MARK 8 (FROM CAC'S NOTES)

MARK 8 (FROM CAC’S NOTES)

Mark 8: 27 - 38; Mark 9: 1 - 6

Caesarea-Philippi was the farthest point from Jerusalem which was reached by the Lord, about the same distance as Tyre and Sidon; it was beyond the Jordan. It is noticeable that at that point He raises the question of who He was. Every other question is of little account compared with that. All that has gone before in the gospel is to prepare us to answer it, “Who do men say that I am?” The thoughts expressed are not thoughts of enmity, but they all fall immeasurably short of the truth. “But ye, who do ye say that I am?” “Thou art the Christ”. The men were blind; they had no vision in a divine sense. Men cannot rise above men: they may have good thoughts of Jesus, but human thoughts. Peter had really come under the hands of the Lord and had some vision: I do not say he saw all things clearly yet, but he had had the spit upon his eyes and the hands of Jesus upon him. It is not presented here as by the Father’s revelation, as in Matthew; it is here rather the result of Christ’s service, applying the virtue of His own Person to the disciples so that they got the power to see from Christ Himself. In Luke this question comes in in immediate connection with Jesus being alone praying. Saul said, “Who art thou, Lord?” (Acts 9: 5). How He would love to answer that question!

He was the One on whom God had put His anointing. “With my holy oil have I anointed him” (Psalm 89: 20). “Anointed ... with the oil of gladness” (Psalm 45: 7). “Messiah, the Prince” (Daniel 9: 25). We know that people were looking for Messiah (John 1:4; John 1:11); Herod and others. The disciples recognised Him, but they were not to tell any man of Him. He began to teach them about His sufferings and death and resurrection. The Messiah was to be cut off and have nothing. Peter rebuked Him, missing all that was in the mind of God at that moment.

^[p. 76] Then He calls the crowd with His disciples; this is something for all to hear, “Whoever desires to come after me” (verse 34); He presents Himself as leading the way. There is but that one way in the waste, which His footsteps have marked as His own; that path always demands the denial of self; that is not self-denial as men speak, but a refusal at some cost of one’s natural thoughts and feelings. Indeed “himself” (verse 34) would cover everything that is not Christ. It is moving away from oneself after Christ; it is a daily and hourly experience.

Then taking up his cross is the public position. A man bearing his cross was going to execution; he is not expecting any place or honour here, the honour lies in following Christ. It is a path through the waste of this world, a path of divine light and certainty amid the darkness here.

If we desire to save our lives we shall lose them. How much there is in this to ponder! Christ and the gospel are the two great motives, but if they govern us it will mean in some sense losing our lives, but in a real and true sense saving them. That is, the life which can be viewed apart from Christ and the gospel is not a thing that we should desire to save.

On that line it will assuredly be lost. But if Christ and the gospel make us willing to lose our lives we shall save them.

Our lives become valuable. Human life becomes worth something when it is influenced by Christ and the gospel. To gain the whole world and to have nothing of value in the soul is very unprofitable. There is nothing we should value more than our souls. Have I saved my soul today? The Lord and His words are to be valued above all else: there is purity there in the midst of an adulterous and sinful generation. We see what a solemn thing it is to be ashamed of Christ and His words. The Son of man will come in the glory of His Father.

In Luke it is a threefold glory — of the Son of man and of the Father and of the holy angels. Here it is the glory of His Father with the holy angels: the glory is that of the Father.

He will come invested with the glory of His Father, with the holy angels; that is, He will identify Himself with other ^[p. 77] beings who serve in a holy way the Father’s glory. It is “with his angels” in Matthew and Mark. In Luke it is first, “his own glory”, then that of the Father, and then that of the holy angels. What a glory belongs to the Son of man! Man is truly glorious in Him, glorifying God in every way. So the glory of the Father invests Him — divine glory of God in revelation. And thirdly, that of the holy angels: that is, unfallen creation is going to bring in its own peculiar glory to adorn the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The Lord’s announcement in Mark 9: 1 following upon the confession of Him as the Christ, and upon His speaking of His sufferings and death, was a most gracious encouragement to the faith of His disciples. Some of them would not taste death until they should have seen the kingdom of God come in power. It would be seen by mortal eyes in its essential power. They had known and confessed Him as in humiliation; they would be permitted to see the kingdom in its power. This does not come at the beginning of the Lord’s ministry, but towards the end. That is, they were morally instructed first to know and appreciate Him, and then they were allowed to be eye-witnesses of His majesty. The kingdom in its power actually came, not exactly down into the world, but “on a high mountain by themselves apart”. They were taken up, something like John being set on a great and high mountain to see the holy city. What an elevation to be brought to, “the holy mountain” as Peter calls it! “His foundation” — what He has founded — “is in the mountains of holiness” (Psalm 87: 1). We read in the Old Testament of the “mount of Jehovah” (Genesis 22: 14), “the mountain of God” (Exodus 3: 1; Exodus 4: 27 etc.), the law given. Horeb is called “the mount of God” (1 Kings 19: 8). It shows that we have to go up to reach the height of divine thoughts. The earthly-minded believer, like Lot, shrinks from the mountain: it is a place to dread. But on the mountain Jesus is seen transfigured. He is seen as heaven knows Him. Mark does not speak of His countenance as Luke, or of His face as Matthew. It is simply, “he was transfigured before them”. Matthew and Mark alone say “transfigured”. He is seen as God’s power, God’s wisdom, hidden from men, but seen by His own as the “Lord of glory” (1 Corinthians 2: 8). But we find that the transfiguration extends to His garments. They become shining (”white as the light”, Matthew says; “white and effulgent”, Luke says; “exceeding white ... such as fuller on earth could not whiten them”, Mark says). I doubt “as snow” being right because this would be earthly whiteness, whereas the point seems to be that it is heavenly. Purity such as belongs to heaven is evidence of the kingdom having come in power, but seen here as investing the Son of man.

Then Elias and Moses appear as talking with Jesus. God’s former testimonies are seen as communing with Jesus (Luke says “two men”). All that God had set up by Moses, and to which Elias had recalled an apostate people, is thus linked up with Jesus. Moses came down with glory shining in his face: Elias went up into the heavens by a whirlwind. The kingdom of God brings in the testimony of Moses and the prophets: they are in accord with Jesus. “For the spirit of prophecy is the testimony of Jesus”; so here they speak with Him.

Peter puts the Lord first, but he gives Moses and Elias an almost equal place, not knowing what he should say. The cloud overshadows ...