^ When we have carried on a long struggle, and have been pinched or in distress, and have felt as if we must give way, and have been upheld only by naming God every hour, saying God is able, God will not fail us ; then, when the relief comes at last, there is a strange sense that it has come direct from God. Angels come and minister to us. The joy of resisting temptation is the highest joy man can feel. It is a moment when our little life here grows larger, and we feel ourselves lifted into a wider sphere ; we have a sense of fellowship with higher beings, and are somehow conscious of their sympathy. All God's creation smiles upon us, and appears made for our joy. Every pore of our nature seems opened, and there rushes into us a stream of joys that lifts us into another world. At such moments angels do minister unto us.'^
^ It is probable that on this occasion they brought food (cf. 1 Kings xix. 5) ; the word in the original (dirixovouv) may imply as much; and that word, "Man did eat angels' food" (Ps. Ixxviii. 25), may have thus received its highest fulfilment ; nor less may they have celebrated with songs of triumph this transcendent victory of the kingdom of light over the kingdom of darkness. So much Keble has suggested :
Nor less your lay of triumph greeted fair
Our Champion and your King, In that first strife, whence Satan in despair
Sunk down on scathed wing : Alone He fasted, and alone He fought;
But when His toils were o'er, Y"e to the sacred Hermit duteous brought
Banquet and hymn, your Eden's festal store.
(2) They succoured Him in His hour of darkness and depression. — It is always in His depression that we read of the
^ A. B. Davidson.
ST. MARK 65
angels coming — in the manger, in the wilderness, in the garden. Why do they come in Hie depression ? Because there is a virtue in depression ? Nay, the reverse — because there is a danger in it. God will not let me have a cross without the alabaster box ; He fears the effect on me of unqualified pain. There is not in all His providence a night without a star. He plants a flower on every grave, and that flower is the boundary line beyond which grief cannot go.
(3) They brought Him the felloivship of Heaven. — So great were the love and desire that welled up in Jesus towards His Father, and so great was the response of God's heart towards Him, that the place where He stood became heaven upon earth, while He stood there held out to God for His embrace. He Mas kindred with earth, but still more closely kin to Heaven. His call pierced the barriers of separation ; the interposing powers of Hell were swept into an instant flight. Deep called to deep ; like the flash of lightning between thunder-clouds, the fellowship of God rushed to meet the welcome of the man Jesus. He claimed it, and in answer it claimed Him.
That is what the coming of the angels means ; and thus they came. The tide of heavenly love that rose in Jesus' heart was met by a great tide of kindred love that swelled towards Him out of heaven ; and these met in a visible concourse of angelic presences that gathered round the Man who first from earth had chosen, ay, compelled, the full fellowship of God. The angels did not compass the deliverance of Jesus ; nor did they merely celebrate it in a pageant of glorious rejoicing. Their presence was His victory in its outward showing. In the hour of Satan's majesty and insolent assault, the motions of Heaven were so strong in Jesus, that suddenly and with great strength He grasped the very heart of Heaven and drew it to Himself.
^ Can we believe that the glory of Heaven was only around Jesus at this time ? Nay ! It was upon Him and in Him, and shone out from Him. Long afterwards, in agitated prayer to God regarding the trial of the Cross which was before Him, Jesus was suddenly transfigured in company with Moses and Elias, and in the presence of a well-loved three of His disciples. And He was transfigured now, amid that band of bright angels. There was no man there to see and tell of it ; and Jesus did not tell such things.
ST. MARK — 5
66 THE GREAT TEXTS OF THE BIBLE
Yet we may see our Lord clothed in transfigured radiancy, and in aspect not inferior to His visitants.^
3. The words of the text are better rendered : " Angels came and were ministering unto him." The ministry was probably continued throughout the whole of Christ's earthly life. It is reasonable to suppose that He who was made in all things like unto His brethren, and was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin, was in all points as we are ministered unto by the angels. Let us remember, however, the marvellous obedience unto death, even the death of the cross, which made Christ unwilling to invoke angel aid that would have been His to command, which made Him say to Peter, " Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels ? But how then shall the Scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be ? "