LOOKING AROUND
[p. 338] LOOKING AROUND
Mark 3:1 - 5; Mark 11: 11; Mark 3:31 - 35
For the benefit of some here who may not be so conversant with this gospel as are others of us, it may be remarked that it presents Christ from the levitical point of view, that is from the point of view of public service, and it begins abruptly with the statement, “Beginning of the glad tidings of Jesus Christ, Son of God”, with no formal explanation of why He is styled Son of God; it is assumed that this is already known and needs not to be proved nor specially asserted. So that the public service, the public levitical service, not priestly but levitical, takes character from this fact that Jesus is the Son of God. Luke gives us more the priestly side, and Matthew the royal, involving the authority of the Lord (all these features are essential to christianity) and John adds the great and glorious truth of His Person, not simply what He was officially as Man here, but what He was before becoming Man, that is that He was God — “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God”. These features are to be understood by christians, or we shall fail in our knowledge of christianity and our enjoyment of it and the blessings involved, and more particularly in understanding the manner of the ministry, that it is not by man-made ministers but by God-made ministers and that they are in the knowledge and enjoyment of their relationship with God as sons, not in the sense of Christ as Son, not indeed as He is, for He is a divine Person. Still it is sonship and we are brought into sonship, and thus we are set free as the apostle Paul tells us, “Christ has set us free in freedom; stand fast therefore” (Galatians 5: 1); He has set us free in a state of things described [p. 339] as freedom. It is freedom according to God, not licence to say what we wish as modernists, but freedom according to God and in subjection, to say only what is approved of God, what is according to Scripture.
And so Mark tells us that the Lord went through the cornfields on the Sabbath day (chapter 2: 23) which, from the standpoint of judaism, was illegal, but the Son of God had come in, and it is what He does, not what the hierarchy of christendom tells us, but what He tells us that is to be our guide. As the Lord did this His disciples did the same, meaning that they followed Him; they were not concerned about the criticism of the official ministers (the priests), but they were doing what Jesus did. He had initiated a certain liberty and they entered upon it and went on in it, that is plucking the ears of corn. “And it came to pass, that he went through the cornfields on the sabbath day; and his disciples began, as they went, to pluck the ears of corn. And the Pharisees said unto him, Behold, why do they on the sabbath day that which is not lawful?” That was their view; they complained about what the disciples did, not about what the Lord did, although what the Lord did was what led them to do what they did. And so it is today, the complaints made against the saints who follow Jesus are really against Jesus. Persons are not prepared to go so far as to complain against Christ, but it is complaining against Him indirectly. What I am saying is very common, and the Lord defends what the disciples did, and He does the same today for those who love Him, who walk according to His example in the liberty into which He has brought us. We may be persecuted, but the Lord undertakes to defend us and His defence is unanswerable, as it is here; He says to the Pharisees, “Have ye never read what David did, when he had need, and was an hungered, he, and they that were with him?” That is, the Lord contemplates here that His position is like David’s — He is rejected and He is not alone; He has his companions in His rejection, and He considers for His companions, as David did for his. David had companions; we are told he had four hundred followers in his day, but there were but few with him in the instance which the Lord cites here; He cites it to show them that what His disciples were doing was in accord with what David did. Moreover it was in the section which treats of Abiathar and He calls him high priest; he was a young man at the time of the incident, and was soon after a refugee indeed fleeing from the murderous sword of Saul who had slain his father and his brethren; the Lord speaks of him in this dignified way; and as we are exposed to the criticism of current religionists because we are doing what we are enjoined to do by the Lord, we shall be led into the secret that there is another system of things and that the High Priest is in it too. So that what David was doing in these circumstances was in the section of Abiathar the high priest. What we are doing is in the same setting, the setting of the epistle to the Hebrews, a wonderful epistle opening up the great truth of our High Priest: “Having therefore a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God” (Hebrews 4: 14); He is greater than all the high priests of Christendom (and there are several thousands of them), none can vie with our High Priest and what we are doing is what is in accord with Him. I am speaking now of saints who love Him and are in that liberty. He sustains us in this position and defends us against all criticism from opposers of any kind. That is what you get in the end of chapter 2. In the verses read in chapter 3, the Lord, being the Son of God, being the Leader in the public service of God before men, wants workers, and here we have in the synagogue a man who had a withered hand. Now what has led [p. 341] me to this passage here and the other two is that the Lord looked round in each of them. He calls the man with the withered hand into the midst of those in the synagogue; it says, “They watched him if he would heal him on the Sabbath, that they might accuse him. And he says to the man who had his hand dried up, Rise up and come into the midst”, that is, He is going to do this in the presence of all there; it is not to be done in a corner; what He is doing, He is doing publicly: He is the Son of God and has all rights in the profession of Christianity, and what He does is the great example for us. That is what we should notice, and that what He does, He does openly. It is a question of public testimony in Mark, and the Lord is doing things openly, calling this one and that one out, mostly out of obscurity; they were not such as the leading religionists would select, but He calls them and qualifies them for the service which He has in mind, liberating them as sons for the service.
