CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES
Mark 6:1. His own country.—Native place, or town: Nazareth, the home of His youth. Rejected at an earlier stage in His ministry (Luke 4:14-30), He now returns in the character of a Rabbi followed by disciples, and makes one more attempt to gain an attentive and intelligent hearing.
Mark 6:3. They were offended.—Scandalised, a graphic word. Christ was to them like a scandal, i.e. a “trap-spring,” or “baited stick in a trap.” Their familiarity with His earthly antecedents blinded them to His Divine character, and hindered them from rejoicing in the liberty of the children of God, which He came to proclaim and to bestow on all who would receive Him.
Mark 6:5. He could there do no mighty work.—The door was barred by their unbelief and moral insensibility, for God never forces an entrance, but always respects man’s free-will.
Mark 6:6. He marvelled.—For besides being “Perfect God,” He is also “Perfect Man, of a reasonable soul and human flesh subsisting” (Athanasian Symbol).
Mark 6:7. By two and two.—A detail peculiar to Mark, who in his list of names does not group the apostles in pairs as the other Synoptists do—an undesigned coincidence worthy of notice.
Mark 6:11. Verily … that city.—Omit this sentence, probably imported from Matthew 10:15.
Mark 6:13. Anointed with oil.—This unction was clearly sacramental—“an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace given.” It was both the symbol and the vehicle of blessings for body and soul. See James 5:14.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Mark 6:1-13
(PARALLELS: Matthew 13:54-58; Matthew 9:35-38; Matthew 10:5-42; Luke 9:1-6.)
The Master rejected: the servants sent forth.—An easy day’s journey would carry Jesus and His followers from Capernaum to Nazareth. What took our Lord back there? Mark seems to wish us to observe the connexion between this visit and the great group of miracles just recorded; and possibly the link may be Christ’s hope that the report of these might have preceded Him and prepared His way. In His patient longsuffering He will give His fellow-villagers another chance. His heart yearns for “His own country,” and “His own kin,” and “His own house.”
I. We have here unbelief born of familiarity, and its effects on Christ—
1. They own Christ’s wisdom in His teaching, and the reality of His miracles; but the fact that He was one of themselves made them angry that He should have such gifts, and suspicious of where He had got them.
(1) We note in their questions, first, the glimpse of Christ’s early life. They bring before us the quiet, undistinguished home and the long years of monotonous labour.
(2) These questions bring out strongly what we too often forget in estimating Christ’s contemporaries, viz. that His presence among them, in the simplicity of His human life, was a positive hindrance to their seeing His true character.
(3) The facts on which the Nazarenes grounded their unbelief are really irrefragable proofs of Christ’s Divinity. His character and work, compared with the circumstances of His origin and environment, are an insoluble riddle, except on the supposition that He was the Word and Power of God.
2. The effects of this unbelief on Christ.
(1) It limited His power. The atmosphere of chill unbelief froze the stream. He “would have gathered,” but “ye would not,” and therefore He “could not.”
(2) He marvelled. All sin is a wonder to eyes that see into the realities of things and read the end; for it is all utterly unreasonable (though it is, alas! not unaccountable) and suicidal. To one who lives ever in the Father’s bosom, what can seem so strange as that men should prefer homeless exposedness and dreary loneliness?
II. The new instrument which Christ fashions to cope with unbelief.—What does Jesus do when thus wounded in the house of His friends? Give way to despondency? No; but meekly betakes Himself to yet obscurer fields of service, and sends out the twelve to prepare His way.
1. The gift of power. Christ gives before He commands, and sends no man into the field without filling his basket with seed-corn.
2. Their equipment. The minimum of outward provision is likeliest to call out the maximum of faith.
3. The disposition of the messengers. It is not to be self-indulgent. If ever a herald of Christ falls under suspicion of caring more about life’s comforts than about his work, goodbye to his usefulness.
4. The messengers’ demeanour to rejecters. Shaking the dust off the sandal is an emblem of solemn renunciation of participation, and perhaps of disclaimer of responsibility.—A. Maclaren, D.D.
Mark 6:3, a. Does labour block the way to manhood?—I. “Is not this mighty worker and wise teacher a carpenter?” Well! and what then? Skill in handling the plane and driving the saw does not expel wisdom from the speech, love from the heart, and beauty from the life. The artisan may be the conqueror of himself and of his circumstances, a man of clear vision, high and enduring motive, and chivalrous philanthropy, as the sun may warm and fertilise the earth with one set of rays, and paint the “human face Divine” with another. It is undeniable that the Nazareth artisan is the true King of the ages and the rightful Lord of the souls of men.
