LEVITICAL EDUCATION (CONTINUED)
[p. 451] LEVITICAL EDUCATION (CONTINUED)
What I have particularly in mind is to shew that we must learn everything from Christ. The gospel of Mark would shut out the colleges and seminaries, so far as the service of Christ is concerned. Of Him it was said, “How knoweth this man letters, having never learned?” (John 7:15). The gospel of Mark would shut out human methods entirely, and yet we have the most wonderful education. Education is right; every one must be educated, whether it be to occupy a place in the house of God now, or in heaven later, to know how to behave — what you might call manners, etiquette — for these things we have to learn. As taken up for heaven it will be of all importance that we should know how to be there.
Some of us were looking at a heavenly scene brought down — the mount of transfiguration, as we speak of it. It was on a high mountain, and certain were selected by the Lord for the privilege of seeing it. “There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom”, (Matthew 16:28). It is not simply that they should see the kingdom, as in Luke, but that they should see Him coming in it. They would see how He came, as “the Son of man”, that is to say, the peculiar grace of His movements as He will come in His kingdom. It is not simply the kingdom of God, as in Luke, nor the kingdom ‘in power’, as in Mark, but the coming of the Son of man in His kingdom — indicating His majesty. One’s heart is touched as thinking of Him moving in that relation. Others saw Him go up: “This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven, shall thus come in the manner in which ye have beheld him going into heaven”, (Acts 1:11). They saw Him go up; that is, they would understand what going to heaven means — how it happens. As I said, we [p. 452] have to learn everything from Christ. We might question in our minds as to how we are to go, for we are to go. We shall be ‘caught up’ — but in no uncanny or awkward manner. We shall go up in a seemly way. The “two witnesses” in Revelation 11 went up in the sight of their enemies. The grace of the ascent is seen in Jesus — the same Person whom they saw go into heaven. And He is to come back as He went. He “shall thus come in the manner in which ye have beheld him going into heaven”. The disciples could thus tell how people go to heaven.
So, as I said, the Lord selects three, and takes them from among the others and brings them to the top of the mount. It is an act of His own. Then, as on high, they see something of heaven. They acted very poorly in that glorious scene; they were not in keeping with it. We do not want to go there and to be out of accord with the place. We do not want to go to court, so to speak, without knowing court manners. But Peter, James and John, although selected by the Lord, were entirely out of keeping with the scene on high. Peter would doubtless say later, ‘If I had another opportunity like that I should act very differently’. He says, “we ... were eyewitnesses of his majesty ... when we were with him in the holy mount”, (2 Peter 1:16,18). Then it is Peter who tells us that we are made a royal priesthood, shewing that we shall have majesty up there, being made “kings and priests”, as it says (Revelation 1:6), to His God and Father.
But the title is not enough; there must be the education, and the education in a way is objective. Matthew 11:29 tells us that the Lord says, “learn from me”, and that is what I want to dwell on here — the idea of a model. One doing things before you so that you may see how they are done, and then pray to God that you may do them like Him. So that when He was praying at one time, according to Luke 11:1, one of His disciples says, “Lord, teach us to pray”; he does not say, “Teach me”.
[p. 453] He virtually says, I want all the brethren to know how to pray. You do not want to leave the service of prayer to a few older brothers. In that way you might have ten to twenty prayers, and there would be more variety, also more brevity in each prayer. But we must learn everything from Christ.
So the disciple says, “Lord, teach us to pray”, and the Lord says, “When ye pray, say, Father, thy name be hallowed; thy kingdom come”, etc. How short that prayer in Luke 11 is! Brevity is a great thing in the house of God — brevity and variety. Indeed, brevity makes room for variety. The Lord would convey this in His answer to that disciple who wanted them all to be taught how to pray. He did not wish to excel, to be the special brother for prayer; he wished all to know how to pray. Prayer is not a gift; it is a matter of education. The Lord teaches us how to pray.
Well, what I wish to shew here is liberty as seen in Christ, because in this section of Mark, ministers, levites, are in the making, for the need of them is very great, now as ever. But then we want servants that are after the pattern of Christ. The Lord is to be represented in His servants, so that you have two ideas, likeness and image. If I am like the Lord, then I can be His representative. I must be like Him first, and these chapters are to make us like Him. The disciples are not actually sent out till chapter 6; in these chapters they are being prepared. Here in chapter 2 we have the Lord entering into Capernaum again, and whenever the Scripture says He does things again, it is an additional thing. The first chapter gives His first visit to Capernaum, and here He enters again into it, and it is said He was in the house (Mark 2:1). That is to say, it suggests to us how the servant behaves in the house. You say, ‘I should like to have the’ room ‘so as to preach’, but then, how have you been in the house? how do you get on there? I refer to this only by the way.
