Bible Commentaries

Mark 9:7

Oh that this misled and blindfolded world would see that Christ doth not rise and fall, stand or lie by men's apprehensions! What is Christ the lighter, that men do with Him by open proclamation as men do with clipped and light money? They are now crying down Christ... But the Lord hath weighed Him and balanced Him already: This is My beloved Son in Whom I am well pleased: hear ye Him! This worth and weight stand still. It is our part to cry: "Up, up with Christ, and down, down with all created glory before Him!" Oh that I could heighten Him, and heighten His name, and heighten His throne!

—Samuel Rutherford.

References.—IX:7.—"Plain Sermons" by contributors to the Tracts for the Times, vol. i. p259. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture—St. Mark IX-XVI. p7.

Jesus Only

Mark 9:8

These words conclude St. Mark's narrative of our Lord being transfigured upon the Holy Mount St. Luke's words, concluding the same narrative, are very closely like those of St Mark 9:20

I. This invalid only knew himself to be a weakling when he saw Jesus. There is nothing which rends the spirit like the sight of a high ideal. Spiritual stagnancy is the result of a low standard. There is a phrase we often hear: "He is on very good terms with himself. We apply it to a man who has never had any rending of the spirit. I can never be on bad terms with myself as long as there is only one man within me. If in my heart there hangs the picture of a second self, a higher self, a self which mimics my errors and tells me how things ought to be done—if there is in my soul a man who sings after me the song I have spoiled, reads after me the piece I have ruined, performs after me the service I have poorly rendered—that presence makes me small. It puts me on bad terms with myself—on wrestling terms, the terms on which Jacob stood with his angel.

II. It will not in the least soothe my struggle to know that I am the first man in the company, in the village, or even in the kingdom. There was not a man of his day so good as Jacob—he was the chosen patriarch of God. But he was far below his angel—the ideal of what he would like to have been. It was his angel that made him miserable.

III. When Paul met a storm at sea, the men of Malta said he must be a bad man. We are all apt to feel like the men of Malta When we see a storm-tossed spirit toiling with its own waves and battling with its own breezes, we say, Surely he is a child of the darkness! We are wrong; he is a child of the light It is only because he is a child of the light that he wrestles with the deep. He felt no discord till he heard the music. He knew no midnight till he saw the morning. He dreamed not of his mean attire till he gazed on the seamless robe. He got his cross from Christ, his ladenness from light, his burden from seeing beauty.

—G. Matheson, Messages of Hope, p117.

References.—IX:20-22.—J. S. Swan, Short Sermons, p242. IX:21.—H. Scott Holland, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lxxiv1908 , p216. IX:22 , 23.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxvii. No2224. IX:22-24.—H. M. Butler, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lvi1899 , p81. IX:23.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. viii. No474; vol. xxix. No1744. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture—St. Mark IX-XVI. p22. J. M. Neale, Sermons for the Church Year, vol. ii. p193. J. W. Diggle, Sermons for Daily Life, p239. IX:23 , 24.—J. Leckie, Sermons Preached at Ibrox, p362.

Mark 9:24

According to Dr. Oncken, Bismarck's last words were: "Dear Lord, I believe. Help Thou my unbelief, and receive me into Thy heavenly kingdom." See also R. H. Hutton's Theological Essays, pp245 , 246.

I have sometimes, in looking back on the doubts and questionings of this period, thought and perhaps even spoken of myself as an infidel. But an infidel I assuredly was not: my belief was at least as real as my incredulity, and had, I am inclined to think, a much deeper seat in my mind. But, wavering between the two extremes—now a believer, and now a sceptic—the belief usually exhibiting itself as a strongly based instinct, the scepticism as the result of some intellectual process—I lived on for years in a sort of uneasy, see-saw condition, without any middle ground between the two extremes, on which I could at once reason and believe.

—Hugh Miller, My Schools and Schoolmasters, xvii.

Unbelieving Belief

Mark 9:24

I think in these wonderful words we have four things—the birth, the infancy, the cry, and the education of faith.

I. The Birth of Faith.

There are three elements here: eager desire, the sense of utter helplessness, and the acceptance of Christ's calm assurances.

This man knew what he wanted, and he wanted it very sorely. Whosoever has any intensity and reality of desire for the great gifts which Jesus Christ comes to bestow, has taken at least one step on the way to faith. Conversely, the hindrances which block the path of a great many of us are simply that we do not care to possess the blessings which Jesus Christ in His Gospel offers. If we saw things as they are, and our needs as they are, nothing would kindle such intensity of longing in our hearts as that rejected or neglected promise of life eternal and Divine, which Jesus Christ brings.

Further, we have here the other element of a sense of utter helplessness. If we understand what is wanted in order to bring one soul into harmony and fellowship with God, we shall recognize that we ourselves can do nothing to save, and little to help ourselves.

And the last of the elements here is listening to the calm assurance of Jesus Christ. He stands at the door of each of our hearts and speaks to each of our needs, and says: "I can satisfy it". His assurance helps trembling confidence to be born, and out of doubt the great, calm word of the Master smites the fire of trust.

II. The Infancy of Faith.

As soon as the consciousness of belief dawned upon the father, and the effort to exercise it was put forth, there sprang up the consciousness of its own imperfection. He would never have known that he did not believe unless he had tried to believe.

Thus, then, in its infancy, faith may and does co-exist with much unfaith and doubt. The same state of mind, looked at from its two opposite ends, as it were, may be designated faith or unbelief; just as a piece of shot silk, according to the angle at which you hold it, may show you only the bright colours of its warp or the dark ones of its weft.