Now perhaps here tonight there are those who have only one good hand which can be used. A withered hand is useless. What I am saying, you will understand, is an appeal to all young people here as to what the Lord is going on with. We cannot tell how long the testimony is to continue as it is; we know from the prophetic word that God has His date fixed for the finishing of this wonderful dispensation and the introduction of another. There is no doubt about it, though we are not told the day; the Lord says the Father has reserved it to Himself — a very important thing to bear in mind — but He is not obliged to give any account of His matters. It is for those who love Him to be subject to what is not revealed in detail; they know that the Judge of all the earth will do right, and when the time comes for the finishing of this wonderful period Jesus will rise from the Father’s throne and come first for and then with the saints;
[p. 342] He will come with them in glory, in visible glory as He says, “For as the lightning goes forth from the east and shines to the west, so shall be the coming of the Son of man”, Matthew 24: 27. There will be no doubt about it when it happens; it may be longer than we think, or sooner, but whether long or soon, the testimony is to continue, and there must be ministers such as Mark presents to us. He finishes his gospel with the example of a minister, a young man sitting in the tomb of Jesus, a young man clothed in white; that is what is in mind; if the testimony is to continue, it must be in that way particularly in white — that is purity. And so the word is, the Lord has need of every young man and woman here and, of course, of all of us, but particularly the young people, because they might think that the service is to be carried on by the elder ones while they themselves are just followers, they are just Congregationalists, but the Lord would say, ‘That is not so, you are mistaken’. I would say to every young man and woman here, ‘The Lord has need of you’. This man was a religionist, he was ‘going to church’, as they say; he was in the synagogue and the Lord entered there again; He had been there before in His wonderful service here, carried on mainly in relation to judaism as a testimony and particularly in the synagogues, the meeting places in towns at that time, where Jews came together to read the Scriptures; Moses enjoined that they should be read in the synagogue, hence the Jews were right so far. The Lord frequented the synagogues and Luke gives a beautiful picture of one visit that the Lord made to the synagogue at Nazareth. Here it is not to stand up to read as there, but what is in His mind is this man with the withered hand; now this is what we find usually in judaism, not what is absolutely useless, for even this man could do something. The gentile at Lystra could not do anything; he was lame and it [p. 343] adds, he had never walked, whereas that is not said of the man at the gate of the temple though he, too, was lame. Here is a man who can do something; a one-handed man can do something, but God has no pleasure in looking at a one-handed man at work. God has pleasure, not only in the person but in the way he does things. God made everything right, everything perfect, and certainly He made man perfect. His masterpiece was Adam, and when He gave him the position of dressing and keeping the garden, He had no thought of a one-handed man, that would be displeasing to God; not that He would not recognise any work done, but He is thinking also of the worker while he is working, and is pleased in his work, not only in what he does but in the way he does it. And so we see with the Lord Jesus, especially in that incident at Nazareth, His demeanour was such that He was admired even by persons who later sought to kill Him. So that this man with the withered hand cannot work according to God, and, if you will allow me to interpret what is meant, I would say he was a man who had only objective truth — that is what I think it means. A man might go to a seminary and study theology, a word that does not belong to the divine vocabulary at all, it is bringing science into christianity and God does not like that. I am speaking now of a man who goes to a seminary and prepares to preach and studies the catechism and creed and listens to lectures on theology and church order and all that goes with that, so as to be a public preacher or minister; he does all that and reads his Bible (he is not a modernist) and reads helps to the understanding of it, but alongside of all that he has certain habiliments and education that aim at the pleasure of man after the flesh, and he is intended to fill an office in a religion that is called christianity; it is Christianity to a point, but a religion from his point of view that fits into this world [p. 344] and is part of this world. Now that man has only one hand; he may be a christian — I am not denying that for a moment — but all that he can do is to present the truth as far as he has learned it from his catechism, an imperfect christianity. There is light in it, but it does not carry with it the idea of christianity. The idea of christianity is that the preacher is to convey Christ in his preaching, so that his listeners can be formed according to Christ; that is what I understand as his commission. The divine thought is that the preacher is to be able not only to present the truth, but to be the truth itself. So the Lord, as the great example of this, could say He was “Altogether that which I also say to you” (John 8: 25); there is perfect conformity, perfect agreement, between the testimony verbally presented and the person presenting it, so that those who hear and believe get the right thought, imbibe the right idea and develop accordingly; it becomes the engrafted word which is able to save their souls, and to form the mind too.