[p. 454] The Lord was in the house, and the crowds came and thronged Him, and what comes to light is that a certain evangelistic spirit arises, so that they bring to the Lord a paralytic, “borne of four”. Four were carrying this man. A man’s need may be so great that he needs the general sympathy and prayers of the brethren in the district, if he is to be helped. So they bring the man, but they cannot get him in through the doors. Well, they go up on the roof and dig it through and let the man down; I do not dwell on that, save to shew the zeal of these four men. They uncover the roof and dig it, so that the couch on which he lay can come down, as much as to say that the Lord is to see this man in all his circumstances. It does not say that they let the man down, it says they let down the couch whereon the man lay.
That is the first thing in this chapter. A good deal might be said about it, but I just refer to that incident as leading up to what follows. The Lord, in verse 13, goes again to the sea and teaches, then passing by He sees Levi and says, “Follow me”. Levi is actually sitting, occupied with the taxes. It is not that he was told to leave the taxes, the word is simply, “Follow me”, but the Lord was so attractive that he arose and followed Him. That is the principle. He followed the Lord and made a great entertainment in his house for Him.
Then other things follow, including the idea of fasting. There were the disciples of John and the Pharisees fasting, and they say, Why should not the followers of Jesus do the same? The followers of Jesus never imitate this world, or anything in it; they imitate Christ. To imitate what is around us religiously is simply to add to the world, and we must never imitate the world, although the disciples of John the baptist seemed to do so. The questioners here (verse 18) link the disciples of the Baptist with those of the Pharisees. The Lord Jesus has brought in something new, and it [p. 455] is not to be allied to anything here. So He goes on to speak of Himself as the Bridegroom. When the Bridegroom would leave them His disciples should fast. He did not decry fasting; it is most important. As seen elsewhere, it is essential to true spiritual power.
Then He speaks of the new cloth; He will not allow any patching up of the old. It is a wholly new thing. So, too, the new bottles. That the wine be not lost, there must be new bottles for the new wine; for we are brought into something entirely new. Let us treasure it; let us value it, and not give way one iota to any suggestion from what is around us.
The next thing is that the Lord goes through the cornfields on the sabbath day. It is an extraordinary movement, as if He did it deliberately. Indeed, He did, for He does everything deliberately. Here He is challenged. Notice, it does not say that He ate the corn, the point is that His movement was to be a suggestion. The Lord at this juncture would expect His disciples to learn, not by direct teaching, but by what seemed to be a casual movement. But with Christ all is deliberate, as I said, and we must not be asleep. If He takes a turn I must not miss that turn. If I neglect certain meetings, I may miss some movement of the Lord, and miss it for ever. So here is a movement through the cornfield. Someone comes home from the meeting and you say, Well, what did you have? Oh, they say, we had the Lord going through the cornfield. You say, That is a common thing. Is it a common thing for a man in the midst of the Jewish system, where the sabbath was held in reverence and sanctity, to break through all that and go through the cornfields on that day? It was very much otherwise. He was acting right across the religious feelings of everybody that saw Him, and we must learn to do that. The full bearing of a divine movement would come out at a meeting, and those absent would miss it.
[p. 456] This was no small matter, and quickly enough the Lord was challenged, not because of what He did, but because of what His disciples did. That is to say, it is what the saints do. He is in heaven now, and it is what we are doing, what the disciples of Jesus are doing that is the testimony. As you will observe in verse 23, it says, “his disciples began to walk on, plucking the ears. And the Pharisees said to him, why do they on the sabbath what is not lawful?”
And so what has taken place in this very city for the last hundred years has cut right across current customs, traditions, practices, and ecclesiastical law and order. Opposition has not been wanting, but it is the liberty wherewith Christ has set us free, and we are enjoined to stand fast in it, not to give it up, not to be entangled again with the yoke of bondage. We have had brought down to us a heritage of spiritual liberty; let us hold to it. “If any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him”, (Hebrews 10:38). Many have gone back, alas! But the Lord would challenge us, “Will ye also go away?” That is the liberty that fits in here at this juncture. We are to be in it; the Lord has led this way.
