The foot of the mountain presented a far different scene from the transfiguration glimpse of the kingdom, the disciples encircled by a vast multitude, the scribes questioning with them, and the power of Satan in man unremoved. Christ comes down, and all the people in amazement saluted him. Christ challenges the scribes; but what will He answer him who appealed in vain to the disciples for his son with the dumb spirit, his tormentor? “He answereth him and saith, O faithless generation! how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you? Bring him unto me.” Blessed Lord Jesus! perfect are Thy ways. No love, no tenderness, no long-suffering like Thine yet didst Thou feel the faithlessness which knew not how by dependence on God and denial of self to draw on that energy which casts out Satan from his strongholds. Yet even in Thy presence, when deliverance is nigh, how dost thou try the faith and patience of those who learn all in Thee! “And they brought him unto him: and when he saw him, straightway the spirit tare him, and he fell on the ground and wallowed, foaming.” Not even yet came the rebuke of power. “And he asked his father, How long is it ago since this came unto him? And he said, Of a child: and ofttimes it hath cast him into the fire, and into the waters, to destroy him; but if thou canst do anything, have compassion on us and help us. Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth. And straightway the father of the child cried out and said with tears, Lord, I believe: help thou mine unbelief.” It was certainly but a feeble confession; yet was it true, and the heart was to Him only. “When Jesus saw that the people came running together, he rebuked the foul spirit, saying unto him, Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I charge thee, come out of him and enter no more into him. And [the spirit] cried and rent him sore and came out of him, and he was as one dead; insomuch that many said, He is dead. But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up; and he arose. And when he was come into the house, his disciples asked him privately, Why could not we cast him out? And he said unto them, This kind can come forth by nothing but by prayer and fasting.” It is an admirable picture of the ways of gracious power in the deliverance of man, Israel especially, from the well-nigh fatal possession of the enemy, with a serious intimation to the disciples, wherein lay the secret of their weakness. (Ver. 14-29.)
Alas! it is not lack of power we have to own, but scanty entrance into His mind. The fleshly mind can think and talk of glory here below, but the cross breaks in neither understood nor welcome. “And they departed thence and passed through Galilee; and he would not that any man should know it. For he taught his disciples and said unto them, The Son of man is delivered into the hands of men, and they shall kill him; and after that he is killed, he shall rise the third day. But they understood not that saying and were afraid to ask him.” (Ver. 30-32.) The truth is that other thoughts preoccupied them, which hindered the inshining of God's grace displayed in the cross, as well as the terrible evidence it gave to the alienation of man from God. The carnal mind which would so end in man was actively at work in themselves; and He knew it and laid it bare before their eyes. “And he came to Capernaum; and being in the house he asked them, What was it that ye disputed among yourselves by the way. But they held their peace: for by the way they had disputed among themselves who should be the greatest.” And how gracious and faithful the lesson! “And he sat down and called the twelve, and saith unto them, If any man desire to be first, the same shall be last of all and servant of all. And he took a child, and set him in the midst of them; and when he had taken him in his arms, he said unto them, Whosoever shall receive one of such children in my name, receiveth me; and whosoever shall receive me, receiveth not me, but him that sent me.”
Nor is it only the disciples as a whole who need reproof and correction from the Master. As Peter on the mount of glory, at the beginning, so, ere the chapter closes, John betrays the spirit of egoism which shrouds the proper glory of Christ in the very effort of nature to exalt Him. “And John answered him saying, Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name, and he followeth not us: and we forbad him, because he followeth not us. But Jesus said, Forbid him not: for there is no man which shall do a miracle in my name, that can lightly speak evil of me. For he that is not against us is on our part.” (Ver. 38-40.)
It is not as in Matt. 12, where Christ is rejected by the power of unbelief under Satan's instigation, which is blind to the testimony of the Spirit of God that it hates and blasphemes. There compromise is impossible, half-heartedness perilous and fatal. “He that is not with me, is against me; and he that gathereth not with me, scattereth.” When it is a question between Christ and the darkening, blaspheming power of the devil, the only safety is in being with Christ, the only service is gathering with Him. But where no such question is raised, but on the contrary some one, little known and little knowing it may be, is true to the Lord's name as far as he knows it, let us rejoice to own him and the Lord's evident honor put on him, though “he followeth not us.” He is no enemy but a friend of that name which he owns as best he knows. “He that is not against us,” says the Lord in such a case, “is on our part.” So to honor that name in the least thing shall not be forgotten, as also the slighting it, so as to stumble the least believer, is ruinous to him who is guilty. (Ver. 41, 42.)
This leads the Lord into a warning of searching solemnity. “And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: where their worm dieth not, and their fire is not quenched. And if thy foot offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter halt into life, than having two feet to be cast into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out: it is better for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eves to be east into hell fire: where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.” (Ver. 43-48.) The thrice-repeated burden, “where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched,” falls on the conscience-stricken like the bell that tolls the felon to his doom. Would that it might kindle our hearts who believe into an unwonted earnestness on behalf of perishing souls! (Comp. 2 Cor. 5:10, 11.)
But there is direct profit for the disciples also. For if “every one shall be salted with fire,” it is also true that “every sacrifice shall be salted with salt;” the former statement, in my opinion, being as large toward man as such, as the latter emphatically and exclusively regards the saints set apart to God. “Salt is good,” concludes our Lord, “but if the salt have lost its saltness, wherewith shall ye season it? Have salt in yourselves, and have peace one with another.” How precious and practical the exhortation! The first requisite is this holy preservative energy in our own souls; and then for one with another a spirit of peace. “The fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace,” adds the Apostle James.