else, if it had been His purpose from the first to deny her, He would have refused her still, for He was not a mere man that He should repent and change His mind, so that it was not in sternness He kept silence, but in order to unfold the concealed treasure of her humility and faith; and also that we might draw from her history a full assurance that, however severe and repeated the discouragements we may meet with in prayer, and in our endeavours after holiness, we have but to persevere in faith with humility, and we shall obtain in the end an abundance of blessings the more ample the longer our faith is tried.

Illustration

‘Fathers and mothers are especially bound to remember the case of this woman. They cannot give their children new hearts. They can give them Christian education, and show them the way of life; but they cannot give them a will to choose Christ’s service, and a mind to love God. Yet there is one thing they can always do—they can pray for them. They can pray for the conversion of profligate sons, who will have their own way, and run greedily into sin. They can pray for the conversion of worldly daughters, who set their affections on things below, and love pleasure more than God. Such prayers are heard on high. Such prayers will often bring down blessings. Never, never let us forget that the children for whom many prayers have been offered, seldom finally perish. Let us pray more for our sons and daughters. Even when they will not let us speak to them about religion, they cannot prevent us speaking for them to God.’

THE USE AND MISUSE OF SPEECH

‘And they bring unto Him one that was deaf, and had an impediment in his speech; and they beseech Him to put His hand upon him.’

Mark 7:32

Were his friends doing a kind action in bringing this poor afflicted man under the notice of the Great Physician? There can be no doubt about our answer. Nothing maimed or imperfect which may be healed can be in accordance with the Will of God.

I. Responsibility of speech.—God has given to us the powers of speech; we have learned to talk, to hold converse with each other. Day after day we use the gift ourselves or profit by it in others, and it has become one of those common things which we use without thinking of, and employ with little restraint. It is inevitable, we cannot doubt it, that such a gift must carry with it grave responsibilities. A word spoken can never be recalled. It goes forth like an arrow shot from a bow into an unknown space, and we can trace it in its results where we least expect it. What a terrible thing for a man to realise that what he has said and repented of, what he has suggested and is now ashamed of, has gone out of his reach for ever, accumulating an account only to be reckoned up at the last day as a terrible addition to personal sins already swollen to the dimensions of an unpayable debt!

II. Misusing the gift of speech.—There are many ways of misusing this great power with which God has entrusted us, some of which we do not always stay to consider.

(a) The lack in our modern education. There is one point in which we are all beginning to feel profoundly disappointed, and that is in the little progress which is being made in refinement, and in some of those things which we have hitherto believed to be characteristic of true education.

(b) Conversation in the workshop. Again, there are few things which more need looking to than the general tone of conversation in our large centres of industry, in the large works of our manufacturing towns, in the warehouses, in the offices where men are thrown together in great masses.

(c) Unrestrained discussion. Think only how people discuss things now in public, which our grandfathers and grandmothers would have shrunk even from mentioning—details of surgical operations, minutiæ of disease—problems, as they are called, of life. Everywhere the veil is removed, everywhere there is publicity. Surely God has put a ritual of beauty, of refinement, of purity, round the ordinary speech and intercourse of society as a safeguard against evils which are never far distant and always ready to burst in and overwhelm public manners and public morality.

(d) Untruthfulness. There is another prominent misuse of the gift of speech—and that is untruthfulness. It is very seldom that we hear a sermon or receive advice about truthfulness. Yet truth, in its widespreading reach, is a magnificent virtue, which seems to include in its expansive embrace almost every other; and a lie is not only contemptible in itself, but is the ultimate measure of the baseness of all bad actions. ‘Whatsover loveth and maketh a lie’ sums up the degradation of all that is unfit for the Golden City. Certainly, we are no strangers to the political lie, the religious lie, the social lie, the private lie.

(e) Ordinary conversation. As we think of our ordinary conversation, what are we to say of those idle, do-nothing words? Do they edify? Do they help the wayfarer in his journey through life?

