CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES
Mark 1:14. John was put in prison.—Delivered up. Same word used of our Lord’s betrayal by Judas. “Such honour have all His saints.” Jesus came into Galilee.—From Jerusalem, where He had been teaching most of the time since His baptism (John 2:13 to John 4:3).
Mark 1:15. Repent ye, and believe.—We have an echo of this Divine keynote in the first sermon preached by Peter at Pentecost (Acts 2:38).
Mark 1:16. As He walked.—As He was passing along by the seashore towards Capernaum, He encountered four disciples of the Baptist whom He had previously met and impressed (John 1:35-42: cf. Luke 5:1-11). Casting a net.—Casting about (a hand-net) in the sea. Here is one of the many graphic touches in this Gospel which betray the source of Mark’s inspiration. Who but one of the two men engaged in the business would have thought of putting it in this way?
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Mark 1:14-20
(PARALLELS: Matthew 4:17-22; Luke 4:14-15; Luke 5:1-11.)
Christ’s early Galilean preaching and first disciples.—What St. Mark here records is not the beginning of Christ’s ministerial work, but His first preaching in Galilee. St. John alone fills up the gap between our Lord’s temptation and the imprisonment of the Baptist. From him we know of the Baptist’s testimony to Jesus at Bethabara (Bethany, R. V.) beyond Jordan, and the impression it made on some of his disciples; of the marriage feast at Cana of Galilee; of Christ’s first passover at Jerusalem, cleansing of temple, and discourse with Nicodemus; of His continued ministry in Judea, baptising by His disciples, and receiving further testimony from the Baptist (chaps, 1–3). Then St. John mentions, in common with the other Evangelists, Christ’s departure from Judea into Galilee after the Baptist’s imprisonment; but he supplements their narrative by telling us of the incident on the way at Jacob’s well near Sychar, the discourse with the woman of Samaria, and the gaining of many believers among the Samaritans; stating also as an incidental reason for Christ’s going to Galilee, that the Pharisees had heard that “Jesus made and baptised more disciples than John” (Mark 4:1-41).
I. The Forerunner’s public ministry is closed.—
1. The last time we heard of the Baptist, he occupied a position of peculiar honour. His popularity was great, his influence permeating all classes of society. It looked as if the nation had come to its senses, and was ready to welcome its King. But, alas! the impression proved but transitory; the King, when they saw Him, proved very different from what their carnal fancy had painted; and so in bitter disappointment they turned from the Forerunner who (as they deemed it) had misled them, and took no heed when Herod seized and shut him in prison.
2. But the Baptist, although imprisoned, is not silenced. If he has been stopped working for God, he can still suffer in His cause. Moreover, even in prison he is able to direct his disciples to “Him who should come” for the solution of their difficulties (Matthew 11:2-3). And in the conscience of Herod (and doubtless of many others) his faithful testimony continued to ring long after his death (Mark 6:14; Mark 6:16).
II. The One mightier than he takes the Forerunner’s place.—
1. No man’s service is essential to God. Though the workman be buried—whether in prison or the grave—He can and will find means to carry on the work. What we often regard as hindrances to the Lord’s cause are really its greatest helps. It is not possible for a man to be “cut off in the midst of his usefulness,” as we term it. He cannot be cut off till his work is done, and it is time for him to make way for his successor. God never makes a mistake in these matters, and He is never off guard.
2. The world will never succeed in suppressing the truth. The gospel has come here to stay; and no power on earth—or in hell—can dislodge or muffle it. Every religious persecution since the world began has resulted in the overthrow of the assailants and the firmer establishment of those assailed. The blood of the martyrs has in every case become the seed-plot of the Church, for its further development and ultimate triumph.
III. The message of Jesus is a distinct advance upon that of the Baptist.—
1. While still enforcing repentance, He announces further that the time which was formerly said to be at hand has now arrived, and the gospel which He preaches must not only be believed, but believed in—relied upon as the panacea for every human ill. Faith is the hand on earth which grasps and holds on to the Divine hand reached down from heaven to strengthen and to aid.
