Companionship with Christ.
(Mark 1:28-37, 3:13,22; Matt. 14)
THE next thing we find in the Gospel narrative is that the Lord enters Peter’s house at a most opportune juncture. He comes out of the synagogue, where He had just been casting an unclean spirit out of a man, and forthwith (a characteristic word of Mark’s Gospel) He goes to Peter’s house, and “Simon’s wife’s mother lay sick of a fever,” and they tell Him of her. It was most natural that they should tell the Lord of the sick woman, and He heals her with a word.
Now, it has often been taught that a man must remain unmarried in order to fully follow the Lord, but here we learn that Simon was a married man, and he was a man who had affections large enough to take in his wife’s mother, not only into his heart, but into his house. We live in a day when mothers-in-law are often at a discount; not so here, and God has not recorded this in the pages of His Word for nothing.
I have no doubt Peter’s wife was in a tremor that day. Her mother, possibly (for we do not read of children) the dearest object, save her husband, that she had in the world, lay sick of a fever. Another Gospel (Luke 4:3838And he arose out of the synagogue, and entered into Simon's house. And Simon's wife's mother was taken with a great fever; and they besought him for her. (Luke 4:38)) says, she was “taken with a great fever,” but Jesus “stood over her, and rebuked the fever, and it left her,” and He “took her by the hand, and lifted her up,” and “she ministered unto them,” instead of being ministered to. She was a useful mother-in-law that.
Do you think it was by chance that the Lord went there that day? I believe not. If we go back a few days in Peter’s history, we remember that he had given up all to follow the Lord, and having abandoned his earthly calling so to do, it is quite possible that his wife might have felt somewhat anxious as to ways and means, and may have thought, if she did not say, “How are we now to be cared for and supported?” The Lord comes into her house―her home―takes her mother by the hand, and heals her with a word; and as the loving daughter sees the mother healed and restored, she must have felt quite assured as to the wisdom of her husband’s action in fully following the Lord. And I doubt not, before Peter left again to accompany his Master in His labors, he got a word of this sort from his wife, “You follow Him fully, Simon; I see well you are on the right track; He has the heart and the power to care for us in all things.”
This scene is so like the Lord. He ever loves to put His servants at rest at home, as well as to set them free to follow Him. It is sweet to think that He has His eye on the ofttimes solitary wife at home, with her cares and burdens, while the husband, called to labor in public, is frequently and necessarily away. Ye wives of evangelists, and other servants of the Lord, note how the Lord thinks of you!
Passing on now to the third chapter of Mark, we find the special call which Peter received of the Lord. After a night spent in prayer (see Luke 6:1212And it came to pass in those days, that he went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God. (Luke 6:12)), the Lord selects those who should be His companions in His pilgrim pathway here. We read, “He, ordained twelve that THEY SHOULD BE WITH HIM.” I know nothing more blessed than that!
People think it is a wonderful thing to be saved, to escape the damnation of hell, a wonderful thing to go to heaven, and so it is: but to go to heaven in Scripture is always to be with a Person. “Absent from the body, present with the Lord”― “to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better”―is the language of Scripture.
To be with Him, to enjoy companionship with the Lord Jesus Christ, is what God calls us to, and here these men in a very special way were called to be with Him. Have you been called to be with Him, my reader? You are not called to be an apostle, but the eternity of a Christian is to be with Jesus. But for you, my unconverted friend, what is your eternity? To be with Jesus? Alas! you do not know him! To be in glory? You have no title to it! Your future is very different. I fear there will fall on your ears a sadly solemn word, “Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.” Perhaps you say, I do not believe God ever made hell for man. Nor do I. The Lord Jesus says it was “prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matt. 25:4141Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: (Matthew 25:41)). But some men are such fools they prefer the company of the devil and his angels, to the company of Christ. See where you stand, my unconverted reader, and think of the contrast between your portion, and that of the true follower of Jesus.
“He ordained twelve that they should be with Him.” “Ah! but,” you say, “one was a traitor.” Well, do not you be a traitor! God help you, and me too, not to be traitors! Judas’s history has its lessons for all of us. It is like a beacon light put on a dangerous coast, to keep the watchful mariner off the sunken rocks― to teach our souls to be in no wise like him.
