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THE PERFECT SERVANT

My object is to bring before you suggestively some of the marks of the true Servant. I suppose we all know that the Gospel of Mark presents the Lord in that aspect; He is the Prophet, the true Servant.

Someone has said, and I think it is right, that the disciples are looked at in Matthew as teaching, in Mark as preaching, in Luke as witnessing, and in John as sent by the Son, even as He was sent by the Father.

It is a very great comfort that we have perfection in One. While we have Paul, a wonderful servant, brought before us, who came closer than any of us to the Lord, yet perfection was only found in Christ.

Paul and the testimony were one, as it were. He was not severed from the testimony in any way; he was characterised by the testimony; he was the answer in himself to it, a man of like passions with ourselves. Still, we have to feel the distance between him and the perfect Servant.

We have perfection only in the Lord, and how sweet it is to look at His perfections and enjoy them. However much we are made to feel how different we are in our imperfections, it is sweet to turn to Him, to look at Him and consider Him. I wish we did it more. If we looked at Him more we should become like Him morally.

The Psalmist says, “Thy commandment is exceeding broad”, Ps 19: 96. Christ fills out all things - He fills out the commandment. So we have in Mark the perfect Servant, and the perfect Servant is the Son of God. It is the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. We are introduced to Him in rather an abrupt way. It says here, “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God”. So we are presented at once with this perfect Servant.

I want to show you that the spring of all true service lies in conscious sonship; it is a very important thing to remember. It has been said that the first time you get a thought as to a thing in scripture you get an indication of what it means. I do not think you get any thought of service in Genesis, but the thought of it is in Exodus; we have here for the first time God's great thought as to service. He speaks of Israel as His son, His firstborn; and sends Moses with this message to Pharaoh, “Let my son go, that he may serve me”. That was the great object of their deliverance, not relief, though that was involved in it, but that they should serve Him. It was because Israel was His son, His firstborn, “Let my son go, that he may serve me”.

Then we know very well how Israel failed. It is very interesting, and very touching too, to see the way by which they got off the line of grace and came under law. Things were entirely altered when they placed themselves under law. There could not be any service under the old covenant, no service that could be pleasing to God. It is extremely touching, that immediately you have the giving of the old covenant, the first precept given to Israel was in regard of the Hebrew servant. God hastened to tell us in type and figure that He had a Servant. The servant had a title to go out free, but he says, “I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free”, Exod 21: 5. He goes to the door-post, and his ear is bored through with an awl, that he may serve for ever.

It is as if God were saying: ‘I have got My Servant, and it is through Him I am going to have you to serve Me’. They put themselves under law; it was necessary in the ways of God that they should put themselves there, to learn what they were, as we have to learn what we are.

The word service covers a wide range. Service here is what is priestly; that is a very important principle. It was not active service in preaching, as we understand it, it was in connection with the sanctuary - a priestly service according to God's pleasure. He speaks of the perfect Servant, and the spring of that service is, “I love”. That is the spring of all true service; it involves the revelation of God, and He must give ability to answer to that revelation, so that every bit of service which is pleasing to God has for its spring, “I love”. Service and sonship go together. The way in which God recovers His people Israel is all through Christ, but it is very interesting when you come to Psalm 116, for the first time you get, “I love the Lord”. It is really Christ on resurrection ground, voicing Israel's feelings to Jehovah.

The apostle quotes it in 2 Corinthians 4, which throws light on it, and shows exactly what the psalm means - Christ in resurrection as Head for Israel voices their feelings towards Jehovah, “I love Jehovah”. The subject matter of the psalms ends very soon after that. Psalm 118 closes it.

If God has got the affections of His people, He has gained His point; He has won their affections that they may serve Him, so that all the service which will be rendered by Israel by-and-by will have for its blessed spring, “I love”.

It supposes that God has revealed Himself, and has given His people ability to answer to that revelation. He turns their flinty hearts into fountains of waters, and there shall be a constant outflow, the spring of which shall be, “I love”.

The thought is extremely blessed that God shall not be disappointed in His purpose.

In Mark you come to the great Servant who is the Son of God. Believe me, that is what we want to understand more, the blessedness of such a relationship which gives character to Christianity. It gives character to the kingdom and to the house; it is the kingdom of the Son of His love, and He is Son over the house.

Sonship gives character to everything; it is most important, so we have it here in this precious gospel. We are made to feel that the writer appreciates what he is writing about, because he is presenting the Lord in His perfection. Mark failed in his service, he turned back, but he was graciously restored, and God took up such a man to write about the true Servant.

I think you will find that his pen at times is tremulous, because he is speaking of the perfect One in the line in which he broke down himself. What I want to shew from this is that we are introduced to the Son of God.

What is so peculiar to Mark is the way in which He did things. The service of Mark is carried out in the communion of John. Behind all the unceasing activity of Jesus was the unbroken communion in which He dwelt; He was ever in the blessed place of sonship, and ever enjoyed blessed, unbroken communion with the Father.

Nothing could interrupt the outflow of good. You see not only that, but you see the way in which He did things. There are certain things here which are peculiar, it is the style of His service.

There is a certain delicacy of touch in His service which comes out here in a remarkable way. There was divine sympathy. If He touched anyone He made them feel the sympathy that went with it. I think what we lack is sympathy. We say things that are perfectly true, but we want the feeling that goes with it. There is such a thing as divine compassion, that God-like, deep compassion which flowed out from Him. It is the way in which a man says a thing that affects me most; not only what he says, but the divine feeling that goes with it. So we are edified by the spirit of a man.

That is the way in which to judge of ministry, it is the divine feeling that goes with it, not natural feeling, but divine feeling: your spirit is impressed with that which is divine when it has been ministered. “He sighed deeply”, Mark 8: 23. He looked up to heaven. There was no hardness, no, none.

It is very wonderful to look at Him in that way; He felt for man. I wish we had more of this feeling.

I think where we lack is, that we are too doctrinal. We may discuss things clearly, but it is the feeling that goes with it that shows whether God is there. We want to seek it and cultivate it, and pray about it. May God grant us grace that we may do so.

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From ‘The Believer’s Friend’, 1919

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