"THE WAY OF SUFFERING LOVE"
“THE WAY OF SUFFERING LOVE”
Mark 8: 31, 32; Mark 10: 32 - 34; Mark 11: 1 - 10
In reading these scriptures I have in view to speak to you of “the way”. It is an expression that has a good deal of prominence in this gospel, especially after the Lord was transfigured on the mount. From that point onward to the cross, and through the cross into resurrection, there was a definite way known perfectly to Him, and one in the features of which He would instruct His followers. It was a way on His side of love involving how He died, and the mention of it should appeal to us as long foretold, for the Spirit of Christ acting in the prophets, who spoke with feeling and definiteness of this wonderful theme in ages previously, had testified of it, “Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow”, 1 Peter 1: 11. Isaiah, we are told in John, saw His glory, and no one among the prophets, perhaps, speaks more touchingly of the sufferings of Christ than he. The eunuch, returning from Jerusalem and reading from the prophet Esaias, says, “Of whom speaketh the prophet this? Of himself, or of some other man?” The Lord was portrayed in the chapter and the eunuch was interested; and so the Holy Spirit would detain our hearts now before the Person who suffered. “Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus”, Acts 8: 35. How we can go over this way of love! Abraham had, according to the Lord’s own words, seen His day. And what a vision he had, beloved! He “rejoiced”, the Lord says, “to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad”, John 8: 56. “The testimony [p. 251] of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy” — Jesus in suffering love is the spirit of it. The tabernacle was anointed, and one of the ingredients of that wonderful compound — myrrh — denoted the suffering love of Jesus; that is to say — God would have us, as it were, anointed with the spirit of suffering love. That is what I have in view, that we might catch the idea from this gospel of the suffering love of Christ.
Mark, perhaps, more than any of the evangelists, emphasises the sufferings of Christ. He gives us six hours of the cross; he speaks of Gethsemane in his own way; the Lord is “amazed and oppressed in spirit” (Mark 14: 33) as the awfulness of what was coming in was brought to bear upon Him — as His spirit touched it. Who can fathom these things? He, the very Creator of the universe, and yet there it is in the language of the Spirit of God; He was amazed and deeply oppressed as He put out His hand to take the cup from the hand of His Father. He takes it unflinchingly, but feelingly, knowing what was in it perfectly as no one else save the Father could know; He takes it in all that it meant to Him; He goes through as the Victim in this gospel; He disappears, goes down without public justification, not even referring to His Father. “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” He says, and, having uttered a loud cry, He expired. What a wonderful spectacle for heaven! What a wonderful contemplation for after generations! As that loud cry was heard the centurion said, “Truly this man was Son of God”.
That was the end of the way, and the Lord would instruct the disciples at the beginning of it. You find here the word ‘teach’; “And he began to teach them, that the Son of man must suffer many things”, chapter 8: 31. One is encouraged to call attention to the sufferings of Christ as recorded by Mark. They are but little understood. God would have us to stand out in the dignity of that holy oil [p. 252] by which the tabernacle was anointed — the spirit of suffering love — and to that end we have got to be taught as to the sufferings of Christ. If I remember rightly, Mark is the only one who uses the word ‘teach’ in this connection. John says little or nothing about the Lord’s sufferings, that is to say, he does not use the word. John presents a divine Person going through, to do the will of God, but Mark presents a Victim, a Sufferer. Hence, as I said, the importance of the teaching of the sufferings of Christ. This applies, surely, to every Christian, but particularly to those who serve the saints in a special way.
The great servant whom the Lord selected to unfold to us the truth of the assembly was to be shown by the Lord Himself how great things “he must suffer for my name’s sake”, Acts 9: 16. As the name of Christ becomes known to us, the next thing is to suffer for it; not exactly in this instance for Him, but for the name; so that Paul in Damascus preached in the synagogue that Jesus was the Son of God. That specially involves His name. That designation involves the fame that He has acquired as having descended into death; He is “declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from [or, of] the dead”, Romans 1: 4. So that Paul announces the name and then he suffers. The Jews sought to kill him. We are notified thus on our entrance into service that the way is a way of suffering love; so that if it be the saints (alas! they too may cause suffering), suffering love says, “though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved”, 2 Corinthians 12: 15. But be it so, there can be no denial of the holy oil — that holy compound — Paul would preserve that. He would maintain it in himself; he was a true follower of his Master, and whatever the Corinthians said, or what ever they did in regard of him, his love remained [p. 253] unchanged. Hence the importance of the teaching of the sufferings of Christ. “He began to teach them”. Let us become disciples, dear brethren, of this teaching. The Lord has opened up wonderful things to us, but I believe that He would open up this field for us — the teaching of His sufferings.
