Mark 9 discusses the prophecy of the kingdom of God coming with power, suggesting that some present would witness this before their death. The commentary explores various interpretations of this verse, arguing against the notion that it refers to the Second Coming, instead linking it to events like the establishment of the church on Pentecost. Ultimately, it emphasizes Christ's confidence in the triumph of the kingdom despite opposition and the impending cross, illustrating the rapid spread of Christianity shortly after his resurrection.

1. MARK 9 COMMENTARY
EDITED BY GLENN PEASE
1And he said to them, “Truly I tell you, some
who are standing here will not taste death
before they see that the kingdom of God has
come with power.”
BARNES, "Verily I say ... - See the notes at Mat_16:28. This verse properly
belongs to the preceding chapter and the preceding discourse.
CLARKE, "There be some - This verse properly belongs to the preceding
chapter, and to the preceding discourse. It is in this connection in Mat_16:27-28
(note). See the notes there.
GILL, "And he said unto them,.... Both to his disciples, and the multitude,
verily I say unto you, there be some of them that stand here; that were then
living, and upon the spot,
which shall not taste of death, or die,
till they have seen the kingdom of God come with power. When Jesus was
declared both Lord and Christ, by the wonderful effusion of the Holy Spirit; the
Gospel spread in the world both among Jews and Gentiles, in spite of all opposition,
under the power and influence of the grace of God, to the conversion of thousands of
souls; and that branch of Christ's regal power exerted in the destruction of the Jewish
nation; See Gill on Mat_16:28. This verse properly belongs to the foregoing chapter,
to which it is placed in the Vulgate Latin version; and so it concludes one in Matthew,
and ought not to begin a new chapter.
HENRY, "
Here is, I. A prediction of Christ's kingdom now near approaching, Mar_9:1. That
which is foretold, is, 1. That the kingdom of God would come, and would come so as
to be seen: the kingdom of the Messiah shall be set up in the world by the utter
destruction of the Jewish polity, which stood in the way of it; this was the restoring of
the kingdom of God among men, which had been in a manner lost by the woeful
degeneracy both of Jews and Gentiles. 2. That it would come with power, so as to
make its own way, and bear down the opposition that was given to it. It came with
power, when vengeance was taken on the Jews for crucifying Christ, and when it
conquered the idolatry of the Gentile world. 3. That it would come while some now
present were alive; There are some standing here, that shall not taste of death, till
they see it; this speaks the same with Mat_24:34, This generation shall not pass, till
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2. all these things be fulfilled. Those that were standing here with Christ, should see it,
when the others could not discern it to be the kingdom of God, for it came not with
observation.
JAMIESON, "Mar_9:1-13. Jesus is transfigured - Conversation about Elias. ( =
Matthew 16:28-17:13; Luk_9:27-36).
See on Luk_9:27-36.
COFFMAN, "The transfiguration (Mark 9:2-8), teachings concerning Elijah
(Mark 9:9-13), the cure of the lunatic boy (Mark 9:14-29), another prophecy of
the Passion (Mark 9:30-32), discussion of who was the greatest (Mark 9:33-37),
the unknown wonder-worker (Mark 9:38-42), and a collection of independent
maxims uttered by our Lord (Mark 9:43-50), form the subject matter of Mark 9.
Mark 9:1 was discussed in Mark 8, but a little further attention is directed to it
here.
And he said unto them, Verily I say unto you, There are some here of them that
stand by, who shall in no wise taste of death, till they see the kingdom of God
come with power. (Mark 9:1)
The final five verses of Mark 8 and Mark 9:1 are a collection of independent
sayings of our Lord which Mark grouped together. This grouping on the part of
the inspired evangelist, however, does not require that any connection be
established in every case between two adjoining statements. Another such
grouping of independent maxims is found at the end of this chapter (Mark
9:43-50). Regarding those verses, especially Mark 9:49-50, Barclay said:
We often get a series of quite disconnected sayings of Jesus set together because
they stuck in the writer's mind in that order. ... We must not try to find some
remote connection between these sayings; we must take them individually, one
by one, and interpret each one as it comes.[1]
What Barclay affirmed of Mark 9:49-50 is likewise true of Mark 8:38 and Mark
9:1; and, although they occur side by side in this gospel, the two verses are
independent, having reference to two distinct and utterly different events which
were both in the future. Mark 8:38 has reference to the final judgment of
humanity, an event which is still future; but Mark 9:1 has reference to an event
which occurred in that generation, now nineteen centuries in the past.
The efforts of some commentators to construe these verses as a reference in both
cases to the final judgment, or any other event still in the future, has the effect of
a charge of ignorance against the Saviour of the world. Interpreting Mark 9:1 as
a reference to the final and glorious phase of the kingdom of God as ushered in
by the second coming of Christ and the appearance of his holy angels leads to
such conclusions as those of Grant who stated that "This expectation (the coming
of Jesus in the glory of the Father) was universal in the early days of
Christianity, and must go back to Jesus himself."[2] Of course, such a view
makes the Lord Jesus Christ to have been mistaken and incorrect in such a
statement as Mark 9:1. This is ground enough for rejecting all such
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3. interpretations. There is no need whatever to construe Mark 9:1 as a reference to
the second coming of Christ or the beginning of the glorious phase of the
kingdom. The great preachers of the Restoration have long held Mark 9:1 to be a
prophecy of the establishment of the church on the first Pentecost after the
resurrection of Jesus Christ. Dorris stated that argument as follows:
The kingdom was to come with power, and the power was to come with the
Spirit (Acts 1:8). The Spirit came on the first Pentecost after the resurrection of
Christ (Acts 2:1-4). As the kingdom was to come with power and as the power
was to come with the Spirit, and as the Spirit and the power came on Pentecost,
therefore, the kingdom came on that day.[3]
In order to deny the thesis so logically advocated by Dorris, one must hold the
Lord of Life to have been in error in his alleged meaning in Mark 9:1. Therefore,
it is mandatory to reject the application of Mark 9:1 to the subject matter of
Mark 8:38. There is no connection between them, except in the matter of their
lying alongside each other within the matrix of the sacred text. It is impossible to
interpret certain paragraphs in Mark without regard to his occasionally
grouping of disconnected saying of our Lord. See the final verses in this chapter.
[1] William Barclay, The Gospel of Mark (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press,
1956), p. 240.
[2] Frederick C. Grant, Interpreter's Bible (New York: Abingdon Press, 1951, en
loco.
CONSTABLE, "This verse is the positive truth whereas Mark 8:38 expresses the
negative. It concludes Jesus' solemn warnings in this pericope on an encouraging
note. Some standing in that mixed audience would not experience death before
they saw a preview of the kingdom that the Son of Man would establish after He
came in glory (Mark 8:38; cf. 2 Peter 1:16-19). Those individuals were Peter,
James, and John (Mark 9:2-8).
This pericope should warn unbelievers and believers alike. It is also an
encouragement to become a disciple of Jesus and to follow Him faithfully. The
choice involves eternal loss or gain. This section would have been a special
encouragement for Mark's original readers who faced the choice of undergoing
persecutions and trials for faithful commitment or abandoning their life of
discipleship. Suffering and temporary loss would be Jesus' portion, and that
would also be the destiny of His disciples. However, His faithful followers would
eventually experience glory and blessing, as He would.
BURKITT, "There is a three-fold sense and interpretation given of these words
by expositors; 1. Some refer the words to the times of the gospel after Christ's
resurrection and ascension, when the gospel was spread and propagated far and
near, and the kingdom of God came with power.
Learn hence, That where the gospel is powerfully preached, and cheerfully
obeyed, there Christ cometh most gloriously in his kingdom.
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4. 2. Others understand these words of Christ's coming, and exercising his kingly
power in the destruction of Jerusalem; which some of the apostles then standing
by lived to see.
3. Others (as most agreeable to the context) understand the words as relating to
our Saviour's transfiguration, As if he had said, Some of you, meaning Peter,
James, and John, shall shortly see me on mount Tabor, in such splendour and
glory, as shall be a praeludium, a shadow, and representation of that glory,
which I shall appear in, when I come to judge the world at the great day.
And whereas our Saviour says not, there be some standing here which shall not
die, but, which shall not taste of death; this implies two things;
1. That after they had seen his transfiguration; they must taste of death as well
as others.
2. That they should but taste of it, and no more.
From whence learn, 1. That the faithful servants and disciples of Christ must as
length, in God's appointed time, taste and have experience of death as well as
others.
2. That although they must taste yet that they shall but taste of death; they shall
not drink of the dregs of that bitter cup ; though they fall by the hand of death,
yet shall they not be overcome by it; but in the very fall get victory over it. "
LIGHTFOOT, "1. And he said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That there be
some of them that stand here, which shall not taste of death, till they have seen
the kingdom of God come with power.
[The kingdom of God coming in power.] In Matthew, it is the Son of man coming
in his kingdom. The coming of Christ in his vengeance and power to destroy the
unbelieving and most wicked nation of the Jews is expressed under these forms
of speech. Hence the day of judgment and vengeance:
I. It is called "the great and terrible day of the Lord," Acts 2:20; 2 Thess 2:2,3.
II. It is described as "the end of the world," Jeremiah 4:27; Matthew 24:29, &c.
III. In that phrase, "in the last times," Isaiah 2:2; Acts 2:17; 1 Tim 4:1; 2 Peter
3:3; that is, in the last times of that city and dispensation.
IV. Thence, the beginning of the "new world," Isaiah 65:17; 2 Peter 3:13.
V. The vengeance of Christ upon that nation is described as his "coming," John
21:22; Hebrews 10:37: his "coming in the clouds," Revelation 1:7: "in glory with
the angels," Matthew 24:30, &c.
VI. It is described as the 'enthroning of Christ, and his twelve apostles judging
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5. the twelve tribes of Israel,' Matthew 19:28; Luke 22:30.
Hence this is the sense of the present place: Our Saviour had said in the last
verse of the former chapter, "Whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my
words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man
be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels," to
take punishment of that adulterous and sinful generation. And he suggests, with
good reason, that that his coming in glory should be in the lifetime of some that
stood there.
BARCLAY, "WHEN THE KING COMES INTO HIS OWN (Mark 8:38; Mark
9:1)
9:1 "Whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful
generation, of him also shall the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in the
glory of his Father with the holy angels." And he used to say to them, "This is
the truth I tell you--there are some of those who are standing here who will not
taste of death until they shall see the Kingdom of God coming with power."
One thing leaps out from this passage--the confidence of Jesus. He has just been
speaking of his death; he has no doubt that the Cross stands ahead of him; but
nonetheless he is absolutely sure that in the end there will be triumph.
The first part of the passage states a simple truth. When the King comes into his
Kingdom he will be loyal to those who have been loyal to him. No man can expect
to dodge all the trouble of some great undertaking and then reap all the benefit
of it. No man can expect to refuse service in some campaign and then share in the
decorations when it is brought to a successful conclusion. Jesus is saying, "In a
difficult and hostile world Christianity is up against it these days. If a man is
ashamed under such conditions to show that he is a Christian, if he is afraid to
show what side he is on, he cannot expect to gain a place of honour when the
Kingdom comes."
The last part of this passage has caused much serious thought. Jesus says that
many who are standing there will not die until they see the Kingdom coming with
power. What worries some people is that they take this as a reference to the
Second Coming; but if it is, Jesus was mistaken, because he did not return in
power and glory in the lifetime of those who were there.
But this is not a reference to the Second Coming at all. Consider the situation. At
the moment Jesus had only once been outside Palestine, and on that occasion he
was just over the border in Tyre and Sidon. Only a very few men in a very small
country had ever heard of him. Palestine was only about 120 miles from north to
south and about 40 miles from east to west; her total population was 4,000,000 or
thereby. To speak in terms of world conquest when he had scarcely ever been
outside such a small country was strange. To make matters worse, even in that
small country, he had so provoked the enmity of the orthodox leaders and of
those in whose hands lay power, that it was quite certain that he could hope for
nothing other than death as a heretic and an outlaw. In face of a situation like
that there must have been many who felt despairingly that Christianity had no
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6. possible future, that in a short time it would be wiped out completely and
eliminated from the world. Humanly speaking, these pessimists were right.
Now consider what did happen. Scarcely more than thirty years later,
Christianity had swept through Asia Minor; Antioch had become a great
Christian church. It had penetrated to Egypt; the Christians were strong in
Alexandria. It had crossed the sea and come to Rome and swept through Greece.
Christianity had spread like an unstoppable tide throughout the world. It was
astonishingly true that in the lifetime of many there, against all expectations,
Christianity had come with power. So far from being mistaken, Jesus was
absolutely right.
The amazing thing is that Jesus never knew despair. In face of the dullness of the
minds of men, in face of the opposition, in face of crucifixion and of death, he
never doubted his final triumph--because he never doubted God. He was always
certain that what is impossible with man is completely possible with him.
BI 1-10, "And after six days Jesus taketh with Him Peter.
Man’s transformation
The transfiguration of our Lord admonishes us of a change which we are to undergo
in this life. We must be conformed in our souls and spirits, and the use of our bodies,
to the image of the Son of God (Rom_8:29), while we are here, so that we may be
conformed to the body of His glory hereafter (Php_3:21). O, then, what a stake have
we in our treatment of this body. We must keep it in all holiness, even on its own
account, and not only because it ministers to soul and spirit. In this same body we
are to meet the Lord, and upon the use of it depends the condition in which we shall
meet Him, in glory or contempt. We must serve Him and do His work in it now, if we
hope to serve Him in it in His heavenly and everlasting kingdom hereafter. But how
can we serve Him in it, if we employ it in the service of a different and contrary
master? And how can we keep it pure and undefiled as His peculiar vessel, if we be
not watchful against the advances of that master, who has so many natural friends in
its house? For has not Satan fast friends in its corrupt affections and sinful passions?
Look at the man who has clouded his reason, palsied his limbs, by strong drink. See
the disgusting, degrading spectacle of his helplessness; hear the revilings, the folly,
the blasphemings of his imperfect speech. Can such a one entertain any serious
thoughts about the body that shall be? Can he be living in the hope of being glorified
together with Jesus Christ? See another man. His body is seen anywhere else but in
this place, where is the assembling of the body of Christ in one body, one spirit, to
give glory and worship to our great Head, with one mind, with one mouth; to stand
before that throne where sits the Son of Man at the right hand of God, in that body
which suffered and rose again. What can he care about the most precious privilege of
the body that shall he; the standing face to face before his Saviour in a like body,
amid the company of His saints in glorified bodies? In the same manner we may go
on and deal with sins less open and gross than these, and show how inconsistent they
all are with any hope of a joyful resurrection in a glorified body; and how necessary is
the bath of tears of repentance to all who commit them, that so their sins may be
washed out for the sake of Jesus Christ, and they may be found of Him in peace,
without spot, and blameless. Now, therefore, while yet it is the season, let us do the
things which concern the body that shall be. Our present body is the seed of the body
to come. It may be as unlike it, as the small black shapeless seed of the tulip is to that
beautiful flower. Still it is the seed, and according as we sow it, we shall reap. If it go
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7. into the ground laden with sin, ignorant of God’s service, the mere corrupt remains
of what has been expended in folly, in idleness, in unprofitableness, in rebellion
against the commandments of God, in neglect of duties, in abuse of privileges, then it
will come out of it a vile and noxious weed, which shall be cast into the everlasting
fire. But if the sinner shall turn away from his sin, and by a change of heart and life
conform to the example of Christ; if he will take his body out of the service of sin, and
conformity to the world, and use it in the service of righteousness; if he will thus, in
this world, be transformed into the likeness of the body of Christ, in all temperance,
in all purity, in all deeds of holy living, then he will have “sown to the Spirit”; and of
the Spirit he shall, through the Lord and Giver of life, reap life everlasting. In a body,
no longer of flesh and blood (which cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven), in a
spiritual body, compared with the glory and powers of which the most beautiful body
in the flesh is corruption, the strongest and most healthy is the impotence of death;
he shall stand on the everlasting mount of heaven, transfigured from this mortal
body in the raiment of a body shining as the sun, white as no fuller on earth can
white, and gathered into the company of the sons of God, such as Moses and Elias,
and beholding the Son of God in eternal glory face to face, shall say with the joyful
cry of the song of the full sense of thankful blessedness, “Master, it is good for us to
be here.” (R. W. Evans.)
On the Holy Mount
I. That seclusion is needed for the highest devotion.
II. That a devotional spirit sees new glory in Christ and in His Word.
III. That devotion is not the whole life.
IV. That devotion furnishes support for the performance of the duties and the
endurance of the trials of life. (W. M. Taylor, D. D.)
Christ the light of the body
There were other wonders in that glorious vision besides the countenance of our
Lord. His raiment, too, was changed, and became all brilliant, white as the light itself.
Was not that a lesson to them? Was it not as if our Lord had said to them, “I am a
king, and have put on glorious apparel, but whence does the glory of My raiment
come? I have no need of fine linen, and purple, and embroidery, the work of men’s
hands; I have no need to send My subjects to mires and caves to dig gold and jewels
to adorn My crown: the earth is Mine, and the fulness thereof. All this glorious earth,
with its trees and its flowers, its sunbeams and its storms, is Mine. I made it-I can do
what I will with it. All the mysterious laws by which the light and the heat flow out
forever from God’s throne, to lighten the sun, and the moon, and the stars of heaven-
they are Mine. I am the light of the world-the light of men’s bodies as well as of their
souls; and here is My proof of it. Look at Me. I am He that ‘decketh Himself with light
as it were with a garment, who layeth the beams of His chambers in the waters, and
walketh upon the wings of the wind.’” This was the message which Christ’s glory
brought the apostles-a message which they could never forget. The spiritual glory of
His countenance had shown them that He was a spiritual king-that His strength lay
in the spirit of power, and wisdom, and beauty, and love, which God had given Him
without measure; and it showed them, too, that there was such a thing as a spiritual
body, such a body as each of us some day shall have if we be found in Christ at the
resurrection of the just-a body which shall not hide a man’s spirit when it becomes
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8. subject to the wear and tear of life, and disease, and decay; but a spiritual body-a
body which shall be filled with our spirits, which shall be perfectly obedient to our
spirits-a body through which the glory of our spirits shall shine out, as the glory of
Christ’s Spirit shone out through His body at the transfiguration. “Brethren, we know
not yet what we shall be, but this we do know, that when He shall appear, we shall be
like Him, for we shall see Him as He is” (1Jn_3:3). (C. Kingsley, M. A.)
The influence of heaven here below
The spirits, good and bad, are all about us. There are no communications from the
spirits, but they are here and interested in our affairs. The angels are here. “Are they
not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of
salvation?” And the fallen spirits are here as well. Who dare say that there are not
demoniac possessions today? They are not common in Christian lauds but I cannot
regard them impossible. Men sometimes become satanically ugly from no other
apparent cause than that they give loose rein to their passions, gratify them without
restraint, and so lose, in time, all power of controlling their passions by any