2. He takes steps for the establishment of the kingdom of God. Few things are more striking, as a revelation of God’s method, than the measured tread with which Christ went forward to this grand enterprise. The Jews in general were eagerly desiring a liberator, who should gird his sword upon his thigh, and through bloodshed restore to them something of their ancient prestige. But Jesus is a Man of peace; His rallying cry bids them turn their weapons against no extraneous foe, but against their own darling lusts and passions. He calls upon them to repent; to change their minds, hearts, hopes, ambitions; to put off the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and to put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness; to accept the truth, which alone can make them free. For this purpose the kingdom of God is at hand; and in Him who speaks (though He does not tell them so) they behold its King. Such doctrine could only be received by a few here and there in the nation, and to them alone does He make His revelation in its fulness.
3. What is the kingdom of God?
(1) This inquiry is most important; for the kingdom—(a) is revealed to us by God; (b) is the principal subject of Christ’s teaching throughout His entire ministry, most of His parables being illustrative of it; (c) is specially emphasised after His resurrection (Acts 1:3).
(2) The origin of this kingdom may be clearly traced. (a) The Mosaic economy was the kingdom of God in embryo. See Matthew 8:12; Acts 4:11; Acts 7:38; Romans 9:4; Romans 11:17; Hebrews 12:22-24. That which existed Christ came to expand, extend, and perfect (Matthew 5:7). But this work was like a new creation, a new birth of the kingdom (Luke 14:16). (b) The kingdom of God is therefore spoken of as “to come” by the Baptist (Matthew 3:2), by our Lord (Matthew 4:17; Matthew 14:18), by the apostles during their first mission (Matthew 10:7), and just before the Ascension (Acts 1:6). (c) Immediately after Pentecost the kingdom is spoken of as now come (Acts 2:16-47), and henceforth it is generally called “the Church.”
(3) The nature of this kingdom may be ascertained from the figures under which it is represented in Scripture, (a) A state (civitas) (Matthew 5:14). (b) A family, of which God is the Father (Ephesians 3:14-15). (c) The vineyard of God (Isaiah 5:1, etc.; Matthew 21:33, etc.). (d) A vine (Psalms 80:8, etc: cp. John 15:1-2). (e) A flock and a fold (Isaiah 40:11; Ezekiel 34:11, etc.; John 10). (f) A body, the Head of which is Christ (Ephesians 1:22; Colossians 1:18), and which the Holy Spirit inhabits (John 14:17; cp. 1 Corinthians 12:13). (g) The fulness of God (Ephesians 1:22). From all this it clearly follows that the claims and rights of the Church are the claims and rights of Christ through His body: what is done to the Church is done to Christ. While she may suffer persecution (John 16:2), and men may reject her to their own hurt (Isaiah 60:12), or may be deprived of her on account of their sins (Matthew 21:43), yet she cannot be destroyed, for Christ is always with her (Matthew 28:20), and the gates of hell shall not prevail against her (Matthew 16:18).
IV. The calling and training of disciples are marked features in the ministry of Jesus.—
1. The manner of their calling is deeply instructive.
(1) He honours diligence in lowly occupations. He thinks, not of the work, but of the spirit in which it is done.
(2) He chooses the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty, … that no flesh should glory in His presence.
(3) He demands self-sacrifice from the very beginning. If any one be inclined to urge that it was not much these men left, let him remember it was their all. And there is no tempting bait dangled before their eyes to lure them on. The promise of “twelve thrones” was not made till long afterwards. All they are offered is, that if they follow Jesus He will make them fishers of men, like Himself.
2. As to their training, let these facts be noted.
(1) Christ deliberately makes provision, from the first, for the perpetuity of His kingdom.
(2) He bestows personal attention on the spiritual education of those who are hereafter to be His earthly representatives and vicegerents.
(3) He puts them in a position to testify as to His words and works.
Lessons.—
1. Trust in God, who is all-sufficient for any and every emergency.
2. Use every possible means and occasion for furthering God’s work.
3. Despise none of the ordinances of Christ’s Church. 4. The following of Christ is to be preferred to the business of the world.
OUTLINES AND COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Mark 1:14. The audience first addressed by our Lord.—Did Jesus, it has been asked, first address Himself to a small circle of acquaintances, or did He teach in public from the beginning of His ministry? The latter is more likely. It does not seem probable that He began to work in secret amongst a few individuals; for although He would at any time gladly go out of His way to restore a single wanderer to the path of virtue, yet, after all, His message was designed primarily for the whole nation. Moreover, publicity was as much in keeping with the character of the age as with our Lord’s intention; and He could not fail to find abundant opportunities of speaking to the populace.
