8. It is the general effect on the heart and spirit, the result, which is more presented here than the detail of circumstances. This is evident in verses 14, 15, et seq.
9. " And " (or " But ") " Jesus having risen " (or " When he had risen ") " early the first day of the week, he appeared first," etc.; the breach of continuation is less. No doubt it comes in as a statement apart. Up to this it was merely the fact of His resurrection announced to the women at the sepulcher, who stayed last at the Cross and, watching as it were over His body, were found first at the sepulcher He had left. This introduces His appearances, in a short general recital, to give, after showing their unbelief, the mission of the disciples according to the mind and tenor of this Gospel. The whole thing is a résumé of the unbelief of the disciples, and then, after the Lord's reproaching them with it, their mission. It is not, in any way, a detailed history whose object is to give an account of what passed. This closes with verses 7 and 8. He was to be seen in Galilee in connection with His own mission here, and His association with them. The rest is a testimony by others to them, distinct from this, and which falls on unbelieving hearts; and Christ, in a distinct way, sees them revealingly as to His Person, not in Galilee, and they have a mission to the world for personal salvation, signs of power being attached to their mission. With this His ascension is connected. He took His heavenly place till His return.
s. " To the whole creation."
-20. " Everywhere "; again we have the introduction of the general result, but it is quite general. This mission " unto the world "-to the whole creation-was not from Galilee, but before His ascension, and their execution of it quite general. But note, while the Galilee scene is recognized in the current of Mark's history, there is no account of it. The account we have is of the Bethany close of the blessed Lord's presence here, and the mission thence. As Jewish expectants, there is still unbelief. The mission is not quite Luke's heavenly beginning at Jerusalem. It is from the risen Lord in Person. But it is not at all Matthew's; Matthew and Luke are dispensational- this personal and for simple salvation.
Whatever the explanation of the end of this chapter from verse 9, it is evident, I think, that it is an added morsel. I have often noticed that it is the John and Luke aspect of the history which is added in a summary; but the anastas de prof (when He had risen very early) comes, in unconnected with any governing noun, rather confirming, I think, its genuineness, but showing it is not a continuous history but added, but its being " Jesus " assumed. It assumes it to be Jesus, mentioned in verse 6, but has not the air of continuity. But while following the Matthew part at first, it takes up the other aspects as what the writer had at heart. Nor is it a connected story, for verse 9 does not directly connect with verse 2; " they " in verse 2 is general. Mary of Magdala came first alone; verse 3 implies there were others engaged in the matter. They bought the spices Saturday, after 6 o'clock, and the two last went at sunrise next morning. It merely gives the general character of the history; they find the angel and flee alarmed, having received the message as to Galilee. Matthew gives the same history with more detail as to the angel; the women are thrown into a lump in verse 5; from Luke 23:5555And the women also, which came with him from Galilee, followed after, and beheld the sepulchre, and how his body was laid. (Luke 23:55), and chapter 24: 1, 10, we learn there were several. Then we get the Mary of Magdala account, and the two to Emmaus. Thus verses 9 to 20 is evidently a calm retrospect on the whole scene, and its consequence; verse 19 was forty days after what precedes; and, verse 20, we have the consequence-it professes to be after the apostles generally had gone out, knowing nothing of Paul, quod nota.