consideration of self-interest. The assassin Guiteau was such a man, and there is little
doubt that Guiteau was possessed of devils. We are told that our “adversary the devil,
as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.” No doubt that the
unseen world enwraps us, while we must guard ourselves most sedulously from the
superstition and deception too often connected with the truth. (A. P. Foster.)
Ecstasy cannot be continued
Be patient in the darkness; you cannot have the light all the time. Peter would have
three tabernacles. No, no! it was not best. We can have no continuing ecstasy. It
would rack the soul to pieces. Many have glimpses, but no eye can look steadily on
the sun. We must console ourselves with memories and anticipations. These supreme
moments which come to us occasionally in the Christian life are foretastes of the
heavenly bliss. (A. P. Foster.)
A vision of home
Years ago, after a weary climb up the flank of a high mountain, a friend led me by a
path through the woods to the head of a gorge. On either side, to right and left, stood
the huge mountain, while before us, at the end of a mighty gulf, was an enchanting
vista. Five or six miles away a village was full in sight, nestling among the hills,
surrounded with lovely green, and encircled with glories such as only a setting sun
can paint on the western sky. There was our home. Now, beyond doubt, the vision on
Tabor was to the wearied disciples, whose feet already had begun to tread a dark and
dangerous road, far more wonderful and delightful. It was to them a glimpse of
home. Far off, indeed, it seemed, and yet there at the end were glories ineffable.
The transfiguration and its teachings
God leaves not His people in the midst of many and sore trials, without vouchsafing
to them occasional periods of spiritual refreshment. The sight then given to them of
the King in His beauty left a heavenly savour upon the souls of the disciples, which
abode with them to their dying day.
I. The glimpses of Christ obtained, and the foretastes of glory experienced, in the
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9. sanctuary. Between that holy mountain and a Christian sanctuary many points of
resemblance are discoverable.
1. The mountain summit is a secluded spot, removed from the din and turmoil of
the earth; the house of God is a spot from which worldly affairs and associations
are excluded; where the things of time and sense fall into the background.
2. The holy hill was made by Jesus a place of prayer. God’s house is a house of
prayer. It is chiefly in the holy converse with God which is there carried on that
the furrows of care and sorrow are obliterated from his brow, the earthliness of
his spirit is worn away, and its features made to glow with a tinge of heavenly
lustre.
3. The holy hill was a mountain of testimony. A two-fold testimony was here
borne to Jesus. Jesus alone remained: a token that He fulfilled the Law and
Prophets. Also, “This is My beloved Son.” In the preached word in the sanctuary
man bears his testimony to Christ: a suffering Redeemer should be presented to
the mind of the people in God’s house of prayer. Also the Holy Spirit glorifies
Christ-“He shall testify of Me.”
4. In both places alike slumberers are awakened-“Peter and they that were with
Him were heavy with sleep, and when they were awake they saw His glory”: a
beautiful emblem of the Word of God reaching down to the sinner’s heart
through the joints of a harness of insensibility, and rousing him from the death-
like trance of sin to an apprehension of spiritual truth. When such an one is
awakened, his attention is first engaged with the Saviour’s glory. The Light of the
World is the central object on which his eye fastens. But after the soul has once
apprehended the beauty and excellency of Christ, its views of Him in all His
offices are continually enlarged. Fresh glimpses of the King’s beauty are
vouchsafed to it from time to time in the sanctuary.
II. The design with which such glimpses of Christ and foretastes of glory are
vouchsafed.
1. One main design of the transfiguration in reference to the apostles was to
strengthen their faith in their Master’s Divinity.
2. Another design was, doubtless, to nerve and prepare the apostles for
endurance in the cause of Christ.
III. The temporary and transient character of these glimpses of Christ and foretastes
of glory which the people of God experience here below.
1. Much as we could wish to retail that enjoyable sense of God’s presence, yet it is
God’s will that after we have refreshed our spirits by these foretastes of glory, we
should, “in the strength of that meat,” descend once again to the plain and
encounter, for a few years more, the buffetings of the world. The soul cannot
always be in its pleasant places, nor, while this life lasts, does God intend that it
should. There is a daily round of duty which it is the Lord’s will that we shall
execute as His appointed task. Genuine apprehensions of Christ’s love are
incentives to exertion, not to sloth and self-indulgence.
2. The questioning which, when our Lord approached the multitude, was being
carried on between the scribes and His disciples. The first sounds which greeted
His Divine ear on reaching the plain were sounds of debate. Nothing grates with
more harshness on the ear of one accustomed to hold communion with God, and
to live much in a spiritual atmosphere, than religious controversy. Those who are
called to controversy should be much in the sanctuary, and submit a willing ear to
the testimony of Jesus. (Dean Goulburn.)
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10. The transfiguration of Christ
I. What the disciples saw-“He was transfigured before them.”
1. The unveiled glory of Christ.
2. The glorified attendants from the world of spirits.
3. The bright cloud of the Divine Presence. Not a dark cloud as under the old
dispensation, but a cloud of light.
II. What the disciples heard.
1. An affecting conversation.
2. An approving testimony.
3. An authoritative command.
III. What the disciples felt.
1. The blessedness of heavenly society.
2. A solemn awe-“sore afraid.”
3. The Saviour’s touch.
IV. Practical instructions.
1. This manifestation was given to disciples.
2. This communication was given whilst they were praying.
3. To prepare them for future trials. (W. J. Brock, B. A.)
Transfiguration of Christ
1. One design of the transfiguration, undoubtedly, was to give the disciples some
idea of Christ’s future appearance, when He should come in His kingdom.
2. But, again, another purpose of the transfiguration was probably to honour
Christ and His gospel.
3. But, again, we have in this narrative, in strong contrast with the glories of the
transfiguration, the weakness of poor humanity.
4. But why, let us again ask, has our Church selected such a portion of Scripture
as this to be read at this season? It seems, at first view, very inappropriate. What
have we to do in Lent with the glories of the transfiguration? Why, when we are
called to humble ourselves in prayer and confession of sin, are we directed to
such a portion of God’s Word as this? Because the most remarkable feature in
this transaction was, that amid the splendours of that transfiguration, the death
of Christ has the most prominent place. (W. H. Lewis, D. D.)
The use of religious excitement
Vivid emotions are, by the law of their being, transient. They cannot last. Possibly,
their very intensity is, roughly speaking, the measure of their evanescence. Souls
cannot live and work on day by day with the emotions at high pressure. Now, what is
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11. to be said of these Occasional times of excited feeling?
I. That no man must take religious feeling for religion. But after that, what? That all
such excited feelings are false, and hollow, and perilous, and must, therefore, be at
once suppressed? That plain, simple obedience to God’s will is all in all, and,
therefore, all deep emotions are evil and to be avoided? Surely, no. Surely, the true
thing to be said is this, that God gives these periods of strong feeling as mighty helps
to our weak and wavering courage; that they are a spur to the halting obedience, and
a goad to the reluctant will. True, these feelings must be guided and regulated and led
into practical channels, else, of course, they will run to waste, and leave behind them
only the barrenness of a field, over which the flood has rushed headlong in its
devastating course. I am not speaking of ungoverned and fanatical excitement, but of
deep and powerful religious emotion, when I say that God gives it to carry us by its
force over the earlier difficulties of the new and converted life, or to nerve us to
resolutions and set us upon courses of action, which would, probably, be impossible
to the calculating calmness of dispassionate reason. But I think, my brethren, these
times of unusual religious fervour have another use. They open to the soul visions of
a state of love, and joy, and heavenly mindedness, which, if afterwards they turn into
nothing but regret and longing, nevertheless, leave behind them a blessing. It is good
for the weary toiler, conscious of his cold, shallow heartedness, the poverty of his
faith, and love, and hope, to be able to say, though sighing as he says it:-“I have
known the blessedness of a bright, triumphant faith. I have understood what it is to
pray with holy fervour.” Can it be well to say, “I have known,” when it were so much
better to be able to say, “I know”? Yes, I think it is well; for, if he be wise who says it,
he will know that these higher, deeper, keener feelings cannot be always with him. He
will gather up the truths and the duties they have brought to him, as we gather up the
bright shells and gem-like pebbles on the seashore when the spring tide has ebbed.
Those will be kept, when the surging waves that bore them to our feet have retired.
He will regard the swelling of his emotions, when the sun of God’s grace has melted
the snow of his chilled heart as the overflow of a river; and he will no more expect the
flow of his religious feeling to maintain the fulness and force to which it has at times
risen, than he would expect a river to be always at the flood. Let us once realize that
these more vivid religious emotions are occasional helps and not permanent states,
that they reveal to us what might be, but for the weakness and earthliness of our
nature, and are in themselves no proofs of high attainments of grace, and then we
may thank God for them, and not be afraid or ashamed to say, “I have known,” when
we dare not say, “I know.”
II. How far is religious emotion to form any part of our daily religious life; or, in
other words, how far are the feelings to be regularly employed in the service of God?
What shall we say as to ordinary religious emotion? Is it a good thing or a bad thing?
Assuredly, as I repeat, our feelings were not given us for the purpose of being crushed
out. Our religion is not one of mere dry duty. The very fact that love holds so
prominent a place in it is a proof that, at least, some amount of religious feeling is
necessary for a true religious life. But I would ask this: If we read our Bibles candidly,
does it not seem that a greater amount of religious emotion is expected to find place
in the daily life of Christian men than is commonly felt or commonly supposed? St.
Paul was a most thoroughly practical man, eminently a man of action, always up and
doing. He surely was one who would scorn to let feeling take the place of obedience,
or to suffer the simple daily duties of life to escape under the cloak of heavenly
aspirations and high-flown sentiment; yet, if anything is plain in his Epistles, it is
that the life of duty, however rigid and self-sacrificing, without love, joy, peace-a life
of obedience, in other words, without emotion, would utterly fail to satisfy him. Has,
in a word, even excitement no work to do, no end to answer, in the daily Christian
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12. life? Take any keen, eager, impulsive, excitable person, may I not believe that God
gave such person the power of quick impulse and eager aspiration for some worthy
end? What is that end, my brethren? Is it to enjoy a ball, or a novel, or a sport? One
would really think so when one hears of so many people who, themselves keenly
enjoying all manner of worldly amusements, and throwing themselves into them
heart and soul, as we say, when they see others as keenly and engrossingly giving
themselves to religious occupations, settle the matter with a self-satisfied smile by
saying, “Oh, it is all excitement!” Might it not be a better way of looking at it if they
should think and say, “I don’t know how such an one can enjoy so much religion. I
only know I don’t and can’t. I wish I could. I wish I could take delight in high and
holy things.” (Bishop Walsham How.)
The lessons of the transfiguration
The practical question for us to consider is this-How does the transfiguration fit into
our lives? What should be its effect on us?
I. It confirms our faith in Christ as the true redeemer of men. Ii. It should animate us
to follow Christ in the way of the cross. Our Lord, after announcing that He must
needs die, taught His disciples that they must die with Him and like Him; that they,
too, must deny themselves and take up the cross; that they must lose their life in
order to save it; that to gain the whole world and lose their own souls would be but a
sorry exchange; and that, if they were afraid or ashamed thus to follow Him, He
would be ashamed of them when He came in the glory of His Father and of the holy
angels (St. Mat_16:21-28; St. Mar_8:31-38; St. Luk_9:21-26). Self-sacrifice is the law
of the highest life; we can only rise into the life of love as we deny and crucify the self
in us; we must die to the flesh if we would live and walk in the spirit; the body must
die before we can rise into a sinless and perfect life. In one word, religion must be a
life-long effort, a life-long sacrifice. Not in mere enjoyment, even though it be an
enjoyment of worship, of growth in knowledge, or of quick spiritual response to fine
thoughts and pure impulses, but by toil, by self-denial, by really spending ourselves
in the service of God and man, by a constant reaching forth after still higher and
nobler aims, do we rise into the life and follow the example of Christ Jesus our Lord.
Try yourselves by this test, then. Ask yourselves whether your religion has yet
become a sacred and inspiring reality to you, making toil, pain, sacrifice, death itself,
welcome to you, if you may thus win Christ and be found in Him. (S. Cox, D. D.)
Elias with Moses
Reasons are not far to find why these two should be brought back together from the
other world to take part in the scene.
I. They were the representatives of the quick and dead. Moses had died; Elijah had
ascended alive into heaven. They were types of the two great divisions which shall
appear before the same Lord when He comes in the glory of which that was a glimpse
and foretaste, the dead and the living both standing before the judgment seat of
Christ.
II. Both had passed from earth in mystery: the first buried by the hand of God in
some unfrequented valley apart from his countrymen; the other not dying, but
vanishing instantaneously in the midst of life. Both had disappeared, no more to be
seen by mortal eye till, in far-distant times, the same Hand that had carried them
away should bring them back on the Mount of Transfiguration. It suggests the
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13. mighty truth, that, however we are taken, whether lost to men in the depth of the sea,
or consumed by the devouring fire, it matters nothing to the Great Keeper of His
people, Who will bring all back again at the last day.
III. But the chief motive, no doubt, was to unite the representatives of the three great
Dispensations of Divine government-the Law, the Prophets, and the Gospel. (H. M.
Luckock, D. D.)
The transfiguration gives us a pledge and earnest of our personal identity
in the risen state
And doubtless one reason for the preservation of our identity is for mutual
recognition-that we may know hereafter those whom we have known in the flesh. It
puts before us a powerful incentive to make friends on earth with whom we may
spend not only the life here, but the eternal life in heaven. Again, the scene opens up
a further field of thought, when we recall the fact that St. Peter was able to recognize
Moses and Elijah, though he had never seen them in the flesh. Shall we, then,
recognize the great saints in the world to come, whom we have learnt by the study of
their lives and work to know as though we had seen them face to face? There was
clearly something-it, may have been some lingerings of the splendour which
illumined his face after communing with God, which painters have tried to express
by the familiar “horns of light”-we cannot tell what it was, but it satisfied the apostle
that the form was none other than that of Moses. Will there be nothing by which, in
like manner, we shall recognize the Baptist, or the Beloved Disciple, or the Blessed
Virgin, or Mary of Magdala? Will the student of theology, who has read the mind of
St. Augustine, or pictured the fiery Athanase, with his feeble frame but lion heart,
confronting the world for the great mystery of the Blessed Trinity, find no means of
identifying them when they meet hereafter? Will there be nothing to mark painters
like Fra Angelico or Raphael, or poets such as Dante, or Tasso, or Milton? It must
surely be that marks of recognition, in all who have witnessed for God and moulded
the minds of men by their words or works, will not be wanting. (H. M. Luckock, D.
D.)
It is good for us to be here
If any earthly place or condition might have given warrant to Peter’s motion, this was
it.
1. Here was a hill-the emblem of heaven.
2. Here were two saints-the epitome of heaven.
3. Here was Christ-the God of heaven. (Bishop Hall.)
Peter and his fellows were so taken with the sight of the felicity they saw, that they
desired to abide on the mount with Jesus and the saints. What moved them shows
what will delight us when this transient world is over, and God will gather His people
to Himself.
1. Here was but Hermon; and there will be heaven.
2. Here were but two saints; there, the mighty multitude no man can number.
3. Here was but Christ transfigured; there, He will sit at the right hand of God,
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14. enthroned in the majesty of heaven.
4. Here was a representation for a brief interval; there, a gift and permanent
possession of blessedness. (T. M. Lindsay, D. D.)
The transfiguration teaches us that
(1) Special manifestations of favour attend entire submission to the Divine
will;
(2) outward splendour is the proper accompaniment of inward excellence;
(3) Christ is attested to men as the object of Divine approval and delight;
(4) therefore they should love and trust, honour and obey Him;
(5) first lessons are to be retained, that further may be received;
(6) prophecy teaches that suffering belongs to the present service of God. (J.
H. Godwin.)
The transfiguration
The Saviour was strengthened for conflict. Moses and Elias talked with Him, not
concerning the dark aspects of His death, but its wonderful effects.
I. The transfiguration was a preparation for the disciples. They saw some
manifestation of their Master’s glory. How greatly this would strengthen them. Was a
source of comfort in after times.
II. The transfiguration has its practical lessons for us.
1. The mountain of prayer is always the mountain of transfiguration. If we would
have our trials and sorrows transfigured, we must get up into the mount of
converse with God. Here we see them in their dark aspect, only there can we learn
how to glory in tribulation.
2. The hour of prayer is often a foretaste of future joy.
3. Let us always remember the decease which Jesus accomplished at Jerusalem.
Christ’s death is our one all-powerful argument with God. All blessing to the
world, and to us, comes through that precious death. In heaven much of our
converse will be of “the decease,” etc. (J. W. Boulding.)
The glorified saint
Every faculty, thought, and emotion shall reflect His holiness, truth, and love. The
leafless tree, trembling in the cold blast of the winter winds, is the image of what we
now are; the same tree covered with foliage, blossoms, and fruit, is the symbol of
what the sanctified soul shall be. The dark sorrowful cloud hanging heavily in the
atmosphere represents our present state; that cloud penetrated by the rays of the
morning light, fringed with gold, made luminous and beautiful by the splendour of
the rising sun, is the expression of the glory that shall be revealed in the spirits of
redeemed men. The mind shall be illumined with the pure light of knowledge
unmingled with error; the heart shall be filled with all the emotions which constitute
perfect bliss; the imagination shall soar to the highest regions and present nothing to
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15. the soul but visions of truth and beauty. The whole nature shall be in harmony with
itself, with God, with the holy intelligences of the spirit world, and with all the
circumstances in which it shall forever exist. (Thomas Jones.)
Dust of gold gathered from a variety of authors
The decease was the keystone of the arch of glory. (J. Morison, D. D.)
In the interior of Christ’s being there must have been an infinite fulness of
heavenliness, of all that constitutes the essential glory of heaven. (J. Morison, D. D.)
“Hear ye Him,” for His words embody the very thoughts, desires, and determinations
of the Divine Mind. (J. Morison, D. D.)
The name of the mountain is not mentioned, and thereby superstition is prevented.
(Bengel.)
The cloud shows that human nature cannot bear the glory of God without admixture
or interposition. (Bengel.)
Ah! bright manifestations in this vale of tears are always departing manifestations.
(Dr. Brown.)
How can we hope ever to be transfigured from a lump of corrupt flesh if we do not
ascend and pray? (Hall.)
Exceptional hours in life
There are exceptional hours in human history, when men utter words which attest
the grandeur of the human mind, when the countenance burns with the fire of
intelligent enthusiasm, and the voice reaches a tone of purer music than is born of
earth; and in those exceptional hours we see somewhat of the dignity of human
nature. Multiply this by infinitude, and we shall know something of what the
disciples saw when Christ’s “face did shine as the sun, and His raiment was white as
the light.” (J. Parker, D. D.)
The hiding of the higher life
The hiding of the higher life will be in proportion to its compass and elevation. The
young Christian talks more of his experience than the old Christian, just as a rill may
make more noise than a river. An ordinary mother talks much of her child; but the
mother of Christ “kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.” (J. Parker,
15