Surely we all ought to do something for the recognition of a greater sense of responsibility as regards our words.

Rev. Canon Newbolt.

Illustration

‘The story is well known how Pambo, a recluse of the Egyptian desert, when about to enter on his noviciate, betook himself to an aged monk and requested from him instruction for his new lips. The old man opened his Psalter and began to read the first verse of Psalms 39 : “I said, I will take heed to my ways; that I offend not in my tongue.” “That is enough,” said Pambo, “let me go home and practise it.” And long after, being asked by one of his brethren whether he were yet perfect in his first lesson, the saint, in his turn, now an aged man, replied: “Forty-and-nine years have I dwelt in this desert, and am only just beginning to learn how to obey this commandment.” ’

HEARING AND SPEECH RESTORED BY CHRIST

‘They bring unto Him one that was deaf, and had an impediment in his speech … And straightway his ears were opened … and he spake plain.’

Mark 7:32-35

Here is a beautiful illustration of Christ’s sympathy. This poor man was in a piteous condition. How many are like him in spiritual things! Their ears closed, that they do not hear the Word (Jeremiah 5:21; Mark 8:18). Their tongues tied, that they cannot tell their wants (John 5:40). What is to be done? Only this—bring them to Jesus (Mark 7:32). See in this case:—

I. The Lord’s interest.—‘He took him aside,’ etc. (Mark 7:33). He might have healed him before all (Matthew 9:8). But no; He takes the man by himself. He shows that He has a special interest in him. The Shepherd knows and leadeth out each sheep (John 10:2; John 10:4; Revelation 7:17).

II. The Lord’s look.—‘Looking up to heaven’ (Mark 7:34). This is the look that prayer gives for help (Psalms 5:3). ‘The upward glancing of an eye.’ Jesus always prayed when help was needed (Luke 3:21; Luke 6:12-13; Luke 22:32-41). So he prays now (Hebrews 7:25; John 17:15-20).

III. The Lord’s sigh.—‘He sighed’ (Mark 7:34), as though He felt acutely what the poor man suffered (Isaiah 53:4). Christ always did show His feeling for His people (Isaiah 63:9). He does so now (Acts 9:4). He will manifest it also in judgment (Matthew 25:40-45).

IV. The Lord’s word.—‘Ephphatha, that is, Be opened’ (Mark 7:34). Only one word is needed. If a man’s house is on fire, and he asleep, you need only cry, ‘Awake.’ So there is but one word needed from Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit (Matthew 8:8; Hebrews 4:12).

V. The Lord’s power.—(Mark 7:35). The power will always accompany the word (Jeremiah 23:29). The man was completely cured. He heard the word of grace (Romans 10:17). He spake the word of praise (Psalms 51:15).

Add up all these various points now, as manifested by the Saviour in the healing of this poor man, and what do they show, but His deep sympathy and lovingkindness? What we want is to have our hearts so touched by the Spirit that we may enter into this and glorify God (Psalms 103:2-5).

—Bishop Rowley Hill.

Illustration

‘Dr. Carey found a man in Calcutta who had not spoken a loud word for four years, under a vow of perpetual silence. Nothing could open his mouth, till happening to meet with a religious tract, he read it, and his tongue was loosed. He soon threw away his paras, and other badges of superstition, and became a partaker of the grace of God. Many a professing Christian, who is as dumb in religious subjects as if under a vow of silence, would find a tongue to speak if religion were really to touch and warm his heart.’

ASIDE FROM THE MULTITUDE

‘And He took him aside from the multitude.’

Mark 7:33

Our Lord seems to have taken this man apart from the multitude. This is unusual.

I. Aside from the multitude.—As we, too, follow the Redeemer, may we not feel that in our own lives He has taken us aside from the multitude? We have had moments—awful, yet precious moments they were—when something of God’s mercy has made us feel that God and we exist alone in this mighty universe, something that has shut out the crowd, drowned the noise, stopped the wheels of the world, taken us into a kind of sacred solitude, made us feel in deepest earnestness, ‘I live; God lives; my God and my Lord.’