II. But apart from the obvious and proved compatibility of even menial and monotonous toil with kindly feeling, generous impulse, strict integrity, and large usefulness, these disaffected Nazarenes might have dispelled their passion-fed prejudice by simply recalling the leading names of their typical history. “In the beginning” God had set the stamp of His approval on human labour, and all along had chosen as the chief toilers for the higher and spiritual welfare of Israel and the world those who were devoted to useful handicrafts or pastoral pursuits.
III. But it would be unfair to treat this jaundiced jeer, the outburst of the lowest and rudest thought of Galilee, as though it expressed the prevalent Jewish idea of labour. Far from it. Handicrafts were specially honoured amongst the Jews, and the occupants of the highest posts of learning and tuition were most familiar with the lower forms of human toil. The teacher of that Rabbi Hillel who died only a few years before the birth of Christ was in the habit of saying, “Love labour.” Another Rabbi said, “Great is labour, for she honours the Master.” A third, “When a man teaches his son no trade, it is as if he taught him highway robbery.” And we owe to the family of the far-famed Gamaliel the penetrating saying, “Beautiful is the union of the study of the law with some honest calling, for by the diligent pursuit of both a man is weaned from sin, but all study unaccompanied by work ends in vanity and draws sin in its train.”
IV. Now the strange and inexplicable thing is that this insane prejudice against handicrafts requiring hard muscular work as blocking the way to the higher grades of goodness exists and operates amongst us in this year with a force it never had in Palestine, and produces mischiefs that are positively incalculable. Only lately it was seriously contended that men in the East End of London with a scant cupboard and a life of forced daily toil could not be expected to be Christians, and echoes follow echoes which report nothing but the deeply rooted falsehood that so long as men have to toil to live they cannot live to and for and in God. I do not deny the heart-ache of many a labouring life, the fierce struggle to exist continued in many a home, the unbroken dulness, the leaden monotony, killing aspiration and deadening faith, the brutalising conditions often associated with toil. I know the workshop is infested with corruption, the atmosphere charged with falseness and impurity, and that often the work itself is hard and rough and ill-paid. I admit the worse, but I cannot close my eyes to the evidence of facts, and I dare not be false to God’s revelation of the sublime conquests possible to every man in and through Christ over the dullest circumstance or the most violently antagonistic lot. I am sure that labour is in the main wholesome and helpful, a defence from myriad temptations, a goad to usefulness, a contribution to the progress of the world, and perfectly compatible with the manliest life.
V. We might learn this from the long and thrilling history of toil at the back of us, for we have had apostles of labour like the brave Hollanders, who built their own country out of the sands of the sea, and created themselves into the manliest of men, and the most compact and independent of states by the act; martyrs to trade like Palissy the Potter; confessors and reformers like Richard Cobden, the manufacturer of calicoes; model men of business like the bookseller, Daniel Macmillan, and the “commercial” George Moore; and myriads more amongst the labouring poor, some of whom, I rejoice to say, I have intimately known and warmly loved, who, though they never gained any “social standing,” “wrought righteousness, subdued the kingdoms” of self and of home, “stopped the mouths of the lions” of vice and impurity, “quenched the power of the fires” of intemperance, “from weakness were made strong, waxed mighty in power” against domestic and social evils, and helped in turning to flight armies of aliens. Besides, does not everybody think Goethe is right when he says “an idle life is an anticipated death”? And must we not in our best moments admit that in spite of many drawbacks we owe lasting thanks to God for putting us where work is a necessity and a vocation the condition not only of a prolonged existence, but of a prolonged happiness? Labour is a benediction from God. Delitzsch, writing on Jewish Artisan Life, says: “All work worthy of the name is Godlike, for the world is one great whole in which everything acts and reacts. Each separate thing is but a stepping-stone to some higher end, and all things work out together the grand purpose of the whole.”
VI. But it is in the fullest life ever lived—a life unequalled in its sweet dignity and attractive familiarity, tender strength and daring meekness—a life from which moral grandeur never departs—it is from it we get the strongest witness that “labour” does not block the way to manhood. That life is set deep in the forests of human toil. The pattern character is in the pattern condition, to use it, to redeem it, to glorify it, to adjust it to Himself, to exhibit the spirit in which a man may convert his surroundings into a set of “angels on the way of life,” ministers inspiring and educating him, forces enabling him to partake more largely of the Divine nature.
VII. So far as we know Christ left the bench of the carpenter for the post of teacher and reformer. His work was His college. “He learnt obedience by the things He did and suffered,” and acquired fitness for His ministry of brief but measureless energy, tender pathos, broad sympathies, and heroic self-sacrifice. The lowliest tasks well done are the best preparations for helpful ministries to the world. “Labour” is not only not a block to manhood, but it is the best drill for some of its finest services.
1. Read, I beseech you, the handwriting of God on your daily toil. “In all your ways acknowledge God, and He will direct you in your goings” for a subsistence.
