PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
The Pulpit Commentary — Mark — Volume 2
Edward Henry Bickersteth, 1825–1906 · 320,775 words · 302 reading sections
The Pulpit Commentary — Mark — Volume 2 — Section 61
Il. Here we have AN EXAMPLE OF THE CRY OF DAWNING FAITH. 1. There is pre- sumed a sense of privation, of misery, of need. This expresses itself when opportunity invites the expression. 2. We observe a recognition of Christ’s power and willingness to help and save. When Bartimeus heard that it was Jesus who drew near…
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IL A PERMANENT DOCTRINE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. The historical circumstances of the time when the precept was formulated were probably considered at greater length than could be represented in Mark’s account, and the position justified that it was a com- promise or provisional measure necessitated by “the hardness of hear…
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i. How rr was axswereD. 1. With the needful correction to the question. It is of the utmost importance that we clearly perceive what real “goodness” is, and to whom alone it can belong, ere we seek it. 2. With a provisional test. The command- ments; perhaps those emphasized which bore most directly upon his position…
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Vers. 283—31.—The hundredfold, I. Is CagisTIAN SELF-SACRIFICE WORTH WHILE? 1. A question repeatedly asked, by worldlings and by Christians themselves: by the former because they do not comprehend or perceive the things of God, and by the latter from an imperfect experience and an imperfectly matured spiritual consci…
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sion occurs in Rom. v. 18; 1 Tim. ii. 4. The term is intended rather by way of antithesis to the one whose life was the ransom of the many” (Lange). Its efficacy was to be felt far beyond the personality in which it first took place. We are invited to take wide, comprehensive views of the work of Christ. And there i…
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I. THE YOUNG RULER WAS GENUINE AND srmuPLE. Christ rebuked nothing s0 severely as unreality. He exposed the Pharisees mercilessly, because they pretended to be what they were not. He declared that if a man’s eye was “single” his whole body would be full of light; that he who was of the truth (who was a true man) wou…
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L He WAS MISTAKEN AS TO THE NATURS OF “ GoopNEss.” “Good Master, what good thing shall I do?” asked he. Christ at once put him in the way of discovering his mistake by answering, “ Why callest thon me good?” etc. He did not decline the appellation, but repelled it when used in this superficial sense. He wanted him t…
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work, minister food to the hungry and wealth to the nation. 3. Jé was the owtcome of selfishness. One of the best tests we have of the lawfulness of ambition is this question— How does it affect my feelings towards others? There is reason to fear that the idea of these disciples was that the chief places in the king…
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now. As the giant walls of the city had fallen by the simplest means, so now the dark- ness was conquered by light through a single word. 1. This power is manifest tf you consider the condition of the sufferer, Blindness then was common, unalleviated, incur- able. No wonder that it was used as an emblem of insensibi…
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defined with authority and precision what constituted “adultery.” These werds remained to condemn the disobedient, and will remain to “ judge him in the last day.” The indissoluble bond of the marriage relation Jesus here affirms, and in the old words, spoken at “the beginning,” “ the twain shall become one flesh.” …
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Vera. 17—22.— The rich young ruler. Never did a more becoming question escape from human lips than when “there ran one”—“a certain ruler”—“to him,” and, kneeling at his feet, “asked him, Good Master, what [what good thing] shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?” With characteristic calmness Jesus drew him away …
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I, Iv 18 pirricutt. I¢ is difficult for the rich to enter the kingdom! But that difficulty lies, not as the disciples thought, simply in the possession of riches, but in the proneness of men to love riches. And how short is the step from having riches to loving them! Only by exertion, only by the painfulness of self…
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I. Tat THE POSTS OF REAL HONOUR ARE NOT ATTAINED BY MERE FAVOUR OB BY ABBITRABY ALLOTMENT, All such endowment, either in the kingdom of heaven or among men, would instantly rob the distinction of all worthiness and make it a sham. The incident presents an example of that kind of false estimate of honour which suppo…
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II. THe saNoTITY OF MARRIAGE IS FOUNDED ON NATURE. 2N ITS IDEAL, MARRIAGE IS FOR LIFE, AND INDISSOLUBLE, IV. YET THE ACTUAL CONDITION OF HUMAN NATURE COMPELS 80ME RELAXATION. V. Bor WHAT IS PERMITTED IS NOT, THEREFORE, TO BE APPROVED OR FOLLOWED PRAOTIOALLY. Christianity is throughout ideal. It makes appeal to our …
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IIl, THis PRINCIPLE HAS UNEXPECTED APPLICATIONS. Success is not always what ft seems; nor apparent failure, ‘There will be great “reversals of human judgment ” (see Mozley’s fine sermon on this), “Those who begin early and do much are not always preferred.” Some show in the front early in life’s race, but fail of th…
