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THE MARYS

I was much impressed with the comment of the Spirit of God in regard to Mary of Bethany. “It was that Mary which anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair”. It was that Mary. The Spirit of God says this to distinguish that Mary from all other Marys. I believe in that way the Lord designates the peculiar feature of that Mary. She had learned what bitterness was, for Mary, as we know, means “bitter”. Naomi says, coming back from the land of Moab, a widow and bereft of her sons, “Call me not Naomi, call me Mara (or Mary) for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me”. She had tasted the bitterness of death, and she says, “Call me Mara”.

Now it is remarkable how the Spirit of God has gathered together in the gospels, particularly in the gospel of John, these Marys. They are all found there, showing, I believe, that they had a history in connection with what was bitter to the flesh. They had learned in sorrow and bitterness, that which fitted them for the place they were going to have in the mind of God. So that Mary of Bethany had learned to set aside all that would distinguish herself. “It was that Mary which anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair”. She had learned the worthlessness of human glory, she had learned, dear brethren, that there was only one blessed Person to be dignified, so she takes what she might have adorned herself with — the ointment of spikenard very costly, and her hair which was her glory, and she bestows them upon Christ. She had learned in sorrow, that human glory is worthless. It is not an easy lesson. It is a lesson of intense bitterness to the natural heart. See how Jacob had to learn it. When Reuben was born his heart was held by the possibilities of Reuben his firstborn; he says, “Reuben thou art my firstborn ... the excellency of dignity and the excellency of power”. Potentially Jacob saw in Reuben what was excellent, and the possibilities that lay in him, but in the bitterness of his heart he had to learn that he could not attach excellency to the first man; there is no excellence.

You say, I believe that, I read it in scripture; that is not what “Mary” means. “Mary” means that you have learned it through bitter lessons, you have learned — that you cannot attach excellency to the first man. Jacob had to learn that he could not put any trust in Reuben, however dignified, however outwardly excellent he may have found him; he says he is “unstable as water”. You cannot attach dignity to the first man. That is not to be only a doctrine that we believe in a formal way because it is in scripture. Mary learned in the bitterness of her own heart that there was no one worthy of dignity and glory but Christ, and she accepted that. She was that Mary. I would like to speak about the others.

It says “there stood by the cross of Jesus”; they stood there, “his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Cleopas, and Mary Magdalene”. The Spirit of God has gathered these three Marys, and I want to speak of these as found at the cross, that the Lord might help us to see the deep lessons that they passed through, the bitter lessons to their hearts, in accordance with their names, which they learned there, so that as learning them they can rightly take their place in the upper room.

You see when you come to the upper room in the beginning of the Acts — the spiritual sphere, the upper room is above the level of this world which is filled with human ideas, natural thoughts and human greatness — there is an upper room, there is a spot outwardly insignificant, a room, not a cathedral, not a palace, just a room, but it is above the level of the world, and these beloved women are there in the beginning of the Acts, they are there — wonderful thing! But you say, Peter is there, yes, Peter is there; and John is there, but the women are there too. What does that mean? It means that the subjective side is there as well as the responsible. Not only are they there responsibly and publicly as a matter of light, as knowing what is right according to God, but they are there according to their inward state.

I believe that is what the Lord wants at the end, as He had at the beginning. He not only had Peter and James and John in the beginning, but He had the women also. That is to say, their inward state corresponded with their public position. The light they had, and their inward state, were in agreement. That is of the utmost importance at the present time. I believe the Lord would effect that in the hearts of His people, that we not only have the thing as light and know it as a guide and rule, but that we are there in the inward secret subjective condition of our hearts. This is going to cost us something. You want the Marys for that. So it says, “with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus”. “The women”

include these Marys undoubtedly, though only one of them is named.