II. A Divine law.—You have sometimes seen in the glories of outward nature, the parable of this grand Divine law of Christ’s blessed life. You have seen in the perfect cloudless heaven the sun shine forth in splendour. You have seen that splendour cast upon the great sea that lay underneath, until the heaving mass threw back a kind of golden, restless glory, and reflected on its large, enormous surface, the glory of that sun in the heavens; but you also have stood on the edge of the wave, and have watched every wavelet and ripple that came up and fringed the shore, and in every tiny single wave the whole orb in the heavens was perfectly mirrored and perfectly given back in its glory. So when we come in contact with the Divine hand, then we feel that we are alone with God; it is then that we know the earnestness of our life, must confess—our hearts are obliged to give utterance to it—that the unseen world and the eternal is the imperishable, while that which is seen is but temporal.

III. A vision of the future.—These are the moments that light up the destiny of man, that take him into the eternal future, open the vistas, and show him the shore of the resurrection of the other side of the waves, and Jesus standing on the shore, and ourselves standing before the judgment-seat of Christ.

Rev. Canon Rowsell.

Illustrations

(1) ‘There is wonderful blessing vouchsafed to those who come apart from the multitude and are alone with God. There was each morning, during the late General Gordon’s first journey in the Soudan, one half-hour during which there lay outside his tent a handkerchief, and the whole camp knew the full significance of that small token, and most religiously was it respected by all there, whatever was their colour, creed, or business. No foot dared to enter the tent so guarded. No message, however pressing, was carried in. Whatever it was—of life or of death—it had to wait until the guardian signal was removed. Every one knew that God and Gordon were alone in there together; that the servant prayed and communed, and the Master heard and answered. Into the heart so opened the presence of God came down. Into the life so offered the strength of God was poured; so that strange power was given to Gordon, because his heart became the dwelling-place of God.’

(2) ‘Many reasons have been given for the Lord’s taking the man aside. The following beautiful passage from Trench is worth quoting: “His purpose was that the man, apart from the tumult and interruptions of the crowd, in solitude and silence, might be more receptive of deep and lasting impressions; even as the same Lord does now so often lead a soul apart, sets it in the solitude of a sick chamber, or in loneliness of spirit, or takes away from it earthly companions and friends, when He would speak with it and heal it. He takes it aside, as He took this deaf-and-dumb out of the multitude, that in the hush of the world’s din it may listen to Him.” ’

(SECOND OUTLINE)

TAKEN ASIDE BY SICKNESS

Is there not a good deal here for one on a sick-bed? The benefit received by this man was conferred in a short time, quietly and privately, and in a manner somewhat different from what had been anticipated. Yes, and even a short sickness may be turned to great advantage, and that too, although it may come at a most inconvenient time and seem a strange and unexpected way of blessing.

‘Well,’ you may say, ‘ how can I make use of my sickness?’ Well, then, to glance at the story in search of hints. The man was taken aside from the multitude for awhile. So are you. And he had two things done for him; he was enabled (1) to hear, and (2) to speak. So may you be.

I. The gift of hearing.—You live in a favoured land where the voice of God is continually speaking to you on all sides. Do you hear it as you might? Do you hear His call as you might in the various efforts for good going on around, in which your help might be valuable? Even a short sickness might be used as a reason of special treatment for this deafness, and the results might be great and permanent. Ask Him to speak to you during this period of being taken aside from the multitude those potent words, ‘Be opened.’

II. The gift of speech.—And then with regard to your dumbness—for have you not been at least comparatively dumb?—have you not at least had an impediment in your speech upon the most important matters? I mean that so many of us entertain a sort of inactive wish that good may prosper, and we know many people whom we should like to see leading better lives personally and doing more good with their time and opportunities. But how seldom is the truly friendly word spoken which might induce them to do so.

—Rev. R. L. Bellamy, b.d.