16. D. D.)
Secrecy enjoined till the Son of Man be risen from the dead
I. Christ’s life not to be told in fragments.
II. The parts of Christ’s life are mutually explanatory.
III. The resurrection of Christ, the great reconciling and all-explaining fact in His
ministry. His profoundest words would have had no meaning had He not known that
He would rise again from the dead. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Moses and Elias talking with Jesus
I. Deputed men are still living.
II. Death does not destroy the individuality of men.
III. The greatest of departed men are interested in the work of Christ.
IV. Immediate personal communication between departed spirits and men yet in the
flesh is possible. (J. Parker, D. D.)
The transfiguration of Christ
To what may we compare this wonderful change? Suppose you have before you the
bulbous root of the lily plant. You look at it carefully, but there is nothing attractive
about it. How rough and unsightly it appears! You close your eyes upon it for a brief
space. You open them again. But what a change has taken place! That plain, homely-
looking bulb has disappeared, and in its place there stands before you the lily plant.
It has reached its mature growth. Its flower is fully developed, and blooming in all its
matchless beauty! What a marvellous change that would be! And yet it would be but a
feeble illustration of the more wonderful change that took place in our Saviour at His
transfiguration. Here is another illustration. Suppose we are looking at the western
sky, towards the close of day. Great masses of dark clouds are covering all that part of
the heavens. They are but common clouds. There is nothing attractive or interesting
about them. We do not care to take a second look at them. We turn from them for a
little while, and then look at them again. In the meantime the setting sun has thrown
his glorious beams upon them. How changed they now appear! All that was common
place and unattractive about them is gone. How they glow and sparkle! Gold, and
purple, and all the colours of the rainbow are blending, how beautifully, there! Are
these the same dull clouds that we looked upon a few moments before? Yes; but they
have been transfigured. A wonderful change has come over them. And here we have
an illustration of our Lord’s Transfiguration. The first wonder about this incident in
His life is the wonderful change which took place in His appearance then. (Dr.
Newton.)
How we know there is a heaven
A Sunday school teacher was talking to one of her scholars about heaven, and the
glory we shall have when we reach that blessed place. He was a bright boy, about nine
or ten years old, named Charlie. After listening to her for a while, he said: “But you
16

17. have never been there, Miss D., and how do you know there really is any such place?”
“Charlie,” said the teacher, “you have never been to London; how do you know there
is such a city?” “O, I know that very well,” said Charlie, “because my father is there;
and he has sent me a letter, telling me all about it.” “And God, my Father, is in the
heavenly city,” said Miss D., “and he has sent me a letter, telling me about the glory of
heaven, and about the way to get there. The Bible is God’s letter.” “Yes, I see,” said
Charlie, after thinking awhile, “there must be a heaven, if you have got such a nice
long letter from there.” The lesson of hope is the first lesson taught us by the
transfiguration. (Dr. Newton.)
The decease at Jerusalem; or, the power of the cross
A heathen ruler had heard the story of the cross, and desired to know its power.
When he was sick, and near his end, he told his servants to make him a large wooden
cross, and lay it down in his chamber. When this was done, he said: “Take rue now
and lay me on the cross, and let me die there.” As he lay there dying, he looked in
faith to the blood of Christ that was shed upon the cross, and said: “It lifts me up: it
lifts me. Jesus saves me!” and thus he died. It was not that wooden cross that saved
him; but the death of Christ, on the cross to which He was nailed-the death of which
Moses and Elias talked with Him, that saved this heathen man. They knew what a
blessing His death would be to the world, and this was why they talked about this
death. (Dr. Newton.)
The Transfiguration
2 After six days Jesus took Peter, James and
John with him and led them up a high
mountain, where they were all alone. There he
was transfigured before them.
BARNES, "And after six days ... - See this passage explained in the notes at
Mat_17:1-9.
CLARKE, "And after six days Jesus taketh with him Peter, etc. - For a
full account of the nature and design of the transfiguration, see on Mat_17:1 (note),
etc.
A high mountain - I have conjectured, Mat_17:1, that this was one of the
mountains of Galilee: some say Hermon, some Tabor; but Dr. Lightfoot thinks a
mountain near Caesarea Philippi to be more likely.
Was transfigured - Four good MSS. and Origen add here, And While They Were
Praying he was transfigured; but this appears to be added from Luk_9:29.
17