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Vers. 2—12. Parallel passage: Matt. xix. 3—12.—Doctrine of divorce. L Evunts IN THE INTERVAL. ‘There is a gap in the narrative of St. Mark between the events of the preceding and present chapter. We need nut do more than intimate them, and that for the continuity of the history. They are the following :—1l. His jour…
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VI. OnieamvaL MARRIAGE LAW. The Saviour argues the indissoluble nature of the marriage law from the original unity of male and female, from the extreme closeness of the marriage bond taking precedence of every other union even parental and filial ; above all, from its Divine origin. Marriage was thus an ordinance of…
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IL THE CHANGE BY WHICH WE BECOME AS LITTLE CHILDREN. 1. A parallel passages In St. Matthew’s Gospel (xviii. 3) we have a statement exactly corresponding to the fifteenth verse of this tenth chapter of St. Mark, with this difference, however, that the former passage goes further back, bringing us up to the turning-po…
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the change in question. Conversion is akin to regeneration; it is most nearly similar, and cannot be separated from it, and yet it is not quite the same thing. Regeneration implants a new principle in the soul ; conversion is the practical putting forth of that principle. Regeneration imparts new life to the soul; c…
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III. THE CHARACTERISTICS OF CHILDHOOD. 1, Infant salvation. When it is said that “of such [that is, een is the kingdom of God,” it may mean children literally ; and so many understand it, and refer kingdom to the state of future blessed- ness, maintaining that, as the majority of mankind die in infancy, and as they …
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Christianity tends to do away with, that proud spirit that sets up castes and oppose# class to class, preventing that cordial sympathy that should ever bind together all the many members in the great family of man. Why should we be proud? What are we proud of? Is it of our bodies? They are “fearfully and wonderfully…
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e day of redemption draweth nigh.” It is ours to exercise filial trust and childlike confidence in our heavenly Father, who “‘is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent.” 6. 4 fourth characteristic, Another characteristic ig simplicity. Wedo not mean that a child of God must be a…
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us; @ ruler of the synagogue, as St. Luke informs us; an exceedingly rich man, as all three synoptists relate; for St. Luke tells us he was very rich, and St. Matthew and St. Mark that he had great possessions, Besides this, he was an exceedingly interesting person—frank, sincere, amiable; he thus possessed many win…
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made religion consist in doing—scrupulously adhering to outward rules of conduct, young man’s error was that of the better part of his nation; for “ Israel, which fol- lowed after the Law of righteousness, did not attain to the Law of righteousness. Where- fore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by…
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a better righteousness, even that “everlasting righteousness,” which Daniel and others of the prophets long years before had predicted as to be wrought out and brought in by Messiah. Such was probably the import of that instructive symbolic transaction, of which we read in the third chapter of Zechariah, when the fi…
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angry with thy brother without a cause—when no real cffence was offered and no insul¢ intended? Hast thou never indulged the angry feeling till it formed itself in the con- temptuous expression? Hast thou never said to thy brother, “ Raca?” Hast thou never permitted thine anger to proceed still further, till it vent…
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TV. APPLICATION OF THE suBJECT. 1. In relation to the irreligious. Men may have fame and fortune; they may have intellectual endowments and worldly wealth ; they may have every earthly comfort and convenience; they may have kind friends, happy homes, and pleasant family relations; they may have all that heart can wi…
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or pluck out a right eye; to take up our cross in some way and follow him. He may rg We us to contribute more liberally to the claims of his religion, to give more largely to his cause, to work more vigorously as well as pray more earnestly for the extension of his kingdom ; or, it may be, he demands a more unreserv…
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large gates of Eastern cities. This, however, is rather a modern conception to explain an ancient idea. The difficulty is connected with trusting in riches, and arises from the temptations to which riches expose their possessors. The love of riches is the root of the evil. A rich man may sit loose to the riches he p…
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Vers. 32—34. Parallel passages: Matt. xx. 17—19; Luke xviii. 31—34.—A third prediction by our Lord of his passion and resurrection. I. REPEATED PREDICTIONS OK THESE suBJECTS. ‘The disciples required line upon line on this subject; they were so slow to grasp it and so loth to entertain it. ixgeaee to them inconceivab…