Illustration

‘I always remember reading of a man who was very indignant, because when he was laid aside for a time none of his friends came to see him; but when he was asked whether he had ever been to see any one who was in a similar case, he was obliged to acknowledge that he never had. And it had never before occurred to him that he might have done so. If, when you are upon your feet again, you were to make a point of going to see friends who happen to be sick, and were to go, not merely to retail the small-talk of the world, but with your ear opened and your tongue loosed by your own taste of the invalid life, to “speak plain,” it would indeed be abundantly worth while for you to have been thus taken aside from the multitude.’

WHY DID CHRIST SIGH?

‘Looking up to heaven, He sighed.’

Mark 7:34

It may be that Christ sighed because there was some struggle or exhaustion in His human nature, and whenever He exerted His omnipotence He felt the virtue to go out of Him. But, passing by this consideration, may we not suppose that the sigh was occasioned by His foreknowledge of the abuse of that good gift He was about to bestow—an abuse which could scarcely fail to happen when the blessing was conferred upon a fallen man?

I. Good clogged with evil.—It is a cause of sadness at all times that no good can be done without its being mingled and clogged with evil. When, for instance, a child is baptized, there is joy and gladness in the Church. But, alas! that very child may, in after years, sin away baptismal grace, may crucify afresh the Lord of Life, and become twofold more the child of hell than before. This man had an impediment in his speech; not that which afflicts stammerers, but such as prevented him from uttering articulate sounds, so that he was, in effect, ‘dumb’; and our Lord was about to give him the gift of speech.

II. Precious and perilous.—And what a precious gift is this; but yet what a perilous gift! Is there any one here present who has thought earnestly of the Day of Judgment, and reckoned at all the account he will have to render, and not felt his heart sink within him, as he recalls the solemn text, ‘By thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned’? I speak not of the liar. Neither will I pause to consider profane swearing, licentious jests, filthy conversation. But setting these aside, the awful text recurs, ‘Every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give an account thereof in the Day of Judgment.’ Alas! how often do we find honourable business men still acting dishonestly with their tongues; robbing their neighbour of that good name which is dearer to him than the property of his calumniators.

III. Out of the abundance of the heart.—Here, then, we come to the point: ‘Out of the abundance of the heart,’ saith He Who made the heart, ‘the mouth speaketh.’ ‘A good man bringeth forth good things’ (Matthew 12:34-35). And is it not so? Do we not see this exemplified whenever we look into our own hearts, or make inquiry into the spiritual condition of others? What says the heart of the blasphemer, of the filthy jester, of the scandalmonger? What—but this—that not only has he not the love of God within him, but that he has altogether ceased to fear God. Never forget that for our words, as well as for our works, we shall have to give an account at the Day of Judgment. The thought is one which may well solemnise the best of us.

Our Saviour sighed, then, to think how the gift He was conferring might be abused. But He looked to Heaven, to have the comfort of seeing there the joys awaiting all the blessed, who, having been redeemed by His blood, shall have passed faithfully the time of their probation here, and so, through much tribulation, have entered into glory.

—Dean Hook.

Illustration

‘Mr. Ruskin has spoken of truth as “that golden and narrow line which the very powers and virtues that lean upon it bend, which policy and prudence conceal, which kindness and courtesy modify, which courage overshadows with its shield, imagination covers with her wings, and charity dims with her tears.… There are some faults slight in the sight of love, some errors slight in the estimate of wisdom; but truth forgives no insult, and endures no stain.” Lord Bacon, on the other hand, speaks quaintly of the indignity of falsehood: “There is no vice that doth so cover a man with shame as to be found false and perfidious, and therefore Montaigne said prettily, when he inquires the reason why the word of the lie should be such a disgrace and such an odious charge, saith he, ‘If it be well weighed to say that a man lieth is as much as to say as that he is brave towards God and a coward towards men. For a lie faces God and shrinks from man.’ ” ’

(SECOND OUTLINE)

THE SIGH OF SYMPATHY

There was something in the sigh of Christ profoundly significant in its meaning, inexpressibly touching in its character.

