Expositions of Holy Scripture: St. Mark

Part 1

Produced by Tiffany Vergon, Dave Maddock and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.

EXPOSITIONS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE

ST. MARK

ALEXANDER MACLAREN, D. D., Litt. D.

CONTENTS

WHAT 'THE GOSPEL' IS (Mark i. 1)

THE STRONG FORERUNNER AND THE STRONGER SON (Mark i. 1-11)

MIGHTY IN WORD AND DEED (Mark i. 21-34)

HEALING AND SERVICE (Mark i. 30, 31, R.V.)

A PARABLE IN A MIRACLE (Mark i. 40-42)

CHRIST'S TOUCH (Mark i. 41)

CHRIST'S AUTHORITY TO FORGIVE (Mark ii. 1-12)

THE PUBLICANS' FRIEND (Mark ii. 13-22)

THE SECRET OF GLADNESS (Mark ii. 19)

WORKS WHICH HALLOW THE SABBATH (Mark ii. 23-28; iii. 1-5)

THE ANGER AND GRIEF OF JESUS (Mark iii. 5)

AMBASSADORS FOR CHRIST (Mark iii. 6-19)

'HE IS BESIDE HIMSELF' (Mark iii. 21)

THE MISTAKES OF CHRIST'S FOES AND FRIENDS (Mark iii. 22-35)

CHRIST'S KINDRED (Mark iii. 31-35)

CHRIST'S RELATIONS (Mark iii. 35)

FOUR SOILS FOR ONE SEED (Mark iv. 10-20)

LAMPS AND BUSHELS (Mark iv. 21)

THE STORM STILLED (Mark iv. 35-41)

THE TOILING CHRIST (Mark iv. 36, 38)

THE LORD OF DEMONS (Mark v. 1-20)

A REFUSED REQUEST (Mark v. 18,19)

TALITHA CUMI (Mark v. 22-24, 35-43)

Part 2

THE POWER OF FEEBLE FAITH (Mark v. 25, 27, 28)

TOUCH OR FAITH? (Mark v. 28, 34)

THE LOOKS OF JESUS (Mark v. 32)

THE MASTER REJECTED: THE SERVANTS SENT FORTH (Mark vi. 1-13)

CHRIST THWARTED (Mark vi. 5, 6)

HEROD--A STARTLED CONSCIENCE (Mark vi. 16)

THE MARTYRDOM OF JOHN (Mark vi. 17-28)

THE WORLD'S BREAD (Mark vi. 30-44)

CHILDREN AND LITTLE DOGS (Mark vii. 24-30)

THE PATTERN OF SERVICE (Mark vii. 33, 34)

THE PATIENT TEACHER AND THE SLOW SCHOLARS (Mark viii. 17, 18)

THE RELIGIOUS USES OF MEMORY (Mark viii. 18)

THE GRADUAL HEALING OF THE BLIND MAN (Mark viii. 22-25)

CHRIST'S CROSS, AND OURS (Mark viii. 27--ix. 1)

THE TRANSFIGURATION (Mark ix. 2-13)

'THIS IS MY BELOVED SON: HEAR HIM' (Mark ix. 7)

JESUS ONLY (Mark ix. 8)

CHRIST'S LAMENT OVER OUR FAITHLESSNESS (Mark ix. 19)

THE OMNIPOTENCE OF FAITH (Mark ix. 23)

UNBELIEVING BELIEF (Mark ix. 24)

RECEIVING AND FORBIDDING (Mark ix. 33-42)

AN UNANSWERED QUESTION (Mark ix. 33)

SALTED WITH FIRE (Mark ix. 49)

'SALT IN YOURSELVES' (Mark ix. 50)

CHILDREN AND CHILDLIKE MEN (Mark x. 13-15)

ALMOST A DISCIPLE. (Mark x. 17-27)

CHRIST ON THE ROAD TO THE CROSS (Mark x.32)

DIGNITY AND SERVICE (Mark x. 35-45)

Part 3

BARTIMAEUS (Mark x. 46)

AN EAGER COMING (Mark x. 50)

LOVE'S QUESTION (Mark x. 51; Acts ix. 6)

A ROYAL PROGRESS (Mark xi. 2)

CHRIST'S NEED OF US AND OURS (Mark xi. 3)

NOTHING BUT LEAVES (Mark xi. 13, 14)

DISHONEST TENANTS (Mark xii. 1-12)

GOD'S LAST ARROW (Mark xii. 6)

NOT FAR AND NOT IN (Mark xii. 34)

THE CREDULITY OF UNBELIEF (Mark xiii. 6; Luke xviii, 8)

AUTHORITY AND WORK (Mark xiii. 34)

THE ALABASTER BOX (Mark xiv. 6-9)

A SECRET RENDEZVOUS (Mark xiv. 12-16)

THE NEW PASSOVER (Mark xiv. 12-26)

'Is IT I?' (Mark xiv. 19)

'STRONG CRYING AND TEARS' (Mark xiv. 32-42)