The kingdom a gospel.—Jesus Christ preached the kingdom of God as a gospel: rightly understood it is not a despotism, it is not a terror; it is the supremacy of light, of truth, of love.—J. Parker, D.D.
Mark 1:15. The kingdom of God—
I. The nature of true religion, here termed “the kingdom of God.” St. Paul defines it in Romans 14:17.
1. It is well known, that not only the unconverted Jews, but many who had received the faith of Christ, were, notwithstanding, zealous of the ceremonial law (Acts 21:20).
2. In opposition to these, the apostle declares, that true religion does not consist in any outward thing whatever; that although it naturally leads to every good word and work, yet its real nature lies deeper still, even in “the hidden man of the heart.”
(1) “Righteousness”: see Mark 12:30-31.
(2) “The peace of God,” which God only can give, and the world cannot take away; the peace which “passeth all understanding,” all barely rational conception; being a supernatural sensation, a divine taste, of “the powers of the world to come”; such as the natural man knoweth not, how wise soever in the things of this world; nor indeed can he know it, in his present state, “because it is spiritually discerned.” It is a peace that banishes all doubt, uncertainty, fear.
(3) “Joy in the Holy Ghost”—joy wrought in the heart by the ever-blessed Spirit. He it is who works in us that calm, humble rejoicing in God, through Christ Jesus, “by whom we have now received the atonement,” and who enables us boldly to confirm the truth of the declaration (Psalms 32:1).
3. This holiness and happiness, joined in one, are sometimes styled “the kingdom of God,” and sometimes “the kingdom of heaven.”
(1) It is termed “the kingdom of God,” because it is the immediate fruit of God’s reigning in the soul.
(2) It is called “the kingdom of heaven,” because it is (in a degree) heaven opened in the soul (see 1 John 5:11-12; John 17:3).
4. And this kingdom is “at hand.” These words, as originally spoken, implied that “the time” was then fulfilled, God being “made manifest in the flesh,” when He would set up His kingdom among men, and reign in the hearts of His people. And is not the time now fulfilled? The kingdom is not far from every one of you.
II. The way to the kingdom.—
1. “Repent”: that is, know thyself—the inbred corruption of thy heart—the bitter streams of vanity, ambition, covetousness, and all kinds of lusts flowing from it—the actual sins of which thou art continually guilty—and the just reward of thy inward and outward wickedness. If to this lively conviction of thy utter guiltiness and helplessness there be added suitable affections—sorrow of heart, for having despised thy own mercies—remorse, and self-condemnation, having thy mouth stopped—shame to lift up thine eyes to heaven—fear of the wrath of God abiding on thee—earnest desire to cease from evil, and learn to do well,—then “thou art not far from the kingdom of God.” One step more, and thou shalt enter in.
2. “Believe the gospel.”
(1) The gospel, in the widest sense, means the whole revelation made to men by Jesus Christ, and sometimes the whole account of what He did and suffered. The substance of all is (1 Timothy 1:15; John 3:16; Isaiah 53:5):
(2) “Believe” this, and the kingdom of God is thine. By faith thou attainest the promise. Only beware thou do not deceive thy own soul, with regard to the nature of this faith. It is not merely a bare assent to the truth of the Bible and Creeds, but, over and above this, a sure trust in God’s mercy through Christ.—John Wesley.
The requirements of the kingdom of God.—
1. An assertion: “The time is fulfilled”—the time of patriarchs, prophets, types and figures, etc.
2. A prediction: “The kingdom of God is at hand.”
(1) Foretold by Daniel.
(2) Not in word, but in power; subduing passions of men, and enmity of demons.
(3) Righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.
(4) Of this kingdom there is no end.
3. A twofold duty.
(1) “Repent.” This includes—(a) sorrow for, confession of, and fleeing from sin; (b) striving after holiness.
(2) “Believe the gospel.” God’s free gift, in spite of man’s ill desert. Embodied in Christ. Look to Him for—(a) pardon, (b) renewal, (c) heavenward impulses. And give God the glory.
The distinctive qualities, aspects, and relations of the kingdom are thus stated by Dr. A. M. Fairbairn:—
1. It is present, an already existing reality, none the less real that it was unseen, undiscovered by the very men who professed to be looking for it (Luke 6:20; Luke 17:20-21; Matthew 20:1).