In this place again (Mark 3:1616And Simon he surnamed Peter; (Mark 3:16)) you get Simon’s new name emphasized, and in all the gospels it is so. His name always comes first on the list (see Matthew 10:22Now the names of the twelve apostles are these; The first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother; (Matthew 10:2); Mark 3:1616And Simon he surnamed Peter; (Mark 3:16); Luke 6:1414Simon, (whom he also named Peter,) and Andrew his brother, James and John, Philip and Bartholomew, (Luke 6:14); John 21:22There were together Simon Peter, and Thomas called Didymus, and Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, and the sons of Zebedee, and two other of his disciples. (John 21:2)); not that he had any authority over his brethren, or was made a sort of primate, as Rome would fain teach us. It was his natural fervor, and warm-hearted impulsive earnestness, that put him always in the front rank. If there be a crowd, Peter will get through it; if it be a confession of who the Lord is, Peter is the spokesman. I grant you his very impulsiveness drew him ofttimes into danger, and ended in his denying his Lord at a later date; but still Peter’s is a wonderful history of devotion to the Lord, and where he failed, the Lord in infinite wisdom and faithfulness tells us about it, and puts him, too, before us as another beacon light, lest our small barks should also be stranded on the selfsame rocks that damaged his.
Nothing but devotion of heart to Christ personally will do for us. A mere creed is of no value whatever. Unless there be affection of heart that puts us near Himself, and, if we have got away, leads us back to Him as quickly as possible, our confession of Him is valueless to us, and nauseous to Him. Peter learned a blessed lesson at this point of his history―viz., The Lord wants me to be with Him, He wants my company. Have you learned yet, dear reader, that the Lord loves your companionship and desires to have your affections?
Now let us go on to the eighth chapter of Luke for a moment. There is a remarkable scene here, and again Peter comes to the front (Luke 8:41-5641And, behold, there came a man named Jairus, and he was a ruler of the synagogue: and he fell down at Jesus' feet, and besought him that he would come into his house: 42For he had one only daughter, about twelve years of age, and she lay a dying. But as he went the people thronged him. 43And a woman having an issue of blood twelve years, which had spent all her living upon physicians, neither could be healed of any, 44Came behind him, and touched the border of his garment: and immediately her issue of blood stanched. 45And Jesus said, Who touched me? When all denied, Peter and they that were with him said, Master, the multitude throng thee and press thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me? 46And Jesus said, Somebody hath touched me: for I perceive that virtue is gone out of me. 47And when the woman saw that she was not hid, she came trembling, and falling down before him, she declared unto him before all the people for what cause she had touched him, and how she was healed immediately. 48And he said unto her, Daughter, be of good comfort: thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace. 49While he yet spake, there cometh one from the ruler of the synagogue's house, saying to him, Thy daughter is dead; trouble not the Master. 50But when Jesus heard it, he answered him, saying, Fear not: believe only, and she shall be made whole. 51And when he came into the house, he suffered no man to go in, save Peter, and James, and John, and the father and the mother of the maiden. 52And all wept, and bewailed her: but he said, Weep not; she is not dead, but sleepeth. 53And they laughed him to scorn, knowing that she was dead. 54And he put them all out, and took her by the hand, and called, saying, Maid, arise. 55And her spirit came again, and she arose straightway: and he commanded to give her meat. 56And her parents were astonished: but he charged them that they should tell no man what was done. (Luke 8:41‑56)). How beautifully the Lord responds to every call and every need! If you have any difficulty about the affection of Christ, about how He would respond to your call, and your need, these lovely Gospel narratives ought to settle your difficulty. Look at this man Jairus, who had a dying daughter! He comes to Jesus about her. The Lord responds at once. Then the people throng Him, and press Him, and a woman who had spent all her living on physicians, and had only got worse instead of better, comes and touches His garment. Just like today. People spend their lives going about to all sorts of spiritual doctors, instead of simply coming to Christ; and, of course, get no better, for religion cannot save them. Religion can damn you very easily if you are content with religiousness, without having ever come to a personal Saviour to be saved. This woman heard of Jesus, and she came to Him; and when she came she touched; and when she had touched she felt; and then she came forth and confessed Christ. She got all she wanted. She was healed immediately she touched the Saviour. So would you be if you were to do as she did. Jesus then said, “Who touched me?” And the Lord, looking down from glory, now says, Who is touching Me? And will you not touch Him, dear friend, and get life from Him?