I. The sigh of compassion.—Why did Christ sigh? It was an outgush of sympathy bursting from a humanity kindred to our own. It was a sigh of compassion. As He benignantly bent over this suffering form, the hidden spring of emotion was moved, and it gave vent in a deep upbreathed sigh.

II. The sigh of sorrow.—The sigh of Jesus was awakened, too, by a view of the ravages of sin. In that spectacle He beheld the humanity He had originally cast into a perfect, peerless mould, and had pronounced ‘very good,’ bruised and crushed—its organs impaired, its beauty marred, its nature tainted—and, Himself lovely and sinless, He could not look upon that wretched, defaced, paralysed specimen of our nature without emotion—without a sigh.

III. The sigh of practical benevolence.—Have we not remarked upon the hollow, vapid nature of human pity and compassion? How much of it evaporates in thin air! Not so was the emotion of Christ. His was a real, tangible, practical principle. It was always connected with some sorrow comforted, some want supplied, some burden unclasped, some help needed, some blessing bestowed.

—Rev. Octavius Winslow, d.d.

Illustration

‘Learn from this what should be your true attitude when the pressure upon your emotional nature forces the deep-drawn sigh from your lips. We sigh, and look within—Jesus sighed, and looked without. We sigh, and look down—Jesus sighed, and looked up. We sigh, and look to earth—Jesus sighed, and looked to heaven. We sigh, and look to man—Jesus sighed, and looked to God!’

(THIRD OUTLINE)

THE SIGH INTERPRETED

The sigh of Jesus has been made to speak many languages. I will arrange them under four heads.

I. The sigh of earnestness.—Because it says that ‘looking up to heaven, He sighed,’ some connect the two words, and account that the sigh is a part of the prayer. If the Son of God sighed when He prayed, surely they have most of the spirit of adoption—not who offer up an apathetic form, but they who have such a sense of what communion with God is, that they bring their whole concentrated powers to the great work.

II. The sigh of beneficence.—But it has been said again, that He who never gave us anything but what was bought by His own suffering—so that every pleasure is a spoil purchased by His blood—did now by the sigh, and under the feeling that He sighed, indicate that He purchased the privilege to restore to that poor man the senses he had lost.

III. The sigh of brotherhood.—The scene before our Lord would be to His mind but a representative of thousands of thousands. And yet He did not do (as we too often act)—He did not do nothing, because He could not do all. He sighed—and He saved one. That is true brotherhood.

IV. The sigh of holiness.—All this still lay on the surface. Do you suppose that our Saviour’s mind could think of all the physical evil, and not go on to the deeper moral causes from which it sprang?

Illustration

‘How much of the real force of prayer was concentrated in this one sigh! Let us not measure the power of prayer by the time it occupies, or by the noise it makes. Sad to see the liberties which some take with the great God in prayer. They pray as though they imagined He was to be influenced by happy turns of thought, by fine rhetorical periods, or by loud, boisterous, or chattering appeal! How different from all this that gentle sigh of Christ’s!’

(FOURTH OUTLINE)

THE SYMPATHIES OF CHRIST

The sigh of Christ is full of sacred and instructive meaning.

I. It reveals the reality and intensity of the Saviour’s love to individual sufferers.—There are many philanthropists whose benevolence takes the form of liberal money-giving, but which never comes into direct contact with the suffering it is intended to relieve.

II. It shows the keenness with which the Saviour felt the evil of sin.—He could not be called upon to do even a small service to an individual sufferer without finding Himself face to face with the universal curse.

III. The sigh reminds us of the essential central principle of ‘the philosophy of salvation.’—Christ never relieves a man of any curse the misery of which He does not appropriate to Himself. ‘In all our afflictions, He is afflicted.’ He takes the affliction in order the more effectually to work the cure.

IV. That sigh may well suggest to us the holy sadness of doing good.—The law of Christ’s life ought, as far as possible, to be the law of ours—the genius of His experience that of ours.