2. It is expansive, has an extensive and intensive growth, can have its dominion extended and its authority more perfectly recognised and obeyed (Matthew 6:10; Matthew 13:3-8; Matthew 13:19-23.)
3. It does its work silently and unseen; grows without noise, like the seed in the ground. And its intensive is as silent as its expansive action. It penetrates and transforms the man who enters it (Matthew 18:1-3; Luke 18:17; John 3:3-5).
4. It creates and requires righteousness in all its subjects (Matthew 6:33; Matthew 5:19-20).
5. It is the possession and reward of those who have certain spiritual qualities (Matthew 5:3; Matthew 5:10; Matthew 18:4).
6. It is without local or national character, can have subjects anywhere, has none for simply formal or hereditary reasons (Matthew 8:11; Matthew 21:31; Luke 13:29).
7. It is at once universal and individual, meant to be preached everywhere and to every one, to comprehend the race by pervading all its units (Matthew 24:14).
8. It is to be an everlasting kingdom, to endure throughout all generations.
Faith and repentance.—Faith and repentance keep up a Christian’s life, as the natural heat and radical moisture do the natural life. Faith is like the innate heat; repentance like the natural moisture. And as the philosopher saith, if the innate heat devour too much the radical moisture, or, on the contrary, there breed presently diseases, so, if believing make a man repent less, or repenting make a man believe less, this turneth to a distemper. Lord, cast me down (said a holy man upon his death-bed) as low as hell in repentance, and lift me up by faith into the highest heavens, in confidence of Thy salvation.—John Trapp.
Mark 1:16. The Sea of Galilee fills a large place in the life of Jesus; on its waters and around its shores most of His mighty works were done.
1. It was originally called the Sea of Chinnereth, either from its shape resembling a harp, or from a town of that name near by (Numbers 34:11; Joshua 12:3; cp. Joshua 19:35).
2. It was afterwards called the Lake of Gennesaret (Luke 5:1), which some consider a corruption of the earlier name; but it is more likely to have been so called from the Plain of Gennesar, so rich in beauty and fertility, on its western shore.
3. The name Sea of Galilee was derived from the province which bordered on its western side (Matthew 4:18; Mark 7:31).
4. Another name was the Sea of Tiberias (John 21:1), from Tiberias, which, although only recently founded by Herod Antipas in the time of our Lord, had become a large and flourishing town by the time St. John wrote.
5. The name given it at the present day, by Jews and Christians alike, is the Sea of the Messiah. To Christians it is the Sea of the Messiah who has come, to Jews the Sea of the Messiah for whom they still vainly look.
6. The industries engaged in were “agriculture and fruit-growing, dyeing and tanning, with every department of a large carrying trade; but chiefly fishing, boat-building, and fish-curing. Of the last, which spread the lake’s fame over the Roman world, before its fishermen and their habits became familiar through the gospel, there is no trace in the Evangelists. The fisheries themselves were pursued by thousands of families. They were no monopoly; but the fishing-grounds, best at the north end where the streams entered, were free to all. And the trade was very profitable.” See article by Prof. G. A. Smith, in Expositor, May 1893.
The chosen lake.—The Jewish Rabbis had a tradition which they expressed thus: “Seven lakes have I created, saith the Lord; but out of them all I have chosen none but the Lake of Gennesaret.” How have these words been fulfilled, in ways of which the Rabbis never dreamed! It is the chosen lake of Providence. Its dimensions are not large. It measures only thirteen miles by six. It does not lie high up above the ordinary homes of men. Nay, it is in a strange depression on the globe—more than six hundred feet below the level of the sea. Yet it is the fountain-head of a living water that has flowed equally to palaces and huts, and that has quenched a thirst in souls of all conditions beyond the power of this world’s wine.—T. Starr King.
Christ’s activity in doing good.—Walking was His constant exercise, to find out objects of spiritual and corporal mercy. This account St. Peter gives of Him, that “He went about,” walked over all the country ere He had done, beginning from Galilee; but He did not walk only for the walk’s sake. “He went about,” says he, “doing good, and healing all manner of diseases.” He “went about,” as the sun goes his round, to dispense light and warmth, to communicate life and vigour to everything his active beams light upon. All His steps, whither ever He went, dropt fatness. Oh, may every pious soul not miss to meet Him in His walks! And sure enough it may, it shall do so, if itself continue to keep in His ways. So unwearied was His love, that, even to His bodily weariness, with indefatigable pains He walked up and down, to scatter health to the sick and salvation to sinners. He took a survey of the whole country, measured it with His own paces, and streamed forth blessings wherever He came. It fared with all places, with all persons, that touched Him, or He them, that came near Him, or that He came near, as it did with the woman that had the issue of blood, that they found virtue come from Him. And so it was here.—A. Littleton, D.D.