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I. THe cuP AXD THE BAPTI8M. By “cup” is meant one’s lot or destiny, be it good or bad, especially the latter. Thus, “'‘Thou makest my cup run over,” where the lot is plenty; and the words, divested of the figure, are nearly equivalent to, Thou givest me a plentiful supply as my lot. Again, it stands for vengeance al…
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Vers. 46—52. Parallel passages: Matt. xx. 29—34; Luke xvili. 35—43.— he cure of two blind men at Jericho. I. Burp Bartmmxus. 1. His condition. He was blind; he was deprived of that most valuable sense of sight. He was a stranger to the beauties of nature. “The light is sweet, and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes…
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sun, because he does not see them. There are great beauties just beside them—beauties of holiness, of grace, of glory, of Christ, and God; but they are as blind to spiritual beauties as a blind man to all the multiform beauties of this lovely world—a world so lovely notwithstanding the blight of sin. The spiritually…
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for relief to feel false shame. The circumstance of his poverty did not prevent him ; on the contrary, it prompted him all the more. True, he had no introduction to the Prophet from Galilee—no one to make known his situation or explain his unhappy circumstances, and bespeak the Saviour’s favour on his behalf. Still …
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His faith was remarkable ; he was fully abreast of his times in theological knowledge; he was fairly ahead of the crowd in his knowledge of the Saviour. They informed him that it was Jesus of Nazareth that was passing by. They represented him correctly, as far as they went; but their representation was sadly imperfe…
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yers of good King Hezekiah, and to assure him of an addition of fifteen years to his imit of life. But what are the waters of the sea, or the luminaries of the sky, or the element of time to him who furrowed the channel for the one and fixed the place of the other, and who himself fills all space with his presence a…
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e comes directly to the point; he names at once the thing which he needs most; he mentions the one thing needful for the relief of his direst necessity. “* Lord,” he said, “that I might receive my sight.” In like manner, whether we engage in public sup- plication, or family worship, or private devotions, we should h…
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4, Coneluston. We would sum up our study of the case of this poor, blind beggar in the now somewhat trite, but still touching and tender verses of a poet lately departed — “Blind Bartimaeus at the gates Of Jericho in darkness waits; He hears the crowd ;—he hears a breath Say, ‘It is Christ of Nazareth |’ And call…
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e came in gentleness, not that he might ve feared on account of his power, but that he might be loved on account of his good- ness. Ver. 4.—By the door without, in a place where two ways met (éml tot dupddev); literally, tn the open street. Ver. 8.—Others cut down branches off the trees, etc. According to the b…
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away.” “Straightway a shivering fear and trembling passed through its leaves, as though it was at once struck to the heart by the malediction of its Creator.” Our Lord’s digciples heard his words; but they appear not to have noticed the immediate effect of them upon the tree. It was not until the next day that t…
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Ver. 19.—And when even was come; literally, and whenever (Stray) evening came ; that is, every evening. During these last days before his crucifixion, he remained in Jerusalem during the day, and went back to Bethany at night. St. Matthew says (xxi. 17), speaking of one of these days, “ And he left them, and wen…
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Ver. 33.—We know not. They had seen the life of John. They had heard his holy and Divine teaching. They were witnesses to his death for the truth ; and yet they lie. They might have said, “ We think it impru- dent or inexpedient to say ;” but for this they had not sufficient moral courage. Neither tell I you by …
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126 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MARK, [cn. x1. 1—33. 1. Here 18 A SYMBOL OF “ JUDGMENT IN THE HOUSE OF Gop.” 1, The fruitless fig tree is an emblem of the immoral or useless professor of Christianity. Leaves are beautiful in themselves, are indicative of life and vital vigour, and seem to promise fruit; yet, in the…
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JIL Tae susviricé rion BY CHRIST OF HIS AUTHORITATIVE INTERFERENCE. Our Lord not only acted; he taught and explained the meaning of his action. We cannot suppose that he was animated by any superstitious feelings in so acting, and the record shows us what were his motives. 1. He regarded the temple as the house of h…
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ly of what was required for his tri . He appealed to their recognition of his authority—“ the Lord.” The claim was allowed by the stranger who owned the colt. It was freely given when asked. Christians are to make ready for their Lord’s triumph, They hsve all that he needs, if it be but freely rendered. He will thro…
