MARK 8
Ques Is there any link between the incident of the boat, and the healing of the blind man, and what we see of the disciples in this chapter?
CAC I thought so. We see that there was a certain knowledge of Christ with the disciples, but I think it rather corresponded with the imperfect vision of the blind man after the first touch; and the Lord was intimating that the divine thought was that they should see clearly.
Ques “Having eyes, see ye not? And having ears, hear ye not?” (verse 18).
CAC Yes, they had not rightly understood what is set forth in the loaves. It was a failure to see clearly, and that is often the case with believers now. The wonderful lessons connected with the five loaves and the seven loaves, and the one loaf, are most important, the Lord would have us perceive clearly and definitely what they set forth.
Ques What are the lessons?
CAC Lessons on the greatness of Christ in His availability for His people. If we learn them clearly we shall not have exaggerated ideas of men, nor shall we savour the things that are of men.
Ques Would they preserve us from over-carefulness about the supply with which to feed the multitude? The disciples were concerned because they had only one loaf.
CAC What more could they want than the one Loaf? I have no doubt the loaves in each case set forth Christ. The five loaves speak of Christ as God’s provision in grace for Israel on the line of promise. The promises in the Old Testament had indicated that there would be a full supply for all the need of Israel. The Lord had said of Zion, “I will abundantly bless her provision: I will satisfy her poor with bread”. The harvest of all the promises is gathered up in Christ, and this is [p. 80] set forth in the five loaves — a full supply on the line of promise. Then in chapter 7 we see that the heirs of promise prove themselves utterly unworthy of the grace of God and had forfeited all title to the promises, so the state of heart exposed here is worse than that of the gentile nations. Then the Lord uncovers the work of God in the heart of a poor gentile dog. He was exposing, not only the wretched sin and folly of man, but what God was working in secret. In the Syrophenician woman there was no ground of claim to the promises, but as taught of God she laid claim to all that God was in Himself as a supply for man’s need. This is what the seven loaves set forth. When there is no title to the promises, a claim can be put in entirely on the ground of what God is in Himself; and that is perfect. That is the seven loaves. All depends on what God is and not on what man is. God showed that His goodness would overflow to those outside the children of promise. It is a very solemn lesson that those who were the children of the promises had forfeited all right to them. The point of chapter 7 is that all depends on what God is in His nature. God is so good that, though He had committed Himself to the children, He could not say there was not enough for the dogs. Then in the end of that chapter the man who could not hear nor speak right became a witness to the skilfulness of Christ, and these are the elements of perfection. On the one side all depends on what God is in Himself, which is all available for man; and on the other side all depends on the skilfulness of Christ. This is the ground of blessing for all men. You could not limit what God, is, nor what Christ is, to Israel — the number four has universal bearing. It seems to me the Lord brings in the second feeding on these lines. He would have the remnant, those who had continued with Him, nourished. They had been with Him three days. These were not as sheep having no shepherd; they were with the Shepherd and He cared for and fed them. There is a necessity that we should be inwardly strengthened and nourished upon all that Christ is as setting forth the perfection of good in the blessed God and the perfection of the skilfulness of Christ’s own hand. We are to be nourished on Christ in that character.
Then the “one loaf” is Christ in His complete personal sufficiency for His own. His own do not need anything else, neither the leaven of the Pharisees nor the leaven of Herod; the one loaf suffices to meet every exigency that will arise in the [p. 81] course of the testimony. The five loaves and the seven loaves go out widely, the first feeding to the whole width of Israel, for the twelve baskets suggest administration in Israel. The second feeding goes wider still, to all men; the “four thousand” points to what is universal, and the seven loaves to perfection in the way of supply for man. That could not be limited to Israel; it was a big supply, too. These were big baskets; the others were small baskets such as you could carry in one hand. These were very big baskets, these might perhaps take two or three men to carry. The Lord wants us to see all these things clearly with the eyes of our hearts, so that we might be definite about our appreciation of Christ.
Ques What would the second touch of the blind man suggest?
CAC My impression is that it involves the reception of the Spirit. The first touch is the influence of Christ Himself, which the disciples had really known. They had received a measure of vision, but we see again and again how imperfect it was.
Rem Peter had imperfect vision in verse 32.
CAC Yes, for he was savouring the things that are of men. If there is imperfect vision, the things of men get an undue place with us. If a man looks like a tree he is a very conspicuous object. We have to guard against anything that would inflate men or make them conspicuous.
Ques Why do you think the Lord did not give the blind man the complete touch at first? He could have made him see clearly with one touch.
CAC I think the Lord wanted to give us a picture which would enable us to understand the condition in which the disciples were found at the time, and a picture that would explain our own condition sometimes. There is often an apprehension of Christ together with an inflated appreciation of man; and if a man is great in his own eyes we might take him at his face value.
Ques Do we not want to have a right appreciation of the men of God?