2. Breathe into your work the spirit of beneficence. Do not stop your vision at its details, but range in thought over its large issues; and as Daniel Macmillan, when a bookseller’s clerk, found solace from the conviction that he was aiding in the fight against ignorance and falsehood, and thus promoting the welfare of the world, so take care you never lose sight of the really helpful results of even the smallest honest and true work.
3. Be thorough in to-day’s work. Do the thing well that is near you. Carlyle, after he met Arnold at Rugby, said of this model teacher, “He is a hero—a man who knows his work and does it.”
4. Give a definite place to, and find special time and spheres for, the cultivation of your spiritual nature. Receive into your nature the power of Christ, and He will make the work of the bench a discipline for the consolation of the weary, the guidance of the perplexed, the assistance of the needy, and the helping of the world.
VIII. And is it from this religion founded by an artisan, born in poverty, whose apostles were fishermen and tax-gatherers, whom the “common people heard gladly”—is it from it and Him the toiling millions are turning away in indifference or despair? Do you blame the architect for the blunders of the builder? Will you censure the directors for the unknown intemperance of the “guard” that wrecks a train? Nor ought we to blame Christ Jesus for the faults of the Churches. It is not from Him you hear the cry that the weakest must be driven to the wall, the “fittest only must survive.” It is not from Christ you hear approval of the tyranny of capital over labour or of the selfishness of masters in their dealings with men. He bids masters and servants alike be fair and just, and commands a mutual recognition of brotherhood in the kingdoms of toil, and breathes into men the spirit that ameliorates the lot of the wretched, and prepares the way for the widest and most enduring prosperity.
IX. Above all, beware of the strong illusion which resides in the commonplace. Familiarity with Jesus as the Son of Mary and brother of Joses, as playmate and fellow-workmen, closed the eyes of the Nazarenes to the spiritual meaning of His life, and barred their hearts to the entrance of His saving power. A similar danger is before us. Goaded by Strauss and others, men like Robertson of Brighton have compelled us to sit with fixed and profitable gaze on the MAN Christ Jesus. The pulpits and the literature of the Church are full of the blessed reality of Christ’s humanness. Never was He more fully the Brother of men since He left the slopes of Olivet. But let us take “large views.” GOD WAS IN CHRIST, transfiguring menial toil by faithfulness, obedience, and worship; educing from smallest seeds large harvests, and from lowliest deeds grandest issues; reconciling all things in our world to Himself, and to us, by reconciling us to Himself; adjusting all human relations, revealing the brotherhood of all men, penetrating our social life with the spirit of thoroughness and unselfishness, and so making possible a world in which every man does a full man’s work with a clear spiritual aim, and so helps to establish a kingdom of righteousness and truth upon the earth.—J. Clifford, D.D.
Mark 6:3, b. Offended in Him.—
I. The astonishment of prejudice aroused.—
1. The prejudice of calling.
2. The prejudice of birth.
3. The prejudice of relationship.
4. The prejudice of familiarity.
II. The astonishment culminating in bitter jealousy and dislike.—Why should one occupying such a humble position and surroundings claim any pre-eminence over them? They could not deny. the majesty of the life, the greatness of the deed, and the sublimity of the utterance; yet the ever-recurring question was, “Is not this the carpenter?”
III. The protest which their astonishment and unbelief called forth (Mark 6:4).—This was an old proverb with a new application.
IV. The evil wrought by this blind prejudice in limiting the possibilities of Christ’s ministry among them.—Human receptivity is one of the essential conditions of Divine working among men.
V. The painful surprise awakened in Christ by their astonishment and unbelief.
VI. The good accomplished in spite of prejudice and unbelief.—
1. Healing a few sick folk. Poor sufferers were not shut out of His great sympathy, nor placed beyond the reach of His tender healing, by the unbelief of their neighbours.
2. Teaching in the villages. All that prejudice could do was to exclude its owners from the sphere of Divine operations.—D. Davies.
Mark 6:11. Punishments proportionable to sins.—In these words Christ doth not wholly excuse those wicked Gentiles; but neither doth He charge them with so great a degree of guilt as He doth the unbelieving Jews. The Gentiles’ gross ignorance of their duty might in some measure have been avoided by them, and was therefore justly to be imputed to them; but they had not the same opportunities and advantages of improving their knowledge, they had not the same means of conviction, they had not the same motives to reformation and amendment of life, as those men unto whom the gospel had been preached; and therefore, upon this account, our Lord is graciously pleased to make them as it were some sort of allowance and abatement. They are here represented not indeed as entirely blameless, but still as less blamable than others: they are not exempted from those sufferings that were due unto their sins; but these sufferings, we are told, shall be less severe than those which will be inflicted upon greater sinners.