18. GILL, "And after six days,.... Six days after this discourse with his disciples, in
their way to Caesarea Philippi, and after they were come into those parts:
Jesus taketh with him Peter, James, and John; favourite disciples, and a
sufficient number, to be witnesses of his transfiguration:
and leadeth them up into an high mountain apart by themselves; where he
and they were alone. This was not Mount Tabor, as is generally said, but either the
mountain which Caesarea was at the foot of, or it may be Mount Lebanon; See Gill on
Mat_17:1;
and he was transfigured before them; the above three disciples; See Gill on
Mat_17:2.
HENRY, "II. A specimen of that kingdom in the transfiguration of Christ, six days
after Christ spoke that prediction. He had begun to give notice to his disciples of his
death and sufferings; and, to prevent their offence at that, he gives them this glimpse
of his glory, to show that his sufferings were voluntary, and what a virtue the dignity
and glory of his person would put into them, and to prevent the offence of the cross.
1. It was on the top of a high mountain, like the converse Moses had with God,
which was on the top of mount Sinai, and his prospect of Canaan from the top of
mount Pisgah. Tradition saith, It was on the top of the mount Tabor that Christ was
transfigured; and if so, the scripture was fulfilled, Tabor and Hermon shall rejoice in
thy name, Psa_89:12. Dr. Lightfoot, observing that the last place where we find
Christ was in the coasts of Caesarea-Philippi, which was far from mount Tabor,
rather thinks it was a high mountain which Josephus speaks of, near Caesarea.
2. The witnesses of it were Peter, James, and John; these were the three that were
to bear record on earth, answering to Moses, Elias, and the voice from heaven, the
three that were to bear record from above. Christ did not take all the disciples with
him, because the thing was to be kept very private. As there are distinguishing
favours which are given to disciples and not to the world, so there are to some
disciples and not to others. All the saints are a people near to Christ, but some lie in
his bosom. James was the first of all the twelve that died for Christ, and John
survived them all, to be the last eyewitness of this glory; he bore record (Joh_1:14);
We saw his glory: and so did Peter, 2Pe_1:16-18.
3. The manner of it; He was transfigured before them; he appeared in another
manner than he used to do. This was a change of the accidents, the substance
remaining the same, and it was a miracle. But transubstantiation, the change of the
substance, all the accidents remaining the same, is not a miracle, but a fraud and
imposture, such a work as Christ never wrought. See what a great change human
bodies are capable of, when God is pleased to put an honour upon them, as he will
upon the bodies of the saints, at the resurrection. He was transfigured before them;
the change, it is probable, was gradual, from glory to glory, so that the disciples, who
had their eye upon him all the while, had the clearest and most certain evidence they
could have, that this glorious appearance was no other than the blessed Jesus
himself, and there was no illusion in it. John seems to refer to this (1Jo_1:1), when he
speaks of the word of life, as that which they had seen with their eyes, and looked
upon. His raiment became shining; so that, though probably, it was sad-coloured, if
not black, yet it was now exceeding white as snow, beyond what the fuller's art could
do toward whitening it.
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19. COFFMAN, "THE TRANSFIGURATION
And after six days ... Luke placed this event as "eight days" afterward; but, as
Barclay said, "There is no discrepancy here. They both mean what we would
express by saying, `About a week afterward.'"[4]
In counting up a week, Sunday to Sunday, one gets eight days if he counts the
Sundays and six days if he counts between the Sundays. Both styles of time
reckoning were in vogue in those days. Outside of particular times noted in
Mark's account of the Passion, this "is the only precise note of time given by
Mark."[5] This fact, however, is no basis whatever for designating the
transfiguration as a fulfillment of Mark 9:1.
Peter, and James, and John ... This is an example of Mark's stringing words,
phrases, clauses, and episodes together by means of this simple connective. He
also used "for" in the same manner, as in Mark 8:35-38. These three apostles
formed somewhat of an "inner three" within the company of the Twelve, as also
at the raising of Jairus' daughter, and in the Garden of Gethsemane. The special
preferment given by the Lord to these three was doubtless prompted by the key
roles that they would have in the church. James was the first to seal his testimony
with his blood; Peter preached the first sermon; and John remained on earth the
longest and delivered the final prophecy.
High mountain apart ... This was doubtless Mount Hermon, or one of its
adjacent spurs. Only these mountains qualify as being in the vicinity where Jesus
was placed in the sacred text and also as being "high." Mount Tabor, the
traditional site, was not high, being only about 1,500 feet in elevation. Moreover,
it was inhabited on top in the time of Christ, and it would not have been taking
the apostles "apart" for the Lord to have led them up Mount Tabor. Mount
Hermon is a snow-capped peak 9,200 in altitude.
Transfigured before them ... This word is found only in the New Testament
records of this event and in Romans 12:2,2 Corinthians 3:18. "It means a change
of form, an effulgence from within, not a mere `flood of glory' from without."[6]
Both Matthew and Luke give fuller accounts of this wonder than does Mark. The
parallel references are Matthew 17:1-8 and Luke 9:28-36. Each gospel writer
added the priceless ingredient of some detail omitted by the others. Matthew
mentioned the Saviour's coming and touching the apostles; Mark threw in that
homely detail that "no fuller on earth" could have made Jesus' garments so
white; and Luke provided the pertinent conversation between the Lord and
Moses and Elijah.
[4] William Barclay, op. cit.. p. 215:
[5] Henry E. Turlington, The Broadman Bible Commentary (Nashville:
Broadman Press, 1946), p. 338.
[6] Frederick C. Grant, op. cit., en loco.
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20. CONSTABLE, "Verses 2-4
Mark's account is almost identical to Matthew's here. He added that Jesus'
garments became whiter than any human launderer could make them. This
reflects an eyewitness's testimony if nothing else. Perhaps the reference to six
days followed by revelation should recall Exodus 24:15-16. Moses was on Mt.
Sinai for six days and then God revealed Himself on the seventh. This is the most
precise date in Mark's Gospel before the passion story. It also connects this
fulfillment with Jesus' prediction in Mark 9:1. In the Old Testament the glory of
God was represented with bright light. Mark placed Elijah in the prominent
position before Moses (Mark 9:4) probably because he was to be Messiah's
forerunner (Malachi 3:1; Malachi 4:5).
Verses 2-8
3. The Transfiguration 9:2-8 (cf. Matthew 17:1-8; Luke 9:28-36)
This event not only fulfilled Jesus' prediction in Mark 9:1, but it also confirmed
what Peter had confessed in Mark 8:29. Despite Jesus' coming death (Mark
8:31-32), it assured His disciples of eventual glory (Mark 8:38). Jesus had just
finished addressing a wide audience (Mark 8:34). Now He spoke to a very
narrow one (Mark 9:2).
"The transfiguration scene develops as a new 'Sinai' theophany with Jesus as the
central figure." [Note: Lane, p. 317.]
BURKITT, "Here we have the history of our Saviour's transfiguration, when he
laid, as it were, the garments of our frail humanity aside for a little time,
assuming to himself the robes of majesty and glory, to demonstrate and testify
the truth of his divinity; for this divine glory was an evidence of his divine
nature; and also an emblem of that glory which he and his disciples, al his
faithful servants and followers, shall enjoy together in heaven.
LIGHTFOOT, "[Into a high mountain.] Now your pardon, reader; I know it will
be laughed at if I should doubt whether Christ were transfigured upon mount
Tabor; for who ever doubted of this thing? But let me, before I give faith to the
thing, reveal my doubts concerning it: and the reader, laying before his eyes
some geographical map of Galilee, perhaps, when he shall have heard me, will
judge more favorably of my doubting.
I. Let him consider that Christ, in the story next going before, was in the coast of
Caesarea Philippi, Matthew 16:13; Mark 8:27; Luke 9:18; and, for any thing
that can be gathered out of the evangelists, changed not his place before this
story. Who will deny that those words, "There are some that stand here who
shall not taste of death," &c., were uttered in those coasts of Caesarea Philippi?
And presently the story of the transfiguration followed.
II. Six days indeed came between: in which, you will say, Christ might travel
from Caesarea Philippi to Tabor. He might, indeed: but, 1. The evangelists
intimate no change from place to place, saying only this, That he led up into the
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21. mountain three of his disciples. 2. It seems, indeed, a wonder that our Saviour
would tire himself with so long a journey, to choose Tabor whereon to be
transfigured, when, as far as we read, he had never before been in that
mountain; and there were mountains elsewhere where he conversed frequently.
3. Follow the footsteps of the history, and of Christ in his travel, from his
transfiguration onwards. When he came down from the mountain, he healed a
child possessed with a devil: and when he betook himself into the house they
said, "Why could not we cast out the devil? &c. And they departed thence, and
passed through Galilee, and came to Capernaum," Mark 9:28,30,33.
III. And now, reader, look upon the chorographical map, and how incongruous
will this travelling seem! 1. From Caesarea Philippi to mount Tabor through the
whole length almost of Galilee. 2. Then from mount Tabor by a course back
again to Capernaum, a great part of Galilee (especially as the maps place
Capernaum) being again passed over. Whereas Capernaum was in the way from
Caesarea Philippi to Tabor, and there was a mountain there well known to
Christ, and very much frequented by him.
IV. So that it seems far more consonant to the history of the gospel, that Christ
was transfigured in some mountain near Caesarea Philippi; perhaps that which,
Josephus being witness, was the highest, and hung over the very fountains of
Jordan, and at the foot whereof Caesarea was placed.
In that place, formerly called Dan, was the first idolatry set up, and now in the
same place the eternal Son of God is shewn, both in the confession of Peter, and
in the unspeakably clear and illustrious demonstration of the Messias.
BENSON, "Mark 9:2-10. Jesus taketh with him Peter, &c., apart by
themselves — That is, separate from the multitude, apart from the apostles; and
was transfigured before them — The word μετεμορφωθη, here used, seems to
refer to the form of God, and the form of a servant, mentioned by St. Paul,
Philippians 2:6-7, and may intimate that the divine rays, which the indwelling
Deity let out on this occasion, made the glorious change from one of these forms
into the other. White as snow, as no fuller on earth can whiten — Such as could
not be equalled either by nature or art: And there appeared Elias — Whom they
expected: Moses — Whom they did not. See the whole paragraph explained and
improved, Matthew 17:1-13.
BARCLAY, "THE GLORY OF THE MOUNTAIN TOP (Mark 9:2-8)
9:2-8 Six days after, Jesus took Peter and James and John along with him and
brought them up into a high mountain, all by themselves, alone. And he was
transfigured in their presence. His clothes became radiant, exceedingly white,
such that no fuller on earth could have made them so white. And Elijah and
Moses appeared to them, and they were talking with Jesus. Peter said to Jesus.
"Teacher, it is good for us to be here. So let us make three booths, one for you,
and one for Moses and one for Elijah." He said this because he did not know
what he was saying, for they were awe-struck. And there came a cloud
overshadowing them. And there came a voice from the cloud, "This is my
beloved Son. Hear Him!" And immediately, when they had looked round, they
21

22. saw no one any more except Jesus alone with them.
We are face to face with an incident in the life of Jesus that is cloaked in mystery.
We can only try to understand. Mark says that this happened six days after the
incidents near Caesarea Philippi. Luke says that it happened eight days
afterwards. There is no discrepancy here. They both mean what we might
express by saying, "About a week afterwards." Both the Eastern and the
Western Churches hold their remembrance of the transfiguration on 6th August.
It does not matter whether or not that is the actual date, but it is a time we do
well to remember.
Tradition says that the transfiguration took place on the top of Mount Tabor.
The Eastern Church actually calls the Festival of the Transfiguration the
Taborion. It may be that the choice is based on the mention of Mount Tabor in
Psalms 89:12, but it is unfortunate. Tabor is in the south of Galilee and Caesarea
Philippi is away to the north. Tabor is no more than 1,000 feet high, and, in the
time of Jesus, there was a fortress on the top. It is much more likely that this
event took place amidst the eternal snows of Mount Hermon which is 9,200 feet
high and much nearer Caesarea Philippi and where the solitude would be much
more complete.
What happened we cannot tell. We can only bow in reverence as we try to
understand. Mark tells us that the garments of Jesus became radiant. The word
he uses (stilbein, Greek #4744) is the word used for the glistening gleam of
burnished brass or gold or of polished steel or of the golden glare of the sunlight.
When the incident came to an end a cloud overshadowed them.
In Jewish thought the presence of God is regularly connected with the cloud. It
was in the cloud that Moses met God. It was in the cloud that God came to the
Tabernacle. It was the cloud which rifled the Temple when it was dedicated after
Solomon had built it. And it was the dream of the Jews that when the Messiah
came the cloud of God's presence would return to the Temple. (Exodus 16:10,
Exodus 19:9, Exodus 33:9, 1 Kings 8:10, 2 Maccabees 2:8.) The descent of the
cloud is a way of saying that the Messiah had come, and any Jew would
understand it like that.
The transfiguration has a double significance.
(i) It did something very precious for Jesus. Jesus had to take his own decisions.
He had taken the decision to go to Jerusalem and that was the decision to face
and accept the Cross. Obviously he had to be absolutely sure that was right
before he could go on. On the mountain top he received a double approval of his
decision.
(a) Moses and Elijah met with him. Now Moses was the supreme law-giver of
Israel. To him the nation owed the laws of God. Elijah was the first and the
greatest of the prophets. Always men looked back to him as the prophet who
brought to men the very voice of God. When these two great figures met with
Jesus it meant that the greatest of the law-givers and the greatest of the prophets
22