Mark 1:16-20. The Master’s call answered.—
I. The Master’s call.—
1. It is a call first to discipleship, and then to apostleship. Personal holiness must precede Christian usefulness. Faith must go before works. Let the heart first be given to Christ, and the dedication of hands, feet, tongue, and brain will naturally follow. To reverse this order is to mistake root for fruit, cause for effect.
2. It is a call to cast in one’s lot with Christ, and receive the impress of His life. How could we talk of self-sacrifice in connexion with Christ’s service, if we realised that He only asks us to relinquish what is ruinous to our souls, in order that He may fill us with the riches of His heavenly storehouse?
II. The servants’ answer.—What these men replied in words we know not; but their action was full of the best eloquence.
1. It was a prompt decision. Ready obedience is at the same time the easiest and the most valuable.
2. It was a lasting decision. These men had then little idea of all that was involved in following Christ and becoming fishers of men. Yet, when the full import of their choice became known to them, they never flinched, or looked back with regret to the things they had given up; for in Christ they found every satisfaction of life intensified a thousandfold—nay, they learnt that without Christ earth’s fairest scenes and chief delights are as a howling wilderness or as a neverresting, shoreless sea. Let us, like them, hear when Christ speaks, obey when Christ commands, believe when Christ promises, and follow whither Christ leads.
Christ and His servants.—
1. Christ is the preparer of His servants: “I will make you”—how much was involved in that promise!
(1) Authority;
(2) Qualification.
2. Small beginnings compatible with sublime results.
3. The claims of God override all other claims—the sons left their father.
4. The discharge of common duties the best preparation for higher calls—two were casting the net into the sea, and two were mending their nets. The transition from one duty to another need not be abrupt. The humblest duty may be very near the highest honour.
5. The place of the servant is after the Master—“Come ye after Me”; they are not invited to equal terms—they must walk in the King’s shadow.—J. Parker, D.D.
Jesus and John.—Jesus, in the silent conflicts of the wilderness, prepares for the open conflicts of life—takes the place of John, delivered to death by the carnal mind.
1. The history: a testimony—
(1) that He honoured the Baptist;
(2) did not fear the enemy;
(3) was faithful to His people and vocation.
2. The doctrine:
(1) The witnesses of the kingdom cannot be destroyed;
(2) After every seeming triumph of the kingdom of darkness still stronger heroes of God come forward.
3. Christ is always Himself victorious at last in every scene.—J. P. Lange, D.D.
The mighty calling of the Lord.—
1. Gentler than any human request.
2. Mightier than any human command.
3. Unique as the victorious wooing of heavenly love.—Ibid.
The calling of Jesus.—
1. To one thing—into His discipleship and the fellowship of His Spirit, or to the Father.
2. To many things—to discipleship and mastership, to co-operation, to fellowship in suffering, and community in triumph.—Ibid.
The spiritual and the worldly vocations of Christians.—
1. Opposition.
2. Kindredness.
3. Union.—Ibid.
The twofold earthly companionship of the disciples a foundation for the higher.—
1. Companions in fishing—companions in fishing for men.
2. Brethren after the flesh—spiritual brethren.—Ibid.
The Christian and ecclesiastical vocations in harmony with the sacred natural obligations of life.—Ibid.
Christ’s glance.—One glance of the Lord, and He knows the heart under its rough garment.—Bauer.
The brotherhoods of life.—The world is covered with a network of brotherhoods. The first and simplest relationships run on and out in every direction, and multiply themselves till hardly any man stands entirely alone.
1. The cause of this interwoven network, this reticulation of life with life, is the whole system of nature by which each human being takes its start from another human being, and is kept, for a time at least, in associations of company and dependence with the being from whom it sprang and with the other beings who have the same source with it.