I. In the next world some sinners will be more severely punished than others.—
1. Though this doctrine had not been expressly revealed to us in the Word of God, yet our own reason alone would have inclined us to have believed it; for the same arguments that are brought to prove that any punishments shall hereafter be inflicted upon any sinners, may also be urged to shew that some sinners shall have a greater share in those punishments than others: the same vindictive justice of God which inclines Him to punish the sins of the impenitent disposes Him likewise to observe some proportion in His punishments, and to allot the greatest degrees of misery to the greatest degrees of guilt. And even if the justice of God were not so clearly interested in this matter, yet these future punishments do themselves suggest to us this doctrine; and from the nature of them we may very reasonably infer their inequality. One great part of the punishment of hell consists in the remorse of conscience arising from the sense of guilt; and therefore, where the greatest guilt is, there must be the greatest remorse, that is the greatest punishment, from the sense of it. Another argument to prove the inequality of future torments may be this—namely, that envy, malice, and other vices are not only by the order of God attended with punishments, but in the nature of the thing necessarily create torment; and therefore, where these are in the most eminent degree, they must necessarily create the greatest torment.
2. This truth will appear still more evident if we consider the declarations God has been pleased to make concerning it in His Word. In the Levitical law God commands the magistrate to give the offender a certain number of stripes, according to his fault; and our Saviour hath taught us that He will observe the same method in the distribution and execution of His future punishments (Luke 5:37-38).
II. What those sins are which will expose men to the greatest suffering.—
1. These are, first, such sins as are in their kind most heinous—such as blasphemy, hypocrisy, murder, bloody persecution of God’s saints, unnatural lusts, and the like. These sins are, in the kind of them, so open and so provoking an affront to the great God of heaven and earth, and are besides so shocking to human nature. and to the first conceptions we are used to form of the distinction between good and evil, that a man must have perfectly rooted out of his mind all awe of God, all sense of religion, all regard to goodness, before he can harbour or encourage the least thoughts of them.
2. Those sins also will be most severely punished which are committed against the greatest light. The sins of Christians, of reformed Christians, of those of the best reformed Church, the sins of such who attend continually upon the ordinances of God, and come constantly to be partakers of the Supper of the Lord—such men as these have no pretence for their iniquity, no colour or excuse for their sins.
3. Those men also have just reason to dread the severest judgments of God who allow themselves in such sins as shew the greatest depravity of will—habitual, deliberate, presumptuous sins—sins which they take pleasure in, and love to see practised by others.—Bishop Smalridge.
OUTLINES AND COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Mark 6:1. Meaning of the word “disciple.”—
I. The school.—
1. They are in the kingdom of God (John 3:5).
2. At the feet of Jesus (Luke 10:39; Deuteronomy 33:3).
3. The law brings us to Christ (Galatians 3:24).
4. To be in school is to be “in Christ” (Ephesians 4:21).
5. It is in the school that the instruction, training, and discipline take place.
6. “Come unto Me” precedes “Learn of Me” (Matthew 11:28-29).
II. The lesson.—
1. The truth to be understood (John 16:13-15).
2. The Person to be appropriated (Ephesians 4:20; Hebrews 3:14; 2 Peter 1:4).
3. The example to be followed (1 Peter 2:21; Philippians 2:5; Matthew 11:29; John 13:12-17; Luke 14:27).
III. The Teacher.—The Lord Himself (John 6:45).
1. His wisdom (Colossians 2:3).
2. His power (1 Corinthians 1:24).
3. His skill (Psalms 78:72; Psalms 32:8).
4. He can teach the heart (Hebrews 8:10; Hebrews 10:16).
5. He teaches us to profit Isaiah 48:17).
6. What He requires of those whom He teaches (Job 22:22; Psalms 25:9; Jeremiah 33:3; John 21:22).—E. Hopkins.
Mark 6:2. Christian doctrine.—
1. Christian doctrine applicable to all classes of men.
2. Christian doctrine calculated to excite the profoundest surprise.
3. Christian doctrine always conveying the impression of unique power.
4. Christian doctrine shewing the insignificance of the personality of its teachers. Even Christ Himself, according to the flesh, seemed poor and inadequate when viewed in the light of the wondrous revelations which He made to the world.—J. Parker, D.D.
Individuality of spirit, claim, manner, always provokes criticism. The glory of the highest revelation of Christianity is, that personality is superseded by spirituality. The speaker is to be forgotten in the speech. When both personality and doctrine are to be considered, the danger is that the former may be made to assume undue prominence. Instead of inquiring What is said? the inquiry will be Who said it? Personality is a mere question of detail in comparison with the truths which nourish and save the soul.—Ibid.