23. said to him, "Go on!" It meant that they saw in Jesus the consummation of all
that they had dreamed of in the past. It meant that they saw in him all that
history had longed for and hoped for and looked forward to. It is as if at that
moment Jesus was assured that he was on the right way because all history had
been leading up to the Cross.
(b) God spoke with Jesus. As always, Jesus did not consult his own wishes. He
went to God and said, "What wilt thou have me to do?" He put all his plans and
intentions before God. And God said to him, "You are acting as my own beloved
Son should act and must act. Go on!" On the mountain of the transfiguration
Jesus was assured that he had not chosen the wrong way. He saw, not only the
inevitability, but the essential rightness of the Cross.
(ii) It did something very precious for the disciples.
(a) They had been shattered by Jesus' statement that he was going to Jerusalem
to die. That seemed to them the complete negation of all that they understood of
the Messiah. They were still bewildered and uncomprehending. Things were
happening which not only baffled their minds but were also breaking their
hearts. What they saw on the mountain of the transfiguration would give them
something to hold on to, even when they could not understand. Cross or no
Cross, they had heard God's voice acknowledge Jesus as his Son.
(b) It made them in a special sense witnesses of the glory of Christ. A witness has
been defined as a man who first sees and then shows. This time on the mountain
had shown them the glory of Christ, and now they had the story of this glory to
hide in their hearts and to tell to men, not at the moment, but when the time
came.
MACLAREN, "THE TRANSFIGURATION
All three Evangelists are careful to date the Transfiguration by a reference to the
solemn new teaching at Caesarea, and Mark’s ‘six days’ plainly cover the same time as
Luke’s ‘eight’-the former reckoning excluding in the count, and the latter including,
the days on which the two incidents occurred. If we would understand the
Transfiguration, then, we must look at it as the sequel to Jesus’ open announcement
of His death. His seeking the seclusion of the hills, attended only by the innermost
group of the faithful three, is a touching token of the strain to which that week had
subjected Him. How Peter’s heart must have filled with thankfulness that,
notwithstanding the stern rebuke, he was taken with the other two! There were three
stages in the complex incident which we call the Transfiguration-the change in Jesus’
appearance, the colloquy with Moses and Elijah, and the voice from the cloud.
Luke, who has frequent references to Jesus’ prayers, tells us that the change in our
Lord’s countenance and raiment took place ‘as He prayed’; and probably we are
reverently following his lead if we think of Jesus’ prayer as, in some sense, the
occasion of the glorious change. So far as we know, this was the only time when
mortal eyes saw Him absorbed in communion with the Father. It was only ‘when He
ceased praying’ in a certain place that ‘they came to Him’ asking to be taught to pray
(Luk_11:1); and in Gethsemane the disciples slept while He prayed beneath the olives
quivering in the moonlight. It may be that what the three then saw did not occur then
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24. only. ‘In such an hour of high communion with’ His Father the elevated spirit may
have more than ordinarily illuminated the pure body, and the pure body may have
been more than ordinarily transparent. The brighter the light, fed by fragrant oil
within an alabaster lamp, the more the alabaster will glow. Faint foreshadowings of
the spirit’s power to light up the face with unearthly beauty of holiness are not
unknown among us. It may be that the glory which always shone in the depths of His
perfectly holy manhood rose, as it were, to the surface for that one time, a witness of
what He really was, a prophecy of what humanity may become.
Did Jesus will His transfiguration, or did it come about without His volition, or
perhaps even without His consciousness? Did it continue during all the time on the
mountain, or did it pass when the second stage of the incident began? We cannot tell.
Matthew and Mark both say that Jesus was transfigured ‘before’ the three, as if the
making visible of the glory had special regard to them. It may be that Jesus, like
Moses, ‘knew not that the skin of His face shone’; at all events, it was the second
stage of the incident, the conversation with Elijah and Moses, that had a special
message of strength for Him. The first and third stages were, apparently, intended
for the three and for us all; and the first is a revelation, not only of the veiled glory
that dwelt in Jesus, but of the beauty that may pass into a holy face, and of the
possibilities of a bodily frame becoming a ‘spiritual body,’ the adequate organ and
manifestation of a perfect spirit. Paul teaches the prophetic aspect of the
Transfiguration when he says that Jesus ‘shall change the body of our humiliation
that it may be fashioned like unto the body of His glory.’
Luke adds two very significant points to the accounts by Matthew and Mark-namely,
the disciples’ sleep, and the subject on which Moses and Elijah talked with Jesus.
Mark lays the main stress on the fact that the two great persons of the old economy,
its founder and its restorer, the legislator and the chief of the prophets, came from
the dim region to which one of them had passed in a chariot of fire, and stood by the
transfigured Christ, as if witnessing to Him as the greater, to whom their ministries
were subordinate, and in whom their teachings centred. Jesus is the goal of all
previous revelation, mightier than the mightiest who are honoured by being His
attendants. He is the Lord both of the dead and of the living, and the ‘spirits of just
men made perfect’ bow before Him, and reverently watch His work on earth.
So much did that appearance proclaim to the mortal three, but their slumber showed
that they were not principally concerned, and that the other three had things to speak
which they were not fit to hear. The theme was the same which had been, a week
before, spoken to them, and had doubtless been the subject of all Jesus’ teachings for
these ‘six days.’ No doubt, their horror at the thought, and His necessary insistence
on it, had brought Him to need strengthening. And these two came, as did the angel
in Gethsemane, and, like him, in answer to Christ’s prayer, to bring the sought-for
strength. How different it would be to speak to them ‘of the decease which He should
accomplish at Jerusalem,’ from speaking to the reluctant, protesting Twelve! And
how different to listen to them speaking of that miracle of divine love expressed in
human death from the point of view of the ‘principalities and powers in heavenly
places,’ as over against the remonstrances and misunderstandings with which He
had been struggling for a whole week! The appearance of Moses and Elijah teaches us
the relation of Jesus to all former revelation, the interest of the dwellers in heavenly
light in the Cross, and the need which Jesus felt for strengthening to endure it.
Peter’s foolish words, half excused by his being scarcely awake, may be passed by
with the one remark that it was like him to say something, though he did not know
what to say, and that it would therefore have been wise to say nothing.
The third part of this incident, the appearance of the cloud and the voice from it, was
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25. for the disciples. Luke tells us that it was a ‘bright’ cloud, and yet it ‘overshadowed
them.’ That sets us on the right track and indicates that we are to think of the cloud
of glory, which was the visible token of the divine presence, the cloud which shone
lambent between the cherubim, the cloud which at last ‘received Him out of their
sight.’ Luke tells, too, that ‘they entered into it.’ Who entered? Moses and Elijah had
previously ‘departed from Him.’ Jesus and the disciples remained, and we cannot
suppose that the three could have passed into that solemn glory, if He had not led
them in. In that sacred moment He was ‘the way,’ and keeping close to Him, mortal
feet could pass into the glory which even a Moses had not been fit to behold. The
spiritual significance of the incident seems to require the supposition that, led by
Jesus, they entered the cloud. They were men, therefore they were afraid; Jesus was
with them, therefore they stood within the circle of that light and lived.
The voice repeated the attestation of Jesus as the ‘beloved Son’ of the Father, which
had been given at the baptism, but with the addition, ‘Hear Him,’ which shows that it
was now meant for the disciples, not, as at the baptism, for Jesus Himself. While the
command to listen to His voice as to the voice from the cloud is perfectly general, and
lays all His words on us as all God’s words, it had special reference to the disciples,
and that in regard to the new teaching which had so disturbed them-the teaching of
the necessity for His death. ‘The offence of the Cross’ began with the first clear
statement of it, and in the hearts that loved Him best and came most near to
understanding Him. To fail in accepting His teaching that it ‘behoved the Son of Man
to suffer,’ is to fail in accepting it in the most important matter. There are sounds in
nature too low-pitched to be audible to untrained ears, and the message of the Cross
is unheard unless the ears of the deaf are unstopped. If we do not hear Jesus when
He speaks of His passion, we may almost as well not hear Him at all.
Moses and Elijah had vanished, having borne their last testimony to Jesus. Peter had
wished to keep them beside Jesus, but that could not be. Their highest glory was to
fade in His light. They came, they disappeared; He remained-and remains. ‘They saw
no man any more, save Jesus only with themselves.’ So should it be for us in life. So
may it be with us in death! ‘Hear Him,’ for all other voices are but for a time, and die
into silence, but Jesus speaks for eternity, and ‘His words shall not pass away.’ When
time is ended, and the world’s history is all gathered up into its final issue, His name
shall stand out alone as Author and End of all.
3 His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than
anyone in the world could bleach them.
BARNES, "No fuller - Rather, no “scourer.” The office of the person here
mentioned was to “scour” or “whiten” cloth; not to “full” it, or to render it thicker.
GILL, "And his raiment became shining,.... With the rays of glory and
brightness which darted from his body through his clothes, and made them as bright
as the light of the sun at noon day: and
exceeding white as snow; than which nothing is whiter;
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26. so as no fuller on earth can white them. The Syriac version renders it, "as men
cannot white on earth"; and the Persic thus, "so as men could not behold him". Just
as the Israelites could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses, because of the glory
of his countenance, when he came down from the mount; See Gill on Mat_17:2.
HENRY, " The manner of it; He was transfigured before them; he appeared in
another manner than he used to do. This was a change of the accidents, the
substance remaining the same, and it was a miracle. But transubstantiation, the
change of the substance, all the accidents remaining the same, is not a miracle, but a
fraud and imposture, such a work as Christ never wrought. See what a great change
human bodies are capable of, when God is pleased to put an honour upon them, as he
will upon the bodies of the saints, at the resurrection. He was transfigured before
them; the change, it is probable, was gradual, from glory to glory, so that the
disciples, who had their eye upon him all the while, had the clearest and most certain
evidence they could have, that this glorious appearance was no other than the blessed
Jesus himself, and there was no illusion in it. John seems to refer to this (1Jo_1:1),
when he speaks of the word of life, as that which they had seen with their eyes, and
looked upon. His raiment became shining; so that, though probably, it was sad-
coloured, if not black, yet it was now exceeding white as snow, beyond what the
fuller's art could do toward whitening it.
JAMIESON, "
COFFMAN, "This event should be understood as a factual, objective, historical
event, in which Christ deliberately permitted three of his apostles to glimpse the
Lord in this manifestation of his glorious heavenly nature. Speculation as to why
this was done is fruitless. Christ himself evidently received strength and
encouragement from the approving words of Moses and Elijah; and certainly,
the apostles received in this event an experience they never forgot.
BURKITT, "Observe here, 1. That to confirm the disciples faith in the truth of
Christ's divine nature, he was pleased to suffer the rays of his divinity to dart
forth before their eyes, so far as they were able to bear it. His face shined with a
pleasing brightness, and his raiment with such a glorious lustre, as did at once
both delight and dazzle the eyes of the disciples.
Observe, 2. The choice which our Saviour makes of the witnesses of his glorious
transfiguration; his three disciples, Peter, James and John. But why disciples?
Why three disciples? Why these three?
1. Why disciples? Because this transfiguration was a type and shadow of his
glory in heaven: Christ vouchsafes therefore the earnest and first-fruits of that
glory only to saints, upon whom he intended to bestow the full harvest in due
time.
2. Why three discples? Because three were sufficient to witness the truth and
reality of this miracle. Judas was unworthy of this favour; yet lest he should
murmur, or be discontented, others are left out as well as he.
But, 3. Why these three, rather than others?
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27. Probably, 1. Because these three were more eminent for grace, zeal, and love
towards Christ. Now the most eminent manifestations of glory are made to those
that are most excelling in grace.
2. These three disciples were witnesses of Christ's agony and passion; to prepare
them for which, they are here made witnesses of his transfiguration. This
glorious vision upon mount Tabor, fitted them to abide the terror of mount
Calvary.
Observe, 3. The glorious attendants upon our Saviour at his transfiguration.
They were two, two men; and those two men, Moses and Elias. This being but a
glimpse of Christ's glory, not a full manifestation of it, only two of the glorified
saints attend at it. These two attendants are not two angels, but two men;
because men were more nearly concerned than angels in what was done.
But why Moses and Elias, rather than other men?
1. Because Moses was the giver of the law, and Elias the chief of the prophets.
Now both these attending upon Christ, did shew the consent of the law and the
prophets with Christ, and their accomplishment and fulfilling in him.
2. Because these two were the most laborious servants of Christ, both adventured
their lives n God's cause, and therefore are highly honoured by him. For, Those
that honour him, he will honour.
Observe, 4. The carriage and demeanor of the disciples upon this great occasion:
1. They supplicate Jesus, not Moses and Elias; they make no suit to them, but to
Christ only: Master, it is good being here. O! what a ravishing comfort and
satisfaction is the communion and fellowship of the saints! But the presence of
Christ amongst them, renders their joys transporting.
2. They proffer their service to farther their continuance of what they did enjoy;
Let us make three tabernacles. Saints will stick at no pains or cost for the
enjoyment of Christ's presence and his people's company.
Learn hence, That a glimpse of heaven's glory is sufficient to wrap a soul int
extacy and to make it out of love with worldly company.
2. That we are too apt to desire more of heaven upon earth than God will allow.
We would have the heavenly glory come down to us, but are unwilling by death
to go up to that.
Observe, 5. How a cloud was put before the disciples eyes, when the divine glory
was manifested to them; partly to allay the lustre and resplendency of that glory
which they were swallowd up with: the glory of heaven is insupportable in this
sinful state; we cannot bear it unveiled: and partly to hinder their farther prying
and looking into that glory. We must be content to behold God through a cloud
27

28. darkly here, ere long we shall see him face to face.
Observe, 6. The testimony given out of the cloud, by God the Father, concerning
Jesus Christ his Son: This is my beloved Son, hear him.
Where note, 1. The dignity of his person; he is my Son. For nature co-essential,
and for duration co-eternal, with his Father.
2. The endearedness of his relation; he is my beloved Son; because of his
conformity to me, and compliance with me. Likeness is the cause of love; and an
union and harmony of wills, causes a mutual endearing of affections.
3. The authority of his doctrine; Hear ye him; not Moses and Elias, who were
servants, but Christ, my Son, whom I have commissioned to be the great Prophet
and Teacher of my church. Therefore, adore him as my Son, believe in him as
your Saviour, and hear him as your Law-giver. The obedient ear honours Christ
more than either the gazing eye, the adoring knee, or the applauding tongue.
4 And there appeared before them Elijah and
Moses, who were talking with Jesus.
GILL, "And there appeared unto them Elias with Moses,.... Or Moses and
Elias, as all the Oriental versions read, as in Mat_. 17:3; see Gill on Mat_17:3,
and they were talking with Jesus; concerning his decease, and what he was to
do and suffer at Jerusalem, and of which he himself had lately talked with his
disciples; so that this might have been a confirmation of these things to them; See
Gill on Mat_17:3.
HENRY, "His companions in this glory were Moses and Elias (Mar_9:4); They
appeared talking with him, not to teach him, but to testify to him, and to be taught
by him; by which it appears that there are converse and intercourse between glorified
saints, they have ways of talking one with another, which we understand not. Moses
and Elias lived at a great distance of time one from another, but that breaks no
squares in heaven, where the first shall be last, and the last first, that is, all one in
Christ.
COFFMAN, "The independence of the gospel narratives is further emphasized
by the reversal of the names Elijah and Moses, and by Mark's mention of the
conversation without naming the subject matter, and Luke's giving the content
of it.
Elijah as a representative of the prophets, and Moses as the great lawgiver of
Israel both appeared before the Son of God in this event and, in a sense, laid
28