And now, poor dear blundering Peter puts in a word about the multitude, and says, “Master, the multitude throng thee, and press thee, and sagest thou, Who touched me?” In all this throng, Lord, how can You ask who it is that has touched You? But Jesus said, “Somebody hath touched me; for I perceive that virtue is gone out of me.” ‘That is always the way, if you only get near enough to touch the hem of His garment, virtue will go out from Him, and you will be healed, you will get all you need. The Lord will never shake you off; He will encourage you to come forth and confess Him. Only try Him, just come to Him, and touch Him. The virtue that comes out of Him always heals the soul that just simply touches Him in faith.
The woman comes out and confesses what she had done, and why she did it, and what the effect of it was. She had faith in His goodness, faith in His heart, faith in His person, and see what the Lord says, “Daughter, be of good comfort: thy faith had made thee whole; go in peace.” Peter learned a good lesson that day, that a throng might press his Lord, and yet nobody really touch Him, whereas the faintest touch of faith secured the fullest blessing.
Next, in Jairus’ house Peter gets another lesson, as he stands by and sees the Lord annul the power of death. He had seen Him heal his mother-in-law, he had seen how faith must be in exercise if blessing is to come, and now he learns that He is the One who quells the power of death, that death cannot be in His presence. Jesus has power over death. He only met it to annul it, for He was the Lord of life. The thieves who were crucified with Him could not die till He had died: and when He died, He annulled the power of death, broke its bands, demolished the bars of the tomb, and came up out of it. Hence it is to a victorious triumphant Christ I call on you to come now, One who is alive for evermore. I have to do with a victorious Saviour, One who went into death that He might annul it, and did so by dying. He took my sins on Him as He went into it, and put them all away. Ah! Peter was learning blessed lessons of the moral’ glory of his Master, as he heard Him say, “Maid, arise!” and then bid her be fed.
Now turn to Matthew 14, where we get another very blessed lesson taught. Peter walks on the water in this chapter, and we will inquire what led to it. Herod had beheaded John the Baptist, “and his disciples came and took up the body, and buried it, and went and told Jesus.” What a right and suited action!
Have you been burying some dear one? And did you too go and tell Jesus, pouring out your sorrow into His sympathizing ear? These disciples did. I think I can see two roads that day, and the two companies who were on them. On one road come up the sad disciples of John, who had lost their master; on the other the disciples of Jesus return, flushed with success, from their first missionary tour (see Mark 6:30, 3130And the apostles gathered themselves together unto Jesus, and told him all things, both what they had done, and what they had taught. 31And he said unto them, Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while: for there were many coming and going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat. (Mark 6:30‑31)). The two companies meet in the Lord’s presence. The Lord says to them, “Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest awhile.” How morally lovely is this call! Alike to successful laborers, and to disheartened disciples, is it made. By each alike it was needed, but a desert with Jesus can be no desert.
Then comes the feeding of the multitudes, and the way in which the Lord sends the multitudes away, ― a very different sending away from what it would have been if the disciples had had their way.
They would have sent them away to buy bread for themselves, sent away hungry thousands to be witnesses, as it were, against Christ. He sent those many thousands away happy, satisfied, so many witnesses to the tenderness of His heart, and the divine glory of His person. While the Lord does this, He constrains His disciples to take ship and go to the other side.