Here He had not said anything to the disciples, it is what He did — a movement. There is a great deal more in Christ than what He said; He was what He said, but we have to look at His movements as well as listen to His words. It is a question here of His movements; He went through the cornfields, but the disciples went further, they began to pluck the ears. That is what the Lord intended. Someone says, Give me a text of Scripture; but I say, Look at the movement of Christ! If He has gone through the cornfields, He has given me a lead, and He intends me as a child of wisdom to know what He means. His leading by movement or example has to be considered, as well as His words. But we have His words here also; He speaks of what David did when he was hungry. The Pharisees did not think of the [p. 457] hunger; that was nothing to them. As He points out to them elsewhere, they would take a sheep out of a pit on the sabbath, but not allow Him to cure a man. It was nothing to them that people were hungry. Although in all the systems around us there is famine, it is nothing to modern Pharisees. They have more regard for traditions, religious practices and customs than for the souls of men and women.
The Lord says that David hungered and did what was unlawful, as they would say. Thus He vindicates His people in their liberty. David was a type of the Lord Himself as seen here. Later (chapter 11) He hungered as He was returning from Jerusalem, a little while before His death, and He came to a fig tree that He might find something on it, but there were no figs. Think of the Lord of glory being hungry! The earth is His, and its fulness — think of Him being hungry! He became in all things like us, that He might sympathise with us. If His sheep are hungry in these systems around, does He not feel it? He does, and would liberate them, so that they might have food.
The Lord says, “Have ye never read what David did when he had need and hungered?” That opens up a beautiful passage in the Old Testament which every servant should understand. 1 Samuel 21 shews David fleeing from the face of Saul, and he comes to Nob and says to Ahimelech, “What is under thine hand?” What bread have you got here? He is ready to take anything there is. That is the kind of thing; the servant of Christ is content to take what there is. Many of us are not content in our localities because of the absence of gift or ability; we are not valuing what there is. This is displeasing to the Lord.
Then David pointed out that the bread was in a [p. 458] manner common, because it was about to be removed. He was not a priest officially, though really he was more than a priest, and he is able to tell Ahimelech that it was in a manner common because it was about to be removed, and fresh bread put on. Then David asks for a sword. The one he had taken from Goliath was there and it was not being used. Ahimelech says, “It is here wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod”. Like a Bible locked up in a desk and never read, or like ministry kept on the shelf but never read, so this sword was wrapped up behind the ephod. David says, “There is none like that: give it me”. He got a better sword than he might have expected. If you are content with what there is, the Lord may some day give you the best. That is what comes in here.
The next thing in Mark 2:28 is that the Lord speaks of Himself as the Son of man. “The Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath”. In all this education we are coming into the light of the greatness of Christ. He is Lord of the sabbath. He shews that the sabbath was made for man, that is to say, man is the great object of God in creation.
Then in the next chapter He goes again, as you notice, into the synagogue; and there was a man there with a withered hand. There are several subjects here, any one of which would be enough for an address, but I wish to group them together. This is like a man that has ‘objective’ truth; he reads the ministry, he has got it all in his mind, and rightly so, but he has not learned to use the Spirit. He is a one-sided man, because a man with one hand can do something; that is quite obvious. But he cannot rightly represent God. You must represent God. Ministry is not only a matter of intelligence, but of power, as Paul says, “in demonstration of the Spirit and of power; that your faith might not stand in men’s wisdom, but in God’s power”, (1 Corinthians 2:4,5). There is much one-sided ministry — purely objective things being presented apart from the state of the vessel; whereas the divine thought is that the vessel is to be an expression of what he presents. And that requires the whole man; the [p. 459] complete idea of a man involves that he has got two hands, that one is not withered. The Lord sees this man in the synagogue; you may expect a man like that to be there. But he does not oppose; he is ready to be helped, and I take the liberty of referring to him as a type of a believer, but a believer in these circumstances — in the synagogue. In the Old Testament we get left-handed men. They are clever men; they work with great dexterity. But a left-handed man is a very different man from one whose hand is withered. A withered hand shews that something damaging has happened, something has come in to check the even action of life. So the Lord would make him whole. He says to him, “Stand forth”; that is, He orders the man out so that he might be seen. If we are to learn from this pattern of the Lord’s we must see the man as he is. The man’s hand is restored; the Lord says, “Stretch out thy hand”, and it was restored.