29. their authority at the Master's feet, resigning their commission in the presence of
Christ. The theological implications of this are profound. When the bright cloud,
symbolical of the presence of God himself, caught away the great prophet and
the great lawgiver, leaving only Jesus visible, it was God's way of saying, "There
is only one authority now, and that is Christ!" "This is my beloved Son; hear ye
him!"
5 Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to
be here. Let us put up three shelters—one for
you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.”
GILL, "And Peter answered and said to Jesus,.... He addressed himself to
him, as being more familiar with him; as also because he was the principal person:
wherefore he says,
master, it is good for us to be here: the company and conversation were
exceeding agreeable to him and his fellow disciples; and the glory that Christ
appeared in surpassed every thing they had seen before:
and let us make three tabernacles; or, as the Syriac, Arabic, and Ethiopic
versions read, "and we will make", &c. expressing not a petition, but a resolution; to
which the Persic version premises, "if thou wilt give us commandment"; submitting it
to the will of Christ:
one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias; See Gill on Mat_17:4.
HENRY, "The great delight that the disciples took in seeing this sight, and
hearing this discourse, is expressed by Peter, the mouth of the rest; He said, Master,
it is good for us to be here, Mar_9:5. Though Christ was transfigured, and was in
discourse with Moses and Elias, yet he gave Peter leave to speak to him, and to be as
free with him as he used to be. Note, Our Lord Jesus, in his exaltation and glory, doth
not at all abate of his condescending kindness to his people. Many, when they are in
their greatness, oblige their friends to keep their distance; but even to the glorified
Jesus true believers have access with boldness, and freedom of speech with him.
Even in this heavenly discourse there was room for Peter to put in a word; and this is
it, “Lord, it is good to be here, it is good for us to be here; here let us make
tabernacles; let this be our rest for ever.” Note, Gracious souls reckon it good to be in
communion with Christ, good to be near him, good to be in the mount with him,
though it be a cold and solitary place; it is good to be here retired from the world, and
alone with Christ: and if it is good to be with Christ transfigured only upon a
mountain with Moses and Elias, how good it will be to be with Christ glorified in
heaven with all the saints! But observe, While Peter was for staying here, he forgot
what need there was of the presence of Christ, and the preaching of his apostles,
among the people. At this very time, the other disciples wanted them greatly, Mar_
9:14. Note, When it is well with us, we are apt to be mindless of others, and in the
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30. fulness of our enjoyments to forget the necessities of our brethren; it was a weakness
in Peter to prefer private communion with God before public usefulness. Paul is
willing to abide in the flesh, rather than depart to the mountain of glory (though that
be far better), when he sees it needful for the church, Phi_1:24, Phi_1:25. Peter
talked of making three distinct tabernacles for Moses, Elias, and Christ, which was
not well-contrived; for such a perfect harmony there is between the law, the
prophets, and the gospel, that one tabernacle will hold them all; they dwell together
in unity. But whatever was incongruous in what he said, he may be excused, for they
were all sore afraid; and he, for his part, wist not what to say (Mar_9:6), not
knowing what would be the end thereof.
COFFMAN, "Of course, Peter was wrong in this suggestion, and yet it is easy to
understand his feelings. It was a glorious thing they had just seen, and how
natural it was that he should have desired to prolong such a glorious fellowship.
As Erdman said:
Peter is not to be ridiculed; he realized the blessedness of the experience;
however clumsily expressed; (and) in spite of his fear, he wished to continue in
such blissful companionship.[7]
Peter's desire was like that of many in all generations who experience some
glorious achievement or magnificent event and thereafter seek to perpetuate
endlessly the glory of that moment. Such a desire, even if it were possible of
fulfillment, should not prevail. Life is not designed to freeze some glorious
moment like the figures on a Grecian urn. Whatever sweet and precious
moments may be provided by life on earth, they can never be permanent; there is
always the journey down the mountain; and so it was for the blessed three who
participated in the transfiguration.
Peter's failure here was in the supposition that Jesus AND Moses AND Elijah
were in some manner a greater authority or more desirable fellowship than that
of Jesus alone, a notion that was quickly corrected by the event of the cloud and
the voice out of heaven, after which they saw "Jesus only." In our own times, the
human temptation to mix the word and teachings of Christ with some other
system exhibits the same error that Peter made here. It is not Christianity with
something else that blesses people; it is Christianity alone.
Tabernacles ... This word was the one used to describe the arbors or booths in
which the people of Israel dwelt briefly during the annual feast of Tabernacles;
but the exact nature of what Peter here had in mind is unknown.
ENDNOTE:
[7] Charles R. Erdman. The Gospel of Mark (Philadelphia: The Westminster
Press, 1966), p. 138.
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31. 6 (He did not know what to say, they were so
frightened.)
BARNES, "He wist not - He “knew not.” He was desirous of saying something,
and he knew not what would be proper.
GILL, "For he wist not what to say,.... He did not know what he should say, or
what was proper to be said by him, at such a time, in such circumstances, and before
such persons;
for they were sore afraid. The Persic version reads, "he was": and so the Latin
translation of the Syriac, though that itself is, "they were"; for all three were filled
with consternation at what they saw and heard; so that they were scarcely
themselves, and knew not well what they said or did.
7 Then a cloud appeared and covered them, and
a voice came from the cloud: “This is my Son,
whom I love. Listen to him!”
GILL, "And there was a cloud that overshadowed them,.... Jesus, Moses,
and Elias, and also the disciples; who, according to Luke, entered into it, and so were
covered by it.
And a voice came out the cloud, saying, this is my beloved Son, hear him.
This was the voice of God the Father, bearing a testimony to the sonship of Christ;
and was directed, not to Moses and Elias, but to the disciples, enjoining them to hear
and obey him, who was the end of the law and prophets; was the great prophet Moses
had spoken of, and was to be hearkened to, and whom all the prophets had testified
of, and in whom they all centred; See Gill on Mat_17:5.
HENRY, "And there was a cloud that overshadowed them,.... Jesus, Moses,
and Elias, and also the disciples; who, according to Luke, entered into it, and so were
covered by it.
And a voice came out the cloud, saying, this is my beloved Son, hear him.
This was the voice of God the Father, bearing a testimony to the sonship of Christ;
and was directed, not to Moses and Elias, but to the disciples, enjoining them to hear
and obey him, who was the end of the law and prophets; was the great prophet Moses
had spoken of, and was to be hearkened to, and whom all the prophets had testified
of, and in whom they all centred; See Gill on Mat_17:5.
31

32. COFFMAN, "What is meant by the overshadowing cloud? Did it envelop all of
the group or only Jesus, Moses, and Elijah? From the fact of God's presence in
the Old Testament having been indicated by the pillar of a cloud by day (Exodus
13:21), as well as from other associations of clouds with the presence of God
(Psalms 79:14; 1 Thessalonians 4:17, etc.), there is a strong inclination to make
the same association here; but a comparison with the baptismal scene (Matthew
3:16,17) in which Christ as the Son of God, the Spirit as a dove, and the voice
from the Father indicate the presence of the Trinity, suggests that the same is in
view here. If so, Christ as the beloved Son and the voice from the Father would
leave the overshadowing of the cloud as a symbol or manifestation of the Holy
Spirit. This is not indicated absolutely, however, because the voice was said to
have come "out of the cloud." In Luke 1:35, the coming of the Holy Spirit upon
Mary was linked with the statement that the power of the Most High would
"overshadow" her.
Regarding the question of who was overshadowed, Cranfield, arguing from the
premise that the disciples seemed to have been addressed outside the cloud,
concluded that the enveloping included only Jesus, Moses, and Elijah.[8]
Cranfield is wrong, for Luke records that "they feared as they entered into the
cloud" (Luke 9:34).
Hear ye him ... These words indicate far more than a mere admonition to pay
attention. As in Deuteronomy 18:15, they carry a very strong meaning, "Hear
and obey."[9] In context, they also have the equivalent meaning of "Do not hear
Moses or Elijah, but hear Jesus only." Thus, Christians are released from any
necessity of obeying Mosaic or prophetic requirements found in the Old
Testament.
[8] C. E. B. Cranfield, The Gospel according to Saint Mark (Cambridge:
University Press, 1966), p. 292.
[9] Ibid.
CONSTABLE, "A cloud frequently pictured God's presence and protection in
the Old Testament (e.g., Exodus 16:10; Exodus 19:9; Exodus 24:15-16; Exodus
33:1). The heavenly voice assured the disciples that even though the Jews would
reject Jesus and the Romans would execute Him, He was still pleasing to the
Father (cf. Mark 1:11). [Note: Plummer, p. 215.] It also helped these disciples
understand Jesus' superiority over the greatest of God's former servants (cf.
Deuteronomy 18:15; Psalms 2:7; Isaiah 42:1). They disappeared, but Jesus
remained indicating the end of their ministries in contrast to Jesus' continuing
ministry. Listening to Jesus in the fullest sense means obeying Him.
This revelation should encourage every disciple of Jesus. The Son of Man's
humiliation will give way to His glorification. He will certainly return to earth
and establish the kingdom that the biblical prophets predicted. The faithful
disciple can anticipate a glorious future with Him as surely as the beloved Son
could look forward to that kingdom (cf. Mark 8:35).
32

33. 8 Suddenly, when they looked around, they no
longer saw anyone with them except Jesus.
GILL, "And suddenly, when they had looked round about,.... Upon hearing
the voice, to see if they could observe any other object, by whom it was pronounced,
and whether the same they had seen continued:
they saw no man any more; neither Moses, nor Elias, not at that time, nor ever
after;
save Jesus only with themselves: the voice only regarded him, and being
directed to them; See Gill on Mat_17:8.
HENRY, "The vision, being designed only to introduce the voice, when that was
delivered, disappeared (Mar_9:8); Suddenly when they had looked round about, as
men amazed to see where they were, all was gone, they saw no man any more. Elias
and Moses were vanished out of sight, and Jesus only remained with them, and he
not transfigured, but as he used to be. Note, Christ doth not leave the soul, when
extraordinary joys and comforts leave it. Though more sensible and ravishing
communications may be withdrawn, Christ's disciples have, and shall have, his
ordinary presence with them always, even to the end of the world, and that is it we
must depend upon. Let us thank God for daily bread and not expect a continual feast
on this side of heaven.
SBC, "I. When Jesus thus revealed Himself on the Mount of Transfiguration, He
may be said to have taken, by anticipation, so much of that Divine glory with which
He is now adorned, in heaven, as would call forth the wonder and admiration,
without confounding the faculties, of the beholders.
II. The transfiguration of our Lord afforded a powerful attestation to His Divine
character, and the truth of His mission to the world. Moses and Elias would never
have appeared to support the pretensions of an impostor.
III. Moreover, the same wondrous transformation on Mount Tabor placed beyond a
doubt the fact of the soul’s immortality and the resurrection of the body. Not only did
the face of the Saviour shine as the sun, and His raiment become white and
glistering, but Moses and Elias, also, appeared with Him in glory. What was this but
a representation and pledge of the final blessedness of the redeemed. St. Martin of
Tours was once meditating in his cell, when a radiant form appeared to him, with a
jewelled crown on His head, a countenance resplendent with glory, and with a
manner so impressive that it seemed to demand homage and love. The heavenly
vision said to St. Martin, "I am Christ; worship Me," and the legend goes on to say
that the saint looked upon this glorious form in silence, then gazed upon the hands
and asked, "Where is the print of the nails?" Forthwith the vision departed, and St
Martin knew that it was the crafty tempter. The same question, Where is the print of
the nails? will relieve many an anxious doubt, and reveal the way of duty.
33

34. IV. There are times in the history of God’s children, when, the brightest visions
having faded away, like the disciples in the text, "they saw no man any more, save
Jesus only with themselves." Can there possibly be a happier or more sustaining
thought than this? The little word only reminds us, that we need not be afraid for ten
thousands of the people that have set themselves in array against us, if Jesus be our
Friend. Each trusting heart may claim Him, as if no one else shared in His all-perfect
love.
J. N. Norton, Golden Truths, p. 312.
9 As they were coming down the mountain,
Jesus gave them orders not to tell anyone what
they had seen until the Son of Man had risen
from the dead.
GILL, "And as they came down from the mountain,.... Christ and his three
disciples, Peter, James, and John, whom he led up thither:
he charged them that they should tell no man what things they had seen;
on the mount, as the transfiguration of himself, the persons of Moses and Elias, and
the bright cloud from whence the voice came, which bore testimony of Christ's
sonship: he ordered to keep the whole of this a secret from every man, even from
their fellow disciples,
till the Son of man were risen from the dead; See Gill on Mat_17:9.
HENRY, "8. We have here the discourse between Christ and his disciples, as they
came down from the mount.
(1.) He charged them to keep this matter very private, till he was risen from the
dead, which would complete the proof of his divine mission, and then this must be
produced with the rest of the evidence, Mar_9:9. And besides, he, being now in a
state of humiliation, would haves nothing publicly taken notice of, that might be seen
disagreeable to such a state; for to that he would in every thing accommodate
himself. This enjoining of silence to the disciples, would likewise be of use to them, to
prevent their boasting of the intimacy they were admitted to, that they might not be
puffed up with the abundance of the revelations. It is a mortification to a man, to be
tied up from telling of his advancements, and may help to hide pride from him.
COFFMAN, "TEACHINGS CONCERNING ELIJAH
The necessity for secrecy on the part of the apostles who had witnessed this
wonder was inherent in the purpose of avoiding any further aggravation of
jealousies among the Twelve (Mark 9:33-34) and in the Lord's determination not
to precipitate an untimely confrontation with the Pharisees. The transfiguration
34