2. Such relationships are full of mutual helpfulness and pleasure.
3. One final cause or purpose of this interlacing of life with life, by natural and indissoluble kinships, may be just this—the providing, as it were, of open communications, of a system of shafts or channels piercing this human mass in every direction, crossing and recrossing one another, through which those higher influences, which ought to reach every corner, and every individual of the great structural humanity, may be freely carried everywhere, and no most remote or insignificant atom of the mass be totally and necessarily untouched.—Bishop Phillips Brooks.
Mark 1:17. Four kinds of apostles.—There are four sorts of apostles, according to Jerome.
1. Some are sent only from God, and not by men.
(1) Immediately from God the Father, as the prophets under the law (2 Peter 1:21), Jesus Christ (John 20:21), and the Baptist (John 1:6) in the beginning of the gospel.
(2) Immediately from God the Son, in His state mortal, as the twelve (Matthew 10:5): in His state glorious, as St. Paul (Acts 9:15).
2. Others are sent by men, and not by God: as they who being unworthy both in respect of their bad learning and worse living, yet crowd into the ministry, by alliance, favour, or simony.
3. Others are neither chosen of God, nor called by men: as the false prophets (Jeremiah 23:21; John 10:1).
4. Others are both chosen by God and called by men (Acts 20:28; Acts 14:23).
Jesus calls us.—
1. O’er the tumult of our life’s wild, restless sea.
2. From the worship of the vain world’s golden store.
3. From each idol.
4. In our joys and sorrows, days of toil, and hours of ease.
Fraternity.—Christ loves not singularity; He called not one alone. He loves not schism either between them whom He calls; and therefore He calls persons likely to agree—“two brethren.” So He began to build the synagogues, to establish that first government in Moses and Aaron—“brethren”; so He begins to build the Church in Peter and Andrew—“brethren.” The principal fraternity and brotherhood that God respects is spiritual brethren in the profession of the same true religion (Exodus 4:14; Ecclesiastes 4:9-10).—John Donne, D.D.
Association in work.—Single endeavours seldom prosper: many hands make the work both quick and sure. They can be no friends to the happy estate of a family or Church that labour to cause distractions. Division makes certain way to ruin (Luke 10:1; Acts 11:30; Acts 13:2; Acts 15:2; Acts 15:39-40).—Bishop Joseph Hall.
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 1
Mark 1:14. Eastern prisons.—In the East imprisonment means a far harder fate, as a rule, than we can realise. At Gaza I saw a crowd of men caged up in a small barred space, with no room to move, and no means of attending to they personal cleanliness; and at Rome, the Tullianum, below the Capitol, still shews, in its subterranean horrors, the dire misery inflicted in antiquity, on persons accused, whether innocent or guilty. John, however, must, at times, have been allowed to sit—perhaps in another Gaza cage—where he could see and be seen, for his disciples could converse with him.—C. Geikie, D. D.
Mark 1:15. After John comes Christ.—The human heart is a castle; repentance is the gate that opens to admit the gospel. If that gate is not opened, heaven’s artillery must flame forth against it. Christ comes to the loyal heart as a welcome guest, to the rebellious as a conquering king. What the water cannot purify, the fire must burn.
The longer repentance is delayed, the harder it becomes.—Blot a copy-book all over, and you will find it a hard matter to erase the marks. Twist the growing sapling, and you will never be able to straighten it, when it is grown. Here comes in the story of the boy whose father drove a nail into a post for every fault, and took one out for every good action. Once it happened that the post was entirely cleared. “Ah, father,” said the boy in tears, “the marks are left!”
Low in repentance, but high in faith.—An old saint, on his death-bed, once used this remarkable expression: “Lord, sink me low as hell in repentance; but”—and here is the beauty of it—“lift me high as heaven in faith.” The repentance that sinks a man low as hell is of no use except there is the faith that lifts him as high as heaven, and the two are perfectly consistent with each other. Oh, how blessed it is to know where these two lines meet—the stripping of repentance, and the clothing of faith!
Christ’s watchword: Repent!—In His recorded career the close student can find every modern character met by Christ and instructed. In these cures of sick souls is there a common base-line of operations? If you look in at a watchmaker’s window, you find the repairer doing a different thing to almost every watch. One wants a new mainspring, but otherwise is in good order; another has no fault with the mainspring, but wants new jewels. Another has neither of these faults, but a broken crystal. At least we may say there is no one fault which in every watch demands repairing. The souls of men which Christ repaired, are they like the watches, each righted in different ways, and only casually presenting the same defect? Is Zaccheus repaired as to avarice, and otherwise not touched; Paul as to intense bigotry, a very different fault you see; the outcast as to chastity; Nicodemus as to his opinions, but otherwise not, and not needing? Is Christ’s salvation patchwork? Or is there in every soul which the Restorer set right one and the same radical fault, treated in reality in the same way, though with different outward methods of approach? To every man He said, “Repent.” It is the common base-line of cure. It is as if the mainspring was broken in us all.—E. J. Haynes.