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Vers. 12—14, 20—25.—The destruction of the jig tree. I. THR SUFFICIENT REASON FoR THE act. 1. Not an outcome of petulance or disappointment. The idea of Christ being “in a temper” is preposterous! ‘The difficulty as to the phrases, “if naply he might find anything thereon,” and “he found nothing but leaves ; for it …
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Ver. 17.—The Church—ideal and actual. JI. THe Couron In Irs MEAL. As viewed under this aspect it has: 1. A twofold character. (Isa, lvi. 7.) (1) A house of prayer. This recognition of a spiritual end to be secured by the institution of the temple is most remarkable, as having taken place in an era of ceremonialism. …
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INSTITUTIONS OF MEN I8 ONE OF AUTHORITY. Only direct Divine sanction, or a higher truth vindicating itself at the bar of reason and conscience, or in the field of experience, can justify the attitude of Christ and his religion towards the religions and superstitions of men. Arbitrary assumption will soon betray itse…
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III. As 4 Kina, JESUS EXERCISES A SPIRITUAL RULE. Until now his kingliness haa been concealed except from the nearest and dearest disciples, On this occasion it waa declared. Yet the spiritual nature of that kingliness was so evident in his dress, in the animal he bestrode, and in his attendants, that when a few day…
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II. THE oROWD sURROUNDING Jxsus. In some of those there we may see, perhaps, representatives of ourselves. 1. Hnthustasts were there. They had seen his miracles, and with loud hosannas spread their garments in his way. He foresaw with sad- ness the change that would come over them. They appplauded on Olivet, but the…
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I, THE TEMPLE OF GoD IS OFTEN DESECRATED. In considering the sins of other people and of other times, we are: 1. Apt to forget how natwrally and imperceptibly they obtained place and power, The Jews easily lapsed into this desecration. The Mosaic code ordained sacrifices of oxen, goats, and sheep in great numbers. I…
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There are times when truth bursts through all that hides it, and declares itself as the sun through a rent cloud. So is it hera. Without restraint the children of Israel proclaim their King as did Pilate when he wrote, “The King of the Jews.” ‘True, Pilate did not believe, nor did the shouting crowd at the gates of …
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kor gainful purposes. The love of money, the root of this evil, has led men to sell God’s house to purposes of merchandise; and, if worse could be, to trickery and thieving. Ah, they robbed God of his rightful honour; and they robbed the poor, and the sorrowful, and the homeless, and the heart-sick, and the sin-sick…
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IV. Love 18 AN ESSENTIAL CONDITION OF TRUE FAITH. Faith works by love. How mistaken is it to limit faith to intellectual assent! Devils believe, but love not, and are weak. Faith and love are other words for the might of God in the soul. “Oh, my brothers, God exists! Believing love will relieve us of a load of care!…
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IV. ‘HE HUMBLE YET HEARTY PAGEANT. All was done es had been directed. 'The colt was brought and led quietly along, its mother by its side, accompanying it. Then the disciples cast their abbas, or outer garments, on them, and set Jesus upon them —éxdye abtay being either on the garments, or on one of the animals. ‘Th…
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ring with shouts of triumph. The proclamation, no longer limited to action, now found utterance in words—words in which the men of Bethany and the people from Jerusalem » all took part, saying, “ Hosanna to the Son of David!” as we have it in the Gospel by St. Matthew. This term “Hosanna!” was originally a supplicat…
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and open to his cognizance. How circumspect, then, we should be! Who would not shrink from having exposed to the view of neighbour or friend or kinsman every thought that lies deep down in the recesses of his heart? Who would care to have every word he utters in the secret chamber made known to his fellow-man? And w…
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by a turn of the road, is at once brought full in view. At the descent from this. shoulder of Olivet, “ when he was come near, he beheld the city,” looking across the Valley of Jehoshaphat. Its temple, its buildings, its dwellings, rising full before him, were all seen in the clear air of a Judean sky; at the same t…
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Vers. 12—26. Parallel passages: Matt. xxi. 12—22; Luke xix. 45—48.—The Bighting of the barren fig tree. I. Sympouism. 1. Miracles of mercy. Mercy has been called God’s darling attribute; judgment is his strange work. The only-begotten Son, wh» has declared the Father unto us, has manifested the selfsame character. H…
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II. Our Lorp’s DISAPPOINTMENT. 1, He hungered. The Saviour was on his way from Bethany to Jerusalem, It was in the morning, and he was hungry. This may appear strange. What had been the matter with the friendly family of Bethany, under whose roof our Lord had been so often and so hospitably entertained? Had they for…
856 wordsSource & rights
Public-domain historical Pulpit Commentary. Text from OCR of an original historical scan; OCR may contain recognition errors.
Project Gutenberg source record →
Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.