CAC Yes, but Paul said, “Who then is Apollos, and who Paul? Ministering servants, through whom ye have believed, and as the Lord has given to each”. Paul repudiates what would make men conspicuous, and will not have anything [p. 82] but that they were servants through whom the Corinthians believed.
Ques Why did the Lord lead the man out of the village?
CAC It indicated that He was not now dealing with Israel generally, but was morally separating those who came under His hand from Israel as a whole.
Ques What does the spitting indicate?
CAC That the Lord brings to bear on the man all the inward virtue of His own Person. It was so with the disciples; He had brought to bear on them a wonderful sense of the virtue that was in Himself, and it had affected them all. The vision they got was the result of this.
Ques The Lord instructed him to go back to his house and not to go back to the village.
CAC Yes, He would give us an understanding of the position. If He led the man out of the village He certainly intimated that He did not intend him to go back there. In this gospel the Lord constantly retires from publicity, He shuns it. He more often here enjoins people not to speak of what had been done for them; it was activity in obscurity.
This chapter is the turning point of the gospel. The disciples were not to speak of Him now as the Christ: He is now the suffering Son of man. A new path is opened up, a path connected with the cross, and losing one’s life instead of saving it, and not being ashamed of the Son of man. It needs clear spiritual vision in order to take this path. No one will say goodbye to all that a man naturally loves unless he has seen something that eclipses it all; but the heart may become so affected by the Christ, so drawn after Him, that it is prepared to take exactly the opposite course to what it would naturally choose. There was true faith and a true appreciation of Christ in Peter, but he had not vision clear enough to enter on this path: his mind was on the things which are of men. We are being instructed in service here, and there is only one path in which we can truly serve God now — the path indicated in this chapter. But to enter that path there must be a motive — the true appreciation of Christ as presented in this chapter, in the character of the Christ and the Son of man. The Lord asks His disciples in verse 27, “Who do men say that I am?” We find that all the opinions quoted here have a favourable form, all give some degree of honour to Christ, but none apprehend the truth of His Person. It is like the religious [p. 83] world today: it gives Christ a certain honour, but not the unique place of God’s anointed Man, for that would displace every other man; everything for God’s pleasure must be after the pattern of His anointed Man. If Peter had had a clear vision of that Man, his mind would not have been on the things of men. He reached it for a moment when he confessed that Jesus was the Christ, but that was not maintained.
Ques How would the knowledge of Christ affect us in service?
CAC In this way. It is a wonderful thing to see that there is only one Man for the pleasure of God, only one Man anointed. “I have laid help upon one that is mighty; I have exalted one chosen out of the people. I have found David my servant; with my holy oil have I anointed him”, Psalm 89: 19, 20. We get the sense that He was the only Man for God’s pleasure and that every man not in accord with Him is to God’s displeasure. The knowledge of this gives character to service; it leads to a person denying himself, because self is certainly not Christ. What a lesson to learn! It prepares one for the pathway of rejection and reproach and denying oneself, losing one’s life. Peter was not prepared to accept that Christ would be rejected by the great spiritual leaders of the nation; they had a place in his mind, and he savoured the things that were of men and became an adversary. The secret of it all was that Peter had not maintained his first convictions, and that is the difficulty with us, too. Peter had said to the Lord, “I am a sinful man”; if that conviction had been maintained he would have felt the necessity for death, but here he had lost the sense of it and would hinder the Lord in that path. Before the Lord answers him, He looks at the disciples. It is beautiful to see that affectionate glance at them before He turns and calls Peter Satan. It was as much as to say, ‘What is to become of them if I do not go on to death!’ He loved them. Then He turns and rebukes the adversary. The Man of God’s pleasure goes into death in order to put away the man of God’s displeasure. Many at the beginning of their course get an intense conviction of sin, but repentance is not maintained if it is not, we become adversaries. It is one thing to have a conviction, and another to maintain it in one’s soul. It is terrible to think that even the divine revelation to Peter did not improve the character of the flesh. Whatever favour God may show you or whatever gift you may be endowed with, the flesh [p. 84] is always ready to be puffed up over it. Look at Paul — he found he had flesh that could be puffed up at the abundance of the revelations! What an extraordinary thing that the flesh could be proud of having divine revelations! We have to learn to work out our convictions; Peter had failed to do this; he did not really know the character of the flesh until he got the Spirit of the ascended Christ.
Ques Why is it the Son of man must suffer?