Thus verse 9 to 20 detaches itself more and more from what precedes. Its purport has been spoken of elsewhere. But verse 1 takes up the women in the. general Galilean form, and passes from those who had bought the spices Saturday evening, whom it designates by name, to the general thought of the women coming Sunday morning. Mary of Magdala came, we know, before the sun rose; there were the women from Galilee, and others with them; in Luke, all lumped together, three and " others with them " being mentioned afterward. The other Mary (i.e., of James, etc.) and Salome who came, only Mary of Magdala had gone before them and was alone. These three were at the Cross (query, was Joanna the same as Salome?). He who had alarmed the keepers without, was perhaps the same that peacefully told the women not to be affrighted inside the general excavation of the sepulcher, and showed them the particular place where the Lord had lain. The contrast is purposed in Matt. 28:4, 54And for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as dead men. 5And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. (Matthew 28:4‑5). But Mary of Magdala was alone and apart. Except Jesus' meeting them the account of Matthew and Mark is identical, only Mark gives the effect in their speaking to no one, as they fled to tell the disciples. But in verse 9 we have Mary of Magdala, not mixed up in the general history as in Matthew, verse 1 of this chapter, and Luke; it begins a totally different aspect of the story with anastas (being risen) referring to Jesus, not named here nor in what precedes, not as a person writing continuously, but, taking for granted that Jesus was in question, begins a separate account about Him, not about the women. Verse I quite falls in with the statements in Matthew and Luke, giving what the women in general were about in their love to the Lord; but verse 9 repeats " Mary of Magdala " in a quite distinct and separate personal character, and yet vaguely, with nothing of Peter and John, which John, one of them, so clearly and graphically relates. This and the Emmaus disciples are introduced to show the unbelief of the disciples. It is not very easy to reconcile this and Luke, still the transition from unbelief to faith is not unnatural, and, though they spoke of His appearing to Simon, on report, yet they evidently were not prepared to see Him. It is easier to believe death than life. The grace in which the Lord convinces them is most touching. But the whole passage is as if it were a recital of what had happened a good while ago, and added to complete the account left unfinished in the air, and what was known by report or general common information. Yet I do not reject it. The insertion of it may be inspired of God, as giving a general account of what was after the Acts- perhaps through John himself-and this is the way I am inclined to look for it. One thing is clear-verse 20 shows it was written after the dispersion of the twelve from their old local work, and knows nothing of Paul and the Acts, is based on the ascension, not on the Galilee mission, and passes from it to the late general mission of the twelve; verses 15, 16 also give this.
The difference noticed at the end of Mark is quite evident. I mean the Jewish meeting with the Lord, and the heavenly one, Matthew having only the Jewish, and Luke the heavenly- Mark both, only verses 15-18 are more general, as is the case with Mark who speaks of the Gospel as we might almost. I have looked through Mark to see how the general strain bears on this. I find first, it contains much more His personal testimony (not His Person) and its authority. The contrast (perhaps from the rapidity of his statement of events) of the Jews with Him, their opposition to His testimony, and display of divine power, more distinctly prominent. It is not the careful presenting Him according to promise, as in Matthew, finally rejected, but His personal testimony, by word and work, brought immediately into collision with their unbelief and prejudices. In the first chapter we have the display of power acting on them, but from chapter 2 we have the opposition, as verses 7, 16, 24; chap. 3: 6, 22, and the rejection of His place among the Jews by birth, already, at the end of chapter 3. Thereupon, the Sower and Christ-peculiar to Mark-personally at beginning and ending. So the testimony is general-a candle not under a bushel. In chapter 5 we have a general idea of the dealings with Israel, then and hereafter, the swine, the woman, and really giving life. In chapter 6 the twelve are not forbidden to go to Gentiles, but John the baptist is put to death. Jehovah satisfies the poor; but He separates from His disciples to rejoin them. In chapter 7, the Pharisees are judged-the whole system judged morally; and what man is shown, and mercy shown to Gentiles; grace makes the deaf to hear and the dumb to speak. In chapter 8, the Remnant is dealt with in sovereign grace, the disciples even understand nothing, the opening the eyes of the blind is wrought outside the town, and, gradually; from that the general testimony of rejection, and taking up the Cross to have the glory. Life must be lost to save it.
I have longed to begin and to read the Gospels which remain (Mark and Luke) yet now I find it is communion and glory that my soul desires, not knowledge. Yet should I refuse to learn what is given here, were it only even for others, and I passed on to where my thoughts and hopes are, and where we shall see Him in higher, His own glory, and know as we are known according to His fullness, I feel as if I was coming down to earth again, having known Him in glory, thus to study that Blessed One even on earth, perfect, divine and admirable as all His ways were. But we must take it as it is presented, and leave our minds open for all divine truth, but I so felt, and feel yet, the rays of that divine glory, and where He now is, shine on all the path He trod, until it burst forth again in Him glorified.