Well, the Lord says, “Rise up and come into the midst”. Now, these men in the synagogue watch the Lord Jesus (they were religionists, mark you), seeking to accuse Him; think of the atmosphere breathed by these men! The Lord carried on His wonderful service in spite of them, but not without them feeling that He understood their attitude towards Him. Let no one think he is alone in the presence of these men. God was there, and where the Spirit of God is today, God is there present. The word exposes whatever is the character of opposition; it says, “For the word of God is living and operative, and sharper than any two-edged sword, and penetrating to the division of soul and spirit, both of joints and marrow, and a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. And there is not a creature unapparent before him; but all things are naked and laid bare to his eyes, with whom we have to do”,
[p. 345] Hebrews 4: 12, 13. Well, these men were made to feel this. The Lord looked round upon them with anger; you can understand the blessed Saviour standing there in the synagogue knowing them thoroughly and looking round; He knew what was going on fully, and it says He was angry. Someone here may wonder that the Lord could be angry. It is a solemn thing that the time of His anger is coming as regards mankind when He sits on the great white throne, but the anger here as applicable today is more in relation to what He thinks of persons who persecute those who are doing what He has taught them to do; persons who are watching Him to catch something from Him so that they might accuse Him. His anger is roused on that account — a most solemn matter — for wherever religionists are, they will not say anything against Christ personally, but much against those who are doing what He does. It was the Sabbath, and here is a man with a withered hand; here, too, is the Saviour, the Son of God who came down to relieve suffering; will He leave this man with the withered hand in order not to offend these religionists? No, He is here to heal this man and He looks round on those who are standing there as if to say, ‘I know what you are thinking of, and I want you to see what I am doing’. He knew that they were going not only to accuse Him but also to kill Him; the passage says that was in their minds, but He is not deterred at all; He is here to do this and He does it. It is a very solemn matter for all mere religionists — but how attractive the position is for those who love Jesus! It is not so much the disciples that are in view here, but what He is doing; “He says to them, Is it lawful on the sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill? But they were silent”. Such men know when to be silent; they are unable to meet this question. They will say something in the dark later on, but, thank God, He is [p. 346] triumphant here. When He had looked around on them with anger, being grieved, He said to the man, “Stretch out thy hand”. Now, if there is any man or woman here tonight such as I have described, brought up to look at things abstractly and to think nothing or little of the idea that Christ should be represented here, should be expressed here, and that the saints, the believers should have the Holy Spirit and as having the Holy Spirit should understand the power of God, that is having another hand, having the withered hand healed — if there are those who have not faced this, what I say is for you. I am saying to you that the Lord is here tonight to say, ‘Stretch out your hand’. It is the epistle to the Romans as regards teaching and Galatians, too, as regards the idea of liberty and power in the Spirit. The Holy Spirit in Romans involves liberty in our souls and power to walk according to Christ. It involves what is called the subjective, as well as the objective. Without the subjective, although you may be able to present Christ, the other hand is withered — there is no power in it. What I am saying is for anyone who does not understand these things; the Lord is here, as depicted in the synagogue, to tell you to stretch out your hand that He may heal it. That is the point of the gospel: He is here to heal. The power of the Lord is present to heal, to heal spiritually. The Spirit of God is here for you for enjoyment, for walking and for testimony, so that you have two hands. Following on this incident we have the account in this gospel of the appointment of the twelve disciples.