I may refer here to what is very interesting; in this chapter you have the Lord looking around twice. In verse 5 He looks round upon those in the synagogue with anger, then in verse 34 He looks round upon those in the house. I just wanted to touch on those two scenes. Every one in christendom has to do with Christ; every one in the world for that matter, for all shall confess Him; He is the One that sits on the great white throne (Revelation 20:11). But as regards the present time, He is moving about among the seven assemblies. He walks about and He looks about. His eyes are said to be “as a flame of fire”. He looks at the cathedral and at this place and that place. What does He think of them? Is He indifferent? He knows all about them and their history. Do you not believe that the Lord has visited this city many times, in the sense of which I am speaking of it? He comes and He looks around, but how does He look around? With anger? Yes! He is angry with what men are doing, with what is going on religiously among those that profess His name. He is angry about it. I [p. 460] should not like to be in anything upon which He looks with anger. I should want to leave that position at once. Who can stand before Him? Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than He? How piercing were those eyes as He spoke to Thyatira — “the Son of God, he that has his eyes as a flame of fire” (Revelation 2:18)! He knows all about that system, and all about her daughters. He looks around, as it says here, with anger.
Then I think of the Lord in another way visiting this city, taking account of a few people who do the will of God, that keep the commandments of God; that come together because they love the Lord. The Lord looks around upon them; there is no anger now in His eyes; but there is love. It says, He looked “around in a circuit at those that were sitting around him”. That is the thing — sitting around the Lord! They are My mother and My brethren, He says, that do the will of God. Is it not inviting to be in that circle? He says, “whosoever shall do the will of God, he is my brother, and sister, and mother”, (verses 34,35). That is going on all the time. It is beautiful to see the Lord turn away from the one circle that causes Him anger to the circle He loves, those that do the will of God.
Now in verse 6 the Pharisees, as you will observe, take counsel with the Herodians. That is to say, the leading religionists take counsel with the politicians, which is the combination here; they are the people who look this way and that way (Exodus 2:12); they have to get the votes. And these combine to put Christ to death. Indeed it says, that they might destroy Him. That is a remarkable word here — not simply to kill Him, but to destroy Him. He is never to appear again; that is their idea. Think of the murderous spirit of these men!
This is all in relation to the education of the ministers; so that it goes on to say that Jesus withdrew Himself with His disciples to the sea. It is remarkable the place the sea has in this gospel. Then in verse 9 it says, “he [p. 461] spake to his disciples, that a small ship should wait on him because of the multitude, lest they should throng him”. That is the end of what I had in mind; in the education of His servants — His disciples — the Lord withdrew with them to the sea. That is to say, the principle of separation is now reached; this is imperative, as Christ is rejected; and He would bring them into touch with death. If the Herodians wish to destroy us, death is our portion anyway; they can do no more than that. But though He withdrew He would still preach. Whatever the circumstances we must still go on; we must not shut ourselves up.
Then it is “a little ship” — how beautifully that fits in with true christianity! A little ship in which to preach is very different from a cathedral. The little ship is provided by the disciples. Little people and little things are effective spiritually. Our position is thus marked; it is a time of littleness and obscurity. What a picture for us in contrast to all the show around — the Lord content to be in a little ship! He would educate us to be in littleness and obscurity, nevertheless in great effectiveness, for it says, “a great multitude from Galilee followed him, and from Judaea, and from Jerusalem ... for he had healed many ... and unclean spirits, when they saw him, fell down before him, and cried, saying, Thou art the Son of God”. You can well afford to get into a little ship if there you get an increased appreciation of Christ. The building in which I minister can never add to me, however grand it may be. The Lord is as great in the little ship as at the right hand of God. He is unchanged and unchangeable; He is the Son of God.
Then He goes up to the mount; He would take the disciples away from the success of ministry to the moral elevation. There He makes His own selection that they might be with Him. You must be with the Lord if you are to serve after this fashion, not only to see what He [p. 462] does, but to be under His influence. Then it says, “that he might send them to preach, and to have power to heal diseases, and to cast out demons”. These are two things we have to do with. It requires peculiar grace and power to heal sickness; I do not mean physical sickness, but sickness among the brethren — diseases that are prevalent here and there. The Lord would give us grace to heal; “let it rather be healed”, (Hebrews 12:13), that no member be cut off. Then the casting out of demons — the Lord would give all power against them. There is to be no quarter for the demon, but all quarter for the brethren; that is the idea. The disciples are to be with the Lord, that they may learn under His influence how to do these things.