I return for a moment to the commencement of this Gospel. John the baptist's ministry is called here, I apprehend, the beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. because it was, whatever its claim, the good news about Him-" the Mightier comes." This ministry of John was the commencement of the testimony, as introducing Him. It was not merely prophecy- they were till now-it was before His face to prepare His way. This was the beginning of the Gospel; it was a special thing. I do not see that the end of Malachi: " Behold I send you Elijah the prophet, before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord." This is not the Gospel, as here spoken of. As to the reading " in the prophets," it was probably " prophet " or " prophets " and " Isaiah " a gloss, and " Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, who shall prepare thy way," was introduced; otherwise this last is a mere comment or explanation of what follows. The beginning of the Gospel was the voice of one crying in the wilderness. It was according to the prophets, but they were not it, the thing spoken of by them was it. " Behold I send " was a promise in fact to Christ, as representing and interested in Israel. " The voice of one crying " was the beginning of the Gospel. Therefore both are introduced; so that the plan of prophecy, and the beginning of the testimony are all perfectly introduced in their place. As to the critical point, the intention of the Lord in the structure of the passage being evident, it is of comparatively little importance, but may be further searched. The beginning of the Gospel, the good news fully recognized the place where Israel was-in the wilderness. It recognized nothing, not the least, of the state they were in; so ever, they must go out to the testimony. So again ever; this then, and owning that the paths must be made straight; so in all cases, and grace makes the Lord enter into that sorrow and that effect of sin; there His paths are prepared, not in Jerusalem apostate, and we find that those who owned this accordingly believed on Him. The way was repentance for remission, the manner and effect confession. The effect however of this was very general, and made way for Another's righteousness. We know who rejected it and were rejected. But it was a different thing publicly to receive this and to receive Christ; then the claim was more in opposition to their present state, and found its opposition in those who shrunk from the recognition of what condemned them and subverted their importance. I may own the evil I am in; the Holy Ghost alone can effect a confession of what sets aside the evil I am connected with. While all the system is owned, evil and reformation may well pass, but Christ must stand for Himself, and gather, and the flesh cannot bear this; it requires faith, and faith is the gift of God, and the power of the Holy Spirit Himself. But human nature, wearied with evil, is attracted and subdued by a testimony against it, when, to a certain point, note, in such a time public adherence to, and owning the verity of Christ's proposal, are different things; the former requires the public action of the Spirit of God-power-display belongs to a new dispensation. Therefore the interpretations of parables, and symbolic prophecies are ever new revelations of the succeeding dispensation, quod nota.
John bore his own character, but he testified to One to come after, " the Mightier." There were two points as to Him, after the character of John was shown forth, the (comparative) excellence and worthiness of His Person (for he does not speak of proper glory here: " He was before me ")-and of His ministry or baptism: " I have baptized you with water, but he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost." Repentance and power are different things; the latter is the Lord's baptism. Fire is not here in question; judgment was not the point, but what characterized His ministry, what He conferred as contrasted with what He convinced of and claimed. Repentance, the return to God in a sense of sin, is a different thing from the presence and power of the Holy Spirit, though He may work in power to produce the former. " With Holy Spirit " is the character of the baptism, therefore no article. We have then the two things fulfilled in Jesus, for He comes in by the door, though perhaps we should say " because," for He only could do it, He was God above all. He is baptized with water (coming in by the door thus among the Jews) and is endued with power, not mediately but immediately. " God anointed " Him " with the Holy Ghost and with power "; I add this, lest any should suppose it might be taken ill, saying: " endued." Though full, personally, with the fullness of the Godhead bodily in incarnation, this is not manifest endowment as entering on ministry, presented before our eyes in service. To the first He submits. He came from the rejected seat of vileness, out even in Galilee. No proximate place acting on the national requisition (it is not said that was a seal-only Judaea and Jerusalem affected by proximity) and connecting as One who knew Israel and the rights of Israel, with the heart of Him who claimed its rights