Lessons.—
1. Men may acknowledge and wonder at the spiritual gifts and graces which they see to be in others, and yet themselves have never the more grace, but be utterly void of all sanctifying and saving gifts of the spirit.
2. It is the property of carnal men to tie the gifts and graces of God’s Spirit unto outward helps and means, as if the Lord could not bestow such gifts, or work such graces by His Spirit, without such outward helps.
3. So long as any remain hardened in their natural blindness and infidelity, no means will prevail to work faith or repentance in them, and to bring them to God, though the means used be in themselves never so powerful and excellent.—G. Petter.
Unbelief.—In our modern cant phraseology theirs might have been designated agnosticism and philosophic doubt. But philosophic it certainly was not, any more than much that now passes, because it bears that name; at least, if according to modern negative criticism, the inexplicable is also the unthinkable. Nor was it really doubt or agnosticism, any more than much that now covers itself with that garb. It was what Christ designated it—unbelief, since the questions would have been easily answered—indeed, never have arisen—had they believed that He was the Christ. And the same alternative still holds true. If “this One” is what negative criticism declares Him, which is all that it can know of Him by the outside—the Son of Mary, the Carpenter and Son of the carpenter of Nazareth, whose family occupied the humblest position among Galileans—then whence this wisdom which, say of it what you will, underlies all modern thinking, and these mighty works, which have moulded all modern history?—A. Edersheim, D.D.
Mark 6:3. “Is not this the carpenter?”—Certainly; yet that refutes nothing. It only helps to prove the claims of Jesus to be the Son of God. If He had been a learned rabbi or philosopher, it might have been said He had received His wisdom from men; but as He was only a poor village carpenter, He must have been taught of God.
1. This tells us how wisely Jesus spent His youth and early manhood—not in idleness, but in useful toil.
2. It teaches us that there is no disgrace in working at a trade. Marks of toil are brighter insignia of honour than jewelled rings and delicate whiteness.
3. It shows also the condescension of Christ. Though rich, He became poor, and even toiled for His daily bread. It assures us, therefore, of His sympathy now with those who toil. It is a pleasant thought that the hands that now hold the sceptre once wielded the hammer and the saw.—J. R. Miller, D.D.
The history of Nazareth has been repeated on a large scale in the history of Israel.—Israel, as a whole, also made the nearness of Jesus, His “not being afar off,” an occasion of unbelief and fall. This temptation, resulting from the constant beholding of the Holy One with common eyes, was pointed to in Deuteronomy 30:14 (cp. Romans 10:8). It is the temptation which besets the intimates and fellow-citizens of chosen spirits and great geniuses; which besets theologians in the daily study and service of the truths of revelation, ministers in their commerce with the ordinances of grace, and all the lesser officers of the house of God in their habitual contact with the externals of Divine things. It is the temptation also of ancient towns and Churches, which have enjoyed exalted privileges, and indeed of the whole Church itself (Luke 18:8).—J. P. Lange, D.D.
The offence of the Nazarenes on account of Christ’s humble origin a picture of all other offences in Him.
1. An offence—
(1) In His terrestrial state and existence.
(2) In His human lowliness.
(3) In His brothers and sisters with their human weakness.
2. Yet an offence which will leave us self-condemned, since it implies an admission of His wisdom and of His deeds.
3. A most fatal offence, since unbelief deprives us of the blessings of Christ’s wondrous works.—Ibid.
Lessons.—
1. This should teach us to be well content to be abased in this world for Christ’s sake, seeing He, for our sakes, and to do us good, refused not to take upon Him so mean and low a condition.
2. It should move us to shew all humility towards our brethren in and for Christ’s sake.
3. It should restrain in us all ambitions and covetous desires of worldly greatness, honour, wealth, etc.—G. Petter.
The message more than the messenger.—If a message be sent to us from some great person, we look not so much at the person that brings it as at the message itself. So when ministers preach the Word of God to us, we must not so much have an eye to the outward quality of the persons that preach as to the doctrine itself which they deliver, the excellency and Divine authority whereof must move us to embrace and yield obedience to it.—Ibid.
Mark 6:4-6. How Christ victoriously contends with the unbelief of prejudice among His own countrymen.—
1. Prejudice everywhere opposes Him.
(1) In an impure and a gross apprehension of His dignity, as of a magical secret doctrine and art.
(2) In the reckoning up of all His earthly relationships, in order to urge them to the disparagement of His heavenly dignity.
(3) In a slavish community of envious and low judgment upon His life.
2. How the Lord lays hold of and overcomes this prejudice.
(1) He refers it all to a universal fact, which they might afterwards reflect upon.
(2) He does not forget, but heals, the few who needed and were susceptible of help among His scorners.
(3) He gathers up His influences, and withdraws.