Now I would just like to say what I believe would prepare those three Marys, through intense bitterness of soul exercise, for the wonderful position of the upper room. The first one was Mary the mother of Jesus. She stood there, not that she just came and went, but it says she stood there, contemplating that scene. I do not think we could ever tell what must have passed through her heart. She had a wonderful place in connection with the Lord, a place that none else has ever had. She knew something of the greatness of His person. The angel had said to her that she was highly favoured among women, that all generations would call her blessed, that the One that was to be born should be called Jesus, Saviour, One who could save. “Thou ... shalt call his name Jesus”. So great was He that He was Saviour not only for Israel, or for the Gentiles, but the Saviour. Then too, “He shall be great and shall be called the Son of the Highest”. What a name for Mary to hear, “the Son of the Highest”, come right from the very highest point in the universe, from the uncreated sphere. Think of a sphere that was never created, that is above the heavens. We sometimes forget that the heavens were created. God created the heavens. You think of what is beyond the heavens, the uncreated sphere where God is, and this blessed One came from the highest. The angel went on to tell her, “that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God”.

You can understand the great thoughts that filled Mary’s heart as she thought of herself as linked up in a special and peculiar way with this blessed One, so that she was blessed among women. Yet, who can tell the bitterness of that moment to her heart, when she saw everything that she had hoped for, all the hopes that she had centred in Christ, herself as connected with them, being broken to pieces. The Lord had indicated a little of this to her beforehand, and indeed the Spirit of God had at the outset, little as she might have understood it. Simeon had said when he took the Lord as a child in his arms “a sword shall pierce through thine own soul also”. The Lord had sought to prepare Mary for that moment. At the age of twelve He had said to her “wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s business?” when she said, “why hast thou thus dealt with us?” He had indicated even at twelve years of age that there was other business than that of His mother and Joseph that compelled His attention. She understood not, but she kept these sayings in her heart and pondered them.

Then in the beginning of the gospel of John the Lord enlightens her further. At the wedding in Cana of Galilee she says to the Lord, “They have no wine”. The Lord says to her, “Woman what have I to do with thee”. He would convey to her that He had passed out of the sphere where she could control Him. She accepted it, she turns to the servants and says, “Whatsoever he saith unto you do”. She gets a ray of light there, that it is not a question of what she would say though she is the mother of Jesus. Mary gets the light that it is all important what He says, it is what He says, not what I say.

But now has come the moment at the cross when all that she had built on, and the peculiar place that she had in relation to the Lord, disappears for ever; she is now no longer to know Him as her son, she is now no longer to have a leading place as the mother of Jesus. The Lord ends that relationship and commits her to John; John is to be her son, and Mary is to be his mother. The relationship she has had to Him is over for all eternity. What a scene, what a lesson to Mary’s heart, to accept the setting aside of all claims and title in relation to what is natural, on the natural side. That fitted her for the upper room. She learned that lesson in the bitterness of her heart; she stood at the cross and saw it all there, and she is afterwards found in the upper room. Wonderful! The Spirit of God names the Apostles, and then adds “the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren”.

She is there, having left behind in the scene below all the rights and titles in respect of her link with Christ after the flesh; all glory, all title, all claim by her is dropped for ever. The fact that she was the mother of Jesus does not entitle her to preferential treatment in the upper room. She is just one of those who are there. She has learned at the cross the end of everything after the flesh. Like the Apostle who says, “Yea though we have known Christ after the flesh yet now henceforth know we him no more”. Mary had come to that, and that prepared her, it fitted her, to be in the upper room.

I wonder whether we have all learned that lesson and accepted it, that nothing in the natural sphere, nothing in the sphere of the flesh, gives us any standing in the upper room, nothing, not even if we had known Christ after the flesh. Mary the mother of Jesus stood at the cross, she saw and accepted the end of the choicest link after the flesh that anyone could ever know. Now we shall never be in the upper room rightly if we do not learn that lesson — that what we have in a natural way belonging to this scene, whether it be ability, whether it be that we have been entrusted with earthly resources, whether it be we have links in a natural way with what is of God through our parents or relationships, none of these things gives us one single right or standing in the upper room. We have no rights whatever because we are rich, or intelligent, or have a good understanding of things, a good deal of mental power, or that our relations have had a place in the testimony. None of that enters into the upper room, none of it; the cross is the end even of knowing Christ after the flesh, and you could not have a greater link than that. You come into the upper room in relation to the work of God in your soul.