This was the beginning, and I want to show that on entering on the way definitely He goes into the subject more fully. We read in chapter 10: 32, “And they were in the way ... and Jesus went before them: and they were amazed; and as they followed, they were afraid. And he took again the twelve, and began to tell them what things should happen unto him”. And then He gives a list of the things. He is now, beloved, definitely in the way, and He takes the twelve specially and informs them of the things that should happen to Him. We do well to face these things; they are not to be trifled with. Earlier in this chapter we are told that when He was gone forth into the way a certain man came running to Him in the way. Think of the folly of running into such a way as that! Many take it up lightly; but those who understood it best were amazed and they were afraid; that is wholesome. There is a definite way, and in that way there are definite sufferings, and the Lord would have us to face them. The disciples were amazed and they were afraid, but they followed. There is safety in the amazement and in the fear; they were not taking things up lightly.
Many things, alas! different from this, and which should not appear, enter on the way. We read of a disputation on the way as to which should be greatest. Think of that! How utterly inconsistent with the way is that! It is as if two men on the way to the scaffold were to vie with each other as to who should be the greatest, and yet there it was. And then two of them with their mother come to him on this same way and they request that one should be on His [p. 254] right hand and the other on His left in His kingdom. Think of such a request on a way marked out so specifically by the Lord as one of suffering? But then I wanted to show you how each may contribute to that way. We are in a wonderful position as called into the fellowship of God’s Son, for that is what it means. A way has definite boundaries and there are sides to it; it is a dignified way, and I would just seek to point out that each may contribute to the glory of that way. This young man running up, light-heartedly, to Christ on that way and greeting Him as “Good Teacher” added nothing to Christ, added nothing to the way. The Lord is accorded the place of a “teacher” abroad today — alongside other men — perhaps the greatest of teachers, but just a teacher. The fellowship is a very real thing: it is on the one hand the fellowship of God’s Son, that is the dignity of it, but, on the other hand, it is the fellowship of His death. There is no room there for light-heartedness. Death was a very real thing when the Israelites met it in the wilderness; the waters were bitter; and they are bitter. That has to be accepted, so that I would warn souls as to the folly of taking things up light-heartedly. This man left it quickly, he “went away grieved”, as many have done, not having counted the cost.
But there was another one on the wayside who did not run into the way, blind Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus; he sat by the highway side begging. He sat there, but he spoke; he said, “Jesus, thou son of David”. I believe it is one of the marks of genuine conversion when the soul has acquired an understanding of the dignity of Christ, and no one will remain in the way or add to it who does not begin thus. The gospel is the announcement to us of the Son of God, “Beginning of the glad tidings of Jesus Christ, Son of God”. His dignity is presented to us at the outset, and if I do not lay hold of that,
[p. 255] if I have no light in my soul as to the dignity of Christ, I am not genuinely converted. The Thessalonians “turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God; and to wait for his Son from heaven” (see 1 Thessalonians 1: 9, 10), intimating that the gospel presented to them involved the dignity of Christ. Paul said, “But when it pleased God ... to reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen”, Galatians 1: 16. Paul would announce Him, the Person; and this blind man had light in his soul; he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, but he did not say “Jesus of Nazareth”, he said, “Jesus, thou son of David”. Mark, that note was to be taken up later. If there is anything one loves among the saints, it is the note of a young Christian in the assembly, the outcome of a genuine apprehension of Christ. There is something peculiarly fresh and sweet in a note struck by one who has just come into the apprehension of Christ as the Son of God. And so this man strikes a note which in the next chapter swells and reverberates on the way, “Hosanna; Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord: Blessed be the kingdom of our father David, that cometh in the name of the Lord: Hosanna in the highest”.
Now I would put it to all as to whether we are contributing to the way. Everyone should contribute something and it is important to begin early. This man began at once. If you have not begun to contribute, it is time to begin; in fact, if you have not begun, my fear is that your soul is not in the light of the Person. The apostle says, “The life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me”, Galatians 2: 20. I do not, in a way, know of anything that tests the Christian practically more than the Monday — if you will allow me to be simple. We enjoy things together when the Spirit of God is free,
[p. 256] and we are happy, but we start out on the Monday and have to face the cold north wind of the world, business, and what not, and where are we then? That is what tests us. “The life which I now live in the flesh”; that is Monday, and Tuesday. On the Lord’s day, under the government of God, we are free and may yield ourselves to Christ, for that is what the assembly should do normally. It is our privilege to live of the Spirit, to go over Jordan, according to the measure we have got. It is a wonderful experience to join the Son of God in His own domain. He loves to speak with us. He said to the man in John 9: 37, “Thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh with thee”. The Son of God loves to take us and to converse with us in His own domain. Habakkuk says, “He will make me to walk upon mine high places. To the chief singer on my stringed instruments”, chapter 3: 19. He is on the ground of resurrection, and his affections are tightened up by the power of it; he is with God in company with Christ, and that is our privilege. It is a wonderful thing to know what it is to live of the Spirit, to be with the Son of God over Jordan, as Paul said, “Whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth”, 2 Corinthians 12: 2. But then there is the life of the flesh, and so he says, “The life that I now live”, etc. That is the Monday of victory, beloved, and a Tuesday of victory. It is the faith of the Son of God, and that is what tests us. It is what is normal, as the result of the gospel rightly received: “Beginning of the glad tidings of Jesus Christ, Son of God”. Paul preached that gospel before he was definitely commissioned; it was in his heart, and “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh”, Matthew 12: 34.