35. had left no doubt whatever that Jesus was indeed the Christ of glory (not merely
Elijah, Jeremiah. John the Baptist, or some great one, as in Mark 8:28); and, if
all of the Twelve had been given this overwhelming proof at that time, they
might have blazed it abroad with such rashness as to upset the divine schedule. It
should be remembered that Judas was yet with the Twelve.
And as they were coming down from the mountain ... A great deal of Christian
experience is suggested by this. It is not given that followers of the Lord should
dwell perpetually in the glory of some mountain-top experience. Their pathway
of service leads down into the valley where human need cries for relief, doubts
and frustrations are acute, and enemies lie in wait to destroy. As Grant said,
"Jesus spent his whole life going downhill from the high and lonely places where
he held communion with God, to the level, crowded places of human need."[10]
ENDNOTE:
[10] Fredrick C. Grant, op. cit., p. 779.
CONSTABLE, "Jesus again commanded secrecy (cf. Mark 1:34; Mark 1:43-44;
Mark 3:11-12; Mark 5:43; Mark 7:36; Mark 8:30). William Wrede developed
the view that Jesus never claimed to be the Messiah and that the early church
originated that idea. [Note: William Wrede, The Messianic Secret.] Mark, he
argued, invented incidents in which Jesus commanded secrecy about His
messiahship to resolve this contradiction. Most conservative scholars have
rejected this theory because the evidence for Jesus' messiahship is pervasive in
all the Gospels.
If the multitudes heard about this demonstration of Jesus' glory, it would only
fuel the fires of popular messianic expectation that created pressure for Jesus to
depart from God's will. This is the last command to maintain secrecy in this
Gospel. It is also the only one with a time limit. The people the disciples would
tell the transfiguration story to would only understand it after Jesus arose from
the dead. With His resurrection behind them, they could appreciate the fact that
He would return in glory to establish the messianic kingdom.
BURKITT, "Observe here, 1. The strict injunction given by Christ to his
disciples, not to publish or proclaim this glorious vision at his transfiguration, till
after his resurrection; because being now in a state of humiliation, he would have
his divine majesty and glory veiled and concealed.
Learn hence, That the divine glory of Christ's person, as God, was not to be
manifested suddenly, and all at once, but gradually, and by steps.
First more obscurely, by his miracles, by the forced acknowledgments of devils,
by the free confession of his disciples, and by the glorious vision of his
transfiguration; but the more clear and full, the more public and open,
manifestation of is divine glory, was at the time of is resurrection and ascension.
Observe, 2. The disciples obedience to Christ's injunction, touching the
35

36. concealing of his transfiguration till after his resurrection; They kept that saying
with themselves, questioning one with another what the rising from the dead
should mean.
Not that they questioned the resurrection in general, but Christ's resurrection in
particular, because his resurrection did suppose his death; and they could not
conceive how the Messiah, whom they erroneously supposed must be a temporal
prince, should suffer death at the hands of men.
Observe, 3. The question which the disciples put to Christ, how the observation
of the Jewish doctors holds good; namely, that Elias must come before the
Messias came; we see the Messias, but no Elias.
Our Saviour answers, That Elias was come already; not Elias in person, but one
in the spirit and power of Elias, to wit, John the Baptist, who was prophesied of
under the name of Elias; there being a great resemblance between the Elias of
the Old Testament, and of the New, viz. John the Baptist, they were both men of
great zeal for God and Religion, they were both undaunted reprovers of the
faults of princes, and they were both implacably hated and persecuted for the
same.
Thence learn, That hatred and persecution, even unto death, has often been the
lot and portion of such persons who have had the courage and zeal to reprove the
faults of princes. Elias is indeed come, and they have done unto him whatsoever
they listed.
BARCLAY, "THE FATE OF THE FORERUNNER (Mark 9:9-13)
9:9-13 As they were coming down from the mountain, Jesus enjoined them that
they must not relate to anyone what they had seen, except when the Son of Man
should have risen from the dead. They clung to this word, asking among
themselves, what this phrase about rising from the dead could mean. They asked
Jesus, "Do the experts in the Law not say that Elijah must come first?" "It is
true," he said to them, "Elijah comes first and sets all things in order. And yet
how does it stand written about the Son of Man that he must suffer many things
and be treated with contempt? But, I say to you, Elijah, too, has come, and they
treated him as they wished, even as it stands written about him."
Naturally the three disciples were thinking hard as they came down the
mountain-side.
First, Jesus began with an injunction. They must tell no one of what they had
seen. Jesus knew quite well that their minds were still haunted by the conception
of a Messiah of might and power. If they were to tell of what had happened on
the mountain top, of how the glory of God had appeared, of how Moses and
Elijah had appeared, how that could be made to chime in with popular
expectations! How it could be made to seem a prelude to the burst of God's
avenging power on the nations of the world! The disciples still had to learn what
Messiahship meant. There was only one thing that could teach them that--the
Cross and the Resurrection to follow. When the Cross had taught them what
36

37. Messiahship meant and when the Resurrection had convinced them that Jesus
was the Messiah, then, and then only, they might tell of the glory of the mountain
top for then, and then only, would they see it as it ought to be seen--as the
prelude, not to the unleashing of God's force, but to the crucifying of God's love.
Still their minds worked on. They could not understand what Jesus' words about
resurrection meant. Their whole attitude shows that in fact they never
understood them. Their whole outlook when the Cross came was that of men to
whom the end had come. We must not blame the disciples. It was simply that
they had been so schooled in a completely different idea of Messiahship that they
could not take in what Jesus had said.
Then they asked something that was puzzling them. The Jew believed that before
the Messiah came Elijah would come to be his herald and forerunner. (Malachi
4:5-6.) They had a rabbinic tradition that Elijah would come three days before
the Messiah. On the first day he would stand on the mountains of Israel,
lamenting the desolation of the land. And then in a voice that would be heard
from one end of the world to the other, he would cry, "Peace cometh to the
world. Peace cometh to the world." On the second day he would cry, "Good
cometh to the world. Good cometh to the world." And on the third day he would
cry "Jeshuah (see Yeshuw'ah - Hebrew #3444) (salvation) cometh to the world.
Jeshuah cometh to the world." He would restore all things. He would mend the
family breaches of the grim last days. He would settle all doubtful points of ritual
and ceremonial. He would cleanse the nation by bringing back those wrongfully
excluded and driving out those wrongfully included. Elijah had an amazing
place in the thought of Israel. He was conceived of as being continuously active
in heaven and on earth in their interest, and being the herald of the final
consummation.
Inevitably the disciples were wondering "If Jesus is the Messiah what has
happened to Elijah?" Jesus' answer was in terms that any Jew would
understand. "Elijah," he said, "has come and men treated him as they willed.
They took him and they arbitrarily applied their will to him and forgot God's
will." He was referring to the imprisonment and death of John the Baptist at the
hands of Herod. Then, by implication, he drove them back to that thought they
would not face and that he was determined they must face. By implication he
demanded, "If they have done that to the forerunner, what will they do to the
Messiah?"
Jesus was overturning all the preconceived notions and ideas of his disciples.
They looked for the emergence of Elijah, the coming of the Messiah, the
irruption of God into time and the shattering victory of heaven, which they
identified with the triumph of Israel. He was trying to compel them to see that in
fact the herald had been cruelly killed and the Messiah must end on a Cross.
They still did not understand, and their failure to understand was due to the
cause which always makes men fail to understand--they clung to their way and
refused to see God's way. They wished things as they desired them and not as
God had ordered them. the error of their thoughts had blinded them to the
revelation of God's truth.
37

38. 10 They kept the matter to themselves,
discussing what “rising from the dead” meant.
CLARKE, "And they kept that saying - This verse is wanting in two MSS. and
one of the Itala.
What the rising from the dead should mean - ᆍταν εκ νεκρων ανα̣ᇽ, When
he should arise from the dead, is the reading of D, six others, Syriac, all the Persic,
Vulgate, all the Itala, and Jerome. Griesbach approves of it. There is nothing that
answers to this verse either in Matthew or Luke.
GILL, "And they kept that saying with themselves,.... "They retained it in
their own mind", as the Persic version renders it; "they kept it close", as Luke says,
Luk_9:36, among themselves, and acquainted no man with it: and which refers
either to the whole of Christ's charge, relating to the vision on the mount; or else only
to what he said about his resurrection from the dead; and which they took notice of
particularly, and laid hold upon, as the word will bear to be rendered; and so the
Ethiopic version does render it, "and they observed his saying"; what he last said
concerning the son of man's rising from the dead;
questioning with one other what the rising from the dead should mean:
they inquired, disputed, and reasoned with one another, what should be the meaning
of such an expression: not that they were ignorant of the general resurrection of the
dead; for this was the hope of Israel, and the general sense of the Jewish nation: but
they did not know what he meant by his particular rising from the dead: whether he
meant it in a literal sense, which supposed his death; and that though he had lately
told them of, they knew not how to reconcile to the notions they had of a long and
flourishing temporal kingdom of the Messiah; or whether he meant a and interest, in
such manner as they expected.
HENRY, " The disciples were at a loss what the rising from the dead should
mean; they could not form any notion of the Messiah's dying (Luk_18:34), and
therefore were willing to think that the rising he speaks of, was figurative, his rising
from his present mean and low estate to the dignity and dominion they were in
expectation of. But if so, here is another thing that embarrasses them (Mar_9:11);
Why say the Scribes, that before the appearing of the Messiah in his glory, according
to the order settled in the prophecies of the Old Testament, Elias must first come?
But Elias was gone, and Moses too. Now that which raised this difficulty, was, the
scribes taught them to expect the person of Elias, whereas the prophecy intended one
in the spirit and power of Elias. Note, The misunderstanding of scripture is a great
prejudice to the entertainment of truth.
COFFMAN, "And they kept the saying ... means that the three apostles obeyed
the Saviour's injunction of secrecy.
38

39. Questioning ... The resurrection of Christ was an event utterly beyond the
comprehension of the apostles because: (1) of the inherent preconditioning of the
human race not to expect any such thing; (2) of the false idea they had
concerning the Messiah and what he would do on earth; and (3) of their failure,
at first, to believe Jesus' prophecies of his impending death. Commentators who
themselves will not even believe the resurrection of Christ after the event are in a
very sorry role when they criticize the apostles for their failure to believe it
before the fact.
COKE, "Mark 9:10. With themselves,— To themselves. And they kept the
matter secret; yet they questioned, or debated, &c. Heylin. Dr. Doddridge
renders it, And they laid hold on that word, disputing among themselves, &c. See
Matthew 9:25; Matthew 14:3. Mark 12:12 and Revelation 20:2. Sir David
Dalrymple observes, that it should not be here, "what the rising of the dead
should mean,"—for in those days that tenet was received; but "what this
resurrection signified;"—what was meant bythis rising of the Son of man from
the dead. Being much surprised at the sudden departure of Elias, and of their
Master's ordering them to keep this transaction a secret, the disciples had no
sooner finished their dispute about what the rising from the dead should mean,
than, addressing themselves to Jesus, theyproposed this doubt, Mark 9:11.
"Since Elias is so soon dismissed, and since thou hast ordered us to keep his
appearance a secret, how come the scribes to teach on all occasions that Elias
must appear, before the Messiah erects his kingdom?" Supposing that Elias was
to have an active hand in modelling and settling the kingdom, they never
doubted that he would have abode awhile on earth; and knowing that the scribes
affirmed openly that Elias was to appear, they could see no reason for concealing
the thing. That this is the connection of the disciples' question is plain from
Matthew 17:9-10. Jesus not only acknowledged the necessity of Elias's coming
before the Messiah according to Malachi's prediction; but he assured his
disciples, that he was already come; and described the treatment that he had
already met with from the nation in such a manner as to make them understand
that he spake of John the Baptist, Mark 9:12-13 and Matthew 17:13. At the same
time he told them, that though the Baptist's ministry was excellently calculated
for producing all the effects ascribed to it by the prophets, they needed not be
surprised to find, that it had not had all the success which might have been
expected from it, and that the Baptist had met with much opposition and
persecution, since both the person and preaching of the Messiah himself was to
meet with the same treatment. Our Saviour, in the 12th verse, alludes to Malachi
4:6 where see the note. What is meant by the restoring of all things, is shewn by
the angel, Luke 1:16-17 and that this was the true restoration of all things, to be
accomplished by Elias, is evident from the LXX, who, in translating the original
passage, make use of the word found here in the Evangelists, αποκαταστησει
καρσιαν, Reducet Cor, He will restore the heart. Nevertheless, by the restoration
of all things, the Jews seem to have understood the revival of the kingdom of
David in their nation, to be accomplished by the assistance of Elias. Hence the
Apostles' question to Jesus before his ascension into heaven, Lord, wilt thou at
this time restore — αποκαθιστα νεις — the kingdom to Israel? Acts 1:6. Some
render the 12th and 13th verses thus:—ver. 12. It is true, Elias is to come first, to
39

40. rectify all things; and it is written, &c. Mark 9:13.—Elias is indeed come as it is
written of him; and they have done unto him whatsoever they listed, Dr. Heylin
renders the 12th verse, He answered, it is true that Elias must first come, and set
all things to right; and that he must suffer much, and be despised, as it is also
written concerning the Son of man. See Wetstein.
11 And they asked him, “Why do the teachers of
the law say that Elijah must come first?”
BARNES, "Why say the scribes ... - See the notes at Mat_17:10-13.
GILL, "And they asked him, saying,.... Being put in mind of it, by seeing Elias
on the mount, or else by what Christ had said concerning his resurrection, or both:
why say the Scribes, the Vulgate Latin adds, "and Pharisees",
that Elias must first come? before the Messiah comes, or before the setting up his
kingdom in greater glory; See Gill on Mat_17:10.
COFFMAN, "Several things of great importance surface in this verse: (1) The
three were now fully and completely convinced that Jesus is the Christ, a fact
that the scribes had been diligently trying to contradict. (2) The opposition of the
scribes had made some headway in the minds of the apostles who were unable to
answer their arguments. (3) The apostles here sought the answer that would
refute the scribes. (4) The argument of the scribes was based on the final verses
of the Old Testament which prophesied that Elijah would come and restore all
things before the Messiah arrived. (5) The argument of the scribes was false in
that they had interpreted the prophecy to mean that Elijah would literally rise
from the dead before Messiah came, the same being a false view which thy
should have known to be false because of the prophecy that attended the birth of
John the Baptist (Luke 1:17), which prophecy had plainly identified John the
Baptist as the fulfillment of the prophecy regarding Elijah.
12 Jesus replied, “To be sure, Elijah does come
first, and restores all things. Why then is it
written that the Son of Man must suffer much
and be rejected?
40