“Repent.”—Christ began His ministry with that word, preaching it. Think what it is to preach “Repent” to a promiscuous audience. Are there none who need not the message? You are a physician, and before you stand three men. You preach a cure to them, feeling no man’s pulse, nor taking other diagnosis. “Diet, gentlemen. Be careful of your food, that’s the cure.” “But, doctor,” objects the first man, “that applies to the next man, for he has gout; I, however, have a broken leg, and the third man a cataract on the eye.” Multiply the three men by one hundred. It is the city hospital. How absurd this curing at arm’s-length, standing at one end of the ward, with one word. Not a specific hospital, not if all its sufferers had trouble of the eye, could be so treated. Yet Christ stood and preached to hundreds of sick souls, and sent His ministers to do likewise, with one word, “Repent.” Every man needs then to repent; it is the beginning of the cure, if the Physician is to be believed.—Ibid.
The salvation of man depends upon his subjection to the rule of God.—To a ship’s company who have mutinied and deposed their captain, who alone knows how to steer the vessel, there can be no deliverance from tempest or from rocks, except by their submission and renewed allegiance. To a world fallen into disbelief and disobedience, there can be no hope except through the obedience of faith. To a revolted world groaning and travailing under the usurper’s heel, there can be no gospel but the glad tidings of the reign of God.
The gospel call.—There is a touching poem by Felicia Hemans, in which she describes a Crusader who has been taken captive by the Saracens, and who, whilst chained in the dungeons of some fortress in Palestine, hears the sound of a Crusading squadron passing through the valley beneath the towers of the castle where he lies in fetters. He listens to the tramp of the horsemen, the murmur of their words, and the high, clear notes of the trumpets, as they ring out with a challenge as they pass along, and then those notes grow fainter and weaker and pass away altogether. Not so, however, with the trumpet voice of the gospel’s call. Again and again it summons the sinner to repent and believe—to escape by God’s grace from the dungeon of evil habits, and to obey the call of God.
God demands belief.—“What does that mean?” said a Christian disciple to an elder brother, as he referred to a certain passage of Scripture. “What does it say?” was the answer. He read the passage over. “It says so and so.” “Well, then, it means what it says.” This first lesson in Scriptural exposition is one of the most important that can be learned. A preacher of the gospel once addressed a note to another minister, inquiring, “How do you interpret such and such passages?” The answer was about as follows: “Dear sir, I do not interpret God’s Word; I believe it, and I advise you to do the same.”
Mark 1:16. The Sea of Galilee.—Dr. Tristram, describing his approach to the Sea of Galilee from Nazareth, says: “For nearly three hours we had ridden on, with Hermon in front, sparkling through its light cloud-mantle, but still no sight of the Sea of Galilee. One ridge after another had been surmounted, when on a sudden the calm blue basin, slumbering in placid sweetness beneath its surrounding wall of hills, burst upon us, and we were looking down on the hallowed scenes of our Lord’s ministry. We were on the brow of a very steep bill. Below us was a narrow plain, sloping to the sea, the beach of which we could trace to its northern extremity. At our feet lay the city of Tiberias, the only remaining town on its shores, enclosed by crumbling fortifications, with shattered but once massive round bastions. Along that fringe, could we have known where to find them, lay the remains of Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum. Opposite to us were the heights of the country of the Gadarenes, and the scene of the feeding of the five thousand. On some one of the slopes beneath us the Sermon on the Mount was delivered. The first gaze on the Sea of Galilee, lighted up with the bright sunshine of a spring afternoon, was one of the moments of life not soon or easily forgotten. It was different from my expectations; our view was so commanding. In some respect it recalled in miniature the first view of the Lake of Geneva, from the crest of the Jura, as it is approached by the old Besançon road—Hermon taking the place of Mont Blanc, the Plain of Gennesaret recalling the Pays de Vaud, and the steep banks opposite the bold coast of Savoy. All looked small for the theatre of such great events, but all the incidents seemed brought together as in a diorama. There was a calm peacefulness in the look of these shores on the west, with the paths by the water’s edge, which made them the fitting theatre for the delivery of the message of peace and reconciliation.”