I can see the Lord’s beautiful wisdom in sending His disciples away, at that moment, out of the way of an element for evil, for John 6:14, 15,14Then those men, when they had seen the miracle that Jesus did, said, This is of a truth that prophet that should come into the world. 15When Jesus therefore perceived that they would come and take him by force, to make him a king, he departed again into a mountain himself alone. (John 6:14‑15) tells us that the multitudes would have taken Him by force to make Him a king, and the disciples too were intent on the kingdom. They would have heartily entered into the thought of the multitude to exalt their Master on an earthly throne (see Matthew 20:20-2320Then came to him the mother of Zebedee's children with her sons, worshipping him, and desiring a certain thing of him. 21And he said unto her, What wilt thou? She saith unto him, Grant that these my two sons may sit, the one on thy right hand, and the other on the left, in thy kingdom. 22But Jesus answered and said, Ye know not what ye ask. Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? They say unto him, We are able. 23And he saith unto them, Ye shall drink indeed of my cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with: but to sit on my right hand, and on my left, is not mine to give, but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my Father. (Matthew 20:20‑23); Acts 1:66When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? (Acts 1:6)). But the Lord could take no kingdom, nor could He reign while sin was here, not put away from God’s sight. The disciples’ constant thought was the earthly kingdom. Not so the Lord’s! He knew He must die, and accomplish atonement, ere the day of the kingdom. So now He sends His disciples away out of temptation. The Lord is always so wise, we may well trust Him―trust His love and His wisdom in all His ways with us.
He Himself went then up into a mountain to pray. That really is where He is now, as it were, on the mount, in intercession, for Scripture says, “He ever liveth to make intercession for us” (Heb. 7:2525Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. (Hebrews 7:25)). The disciples, dismissed at eventide, were by this time on their way to Capernaum, “tossed with waves” and “toiling in rowing,” as Mark 6:4848And he saw them toiling in rowing; for the wind was contrary unto them: and about the fourth watch of the night he cometh unto them, walking upon the sea, and would have passed by them. (Mark 6:48) informs us. The Lord came to them “in the fourth watch of the night.” The distance they had to go was only about ten miles, but they had been nine hours doing “five-and-twenty or thirty furlongs”―a little over three miles. We make little progress if we have not the Lord with us. The Lake of Tiberias is well known for its sudden and violent storms, and they were caught in one; but in all their difficulties and dangers the Lord had His eye upon them. He was above in intercession, and in the fourth watch He comes to them. If in the first part of this chapter―Matthew 14―you have the sympathy of His heart, and then, as He fed the multitude, the power of His hand displayed, now, as they were toiling, storm-tossed and miserable, what music was in His voice that comes to them above the raging of the wind and waves? “It is I, be not afraid.” And as they heard the tones of His voice, Peter, ever energetic, fearless, and full of affection, says, “Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water.” Look at the energy and the love of that man’s heart. It is very refreshing. You have the Master going over the stormy deep, and then, in answer to the word “Come!” you see the disciple imitating his Master, and Peter upheld by divine power, “walked upon the waters to go to Jesus.” Only faith and love will act thus. It is an action the Lord admires.
But now we read, “When he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid, and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me!” Why did he sink? Was the water a bit more unstable when boisterous than when calm? Certainly not. You could not walk on the stillest mill-pond a bit better than on the stormiest wave that ever surged, without divine power. The power of Christ can sustain you and me in the most difficult circumstances, and nothing but the power and grace of Christ can sustain us in the most easy circumstances. Then, as Peter cries out, the Lord “caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?”―Peter had faith, though it was little. Have you and I, dear reader, as much as he?
As soon as the Lord got into the ship the wind ceased, and John 6:2121Then they willingly received him into the ship: and immediately the ship was at the land whither they went. (John 6:21) adds, “Immediately the ship was at the land whither they went.” How beautiful! How calm everything is as soon as you get into the presence of the Lord! And now they worship Him, saying, “Of a truth thou art the Son of God.” Peter had learned Him as Messiah in the 1St of John; he had learned Him as Son of Man, and Lord over the fish of the sea, in Luke 5; and now as he sees more of the moral glories of His person, he gets another most precious lesson, that this One who is the Messiah, and the Son of Man, is also the Son of God.
Let me ask you, my friend, have you ever been bowed in worship before the person of the Lord Jesus? Have you ever cried out to Him, “Lord, save me”? And, if He has saved you, have you ever gone down on your knees and worshipped Him, saying, “Lord, of a truth thou art the Son of God”?
May the Holy Ghost lead out your heart and mine to worship the Lord Jesus, as Son of God, in a fuller, deeper way; and if you, my reader, have never really worshipped Him yet, may He lead you to bow down before Him today and praise Him, and worship Him for all that He is, and all that He has done, and thus glorify Him, for He says, “Whoso offereth praise, glorifieth me” (Ps. 1:23).
W. T. P. W.
(To be continued if the Lord will.)