Now I turn to chapter 11. The Lord is nearing the end of His ministry on earth. He had come down from Galilee by the eastern side of the Jordan, and He enters into Jerusalem riding on an ass; the Lord had need of this colt, and He rode into Jerusalem upon it. It is His own city. This verse represents a [p. 347] different side of the truth as applied today — it means the Lord Jesus has rights in the profession; He has rights in its entire extent; parts of it He will deal with judicially. In the book of Revelation what is said to the fourth church that is written to, Thyatira, involves definite judgment on Jezebel, she will not repent. That much is settled as regards the Lord’s rights in that assembly. He is going to deal with her as Babylon presently — that is more a political idea, but as regards her ecclesiastical position, it says of her, “She will not repent ... . Behold, I cast her into a bed ... and her children will I kill with death”. But the other churches, especially Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea, are still under His eye; He has rights over the whole profession; whether Rome or the Greek or eastern churches, or the protestant churches, He has rights over the whole profession everywhere. It is a very solemn matter and it is not simply that He looks down from heaven, but He walks in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks. How solemn! St. Peter’s in Rome, St. Paul’s in London, St. John’s in New York, and all those great buildings professedly put up in His name — what does Jesus think about them? He had His mind about them and all the paraphernalia going with them and the dignitaries necessary to keep them going. Not only the great but also the smallest sect in christendom comes under His eye; wherever man’s will is active, the Lord moves about and He gives us to understand He is attending to all these things. He walks in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks, clothed with power to deal with all the evil, but then He also walks about to see the good. So He says, Your doors are shut, “Behold, I stand at the door and am knocking” — that is to Laodicea. It may be there are some like that here. Think of the grace of Jesus standing at your door and knocking! It is a position of reproach to be standing and knocking and unable to get in. “If any one ... open the door, I will come in unto him”, He says.
That is what I wanted to say about verse 11 of Mark 11. “And he entered into Jerusalem and into the temple; and having looked round on all things, the hour being already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve”. He looked round on all things, not only on persons, but things, and what things there are today! One could not enumerate the things that the Lord takes notice of; He takes notice of the things as regards His own. Sometimes I have seen a card in people’s houses: ‘Jesus is the silent guest in this house!’ What goes on there? It may be a game of cards, or angry words, or unfair reproaches of a husband to his wife or of a young man to his mother — and is the Lord silent? He is not in that house. If He is there He will reprove that; He will not be silent. It says here He looked round on all things, as much as to say, ‘It is all My sphere, I have got to say to all of them’, so in verse 15 He began to cast out the sellers of doves and all that; He made manifest that He had the supreme right to the place, and power to deal with all that was contrary in the temple. That is a very searching matter. Here in verse 11 He does not say or do anything He does not need. He put in His appearance and gave all to understand that He had the right there, and the next day He goes in and shows that He has power to deal with what is contrary. Now the Lord may put in His claim tonight. It may be the Lord may say to some little meeting represented, or a household, or a brother or sister (I am just suggesting this), ‘I am coming back again’. He says of Jezebel, I gave her space to repent. It was developing a long time; she had plenty of time to repent, and then He comes in with a scourge. And so the Lord may say to us tonight in grace, ‘There are things that are not right; I am not dealing with them: I will give [p. 349] you the opportunity of dealing with them; if you judge them yourself it will save Me the necessity of dealing with them, but they must be dealt with and if you do not, I will have to do it’, and He does.