What causes a good deal of difficulty amongst God’s people is that many think they ought to have preferential treatment because they have got certain links, such as father or mother, and they think that entitles them to special consideration. What we want to see is the work of God, for that is what counts. Mary the mother of Jesus is there as one who has stood at the cross and seen the end of everything after the flesh that was more precious to her heart than anything we can think of.

Now you come to another Mary — Mary the wife of Cleopas — she stands there. I think the scripture would indicate to us what was going through her soul as she stood there. The Spirit of God tells us about Cleopas, and she is his wife. Cleopas speaks, and his wife would be in correspondence with him; she is the subjective side of what he says, and Cleopas tells us that they had wonderful hopes for the earth, wonderful hopes. They are walking along, you remember (Luke 24: 18) (it does not say so, but no doubt it was Cleopas and his wife) and they are sad, and the Lord draws near to them and says, “What manner of communications are these that ye have one to another as ye walk and are sad?” and they said, “Thou ... hast not known the things which are come to pass there in these days” and the Lord says, “What things?” and they say, “Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people”. They had wonderful hopes here for the earth, they were looking forward to a time of great joy and blessing on the earth, when Israel would have been redeemed from bondage and set free as a nation to serve God, and used to bow the nations under His great rule. But Mary the wife of Cleopas had stood by the cross, and she had seen every hope for the earth, all her hopes that she had built up in connection with earthly things and earthly blessings, crushed for ever. “The chief priests and our rulers... crucified him”, and she witnessed it, and all their earthly hopes had gone. But when you see Mary the wife of Cleopas in the upper room she is there as having learned that lesson. Her portion is not on earth, she would not be in the upper room if her portion was on earth; her portion is in heaven now; she has seen Him go into heaven, and she belongs to a company that is heavenly, and her blessings now are heavenly and spiritual; she is not now looking for the redemption of Israel, but she is appreciating what is heavenly.

We have to know the meaning of “Mary” to reach that subjectively. Naturally every one of us build up our hopes on earth; we were made naturally for the earth, “As is the earthy, so also are they that are earthy”; and naturally we are all earthy, and all our objects and hopes and desires and prospects naturally belong to the earth. Mary the wife of Cleopas standing by the cross saw all this terminate. The cross terminated all hopes for the earth in Mary’s heart, and henceforth, having seen Jesus go into heaven, she is found in the upper room, her objects and hopes now heavenly, not earthly. I submit that it is bitter to the natural heart to really accept that our portion is not on earth. I believe the Lord is using the present conditions of the world, and will continue to use them, to help us to accept the lesson of Mary the wife of Cleopas. How easily we are deceived and diverted, secretly building up our hopes on earth, but that is not in accord with the upper room. The portion of those in the upper room is not on earth, it is in heaven, and Mary is there as having learned the lesson that she no longer hopes for anything on the earth, but all is connected with a blessed Man in heaven.

Then it says that Mary Magdalene is there. Who call tell what went through that woman’s heart as she stood at the cross. Mary Magdalene — what a name! The Lord thinks a very great deal of Mary Magdalene. When He rose from the dead He appeared first to her; you think of that! The blessed One who moves beyond the realm of death does not do things by accident, He appears to whom He will. It says He appeared first to Mary Magdalene, showing the distinctive place that she had in His heart as one He loved. She stood at the cross. What would be going through her soul? She was that woman out of whom He cast seven devils; she had come into touch with the Lord. She was quite a different case to Mary the mother of Jesus and had an entirely different history, and altogether different, too, to Mary the wife of Cleopas.

