CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES
Mark 8:17. Hardened.—Dulled. See on chaps. Mark 3:5; Mark 6:52.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Mark 8:13-21
(PARALLEL: Matthew 16:5-12.)
A warning against formality and indifference.—
I. What the caution refers to.—
1. A formal, hypocritical religion.
2. An indifference about all religion. The rich, the gay, the men of learning and philosophy, are too generally of this description.
II. Some reasons for this caution.—
1. Because of our proneness to these evils.
2. Because of their fatal tendency. Do they not work incessantly till they vitiate the whole man—blinding the understanding, perverting the will, sensualising the affections, and causing every part of one’s conduct to savour of ungodliness?
3. Because of their ultimate effect. Eternal happiness and eternal misery are too important to be trifled with.
III. The means whereby it may be rendered effectual for our preservation.—
1. Get your soul deeply impressed with the principles of the gospel.
2. Be careful whom you choose as your associates.
3. Endeavour to realise the thought of the Judgment.—C. Simeon.
OUTLINES AND COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Mark 8:15. Of leaven in the Gospel I find three sorts interpreted to our hands, that we cannot mistake.
1. The Pharisees—of the leaven of superstition, consisting in phylacteries, phrases, and observances, and little else.
2. The Sadducees—of a leaven that smelt strong of profaneness, in their liberty of prophesying, calling in question angels and spirits and the resurrection itself.
3. The leaven of Herod—beware that too; many times it is the bane of true religion, when God’s truth and worship must be moulded up with Jeroboam’s and with Herod’s ends, squared to them, just as it is fittest to do their turns. Let all be abandoned—Pharisees’, Sadducees’, Herod’s—and the truth take their place (1 Thessalonians 2:3-6; 2 Corinthians 11:3; Revelation 22:15).—Bishop Andrewes.
Erroneous doctrine is like leaven—
1. In regard of the commonness.
2. In regard of the quantity—little (1 Corinthians 5:6).
3. In regard of the quality (Matthew 13:29).
4. In regard of its spreading property (Acts 20:30).
5. In regard of its effects—leaven soureth, heateth, swelleth (Matthew 6:16; Colossians 2:21; Acts 7:54; Acts 7:57; Colossians 2:18).—E. Leigh.
Mark 8:16. The disciples’ misconception.—In wondering at the disciples’ curious misconception we ought to remember at least, as serving in a measure to account for it, how accustomed they were to hear our Lord speak in riddles, to have Him address them on many subjects in a mysterious and enigmatical way. Yet need we after all look further for an explanation of what seems to us a remarkable mistake than to the character of their mental preoccupation, when we reflect on the wonderful facility with which the mind discolours and distorts things in the atmosphere of its own broodings, and the illusions it creates in so doing. Only think, for instance, of the irresistible tendency of the self-conscious, self-regarding young gentleman in society to suspect that people are either laughing at or admiring him when there is not the slightest ground for the suspicion, when perhaps not an eye in the room notices him; or of our haste to read in the words and gestures of another a covert allusion to that secret wrongdoing of ours with the memory of which we are burdened, when no such allusion is intended or could be.—N. R. Wood.
Mark 8:21. Why it is that we “do not understand”—whether it be the principles of the Divine government, or the direction of the Divine purpose, or the meaning of the Divine oracles.
1. We do not always care enough to understand, and so will not be at the pains to discover.
2. We are too apt to discover and adopt only what is in sufficient harmony with our own preconceived opinions.
3. We do not use the right helps to enable us to understand; or, having the right helps, we do not use them in the right way. Reflexion, conversation, mingling with those who differ from us, etc.
4. We so seldom go to Scripture as the final tribunal of revealed truth, or place ourselves in the keeping of the Holy Spirit to be our Counsellor and Guide.—Bishop Thorold.