Then we have the beautiful thought that He went out to Bethany with the twelve. What a night He had there! What a beautiful picture! The scene at Bethany was a love scene; it was the place where the Lord loved to go; there were three persons there whom He loved and they loved Him; they made Him a supper there according to John. John gives us more the inward side of things at Bethany; Matthew does not give that, nor does Mark nor Luke. We must read all the gospels if we are to enter into what Bethany was. What a love scene it was! The Lord went out there and one can picture His going to the house of Martha. What order would be there! What ease He would have there. How different from the temple! There would be nothing incongruous there. And the Lord is aiming at this, that there shall be nothing incongruous in our houses, nor in our meetings, nor in ourselves; He would have restfulness there, and there would be room for the twelve; the twelve were there at Bethany and you may be sure there was room for them all. If we love the Lord Jesus we would love His people; there was room for the twelve wherever they lodged them at Bethany. One can picture that scene of love as the Lord would be in restfulness there and speak words of love to His own. We have such conditions as that now; the Lord gives us to understand now His rights in the public position. He also gives us to understand that there is a retreat that He has that He can come to, and to which He can take His brethren, His disciples with Him. One would love to be able to afford such conditions to the Lord Jesus; what a privilege it is! He would lay it upon us, dear brethren, to lay ourselves out for such hospitality as it says in Hebrews: “Be not forgetful of hospitality; for by it some have unawares entertained angels”, Hebrews 13: 2. What a night they had! You can understand how Mary and Martha and Lazarus would welcome Him at the door of their house, and they would welcome the twelve as with Him, His companions: “Inasmuch as ye have done it to one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it to me”, Matthew 25: 40. It is a place of love in which to be entertained, where one is at rest under an hospitable roof.
Well now, the final thought is found in the verses in chapter 3 to which I referred; these link on with what I am saying. The Lord’s own mother is seen here representing the natural side, His mother and His brethren after the flesh: “And his brethren and his mother come, and standing without sent to him calling him”. That is as though they have the right to call Jesus, that is what is conveyed; it is the arrogance of the flesh, because of natural relationship. Whereas the position is that He calls us; if there is to be any calling, that is the position. So here they carried the message to Him, “Behold, thy mother and thy brethren seek thee without. And he answered them, saying, Who is my mother or my brethren?” Then He looked round, that is what I have in mind; any of us here might be conversant with this passage, but it is the peculiar application at the present time — He looked round about on those that were sitting around Him; and there are such today. It is a beautiful circle (maybe some here know nothing about this); there are those who have given up all this outward religion I have spoken of and just sit around Christ; that is the principle of our meetings, just sitting around Christ. Of course, you understand I am not saying He is there in a literal sense, but that is the principle of our position; He is in the centre of all and He [p. 351] knows those that love Him. He says, “He that has my commandments and keeps them, he it is that loves me”, John 14: 21. And as loving Him and as coming together, we think of Him as coming in to us; that is the idea. There are those who stand outside calling Him to go out there as if they had the right to Him but they have not. He has all the rights; the Son of God must be supreme in all rights whatever they are. Presently according to Revelation He will put His right foot upon the sea and His left upon the land, meaning He has all rights on earth and sea; nobody can dispute it. Now He is thinking of those who are sitting around Him. He owns this country and all countries; He made them. Presently He is coming forth to take charge, but what He is thinking of is not that, but of us and of all His own, without calling attention to ourselves especially. That is the principle: Jesus loves those who love him and are doing what He has told them to do; He loves them. He watches their footsteps and He comes in and looks around about on those who are sitting about Him; that is what He is occupied with. It is very attractive; it ought to appeal to every heart. And then He tells us, as regards the family relationships, who His brethren are: “Behold my mother and my brethren for whosoever shall do the will of God, he is my brother, and sister and mother”. He puts the brother first; I suppose he should be first; we are each there as brethren and then the maternal thought in due time comes in; it is all based on doing the will of God; it is not doing my own will or that of another in this world, as incorporated in the systems of this world maybe; it is not that, it is doing the will of God. The Lord places family relationships on the surest basis here; it is a question of the public side, not the birth side which is secret as we get in John; it is the public side involving what is moral; it is a question of the will of God, and let no one assume to [p. 352] be a brother or sister or mother of Christ who is not doing the will of God. It is not a question of assuming to it absolutely, for James says “we all often offend” (James 3: 2); it is a question of what we are aiming at in principle and God takes account of that and credits us with that. Hence we can see that the family position is a question of what is moral, of doing the will of God. God will not own us (whatever we may claim) aside from doing His will. The Lord bases family relationships on doing the will of God. May God bless these thoughts to us!