CAC The Christ is the One on whom all the pleasure of God rests and who has the capability of bringing all into accord with His good pleasure; but the same blessed Person has come into the human family. The Son of man is a most remarkable title; the Lord used it of Himself more than any other title. He loved to call attention to the fact that He had come into manhood in order to redeem men and secure them for the pleasure of God. Having come into that state He must of necessity go into death, for every question of that state had to be taken up. He must die, and all the wide glories connected with the Son of man in divine purpose could only be taken up on the ground of His having gone into death. We need clear vision to apprehend all this, and all leads on to the kingdom of God come in power. When Christ touches the second time, it is from heaven with the Spirit, and then there is clear vision; these things are spiritually discerned. It suggests the necessity for the Spirit; not only that there should be a divine operation in man, but that the Spirit should come so that what is spiritual might have place. Then alone is it possible to deny oneself. The fact of denying self shows that what is spiritual has come in, and then there is power. This is the only way into the path of Christ; we cannot move after Christ except on that line. We cannot take up the cross until we are in His pathway, and we cannot come into that pathway without denying ourselves. We cannot say ‘Yes’ to Christ without saying ‘No’ to ourselves.
If you know Christ in the three-fold character we have had before us, you have your affections nourished, and you can say that you have found a Man you love better than yourself, so you cannot help following in His path. The cross came in His pathway, and you take it up because He had it. You cannot take it up unless you see that it was in His pathway. When you see that you say, ‘I love Him, and He had the cross, so I will bring it into my pathway’. It is not that you like it
[p. 85] but you love Him. We often hear people say, ‘I must bear my cross’; but that is not it at all. A woman may have a bad husband, or a man have bad rheumatism, and they say that it is their cross! They cannot help themselves, but the cross is a thing I can take; it is left to man to take up or leave.
Ques Why is it “for my sake and the gospel’s”, verse 35?
CAC There are the two motives. “For my sake” means that you love Him. Taking up the cross means that you deliberately prepare yourself to take the lowest and most dishonoured place that men could give you as a reproach, because you are following One who had nothing but reproach here. The cross is the extreme of it; you would have the fulness of it if men actually took you and crucified you on a cross. To take up your cross means you are prepared for that. He had that and He says, “Follow me”. We could not follow a Person we did not love. If we do not go in this pathway we are not serving God; it is the only path in which God can be served by man. The motives which lead us into it are wonderful “for my sake”. How we get accustomed to the words, but “for my sake” — how touching it is! We may well ask ourselves, ‘How much is there in my life that has been simply for Christ’s sake?’ It is all the love of God manifested in Christ that touches our hearts and compels us into it.
CAC That is beautiful. He becomes motive for me — I who had never imagined there was anything better than my life in this world — so that I actually should become content to lose my life! “For my sake” — it is the personal hold the Son of man has on our hearts.
Then, there is “for the gospel’s”. What am I prepared to suffer that there may be a sweeter, holier, more complete setting forth in me of all that God is in grace for man? What am I prepared to forgo?
Ques Is it possible for us to lay down our lives in these days? We are not put to death now for Christ’s sake.
CAC Is it possible to save your life and lose it today? Then the reverse — to lose your life and save it — is possible. There is a whole system of things that constitutes my life as living in the world. If I want to save that, I lose all that might attach to my life in relation to God. Moses was one who lost his life here and saved it. I suppose there never was a man who might have had a greater life here than Moses, but he was [p. 86] content to lose it in Egypt. Think of all there was in Moses’ life for God! If he had chosen to save his life, what would he have gained? Nothing. He would have lost all, and had at most a big pyramid at the end! The principle of it searches us. Are we so influenced by love to Christ, and by desire that the gospel might be known in men’s hearts that we are prepared to be diminished here? If so, our lives will have divine value. “What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world ... ?” The Lord supposes an extreme case. What is the profit, what advantage is there to me, if I lose my soul?
Ques Is it possible to lose your soul?
CAC Yes, the Lord says, “lose your soul”. You have to maintain your relations with God. Can a saint make the world an object and not be a great loser? It would be dreadful to think that a christian might make the world an object, and not lose his soul! We know he is not lost eternally, but what secures him here? Nothing but moving in this pathway. Think what life a man has who makes the world an object! Instead of being here for all that God is and for Christ, all that might be in him of value to God and Christ is forfeited.
Paul writes to the Corinthians, “lest ... I myself should be a castaway”. He is going to say something very strong, and instead of saying it of them he says it of himself. Instead of saying, ‘You will have to be very careful lest, after all your lovely meetings and so on, you lose everything’, he says, ‘I am going to be very careful that I am not a castaway’.
This is an intensely solemn chapter. We must admit that if we are not moving on this line we cannot possibly be moving in the service of God. Christ moved on this line; He lost His life but He gained it. Think of all the value that blessed life had for God! He offers us to move on the same pathway.
Ques The transfiguration follows immediately.
CAC Yes, we might expect that it would lead to an immediate vision of the glory. If we go on this line we may be eyewitnesses of the glory and that is complete compensation. It is a deathless life — “There are some of those standing here that shall not taste death until they shall have seen the kingdom of God come in power”. If you go on this pathway, you live a deathless life — death can never touch it, never!