The Pulpit Commentary — Mark — Volume 1 — Section 45

"mend" the net, to have it well in hand, to cast it in a likely place, and then to wait and watch and pray. Quote Keble's hymn beginning- • The livelong night we've toiled in vam: But at thy gracious word I will let down the net again: Do thou thy will, 0 Lord." A.R. Ver. 29.-The home and the synagogue. This pa.ssage, which gives an account of a AAbbath spent in Capernaum, shows us the manner in which many unmentioned sabbaths were spent by our Lord and his disciples. \Vhithersoever Jesus went we should follow him, translating into modem ha.bits the principles which underlay his actions. Consider- I. THE s~.&.GOGUE_wmce JESUS ~ERED. Its worship, unlike that of the temple, was not specially orda.med by the Mosaic code. It was the outcome of earlier and more l!abitu_al devotions, to wh~ch the.tents of the pat~iarchs had ':1~t been strangers. Side by •1d~ With the ornate, national ntual that enshnned the spmtual truths which, a.s the Epistle to the Hebrews tells us, were fulfilled in the work of Jesus Christ, this more homely worship continued. Its form sometimes varied, yet it constantly ministered to the religious instruction of the people, and expressed their devotional feeling. In such services our Lord from his childhood took part, and his apostles used them for the propagation of Ch!l~tian t~0:th among~t their fellow-countr~men. . As the synagogue represented the a.b1dmg rehgia,tlll worship of the people, we will consider what it was to our Lord and his disciples. 1. It was a place of worship. It is noteworthy that, so far as we know, Jesus Christ never neglected the ordinary worship in which the people united. If any might have found an excuse for doing so, it certainly was he. Self- sufficient in the fulness of his Divine life, he required no help from such extraneous means. With his spiritual insi~ht he could see the formalism and unreality of many about him, and knew the terrible extent to which false teaching misrepresented the character and the ways of God. But he did not turn from the synagogue with contempt uor did he make the place a scene of theological strife. He himself, the Sinless One, wa; present there amongst a sinful people, and he devoutly joined with them in prayer and praise. The remembrance of this should serve as a rebuke to those who, in our day, neglect the sanctuary. Their spirituality may be such that they can meditate profitably in their home or in the fields; their intelligence may be so great that no human teacher can help them; yet they do not surely compare with him who was the wisest Teacher and lived the loftiest life the world has ever known, and yet went into the synagogue every sabbath day," as his custom was." 2. It was a place/or teaching. During the service of the synagogue an opportunity was given to any worshipper present to speak a few words on the interpretation of the Scriptures (Acts xiii. 15). Of this liberty the apostles often availed themselves. In this they followed their Lord. It is stated in ver. 21 that Jesus" taught" on this sabbath, and we do not wonder that the people " were astonished at his teaching." He showed the spiritual significance of the events in Old Testament history, which were too often merely subjects of national boasting. He drew his illUBtrations, not from rabbinical books, but from the lake and the fields, from the housewife's employments and the merchant's trading. And as he spoke the weary found rest, the eager seekers had a revelation of God, the anxious lost their burdens, and a hush came over the assembly as if the peace of heaven was brooding there. 3. It was a place of comfort. Help and deliverance came even to the poor demoniac, whose obscene ravings and hideous shrieks disturbed the worship and,inter- rupted the teaching that day. He found that the synagogue was "the house of God and the gate of heaven" to his enslaved spirit. So has many a man, possessed by sin, had deliverance wrought for him where Jesus is. The disciples also knew that comfort W8.l! to be found in worship. Hence Simon Peter was there, although he had illness at home such as would detain many a Christian from public worship. What to some would be an excuse was to him a call to the house of God, as the place of rest for anxious hearts. There songs of praise may lift us up as on angels' wings, and Christian teaching may prove as the Hread of life to our hungerini hearts. Il. 'JRE HOME wmca JEsus BLESSED-"the house of Simon and Andrew." an.L 1-46.] TIIE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. 1\IARK.