(4) He causes the light of His presence to shine brightly throughout the whole district.—J. P. Lange, D.D.
Mark 6:4. Lessons.—
1. Good and faithful ministers of God are usually most subject to contempt and dishonour in the places where they are most familiarly known.
(1) Envy and emulation cause men often to repine at the honour and preferment of such as are and have been familiarly known to them, and perhaps also have been heretofore their inferiors or equals.
(2) Where ministers daily live and converse, they cannot but through human frailty discover some infirmities; and so their infirmities being most known in such places, hence it is that they are the more apt there to be despised.
(3) The daily presence and commonness of a benefit are apt to breathe a contempt and loathing of it.
2. Honour and good respect are due unto God’s faithful ministers wherever they live.
(1) They are spiritual fathers (1 Corinthians 4:15); therefore to be honoured.
(2) They are God’s messengers and ambassadors (2 Corinthians 5:20); therefore to be respected for the Lord’s sake who sends them.
(3) This wins reverence and authority to their ministry, causing it to be the more regarded, and become more profitable and effectual.—G. Petter.
Mark 6:5. The right atmosphere is wanting.—Fire cannot burn in a vacuum. His hands, indeed, were laid upon a few sick folk, and He healed them; but the mightier work of healing diseased minds and troubled hearts could not there be accomplished—that required stronger faith.
Mark 6:6. Jesus wonders at that at which He would have us wonder; and He takes notice of our faults, to the end that we may reflect upon ourselves. How much more strange and surprising are our own infidelity or unsuitable returns, after the instruction and miracles of so many ages!—P. Quesnel.
Nature, causes, and effects of unbelief.—
I. The nature of unbelief.—
1. Practical disregard of God’s Word and Commandments is really infidelity.
2. Afraid to receive the promises of God.
3. Fearing to take comfort from the Word of God.
II. The causes of unbelief.—
1. Voluntary ignorance (Romans 1:19-21).
2. Wilful resistance of conscience (2 Thessalonians 2:10-12).
3. A deliberate preference for sins (John 3:19).
III. The effects of unbelief.—
1. It rejects Christ, the Lord of Glory, and therefore deserves eternal punishment.
2. It leads the sinner further and further away from God.—H. M. Villiers.
The unbelief which comes between us and Christ is that state of heart and feeling which dislikes the strain and trouble of thinking of things out of this present world; which looks away from what is out of sight and to come, and is moved and impressed only by what is just before it—immediate interests, immediate pleasures, common customs. It is the unbelief of carelessness, deadness of soul, lazy, selfish indifference; which cannot understand how any one can be in earnest, so as to take pains and suffer trouble for the sake of things unseen; which cannot bring itself to think that God is in earnest and the work of serving and pleasing Him a real thing. It is the unbelief which comes of wishing to save ourselves trouble, of not thinking it worth while to force ourselves to attend, to think, to remember, to lay to heart. This is the unbelief which comes between us and the power of Christ to improve us, to strengthen us, to comfort us. What we will not have done for us that He cannot do.—Dean Church.
Mark 6:7-11. The sending forth of the twelve apostles, formally commissioned to preach the gospel of the kingdom of heaven, reminds us of that noble and wonderful stream which Ezekiel saw in vision proceeding from under the threshold of the Temple, at first but a small rivulet not more than ankle-deep, but which, as it went on its way, increased to a stream knee-deep, then up to the thighs, and afterward to a great river for a man to swim in, and carrying healing in its blessed waters whithersoever it flowed. Jesus is the True Temple of God, and in Him this stream of life rises, and through His apostles and disciples it flowed forth, at first a very small stream, but it has gone on widening and deepening until its waters have filled the whole earth, and whithersoever it has flowed it has carried life and healing (Ezekiel 47:1-9; Revelation 22:1-7; John 7:37-39). To-day it is the mightiest moral force in the world, and there are none to sneer at it except fools and knaves (though many still oppose its onward flow), while millions all over the world and among all peoples live to bless God for His love and for His unspeakable gift in Christ Jesus.—G. F. Pentecost, D.D.
A beginning only.—Mark significantly says, “Then Jesus began to send them forth”: for ever since that day He has been giving similar work, and qualifying similar representatives.
1. To go forth from the presence of Jesus.
2. To be willing to work together.
3. To be content with the use of moral influence. Men are to be urged, not forced.
4. To exercise self-denial and cheerful trust in God.—A. Rowland.
Mark 6:7. Two and two is a wise rule for all Christian workers. It checks individual peculiarities and self-will, helps to keep off faults, wholesomely stimulates, strengthens faith by giving another to hear it and to speak it, brings companionship, and admits of division of labour. One and one are morethan twiceone.—A. Maclaren, D.D.
