III. THE LORD’S SERVICE PERFECTED IN SUFFERING AND DEATH (Chap. 10:46-16:)
The closing verse of the last section is the one which opens the following one. The Son of Man is now' about to complete His earthly ministry by the giving of His life a ransom for many. The divisions here are in general simple:first, from chap. 10:46-xiii, we have the doom upon the people, which He Himself is going to take, to deliver them from ; then, chap, xiv, xv, He stoops under the necessary judgment of sin, bearing it in His own body on the tree; and then, as in the other gospels, resurrection becomes the public witness of acceptance (chap. 16:).
I. (10:46-13:) Judgment and Deliverance.
(i) 10:46-11:26. The Lord's entry into Jerusalem. In each of the three synoptic gospels it is at Jericho, and with the healing of the blind man, that the story of the Lord's final sufferings begins. Bartimaeus is, so to speak, the herald who announces to the people the character of the kingdom which they are invited to receive. Here, for the first time in the gospel, the Lord is appealed to as Son of David, and answers the appeal. Power is put forth in his behalf, and faith makes him whole. Alas! in the nation at large there is none.
We next find the Lord entering the city according to Zechariah's prophecy. The multitude hail Him who cometh in the name of the Lord, but not as in the future they will from their heart do so. The Lord enters the temple, simply looks around upon all things, and departs. It is striking that no overt act of rejection is recorded as yet. It is not the national or dispensational question, but one much deeper. He then pronounces judgment on the fruitless fig-tree. True, the time of figs was not yet, but the leaves professed to the eye what was not justified to the hand that tested it.
Once more in the temple, He denounces the shameless traffic which polluted the house of God; and in the morning the disciples find the fig-tree dried up by the roots. The Lord uses this to strengthen their faith in God.
(2) 11:27-12:The judgment of the people. The leaders of the people now question His authority. He convicts them by a counter-question as to John's baptism, and then in a parable exposes their refusal of the divine claim, and of Him in whom it was presented to them. Yet how vain, as well as causeless, was this enmity! It was already written that " the stone which the builders rejected " was to " become the head of the corner."
The only result is another attack, concealed with the most consummate hypocrisy, of the Herodians and Pharisees together. The Herodians found their gain in what was their shame, while the Pharisees resisted what was the punishment for their sins. God was on both sides alike forgotten. The holy wisdom of the answer confounded their serpent-cunning:" Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's."
The infidelity of the Sadducees is next rebuked by the unexpected witness of that part of Scripture which alone they acknowledged:" I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob," was said when the patriarchs had long been to men dead. Yet this word of Moses exhibited God still as owning relationship to them, who therefore to Him lived. The Lord bases His argument for resurrection upon the fact of a separate state. The Sadducees, as consistent materialists, denied both.
Thus is man told out,-infidel, worldling, or under whatever form of religion, still at heart a rebel to God's rightful claim. The first of all the commandments was, "Thou shalt love the Lord Thy God," and yet men had difficulty in realizing the comparative importance of this compared with "all whole burnt-offerings and sacrifices." He who discerned it is pronounced by the Lord Himself as " not far from the kingdom of God."
And if the law was clear, so were the prophets. The Christ who was to be David's Son is owned by David himself to be his Lord, and set by God at His own right hand. But the secret of unbelief is in the lust of place and power and gain and reputation; while with Him who quietly watched and weighed men's actions, two mites in faith and self-denial given to God were of more value than a myriad costly gifts.
Such was, such is, man; and being such, redemption can only be for him through the cross. The Son of Man must be lifted up.
(3) 13:The second coming " apart from sin unto salvation!' But before that is shown us, we have, as in Matthew and Luke both, the Lord's announcement of His coming the second time, not as one having to say to sin any longer, but in power and glory, for the full deliverance of His own in Israel, oppressed at once by the unbelief and wickedness of the people, and the calamities which this entails. It is plain that the character of the gospel is observed here as elsewhere, and that it is with disciples as such that the Lord is occupied, throughout. On the other hand, Israel is exclusively in sight. The references to Christianity and to the Gentiles which are found in both Matthew and Luke are entirely omitted here.
2. (xiv, 15:) Judgment borne (the basis of deliverance.