So that the truth of the Son of God is presented to us at the very outset. “Who hath ascended up into [p. 257] heaven, or descended? who hath gathered the wind in his fists? who hath bound the waters in a garment? who hath established all the ends of the earth? what is his name, and what is his son’s name, if thou canst tell?” (Proverbs 30: 4). If you can tell it, you refer to Him in the assembly, and so this blind man struck a note that reverberated on the way after they touched Olivet and Bethany. Olivet is surrounded with spiritual thoughts; it was the place the Lord resorted to when others went to their own homes; the note taken up there swelled and reverberated, and will do so in a coming day. It is delightful, as the way winds round Olivet to Bethany. It is not all sufferings; there is sympathy and there is love in the path. There is reciprocated love in it, there are links with heaven in it; for at Olivet, spiritually, we are in touch with heaven. After they partook of the supper and after they sang a hymn, they went to the mount of Olives. What a company ascended those slopes after that memorable occasion! They sang a hymn, it says; it does not say the Lord led, showing how completely He is with them. It was of the nature of a song of “degrees”, I believe. It may be we are not much accustomed to songs of degrees, but they belong to us; those included in the Psalms were evidently songs of ascent; the Spirit of God has furnished us with such as are suited to ourselves. We do not sing Psalm 132 or Psalm 133 when we should be singing Psalm 120, “I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also”, 1 Corinthians 14: 15. The understanding implies that I know what song fits the altitude that I am in. Very likely Psalm 120 fits most of us, alas! Psalm 132 speaks about the ark and a place of rest for it, and so we may say it would correspond with the thoughts of affection and sympathy that encircle Olivet and Bethany. The note struck by the blind man on the way found an answer later as they reached the slopes [p. 258] of Olivet and the sanctified village of Bethany.
Then it says there was a colt there which was tied. We must not for a moment assume that it was tied there with any cruelty; it was detained there in love. Many of the young are detained, and preserved from wandering in cross-roads, for we do meet the crossways, but we may be sure that if there is one there with the sympathy and affections peculiar to Bethany, he will detain you so that you do not go on the wrong road, until the Lord claims you as His own. Loving parents may serve their children thus. No child of man had sat on this colt; it is unsophisticated by man. The Lord takes account of you as a wholly new creation. Creation is in view in Mark’s gospel, and the creation is secured in Christ, who is “the beginning of the creation of God”. “Say ye that the Lord hath need of him; and straightway he will send him hither”; he is available; they say nothing, but let them go. The Lord has rights there. Thank God there are spots where the Lord has rights and where these rights are owned, and the Lord claims the young in a peculiar way at the present time, and love holds them for His claims; they belong to Him. Now He takes the colt and He rides upon him into the city, and we have this wonderful note taken up: “Hosanna; Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord ... Hosanna in the highest”. What a marvellous result! What a wonderful contribution, as I may say, beginning with the note struck by one on the wayside who definitely took his place behind the Lord on the way, and now the multitude take up the strain. I mention all this so that we may see what any one may contribute, and how it reverberates, how as we reach Olivet and Bethany (that is, a spiritual area, so to speak) — as spiritual thoughts are reached — the note is taken up and enlarged so that it is the coming kingdom of our father David. He who comes in the name of Jehovah,
[p. 259] Hosanna in the highest. What a note that is, beloved brethren, and what a way to enter upon — a path marked by suffering! You may expect the suffering, but there is all this for us besides. The very youngest may join in this. The Lord loves that accent of yours, dear young believer, it may be the very first sound, the very first expression of your appreciation of Him, but it is delightful to His ear, and the spiritual among the saints catch it up and enlarge upon it so that it is “Hosanna in the highest”.
May God interest us in the teaching of the sufferings and of all that rightly enters into the path. I commit the word to Him.