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‘Some professors of Christ’s religion can only be stigmatised as lackadaisical, epicurean, luxurious people. They like to lap themselves up in spiritual blankets, and to loll themselves to sleep on spiritual feather beds. What know they, what care they about the sublime solicitudes which moved the heart of Him Whom they call Saviour and Lord, but of Whom they forget that He “suffered for us, leaving us an example that we should follow in His steps”?’

‘EPHPHATHA!’

‘He sighed, and saith unto him, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened.’

Mark 7:34

I. The hearing ear.—It is certain that an important part of the work of Divine grace is to give to the soul a power of ‘hearing’ effectually; that is, receiving and accepting the Divine truth. It is by this inward ‘hearing’ that faith, which is itself the ‘gift of God,’ comes. It is a great grace, this readiness to hear with the inward ear, and with conviction of its absolute truth, the teaching of Jesus—to distinguish and readily follow His voice. And very specially through the conscience. It is a great thing to have a conscience that speaks clearly and distinctly; it is yet more important to have the ear of our soul trained to catch its least and softest whispers, and to recognise in it the voice of the Good Shepherd.

II. Spiritual speech.—Then there is what we may call our spiritual speech, that ‘utterance’ which St. Paul twice refers to as coupled with ‘faith’ or ‘knowledge,’ a cause for thankfulness and a thing for us to ‘abound’ in (1 Corinthians 1:5; 2 Corinthians 8:7), something, indeed, which does not stop short at the inward assent to what we believe, but finds expression in the outward profession of our faith at all times and on all occasions when we are called upon to profess it.

Only once let us feel our real need of the Divine Healer of our infirmities, and we shall be on the high-road to health and hearing and speech. Our prayer may well be: ‘Lord, speak to me that I may speak’; and, ‘Speak, Lord; for Thy servant heareth.’

Rev. C. F. G. Turner.

Illustration

‘I once passed the night with a brother clergyman whose house stood between and close to two of the great main lines of railway that run out of London, and throughout the night I could not sleep for the thundering traffic within a stone’s throw of my room. Neither my host nor his servants were in the least disturbed. They had long been used to it, and slumbered peacefully in spite of it. So surely it is with the voice of conscience.’

(SECOND OUTLINE)

DUMB BECAUSE DEAF

What are spiritual deafness and spiritual dumbness?

I. Dumbness the result of deafness.—In the physical order there is hardly any such thing as dumbness, except as the result of having been born deaf. If by a miracle the deaf mute could be made to hear, he would soon speak as well as other people. This is, generally, though not quite always, true in the spiritual life. We are apt to deceive ourselves on this point. A great many people are dumb about religion. ‘We also believe, and therefore speak.’ Since we do not speak, do we believe? On other matters, if we have strong convictions, they generally come out. Our friends cannot be with us long without discovering whether we are Liberals or Conservatives, and what our chief likes and dislikes are. If we keep our religious convictions to ourselves, is it that we are afraid of being thought insincere, or that we never think about them?

II. The cause of deafness.—And, if so, what is the cause of our spiritual deafness? Why do we not hear God speaking to our hearts? Why are we not continually, or frequently, conscious of His presence? It is not a congenital infirmity. We could hear God’s voice if we listened for it. I do not say that it is equally easy for all, and I do not think it is. But though there are degrees of acuteness in spiritual hearing, I do not think that any one is destitute of the sense, except through his own fault. And what we have to ask ourselves is whether we have listened and wished to hear.

III. Jesus Christ can heal this spiritual deafness even now, though His bodily presence is withdrawn. If we believe His promise, ‘Lo, I am with you alway, even to the end of the world,’ and pray that He will give us tokens of His presence; if we meditate upon His life, and resolve to make Him our standard and our pattern, we shall not have to wait long before He begins to speak to us. If we are rather tongue-tied with our friends, let us not be tongue-tied with God.

—Rev. Professor W. R. Inge.