There follows from that thought this practical lesson, that the discovery of much unbelief should never make a man doubt the reality or genuineness of his little faith.

III. Notice the Cry of Infant Faith. "Help Thou mine unbelief."

The lesson is that, even when we are conscious of much tremulousness in our faith, we have a right to ask and expect that it shall be answered. Weak faith is faith. The tremulous hand does touch. The cord may be slender as a spider's web that binds a heart to Jesus, but it does bind.

But let us remember that, whilst thus the cry of infant faith is heard, the stronger voice of stronger faith is more abundantly heard. The measure of our belief is the measure of our blessing.

IV. We have here the Education of Faith. Christ paid no heed in words to this confession of unbelief, but proceeded to do the work which answered the prayer in both its possible meanings.

Thus He educates us by His answers—His over-answers—to our poor desires; and the abundance of His gifts rebukes the poverty of our petitions, more emphatically than any words of remonstrance beforehand could have done. He does not lecture us into faith, but He blesses us into it.

—A. Maclaren, The Wearied Christ, p125.

References.—IX:24.—H. W. Mellowes, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lxiv1903 , p359. A. Cowe, ibid. vol. lxv1904 , p286. H. E. Thomas, ibid. vol. lxxiv1908 , p421. Morgan Dix, Sermons Doctrinal and Practical, p195. J. Martineau, Endeavours After the Christian Life (2Series), p48. H. Montagu Butler, Harrow School Sermons, p61. B. F. Westcott, The Historic Faith, p3. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture—St. Mark IX-XVI. p33. Andrew Murray, The Children for Christ, p248. W. Page Roberts, Our Prayer Book, Conformity and Conscience, p192. C. H. Parkhurst, A Little Lower than the Angels, p186. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xviii. No1033; vol1. No2881. IX:25.—J. M. Neale, Sermons for the Church Year, vol. ii. p8. IX:27.—H. J. Wilmot-Buxton, Sunday Lessons for Daily Life, p128. IX:28.—James Denney, Gospel Questions and Answers, p39. IX:28 , 29.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xlii. No2454. IX:29.—C. New, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lviii1895 , p248. R. T. Davidson, ibid. vol. li1897 , p120. IX:30 , 31.—H. Scott Holland, ibid. vol. liv1898 , p193. IX:30-40.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xlii. No2494. IX:30-50.—W. H. Bennett, The Life of Christ According to St. Mark 9:38

A strangely pathetic interest attaches to a great disciple when we find him making a great mistake. For even loyal disciples are not infallible. Sometimes they seriously misrepresent the mind of Jesus, and have to be brought back to wisdom by the stern way of rebuke. Such a rebuke was once administered to John the beloved. And it was very necessary, for he had been betrayed by his zeal into a great error. He had misread the large charity of Jesus. He had taken it upon him to rebuke one who had been doing beneficent work in the name of Jesus; and Jesus had been constrained to rebuke him in the memorable words, "Forbid him not".

The attitude of John is remarkable; more remarkable still is the reason for that attitude. "Master, we saw one casting out devils in Thy name; and we forbade him, because he followeth not with us." One would have supposed that John might well have felt sure of this Mark 9:38

I remember one instance of Keble's narrowness extremely characteristic of him. A member of a family with which he had been intimate had adopted liberal opinions in theology. Keble probably did not know what these opinions were, but regarded this person as an apostate who had sinned against light. He came to call one day when the erring brother happened to be at home; and learning that he was in the house, he refused to enter, and remained sitting in the porch. St. John is reported to have fled out of a bath at Ephesus on hearing that the heretic Cerinthus was under the roof. Keble, I presume, remembered the story, and acted like the Apostle.

—Froude's Short Studies, vi. p269.

References.—IX:38-42.—J. Adderley, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lxiv1903 , p284. IX:39 , 40.—Newman Smyth, ibid. vol. xlvi1894 , p38. IX:40.—Hugh Black, ibid. vol. lxxi1907 , p20. W. J. Knox-Little, Church Times, vol. xxx1892 , p338.

Mark 9:43

Prescott, in the opening chapters of his Mexico, observes that the magnificent table-land of forest-trees in Mexico had to be destroyed for prudential reasons. "The early Spaniards made as indiscriminate war upon the forest as did our Puritan ancestors, though with much less reason. After once conquering the country, they had no lurking ambush to fear from the submissive, semi-civilized Indian, and were not, like our forefathers, obliged to keep watch and ward for a century."

References.—IX:43 , 44.—J. E. Roberts, Studies in the Lord's Prayer, p94. R. J. Campbell, Sermons Addressed to Individuals, p151. IX:43 , 47 , and48.—W. Leighton Grane, Hard Sayings of Jesus Christ, p179. IX:49.—George Jamieson, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xlii1892 , p377. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture—St. Mark IX-XVI. p55. IX:49 , 50.—Stopford A. Brooke, Short Sermons, p30. IX:50.—E. E. Lark, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lxii1902 , p21. E. M. Goulburn, Occasional Sermons, p390. R. Waddy Moss, The Discipline of the Soul, p137. F. E. Paget, Sermons on Duties of Daily Life, p103. F. J. Jayne, Keble College Sermons, 1870-76 , p229. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture—St. Mark IX-XVI. p64. X:1-31.—W. H. Bennett, The Life of Christ According to St. Mark , p144. X:2-9.—H. Hensley Henson, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lxix1906 , p177. X:6.—J. Parker, Studies in Texts, vol. i. p84. X:6-9.—R. E. Hutton, The Crown of Christ, vol. ii. p417. X:7 , 8 , 9.—J. Phillips Dickson, Church Times, vol. xxxvi1896 , p640.