Jesus sends out His disciples by twos.—In the line of this need, and for its supply, woman, with her blessed ministries, is granted as a help-meet to man. He is made stronger and enters a larger and better life by her pure companionship. And this, too, outside of the sacred relation of husband and wife. They need each other’s mutual help, and are uplifted in the relation simply of man and woman. They complement and help each other to attain and enjoy higher good. In all this man’s need of going out of himself and the healthfulness of the mutual impact of true natures are recognised.—W. M. Campbell.
Christian friendship.—
I. The power of Christian friendship.—
1. Sympathy: its immense help in enabling one to meet the difficulties, bear the trials, and do the work of Christian life.
2. Counsel: the advice of a wise friend, how valuable when in perplexity!
3. Love: its stimulating power.
II. The beauty of Christian friendship.—
1. Its unselfishness, eachstriving to help and make sacrifices for the other.
2. The common pursuit of noble aims, the common interest of Christian life.
3. The exchange of helpful thoughts on great subjects, the intercourse of minds enlightened by the knowledge of Christ.
III. The responsibility of Christian friendship.—Like all blessings, it has its dangers. It can be misused—
1. By weakly yielding to please a friend, instead of using the privilege of friendship to try to put him right.
2. By flattering a friend’s weakness, instead of pointing out and helping him to eradicate his faults.
3. By that absorption in one another which becomes a hindrance to the real work of life.—A. G. Mortimer, D.D.
Mark 6:8. God’s messengers.—
1. Such as are called of God to performance of great and weighty duties must free themselves from such impediments as will hinder them in those duties.
2. The best Christians may sometimes be called to a mean and poor estate, in which they may be destitute of necessaries for maintenance of this life.
(1) That God’s special providence and fatherly care may more appear in providing for them when outward means fail them.
(2) To try and exercise their faith in depending on His fatherly providence in their wants.
(3) To wean their hearts from love of earthly things, and to stir up in them the greater love and desire of spiritual and heavenly riches.—G. Petter.
Maintenance for ministers.—
1. It is not fit for ministers of the Word to be cumbered and troubled with the affairs of this life.
2. It is the ordinance of God that ministers should receive a sufficient maintenance from the people whom they are called to teach.—Ibid.
Mark 6:11. Lessons.—When we see God dishonoured by great and heinous sins, we ought to testify our utter dislike and detestation of them, some way or other.
(1) By an outward gesture and carriage (Acts 13:51; Acts 18:6; Nehemiah 5:13; 2 Kings 19:1).
(2) By our words, plainly and sharply reproving such sins, and denouncing God’s judgments against them (Ephesians 5:11).
2. The contempt of God’s ministers, especially of their ministry and doctrine, is an execrable and odious sin in the sight of God.
3. The sins of wicked men pollute the very ground on which they tread.—Ibid.
Severity or patience?—The whole conditions of work now are different. Sometimes, perhaps, a Christian is warranted in solemnly declaring to those who receive not his message that he will have no more to say to them. That may do more than all his other words. But such cases are rare; and the rule that is safest to follow is rather that of love, which despairs of none, and, though often repelled, returns with pleading, and, if it have told often in vain, now tells with tears, the story of the love that never abandons the most obstinate.—A. Maclaren, D.D.
Mark 6:12. True repentance.—
1. Its nature.
(1) It is represented in Scripture both as the gift of God and as the duty of the sinner.
(2) It is inseparably connected with faith in Christ. It includes—(a) A genuine sorrow for sin. (b) An unreserved and ingenious confession of sin. (c) A firm purpose, through Divine grace, to walk in newness of life—a purpose that is proved to be sincere by the fruits it produces.
2. Its indispensable necessity. This is proved by—
(1) The universality of sin.
(2) The express command of God, and the awful threatenings He has denounced against the finally impenitent.
3. Motives and encouragements to the performance of this duty.
(1) The very call and command to repent may afford encouragement to returning sinners.
(2) The Word of God is full of the most encouraging and express promises to penitent sinners.
(3) The examples recorded in Scripture of sinners who obtained mercy, notwithstanding the peculiar greatness of their guilt.
(4) The unspeakable happiness which awaits the true penitent in a future and eternal world.—D. Black.
Mark 6:13. Miracles.—It was not magic that conquered disease and death. We must not assume that, because powers are beyond our own knowledge and control, they are therefore lawless and irregular. Order is heaven’s first law. Jesus violates no principle in restoring the dead to life, but works according to some higher, unknown, and more heavenly principle. It is the kingdom of heaven overcoming the kingdom of darkness. The apostles, after Christ’s ascension, preached One who had all power in heaven and on earth, who had come to deliver men from the plagues and adversaries tormenting them.