(i) 14:1-52. The cup in view. In Mark's relation of the last supper, the Lord's sovereignty over circumstances is not dwelt on, as in Matthew, while His foresight of them is much more so. In Matthew and Mark both, the cup He is about to take is more simply in view than in the other gospels, which speak more of the fruits of it. Here, if the shadow is deeper, the surrender is absolute; and it is beautiful to notice that it is in these two gospels alone that the hymn is mentioned which they sing before they go out to the mount of Olives. From the darkest shadow the fullest praise! In both, also, in striking relief of the present sorrow is the anticipation of the new wine to be drunk with His own in the kingdom of God. In the garden, we have the trial of a perfect will, which could not but abhor the awful doom of sin, yet could not but accept a Father's will, even to the drinking of such a cup. This was the pure linen garment with which alone the priest could go into the holiest. How wonderful the light which the absolute Light must needs carry with Him in the darkest place-nay, which there would shine out in fullest luster ! Only He could be " made sin " who Himself knew none. " He is there as a man- glad to have His disciples watch with Him, glad to isolate Himself, and pour out His heart into the bosom of His Father, in the dependent condition of a man who prays. What a spectacle!"
" All forsake Him and flee; for who beside Himself could follow this path to the end? One young man indeed sought to go further; but as soon as the officers laid hold upon him, seizing his linen garment, he fled and left it in their hands. Apart from the power of the Holy Ghost, the farther one ventures into the path in which the power of the world and of death is found, the greater the shame with which one escapes, if God permit escape." (Synopsis.)
(2) 14:53-15:15.The cup taken. Before the high-priest the Lord is condemned for His own true testimony, the false witnesses being able to do nothing but manifest their mutual contradiction. Jesus is distinctly refused as Son of God, though the Son of God could alone redeem; but of their own need they know no more than of His glory. Peter makes evident that none can follow Him now, breaking down before the accusations of a maid and vindicating himself with oaths and curses from the suspicion of knowing Him whom to know is eternal life. The crow of the cock alone awakes him to his sin and shame, but to the grace of the Lord which had anticipated and provided for all, and he is brought to repentance.
Before Pilate, the account of what takes place is briefer than in any other gospel. The charge itself is scarcely distinct even, for the question is here of another kind. The people's choice of Barabbas, on the other hand, instigated by the priests, is clear and decisive. They refuse the Prince of Life, and desire a murderer to be granted to them. The state of man is every way made plain, and for this, a willing sufferer, Jesus dies.
(3) 15:16-47. The cup drunk. The only thing that remains, therefore, is the cross itself. First, in mere causeless brutality, He is mocked by the soldiers, then led out to be crucified, another bearing His cross, whom the Lord well remembers in his sons, Alexander and Rufus, known men afterward in the Church. Then the usual stupefying drink is offered and refused. He had come expressly (blessed Lord!) to suffer; might have had twelve legions of angels and have gone to the Father, and would not. Then they crucify Him, casting lots upon His garments; and the scripture is fulfilled which saith, " He was numbered with the transgressors." We have very exactly the scene of the twenty-second psalm, all other sufferings only bringing into prominence that great suffering which alone interprets the darkness-the being forsaken of God. He expires, and the vail of the temple is rent in the midst. The Gentile centurion owns Him as the Son of God. And now, His work accomplished, the ministry of His own begins once more, and the rich man's new tomb receives its brief-tarrying Guest. The peculiar character of Mark's relation has been already dwelt upon.
3. (16:) Resurrection, the acceptance of the work of atonement.
(i) 16:1-8. The re-establishment of the connection between the Lord and the poor of the flock in Israel, a remnant who by and by become the nation. The conclusion of Mark's gospel divides manifestly into two parts; a fact which criticism has laid hold of to deny the authenticity of the last part. In truth, they are widely different, the Lord being in these verses, if we may so say, in Old-Testament connection, in the following ones in New. In these first verses He is not actually seen at all, but is promised to appear to them in Galilee, a place constantly connected with the blessing for Israel in the latter days. To this it no doubt points-a blessing in reserve, its foundation already laid.
(2) 16:9-20. The Lord in New-Testament connection. announces the results of His atonement. In the second part, faith in testimony is insisted on, for ours is the greater blessedness of those who have not seen but believed. The gospel is sent out to every creature, and he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. The signs that follow are tokens of Satan's power subdued; the division introduced by disobedience among men removed in grace; the serpent's bite, the poison of sin, annulled ; the power of death, too, canceled; and the blessing received to be communicated to others.
Finally, as the guarantee of all, fit answer to the humiliation into which, though it be His glory too, He has come down, "the Lord therefore, after He had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God." But He is not divorced thus from the service which He loves; and the gospel ends in character as it began:"And they went forth and preached every where, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following."