Illustration

‘If we set an alarum to wake us at a certain hour, and if we always get up when we hear it, there is no danger of our sleeping through it. But if when we hear it we turn over and go to sleep again, in a few days we shall sleep on and not hear it. So when we hear the voice of God saying to us, “This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand and when ye turn to the left”—if we at once obey and follow the path indicated by conscience, we shall go on hearing our inward mentor till it may become almost an instinct with us to take the straightest and most disinterested line whenever a question comes before us to decide. But if we pay no attention, we shall soon hear it no more than a family who live by the side of a cataract hear the continuous noise of the falling water.’

(THIRD OUTLINE)

THE TWO EPHPHATHAS

To deny powers or privileges, or the free exercise of rights and faculties, on the ground that they may be abused, is to act according to the dictates of expediency, not of right. Christ, while He teaches us that the remedy is not to be sought in depriving the man of the gift, points by His conduct to where the real remedy is to be sought. It is by conferring an additional and guiding gift. There is another ‘Ephphatha.’ He speaks, ‘Be opened,’ and the tongue is loosed; but the ear is unstopped also. While, therefore. He bestows the faculty of speech, He bestows the opportunity of hearing those glad and soul-elevating principles of righteousness, and forgiveness, and love, which will fill the loosened tongue with joy and put a new song of praise in that long-silent mouth. The Ephphatha of gift and the Ephphatha of new opportunities for good go hand in hand.

I. A like correspondence may be observed in history.—A wise and watchful Providence seems to unseal the closed ear of human kind at eras when He gives them new-found powers of speech.

II. The era of the Gospel was preceded by those marked changes in the political world which centralised the civilisation of mankind under the imperial sway of Rome. The gift of the Gospel and of the Spirit came when the gift of administration bestowed on Rome had prepared the great fabric of imperialism in which the apostles found facilities of transit, protection, etc.

III. Later the same principle appears.—There came the epoch of intellectual revival after the long slumber of the Middle Ages; the sleeping genius of European thought awoke: the printing-press carried truth and knowledge far and wide; the age became one of mental activity. But with the gift of the unloosened tongue Christ bestowed the gift of revived Gospel truth.

IV. Nearer our own day came an epoch of new thought.—A spirit of political freedom rose and shook the thrones of Europe, and, in its striving after an unrealised ideal, deluged France with blood. The period when the tongue of new-sought liberty found utterance was the time of evangelistic effort, and of the revival of missionary enterprise.

This is the true Christian method: to meet the widespread evil of the world, not by degrading human intelligence, or enslaving human thought, but by directing it. ‘Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.’ If we are wise and humble, we shall not merely ‘covet earnestly the best gifts,’ but we shall also pray for grace to use them lawfully and lovingly.

Bishop W. Boyd Carpenter.

THE TESTIMONY OF THE MULTITUDE

‘He hath done all things well.’

Mark 7:37

Undoubtedly this is one of those comprehensive utterances in which there is more included than was intended by those from whose lips they originally proceeded. It applies:—

I. To our Lord’s character.—He was not only without sin; He exemplified every virtue, and carried every virtue to its highest perfection. There were among His enemies those who were candid enough to acknowledge this. And in every age witness to the righteousness, purity, and moral beauty of Christ has been borne by the unbelieving and unspiritual.

II. To our Lord’s ministry.—St. Peter, who knew Jesus well, once summed up His earthly life, saying, ‘He went about doing good.’ He sought out all forms of human want and suffering in order to supply and to relieve them. He welcomed the approach of every suppliant, delighting in the opportunity of granting requests. He exercised His supernatural power for the satisfaction of human need and for the alleviation of human pain. Above all, He met the contrite and penitent sinner with the welcome assurance—‘Thy sins be forgiven thee!’

III. To our Lord’s redemptive work.—The sacrifice of Christ was not only a part of His ministry, it was the purpose kept in view throughout the whole of that ministry; it was its completion and crown. Foreseen and accepted beforehand by the Saviour of mankind, His redemption was the most illustrious instance of Divine wisdom and power. Its correspondence alike with the government of God and with the moral condition and needs of man, is a proof of its origin in the mind of the Eternal.