Power in common things.—There is a potency in the commonest things. God has ordered it so. He certainly will not ignore His own arrangement. Every cure wrought without the aid of magical art or imposition and quackery, wrought with the aid of remedies provided in the earth and air, wrought wisely, honestly, scientifically, is a new proof that One who in other times healed the bodies and souls of men is still at work, that He still gives knowledge and insight to those who seek it, enables them to look into the condition of their fellow-men, and to be the ministers to them of His own blessed, healing, life-giving power.
The healing art the gift of God.—We may claim all true powers of the healing art and all honest studies in physical science as the gifts of God, ever intended to be the instruments of extending and proclaiming the Redeemer’s kingdom over the earth.
Credentials of authority.—Throughout all the centuries Christians have been following in the footsteps of Christ in their ministry to the sick, the diseased, the devil-ridden, and the dying: thousands of hospitals for every manner of disease and affliction; nurses everywhere to care for the suffering; the white cross on the battle-fields; remorseless warfare against every form of evil, and successful warfare too. A Christlike life, sympathy, active and tender, with the suffering poor under all conditions, are the credentials of authority which Christ gives to us all now.—G. F. Pentecost, D.D.
The duties of a pastor.—Here is an emblem of the several duties of a pastor—namely, courageously to prosecute incorrigible sinners, to treat the weak with mildness, and to apply himself to all with zeal.—P. Quesnel.
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 6
Mark 6:3-4. Ignorant prejudices.—The same blindness and folly appears on a smaller scale in our own day. Some years ago Professor Wilson wrote that “as the northern Highlanders do not admire Waverley, so, I presume, the south Highlanders despise Guy Mannering. The Westmoreland peasants think Wordsworth a fool. In Borrowdale Southey is not known to exist. I met ten men in Hawick who do not think Hogg a poet, and the whole city of Glasgow think me a madman.”
Mark 6:7. The Divine call.—The apostles are the Lord’s “sent ones,” models of Christ’s servants who do His bidding in all the ages. Still, the supreme need of all who engage in Christian work is a sense of the Divine call. We may, therefore, ask how such calls are likely to come to us in these our times. They often come in providential circumstances, which bring altogether unsought work into a man’s hands. In one of his letters Dr. Norman McLeod wrote in this way: “I have tried, at least for the last twenty-five years, to accept of whatever work is offered to me in God’s providence. I have, rightly or wrongly, always believed that a man’s work is given to him, that it is not so much sought as accepted, that it is floated to one’s feet like the infant Moses to Pharaoh’s daughter.” No man will want work who waits on Divine providence with a full purpose of heart to do what is shewn to be God’s will for him. They come in the consciousness of possessing gifts, and such consciousness often comes suddenly to men. A good man, called to reside in a fresh city, visited a Sunday school, and was asked to take charge of the infant class in the absence of the usual teacher. As he had the little folk before him, the thought came to him and possessed him, “Here is your life-work. This is what you have to do.” It was an inward impulse by the Spirit. In that work he has won good success. We limit our realisation of Divine calls by limiting our ideas of Christian work. When an army is going forth to war, what a multitude of great and small preparations are necessary! and how much the success of the expedition will depend on careful attention to the minute details! The credit of the triumph won does not belong to the soldier only; it is in part his who made the soldiers’ weapons and the soldiers’ clothes. In the Arctic Expeditions everything depended on the thorough faithfulness of each member in the things that were least. The cabin-boy had his part in the work as truly as the leader. David acted on this view of the claims of all who take any place in an enterprise, however lowly the place may be, when he insisted on having the spoil divided among those who “tarried by the stuff,” as well as among those who “went forth to battle.” We all need to recognise more fully than we have ever done, that the Divine call to work, and the Divine inspiration and grace for workers, come to givers, and collectors, and sympathisers, and those who pray, quite as truly as to those who preach and teach.
Support by companionship.—A father was walking one day in the fields with his two children. The wind was blowing over a fine field of ripe corn, and making the beautiful golden ears wave like the waves of the sea. “Is it not surprising,” said one of the children, “that the wind does not break the slender stalks of the corn?” “My child,” said the father, “see how flexible the stalks are! They bend before the wind, and rise again when the wind has passed over them. See, too, how they help to support each other. A single stalk would be soon bent to the ground, but so many growing close together help to keep each other up. If we keep together when the troubles of life come upon us like a stormy wind, we shall keep each other up, when one trying to stand alone would fall.”
Mark 6:8. Impediments.—Armies most amply furnished with stores and comforts are most inefficient. The Zulu hordes, with but spear and shield, held long at bay the well-provisioned and disciplined troops of England. Baggage is well termed “impedimenta.” It checks by just so much the quickness, and fosters by hardness. The soul heavily freighted with the luxuries and appliances of this life is at a disadvantage for the sudden movements and missions on which the Great Captain would send it.