THE SLEEPING APOSTLE (Mark xiv. 37)

THE CAPTIVE CHRIST AND THE CIRCLE ROUND HIM (Mark xiv. 43-54)

THE CONDEMNATION WHICH CONDEMNS THE JUDGES (Mark xiv. 55-65)

CHRIST AND PILATE; THE TRUE KING AND HIS COUNTERFEIT (Mark xv. 1-20)

THE DEATH WHICH GIVES LIFE (Mark xv. 21-39)

SIMON THE CYRENIAN (Mark xv. 21)

THE INCREDULOUS DISCIPLES (Mark xvi. 1-13)

PERPETUAL YOUTH (Mark xvi. 5)

THE FIRST PREACHING OF THE RESURRECTION (Mark xvi. 5, 6)

LOVE'S TRIUMPH OVER SIN (Mark xvi. 7)

'FIRST TO MARY' (Mark xvi. 9)

THE WORLD-WIDE COMMISSION (Mark xvi. 15)

Part 4

THE ENTHRONED CHRIST (Mark xvi. 19)

WHAT 'THE GOSPEL' IS

The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ.--Mark i. 1

My purpose now is to point out some of the various connections in which the New Testament uses that familiar phrase, 'the gospel,' and briefly to gather some of the important thoughts which these suggest. Possibly the process may help to restore freshness to a word so well worn that it slips over our tongues almost unnoticed and excites little thought.

The history of the word in the New Testament books is worth notice. It seldom occurs in those lives of our Lord which now are emphatically so called, and where it does occur, it is 'the gospel of the Kingdom' quite as frequently as 'the gospel' of the King. The word is never used in Luke, and only twice in the Acts of the Apostles, both times in quotations. The Apostle John never employs it, either in his 'gospel' or in his epistles, and in the Apocalypse the word is only once found, and then it may be a question whether it refers to the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ. John thought of the word which he had to proclaim as 'the message,' 'the witness,' 'the truth,' rather than as 'the gospel.' We search for the expression in vain in the epistles of James, Jude, and to the Hebrews. Thrice it is used by Peter. The great bulk of the instances of its occurrence are in the writings of Paul, who, if not the first to use it, at any rate is the source from which the familiar meaning of the phrase, as describing the sum total of the revelation in Jesus Christ, has flowed.

The various connections in which the word is employed are remarkable and instructive. We can but touch lightly on the more important lessons which they are fitted to teach.

I. The Gospel is the 'Gospel of Christ.'

On our Lord's own lips and in the records of His life we find, as has already been noticed, the phrase, 'the gospel of the kingdom'--the good news of the establishment on earth of the rule of God in the hearts and lives of men. The person of the King is not yet defined by it. The diffused dawn floods the sky, and upon them that sit in darkness the greatness of its light shines, before the sun is above the horizon. The message of the Forerunner proclaimed, like a herald's clarion, the coming of the Kingdom, before he could say to a more receptive few, 'Behold the Lamb of God.' The order is first the message of the Kingdom, then the discovery of the King. And so that earlier phrase falls out of use, and when once Christ's life had been lived, and His death died, the gospel is no longer the message of an impersonal revolution in the world's attitude to God's will, but the biography of Him who is at once first subject and monarch of the Kingdom of Heaven, and by whom alone we are brought into it. The standing expression comes to be 'the gospel of Christ.'

It is His, not so much because He is the author, as because He is the subject of it. It is the good news about Christ. He is its contents and great theme. And so we are led up at once to the great central peculiarity of Christianity, namely that it is a record of historical fact, and that all the world's life and blessedness lie in the story of a human life and death. Christ is Christianity. His biography is the good news for every child of man.

Neither a philosophy nor a morality, but a history, is the true good news for men. The world is hungry, and when it cries for bread wise men give it a stone, but God gives it the fare it needs in the bread that comes down from Heaven. Though it be of small account in many people's eyes, like the common barley cakes, the poor man's food, it is what we all need; and humble people, and simple people, and uneducated people, and barbarous people, and dying people, and the little children can all eat and live. They would find little to keep them from starving in anything more ambitious, and would only break their teeth in mumbling the dry bones of philosophies and moralities. But the story of their Brother who has lived and died for them feeds heart and mind and will, fancy and imagination, memory and hope, nourishes the whole nature into health and beauty, and alone deserves to be called good news for men.

All that the world needs lies in that story. Out of it have come peace and gladness to the soul, light for the understanding, cleansing for the conscience, renovation for the will, which can be made strong and free by submission, a resting-place for the heart, and a starting-point and a goal for the loftiest flights of hope. Out of it have come the purifying of family and civic life, the culture of all noble social virtues, the sanctity of the household, and the elevation of the state. The thinker has found the largest problems raised and solved therein. The setting forth of a loftier morality, and the enthusiasm which makes the foulest nature aspire to and reach its heaven-touching heights, are found together there. To it poet and painter, architect and musician, owe their noblest themes. The good news of the world is the story of Christ's life and death. Let us be thankful for its form; let us be thankful for its substance.

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