Fishermen make ready converts.—It is a singular fact that the fisher caste have been in every country in India the earliest converts to the Roman Catholic Church, so much so as to render it worthy of inquiry, whether it be only a coincidence, or the result of some permanent and predisposing cause. Is it that there is an habitual tendency to veneration of the Supreme Being in “those who go down to the sea in ships, and see His power in the great deep”? Or is it that, being a low caste themselves, the fishers of India and Ceylon acquire a higher status by espousing Christianity? Or have they some sympathy with a religion whose first apostles and teachers were the fishermen of Galilee?—Sir J. E. Tennant.
The casting-net is a fine web of strong material, generally beautiful in every workmanlike respect. When open, it is either circular or more or less conical. Its rim carries leaden weights, to sink it to the bottom when thrown. It is often used from boats, and that even when a seine is used at the same time; but still oftener from the rocky shore. The fisherman runs along the rocks with his net on his arm, drawn up into a rope-like bundle, and wound about above his wrist. His motions are very stealthy as he nears the place to throw; his net is taken into his hand, with the slack so disposed as to work just as he wants it; sometimes using one hand, sometimes two hands, for the throw. As he comes to the spot, instantly the net flies off, expanding from a lean, wet swab to a circle, and thus goes down upon and into the water, with little splash; perhaps close by, perhaps thirty feet away. Scarcely has the net touched the water before the thrower is in after it; for if he was not already naked his garment is off in a twinkling. He dives down, gathers up the net by its edge, and then comes back, to take out the fish and wrap them up in the bosom of his garment.—Prof. I. H. Hall.
Mark 1:17. Ministers are fishers.—A busy profession, a toilsome calling, no idle man’s occupation, as the vulgar conceive it, nor needless trade, taken up at last to pick a living out of. Let God’s fishermen busy themselves as they must, sometimes in preparing, sometimes in mending, sometimes in casting abroad, sometimes in drawing in the net, that they may “separate the precious from the vile,” etc. (Jeremiah 15:19; Matthew 13:48); and no man shall have just cause to twit them with idleness, or to say they have an easy life.—John Trapp.
The minister as a fisherman must fit himself for his employment.—If some fish will bite only by day, he must fish by day; if others will bite only by moonlight, he must fish for them by moonlight.—Richard Cecil.
Fishers of men.—I have known a congregation so full of kindly Christian workers that in the low neighbourhood in which they worked they got the nickname of “Grippers.” Some, hearing the name, thought it must be a new sect, but it only marked the old apostolic quality. All Christians ought to pray for this power of catching souls. It is not violence, loudness, or terror that gives it; but love, goodness, the clear and strong convictions that come from following Christ.—R. Glover.
Christ’s power to shape men.—In a rough stone, a cunning lapidary will easily foresee what his cutting, and his polishing, and his art will bring that stone to. A cunning statuary discerns in a marble stone under his feet, where there will arise an eye, and an ear, and a hand, and other lineaments to make it a perfect statue. Much more did our Saviour Christ, who was Himself the author of that disposition in them, foresee in these fishermen an inclinableness to become useful in that great service of His Church. Therefore He took them from their own ship, but He sent them from His Cross; He took them weatherbeaten with north and south winds, and rough-cast with foam and mud; but He sent them back soupled, and smoothed, and levigated, quickened, and inanimated with that spirit which He had breathed into them; He took fishermen, and He sent fishers of men.—J. Donne, D. D.
Mark 1:18. Following Christ at cost to self.—In 1695 Madame Guyon was imprisoned in the Castle of Vincennes, on her refusal to abandon her religious convictions, and cease to preach Christ to her friends. To her brother, who besought her to throw off her religion, she wrote, “If your house, my dear brother, had been made of precious stones, and if I could have been treated and honoured in it as a queen, yet I should have forsaken all to follow after God.” It is said of Nebridius that he left his native country, where he lived in great luxury, forsook friends and kindred, to go into a foreign city to live, in the most ardent search after truth and wisdom. He forsook all to become a disciple of wisdom. So must we make everything else of a secondary nature, and give Christ the firstfruits of our hands, hearts, hopes.