She was a woman who had been absolutely dominated by the power of darkness, the seven demons mean complete domination by the devil; think of a woman like that. She might have appeared respectable enough outwardly, but as a woman she represents what was secret, secretly governed by the power of evil in every part of her moral being; but she met the Lord, and He had cast out those demons. In one view of them they are cast out, in another they went out of her; with the might of His own blessed power He had caused them to go out, and He had taken possession of her heart; so much so, that ever after that she followed Him, and she ministered to Him of her substance. He exercised a dominating influence over her soul, He took the place of the seven demons. The seven demons had dominated that woman’s life, now the Lord dominates her, and she ministers to Him of her substance, and she followed Him everywhere. You find her often mentioned as following the Lord, and she followed right up to the cross. She followed Him, she had learned to love Him; He had become the object of her heart, and it says she stood at the cross of Jesus.

I think we can tell a little of what must have passed through her soul; there was the One who was her Lord, as she says, “My Lord”, “They have taken away my Lord”. Whatever He was to anyone else, He was her Lord, her own Lord. He had delivered her from the power of darkness, He had captivated her heart; she stands by the cross of Jesus. She sees the princes of this world crucify the Lord of glory. She knows who He is, she knows He is the Lord of glory, the One who is supreme in power, but she witnesses the princes of the world, Pilate, Herod, the chief priests, the rulers, the soldiers, joining hands to crucify her Lord. What a bitter lesson to her heart! What an exposure to Mary of what this world is. The world stood exposed to Mary at that moment. She has finished with the world, she has no confidence in it whatever, she is not deceived as to its principles of lust and pride. The world is condemned in Mary Magdalene’s heart for ever. She would come up into the upper room in absolute refusal of every worldly principle; she would not allow one element of the world in the upper room; if it appears, she condemns it.

You can understand with what pleasure she followed the disciples in the selection of a man to take Judas’s place. She is one of “the women”, and they go over the question of who is to replace Judas; they want a man whose heart is right. They would carry Mary Magdalene with them when they prayed, “Thou Lord which knowest the hearts of all men show whether of these two thou hast chosen”. You can understand how she would say Amen to that. She wants a heart that loves Christ and rejects the principle of gain; Judas loved the principle of gain, he was like Balaam, he loved the reward of unrighteousness, he loved money; Mary Magdalene would refuse that. You can understand that Mary Magdalene would concur when Ananias and Sapphira were cut off; they brought forward a worldly principle, seeking to get it in amongst God’s people to use what they had in a material way, not for the Lord’s interests to minister to Him, but to get a name for themselves. She would have been in accord with the judgment of that absolutely, because she stood at the cross of Jesus, and she has allowed her heart to learn this bitter lesson that they who are the friends of the world are the enemies of God; she would not bring into the upper room one worldly feature. Naturally we put confidence in the world; we build our hopes on this world’s system, but it is exposed at the cross; you cannot trust the world. The cross shows that the world is a vast system opposed to God, and it has crucified the Lord of glory, and not one worldly principle belongs to the upper room, not one.

Now you put these three Marys together and you will see the gain they would bring to that upper room. One not claiming any rights because of links after the flesh, however great; that is Mary the mother of Jesus, she does not claim anything because she is the mother of Jesus, she has seen that that relationship is ended for ever. Then Mary the wife of Cleopas is there with a definite sense that all her hopes are in heaven, not on earth; she no longer looks for anything here, but her hopes, her blessings, lie in heaven where Jesus is. As the Apostle says, “have your mind on the things that are above”. And then Mary Magdalene is there as having accepted the absolute exposure of a world that crucified her Lord, so that she would not give place for a moment to one principle of the world.

These are some of the features in the upper room. Such secret conditions provide for the presence of the Spirit of God in power. The Spirit would produce them at the end as at the beginning, so that these features should be livingly and subjectively formed amongst God’s people. We have to admit that it is the “Marys” that contribute largely; it is they who learn the bitterness and reality of these things to the natural heart, and accept the bitterness; they do not want to alter their name, their name is “Mary”, that is, they have accepted the bitterness, the setting aside of the natural, the setting aside of the earthly,

and the exposure of the world; they have accepted that, and they are fitted to have their place in the upper room.

May the Lord help us all to travel on these lines, so that the upper room may become increasingly real to us.

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