for it, and whose eye rested even on its despised borders. He " came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized of John in Jordan." The love of the Lord's heart embracing all, even its degraded quarters, but coming, in the degradation of its despised and outcast corners, to submit to the necessity of its testified moral condition as a Servant. He was baptized of John in Jordan; His entrance into its real limits as properly owned of Him. But higher glory was declared on this submission; He sees the heavens opened, etc., and the voice came; " Thou art my beloved Son." This was the recognition of Him as a Man upon earth. At all times the fullness of the Godhead dwelt in Him bodily, for " in him all the fullness was pleased to dwell." This was not the question, but as a Man He was born of the Holy Ghost, even as to the nature to which the divinity was united, so was He sealed and anointed in it too (" for him hath God the Father sealed "). And note it is not here merely it descended, but on His submission to righteousness He saw it descending. " Straightway ascending up out of the water, he saw the heavens open." It was not only acceptable righteousness on earth, increasing in favor with God and man, but on His submission to the righteousness of God, in the condemnation of Israel, and the baptism of repentance, He sees heaven open. All His ministry is characterized by this. It is not merely: " We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen," for that was higher still, even what He had divinely and previously, but His testimony to Sonship as incarnate, Man. And note the anointing or seal is a revelation to the Person Himself for His joy and gladness, as well as a stamp known to God and others. " He saw heaven open, and the Spirit as a dove descending upon him." So was the voice addressed to Him of the Father: " Thou art my beloved Son "; indeed it is its chief character, though it has consequences surely. Yet was a Spirit of meekness and gentleness, as well as purity, for so is ever the Spirit of Sonship, for it goes beyond the difficulties, and trials, and evil upon earth, and its pressure, and sees heaven opened where these things come out, and hears the Father's voice, which overreaches and passes through all these things. It has submitted to the recognition of the full moral evil, a thing much deeper than the national or judicial consequences, far deeper- has owned it with God, fully bowed to the acknowledgment of it, and passes into a clearer and brighter scene, upon the full confession of it, which is beyond, blessedly beyond, all this, where the Father's heart has its play, for the evil is passed and left behind, and the testimony is known in the midst of it, as the place whence it comes rises above it.
This then was the character of the Lord's ministry, submission to righteousness in Judaism, but a view and a consciousness opened infinitely higher. The coming of Jesus was a voluntary act to this-" It became him." Testimony to Sonship; and knowledge of the Father's own voice is the proper character of present blessing brought in to those that have a portion in Him.
The recognition by His Father here was at the beginning, rather before the commencement of His ministry. We have that, in verse 14, chapter 1, when fully manifested personally perfect in righteousness, and acceptable in personal relationship; and coming forth now, submitting to all needful to accomplish His counsels, He receives this testimony. The course and accomplishment of His service gives only another occasion of the all-important and blessed testimony, and His patience to death to secure the Father's glory-the final witness of it in power in the resurrection, " according to the Spirit of holiness." This being done, i.e. the submission, with Christ willing, in us needed, and our wondrous grace, and privilege, and Sonship fully declared (the Father, in fact, known to the sons by the Spirit) " immediately the Spirit casteth him forth," putteth Him out from this enjoyed shelter of Sonship into the wilderness (there John cried, there repentance and submission were proclaimed, for there in condition the people were) there we go back, but as sons; compare the groans in Rom. 7 and 8. " And he was in the wilderness forty days tempted " of the adversary, " with the wild beasts, and angels," the ministers of God's providence and honor to the (humbled) Son of man " ministered to him " there. This is an important point of the entrance on ministry. Moses passed forty days in intercourse with God, with Jehovah, before he comes down to exercise that ministry in the giving of the Law, and service of the tabernacle, and the passage through the wilderness up to Mount Pisgah; he needed it for that work, and the broken tables (though on God's part most righteous perhaps) needed from this meekest of men another forty days of exercise there. Yet was the place of Jesus, there in the wilderness, far more wonderful, and, when known, glorious than that of Moses. Moses, " as a servant " faithful in all His house, had need to be taken up to see the Lord, that the witness of the power and glory might shine forth with the authority and power of communion.
