"RABBONI"
James S. Gray
Mark 10: 49-52; John 20: 16-18.
This word "Rabboni" seems to involve some particular link with the Lord which is open to each one of us, and the sorrows of the recent weeks and months seem to me to point, at least in some cases to lack of this strong personal attachment to the Saviour, to the Lord. If we have this definite, personal bond with our Lord we will be held.
It seems that on this occasion, going out from Jericho, there may have been two blind men but the point for Mark is that each one has to have his or her personal link with the Lord. Dear brethren, there would be less turning aside I believe if we had this bond of attachment to Him and submission to His authority. The question is raised as to what is to be done, "What wilt thou that I shall do to thee?", and the blind man addresses the Lord as "Rabboni", then it says, "he saw immediately, and followed him in the way". We must be convinced as to the truth that there is one way, there is one way for all Christians, and we are responsible to be in it. It is a way of suffering but it is open to us, and it is the only way. It is not a way which involves sorrow all the time, although sorrows are in it; and for Jesus, dear brethren, it was a way involving sorrow; a way of love, but a way of sorrow. What a comfort it would be to the Lord to find such a one on the way of suffering, prepared to submit to His word and follow. In fact, it seems as if it is an almost spontaneous movement of the man, that, having received his sight, he follows. So I thought of this section as involving our submission to the Lord in relation to the course of the testimony. That is an important thing for us, especially in view of all the history we have had of departure, and confusion, and turning aside, that we should have a clear link established with the Lord in relation to His movements in the testimony and be prepared to follow. This man has something to ask for, and there are needs in the testimony which the Lord is able to meet.
When we come to Mary, the question is not so much one of meeting a need in the testimony, but of personal attachment to the Lord being developed in relation to His interests. The Lord is looking for those who are available, in submission to Himself, as having had experience in the testimony no doubt, but as available to Him for what He has in mind. With the man in Mark 10, his name is not used by the Lord, but with Mary, the Lord addresses her by name. There is the other side of our intimacy with the Lord, dear brethren. We should be concerned about that - I am for myself - that we should have some understanding with the Lord for ourselves in relation to matters in the testimony and in relation to His interests, too. I believe that if we simply submit ourselves to Him without stressing the side of our need in the testimony, that the Lord will open up everything to us. If we do not bring forward our needs prominently, the Lord is able to bring in the way of progress, the way of movement upward, the way of entrance into eternal things. So she says simply, "Rabboni, which means Teacher". She has not anything to ask about as to the testimony, but the Lord has something to say to her in view of upward movement. And I believe, dear brethren, that the Lord has not finished speaking to us as to upward movement, and we should therefore be concerned as to submission to Him in view of that. What a message this was for this woman! "Touch me not, for I have not yet ascended to my Father'' - the elevation of the Lord's thoughts for His own, immediately, in resurrection. How wonderful! But if we are to enter into them, it requires that there should be this personal submission to Him. So I feel the importance of this, that we should not come along to the gatherings with indifference or with any sense of being out of things, but we should be here as having had our personal transactions with the Lord, being in relation to Him as we: are here and looking for His Word; not only desiring that our needs as to the testimony and the course of it should be met, and He will surely do that, but that our sight should be in the direction of His opening up things according to His own mind, which He is ready to do, and there is no limit as to what He may lead us into.
LONDON
6 February 1973