Illustration

‘We must take large, comprehensive views of God. For in life—the little book of life—one chapter is always explaining the preceding chapter. Therefore, in our measure, we must see the “all things” before we can say that “all things” are “well.” This is why, as a man grows older, he is more able to justify God, and admire God in all His works—because he can put more things together. This is why the retrospect from heaven will be so much truer—it will be so grandly comprehensive. Just as at the beginning of the world, when God made each separate thing, it was “good”; but when He had made all things, it was “very good.” “What I do thou knowest not now.” Why? Because thou seest one thing only. “But thou shalt know hereafter.” Why? Because you see many things together.’

(SECOND OUTLINE)

SPIRITUAL SERVICE

I take this poor deaf and dumb man as typical of humanity in general, and especially in its spiritual condition.

I. Spiritual listlessness.—I think, as I look round on this congregation, how it may be that even now and here the Lord Jesus, present in our midst, has looked up to heaven again and sighed as He noticed our listlessness, our indifference, our cold worship, our failure to hear His voice speaking out of Psalm, or Lesson, or Creed. Yet if His word were to ring out again, ‘Ephphatha; be opened,’ how different it would be! The change would be like another miracle wrought among us.

II. The voice of God.—We read in our Bibles how God of old talked with men. Cannot we hear the voice of God, too? Is the twentieth century specially cut off from the revelation of God? Are there no manifestations of the Spirit we can realise? Is Christ abiding with us, in us, and yet do we never hear His voice—‘Ephphatha; be opened’? It is the deaf ear which needs to be unstopped, for the voice of the Saviour is speaking yet. God speaks to us in the printed page, in the beauteous picture, in the poetry and music of life, in philosophy; and it is because our ears are deafened that we cannot hear His voice or understand His message. What a different Book would the Bible be to us if we were on the alert for God’s voice! We should not weary of it nor cavil at its difficulties if we turned to it with the petition, ‘I would hear what God would say.’ And so how different would service be, and the Sacraments would glow with spiritual power, if, instead of torturing ourselves with themes of speculation and controversy, once more we came like the Greeks to St. Philip, crying, ‘Sir, we would see Jesus.’ ‘He hath done all things well: He maketh both the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak,’ applies to the spiritual as well as the physical condition of mankind. Every miracle in the material world is but an exhibition of power and goodness which can produce like effects in the spiritual world.

III. How was this miracle effected?—‘They bring unto Him one that was deaf.’ We are not told who they were that brought him, these unknown friends, these pitying comrades, who by bringing him put him in contact with the Lord of life and health. And the power of the Lord was present to heal, and it streamed from Him, so that the deaf heard and the dumb spake. We, too, would bring you to Jesus. Nay, we would come ourselves in lowly meekness. Perhaps we have come before, come often to His mercy seat, to His throne of grace. In coming to Christ, in drawing nigh to Him through His appointed means of grace, through our spiritual yearnings—in coming to Christ we pass at once beyond the visible universe to the unseen world where Christ is; beyond the church in which we worship to the heavenly temple; beyond the chanted psalm and canticle to the choir of angels and archangels, and all the company of heaven; beyond the voices of readers and preachers to the very presence of God where His Spirit dwells and rules; beyond the Word of God and His Sacraments into the very fullness of His glory.

—Rev. Prebendary Shelford.

Illustration

‘Do you still think that, if you had been there that day, you would have felt as the multitude did and joined in their praises? Take heed that you be not deceived. Remember that there were thousands at Jerusalem who saw His miracles, and yet it was by them that He was crucified and slain. Ask yourselves, rather, what are you doing now? Do you look upon the miracles only or chiefly as proofs of the doctrine of Christ’s Divinity, or as part of the evidences by which you support the truth of the Christian religion against unbelievers? Or do you look upon them and receive them joyfully as God’s own message to yourself?’