The Law must reflect the glory, and its communicator and mediator, both for competency, and for its bearing on others, have intercourse with and come forth from such a presence into which for the purpose he had been introduced. But this One, the Lord, had ever dwelt there. He was come down interested in those who were the witnesses of a broken law, and a dishonored God, and utterly ruined man, and the prevailing power of Satan. He must go into the wilderness and meet Satan there-this was the forty days suitable to Him- and in all this be tempted with all that was suitable to withdraw Him from the place of utter humiliation, and service-born under the law, not its mediator, and responsible for the curse for us, which Moses had authoritatively, and with the glorious sanction of Mount Sinai attached. Here, however, it is its briefly but forcibly stated character, as ever in Mark, " He was in the desert... tempted of Satan... with the wild beasts," the power of ferocious evil, " and the angels ministered to him." The acceptance was not the less as Son of man for the sorrow. Both John and the Lord, as we have said, in the wilderness, but one in the bitterness, though prophet, of judgment and repentance, the Other in the witnessed certainty of Sonship, and consequent trial, and temptation, and desolation, but with an honor due to Him and the heirs of salvation. Glorious as Moses was, and not in trial but in honor, the angels were dispensers. Here, the glory of love brings Him low, as low as possible, alone indeed in these, in the wilderness and in temptation, subjected to the temptations of Satan, but the angels are ministers to Him. It is the same in principle with us. It was not the honor of proposing (as Mediator) what the Lord revealed, and required for blessing, but taking up in divine love the total ruin of the whole, and this by being already in the secret of being a Son Himself, not something given for them to fulfill, but Himself fulfilling in love the need even into which the sons were brought. Having this experimental preparation for ministry as Son Himself, having received the seal and conscious character of Sonship as a witness, thus received in witness to His soul (so only available to us) and as tempted of Satan, what the Father was, and what the world (or Jews) was. Thereon, waiting in patience the appointed time, till the ministry of John was closed, till the enmity of the world had shown what was to be expected, for the Son of man should also suffer of them, in the manifested though not ripened apostasy of Israel, but in the fitting time of service to the Father, everything that would have deterred the flesh, everything that was a guide to the Spirit, the anointed Son, who had been tried of the evil one, enters on His ministry. John's casting into prison might have seemed to have made His service and ministry hopeless, but perfectly separate from and giving no sanction to, nay, having owned the apostasy of, Israel by His baptism by John, He enters exactly at the appointed, needed, and fitted time, when John was set aside, to bear testimony, and minister in the midst of Israel. But indeed, when looked into, and seen on the footing of, and in the midst of the apostasy as to such (however presenting all the good) and the presentation we have of the ministry here, John the baptist presents the Person of Jesus, and what He would do as exalted-baptize with the Holy Ghost, His proper ministry in this sense. It was thus the beginning of the Gospel of the Son of God. The Lord's word was, on John's being delivered up, preaching the Gospel of the kingdom of God. That indeed was what was wanting in such a state of things, the truth of the setting aside of the evil state of things, that was to arouse specially to repentance, and to comfort those who sighed for the evil, and perhaps were persecuted for leaving it. When John was put in prison, it was a suited time for this, suited not to the flesh but to the holy testimony of God. The place of the testimony was accordingly full of grace to the nation, extending the full title of the Lord to His people and land, but having all the pride and evil which was associated in man's part of it, and saying: " The time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God is at hand; repent ye." It was not merely blessing, or blessing to a righteous people, but to a people whose word of address must be simply, universally: Repent and believe this good news. This, to follow Him, called for total separation from interests, and possessions, and all relationships of life. He stood outside all (in mercy) saying: Repent, from God the Father (in Sonship), from Satan, the sum of the condition of things then learned from apprehensions of mind, learned personally with the Father, and made in the energy of the Spirit to go forth (cast out) and therefore experience of the temptation of Satan and the wilderness the Spirit led Him into. He goes forth when the evidence of the rejection of His predecessor, and their iniquity in the rejection of testimony was manifested, to bear His witness, and final gracious and patient testimony amongst them, in a word, from God and from Satan—He goes forth in the full force of that, He goes forth into a world which had already proved what it was; but He was fulfilling His own mercy. Into this fellowship His disciples were called; they could not be of the world and in it, nor anywise associated with the world in which the testimony was sent. Efficient, Christian testimony is always, really proceeds from one who has this knowledge, and comes forth from this conscious acceptance by the Father in the power of testimony to Himself, and separation, by temptation of Satan, or according to the measure of that, from all that might be the question in the course of service, or hinder entering into it as sons into a mere wilderness, where he could use all we were not separated from against us.
The Gospel of Mark seems to present, as its distinctive characteristic, a vivid picture of the life and conversation of our Lord, and His walk on earth. It is much more than the others, the life and ministry of Jesus. I have heretofore referred to the characters of the three other Gospels; Mark's was then omitted, for I was not prepared to state what was peculiarly to be found of the Lord in it. But this has struck my mind much, and early, on this perusal of it.