41. CLARKE, "And how it is written - Rather, as also it is written. Instead of και
πως, And How it is written, I read καθως, As Also it is written of the Son of man, etc.
This reading is supported by AKM, seventeen others, the later Syriac in the margin,
Slavonic and Armenian. Some think the propriety of adopting this reading is self-
evident.
GILL, "And he answered, and told them,.... Allowing that their observation
was right, and that this was the sense of the Scribes, and that there was something of
truth in it, when rightly understood:
Elias verily cometh first, and restoreth all things: See Gill on Mat_17:11;
and how it is written of the son of man, that he must suffer many things,
and be set at nought. The sense of Christ is, that John the Baptist, whom he
means by Elias, comes first, and restores all things: and among the rest of the things
he sets right, this is one, and not of the least; namely, that he gives the true sense of
such passages of the sacred writings, which related to the contemptuous usage,
rejection, and sufferings of the Messiah; as that in these he was the Lamb of God
typified in the sacrifices of the law, who by his sufferings and death takes away the
sin, of the world; and therefore he exhorted and directed those to whom he
ministered, to look unto him, and believe in him; see Joh_1:29.
HENRY, " Christ gave them a key to the prophecy concerning Elias (Mar_9:12,
Mar_9:13); “It is indeed prophesied that Elias will come, and will restore all things,
and set them to rights; and (though you will not understand it) it is also prophesied
of the Son of man, that he must suffer many things, and be set at nought, must be a
reproach of men, and despised of the people: and though the scribes do not tell you
so, the scriptures do, and you have as much reason to expect that as the other, and
should not make so strange of it; but as to Elias, I tell you he is come; and if you
consider a little, you will understand whom I mean, it is one to whom they have done
whatsoever they listed;” which was very applicable to the ill usage they had given
John Baptist. Many of the ancients, and the Popish writers generally, think, that
besides the coming of John Baptist in the spirit of Elias, himself in his own person is
to be expected, with Enoch, before the second appearance of Christ, wherein the
prophecy of Malachi will have a more full accomplishment than it had in John
Baptist. But it is groundless fancy; the true Elias, as well as the true Messiah
promised, is come, and we are to look for no other. These words as it is written of
him, refer not to their doing to him whatever they listed (that comes in a
parenthesis), but only to his coming. He is come, and hath been, and done, according
as was written of him.
13 But I tell you, Elijah has come, and they have
done to him everything they wished, just as it is
written about him.”
41

42. GILL, "But I say unto you, that Elias is indeed come,.... Meaning John the
Baptist, who in prophecy is designed by him.
And they have done unto him whatsoever they listed; See Gill on Mat_17:12;
which words should be read in a parenthesis, as they are in the Vulgate Latin version;
for what follows, as
it is written of him, respects not what the Scribes and Pharisees, and the people of
the Jews did to John at their pleasure; despising his ministry and message, rejecting
the counsel of God delivered by him, and remaining impenitent and unbelieving,
notwithstanding his powerful and awakening ministry, with many other things,
which are no where written of him; but the words regard his coming, and the
prophecies concerning him, and particularly, that under the name of Elijah, in Mal_
4:5 and which had had their accomplishment.
COFFMAN, "Mark omitted the statement (Matthew 17:13) that the apostles
then understood that Jesus spake of John the Baptist. Thus, the fallacious
arguments of the scribes were exposed and refuted. Jesus even went further here
and indicated that the death of John the Baptist was a prophecy of what would
happen to himself. "As Elijah's coming was a heralding of the Lord's coming, so
Elijah's rejection was a warning of the Lord's rejection."[13] All of these things
were prophesied in Scripture.
ENDNOTE:
[13] A. Elwood Sanner, Beacon Bible Commentary (Kansas City: Beacon Hill
Press, 1964), p. 346.
CONSTABLE, "The disciples thought Elijah still had to come, but Jesus
explained that he had come. His enemies had done to him what the Old
Testament recorded. Jesus was speaking of John the Baptist (Matthew 17:13).
The Old Testament passage to which Jesus referred was 1 Kings 19:1-3; 1 Kings
19:10. There Ahab, and especially Jezebel, swore to kill Elijah. They "wished" to
execute him. This is exactly what "King" Herod Antipas, and especially
Herodias, really did to John the Baptist. Now we see why Mark recorded the
story of John's death (Mark 6:17-29). It was to show that John the Baptist
fulfilled the prophecies about Elijah coming.
"In this case Scripture had foretold the future not by prophecy but by a type.
The fate intended for Elijah (I Kings xix. 2, 10) had overtaken John." [Note:
Swete, p. 194.]
Evidently Mark did not mention John the Baptist as the fulfillment of this
prophecy, as Matthew did, because his identity is obvious to the careful reader.
The fulfillment was not complete, however, because someone will come in the
spirit and power of Elijah to prepare the way before Messiah's second coming
(Malachi 4:5; cf. Revelation 11).
This discussion clarified for the disciples and for Mark's readers how Jesus'
messiahship harmonized with Old Testament prophecy that seems to contradict
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43. it. Disciples of Jesus must have no doubts about His being the Son of Man,
especially since they can anticipate testing through suffering for their faith. The
importance of strong faith comes through in the next incident that Mark
narrated.
Jesus Heals a Boy Possessed by an Impure
Spirit
14 When they came to the other disciples, they
saw a large crowd around them and the
teachers of the law arguing with them.
BARNES, "Questioning with them - Debating with the disciples, and
attempting to confound them. This he saw as he came down from the mount. In his
absence they had taken occasion to attempt to perplex and confound his followers.
GILL, "And when he came to his disciples,.... The other nine, who were left at
the bottom of the mountain, and were waiting for him:
he saw a great multitude about them: there was a multitude that followed him
from Bethsaida hither; and which, very likely, was greatly increased upon Christ's
arrival in those parts, and the people hearing of it;
and the Scribes questioning with them; disputing and contending with them
about their master, his doctrines and miracles, and their mission and authority from
him; insulting them, on account of their inability to dispossess a dumb spirit,
hereafter related.
HENRY, "We have here the story of Christ casting the devil out of a child,
somewhat more fully related than it was in Mat_17:14, etc. Observe here,
I. Christ's return to his disciples, and the perplexity he found them in. He laid aside
his robes of glory, and came to look after his family, and to enquire what was become
of them. Christ's glory above does not make him forget the concerns of his church
below, which he visits in great humility, Mat_17:14. And he came very seasonably,
when the disciples were embarrassed and run a-ground; the scribes, who were sworn
enemies both to him and them, had gained an advantage against them. A child
possessed with a devil was brought to them, and they could not cast out the devil,
whereupon the scribes insulted over them, and reflected upon their Master, and
triumphed as if the day were their own. He found the scribes questioning with them,
in the hearing of the multitude, some of whom perhaps began to be shocked by it.
Thus Moses, when he came down from the mount, found the camp of Israel in great
disorder; so soon were Christ and Moses missed. Christ's return was very welcome,
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44. no doubt, to the disciples, and unwelcome to the scribes. But particular notice is
taken of its being very surprising to the people, who perhaps were ready to say, As for
this Jesus, we wot not what is become of him; but when they beheld him coming to
them again, they were greatly amazed (some copies add, kai exephobēthēsan - and
they were afraid); and running to him (some copies for prostrechontes, read
proschairontes - congratulating him, or bidding him welcome), they saluted him. It is
easy to give a reason why they should be glad to see him; but why where they
amazed, greatly amazed, when they beheld him? Probably, there might remain
something unusual in his countenance; as Moses's face shone when he came down
from the mount, which made the people afraid to come nigh him, Exo_34:30. So
perhaps did Christ's face, in some measure; at least, instead of seeming fatigued,
there appeared a wonderful briskness and sprightliness in his looks, which amazed
them.
JAMIESON, "Mar_9:14-32. Healing of a demoniac boy - Second explicit
announcement of His approaching death and resurrection. ( = Mat_17:14-23; Luk_
9:37-45).
Healing of the demoniac boy (Mar_9:14-29).
And when he came to his disciples, he saw a great multitude about
them, and the scribes questioning with them — This was “on the next day,
when they were come down from the hill” (Luk_9:37). The Transfiguration appears
to have taken place at night. In the morning, as He came down from the hill on which
it took place - with Peter, and James, and John - on approaching the other nine, He
found them surrounded by a great multitude, and the scribes disputing or discussing
with them. No doubt these cavilers were twitting the apostles of Jesus with their
inability to cure the demoniac boy of whom we are presently to hear, and insinuating
doubts even of their Master’s ability to do it; while they, zealous for their Master’s
honor, would no doubt refer to His past miracles in proof of the contrary.
CALVIN, "As Mark is more full, and explains the circumstances very minutely,
we shall follow the order of his narrative. And first he points out clearly the
reason why Christ uses a harshness so unusual with him, when he exclaims that
the Jews, on account of their perverse malice, do not deserve to be any longer
endured. We know how gently he was wont to receive them, even when their
requests were excessively importunate. (486) A father here entreats in behalf of
an only son, the necessity is extremely urgent, and a modest and humble appeal
is made to the compassion of Christ. Why then does he, contrary to his custom,
break out suddenly into passion, and declare that they can be endured no
longer? As the narrative of Matthew and Luke does not enable us to discover the
reason of this great severity, some commentators have fallen into the mistake of
supposing that this rebuke was directed either against the disciples, or against
the father of the afflicted child. But if we duly consider all the circumstances of
the case, as they are related by Mark, there will be no difficulty in arriving at the
conclusion, that the indignation of Christ was directed against the malice of the
scribes, and that he did not intend to treat the ignorant and weak with such
harshness.
During Christ’s absence, a lunatic child had been brought forward. The scribes,
regarding this as a plausible occasion for giving annoyance, seized upon it
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45. eagerly, and entreated the disciples that, if they had any power, they would
exercise it in curing the child. It is probable that the disciples made an attempt,
and that their efforts were unavailing; upon which the scribes raise the shout of
victory, and not only ridicule the disciples, but break out against Christ, as if in
their person his power had been baffled. It was an extraordinary display of
outrageous impiety united with equally base ingratitude, maliciously to keep out
of view so many miracles, from which they had learned the amazing power of
Christ; for they manifestly endeavored to extinguish the light which was placed
before their eyes. With good reason, therefore, does Christ exclaim that they
could no longer be endured, and pronounce them to be an unbelieving and
perverse nation; for the numerous proofs which they had formerly beheld ought
at least to have had the effect of preventing them from seeking occasion of
disparagement. (487)
Mark 9:14.He saw a great multitude around them. The disciples were, no doubt,
held up to public gaze, as the enemies of the truth are wont, on occasions of
triumph, to assemble a crowd about a trifle. The scribes had made such a noise
about it, as to draw down on the disciples the ridicule of many persons. And yet
it appears that there were some who were not ill disposed; for, as soon as they see
Jesus, they salute him; and even the insolence of the scribes is restrained by his
presence, for, when they are asked what is the matter in dispute, they have not a
word to say.
COFFMAN, "THE CURE OF A LUNATIC BOY
The scene which greeted the Lord and the three when they came down from the
mountain is a miniature of the world itself: parental anguish, youth under the
power of evil, disciples unable to do anything, scribes raising questions and
discussing the situation but also powerless to do anything helpful. All in all, it
was a miserable situation.
COKE, "Mark 9:15. Were greatly amazed,— When the people looked on him as
he was coming, they were struck into astonishment at those unusual rays of
majesty and glory which yet remained on his countenance. It seems, that as
Moses's face shone several hours after he had been with God on the mount, so
something of the glory of the transfiguration remaining inour Lord's
countenance, and on his raiment, might astonish the multitude, and attract their
veneration. See Heylin.
BURKITT, "Observe here, 1. The person brought to Christ for help and healing;
one bodily possessed by Satan, who had made him deaf and dumb from his
childhood, and oft-times cast him into the fire and water, but rather to torment
than to dispatch him. O how does Satan, the malicious tyrant, rejoice in doing
hurt to the bodies, as well as the souls, of mankind! Lord, abate his power, since
his malice of evil spirits! and how watchful is thy providence over us to preserve
us, when Satan is seeking, by all imaginable means and methods, to destroy us!
Observe, 2. The person that represents his sad condition to our Saviour; his
compassionate father, who kneeled down, and cried out: need will make a person
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46. both humble and eloquent. Everyone has a tongue to speak for himself, happy is
he that keeps a tongue for others.
Observe, 3. The circumstance of time; Satan had got possession! of his person
very young, in his youth; nay, in his childhood: and O how hard was it to cast
him out after such long possession! The disciples could not do it, with all their
power and prayers; and when our Saviour himself, by the power of his Godhead,
did dispossess him, it was with foaming and rending that he left him.
Thus, when Satan gets possession of persons hearts in their youth, O how hard
will it be to cast him out! It will put the soul to great grief, great pain, great
sorrow of heart. Satan will endeavour to hold his own, and keep the sinner his
slave and vassal, if all the power of hell can keep him.
Lord! convince young persons, that it is easier to keep Satan out, than it is to cast
him out of the possession of their hearts.
Observe, 4. The physicians which this distressed person is brought unto first to
the disciples, and then to Jesus. We never apply ourselves importunately to the
God of power, till we despair of the creatures help. But why could not the
disciples cast him out? Christ tells them, because of their unbelief; that is,
because of the weakness of their faith, not thte total want of faith.
Whence learn, That secret unbelief may be hid and undiscerned in the heart,
which neither others not ourselves may take notice of until some trial doth
discover it.
Observe, 5. The poor man's humble request, and Christ's gracious reply. If thou
canst do anything, help me, says the father; If thou canst believe, all things are
possible, says our Saviour.
Note thence, That the fault is not in Christ, but in ourselves, if we receive not
that mercy from him, which we desire and need. There is no deficiency in
Christ's power, the defect lies in our faith. Hereupon the man cries out with
tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief. If these were tears of joy for the
truth of his faith, then we may gather, that the lowest degree and least measure
of faith is matter of joy unspeakable to the owner and possessor of it: if these
were tears of sorrow for the weakness of his faith, then we may collect, that the
remains of unbelief in the children of God do cost them many tears; they are the
burden and sorrow of gracious souls. The father of the child cried out with tears,
Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.
Observe, 6. With what facility and ease our Saviour cast out this stubborn devil,
that had so long possessed this poor child, even with a word speaking. How long
soever Satan has kept possession of a soul, Christ can eject and cast him out both
easily and speedily; one word of Christ's mouth is sufficient to help us out of all
distress, both bodily and spiritual. Yet did our Lord suffer the wicked spirit to
rage and rend the child before he went out of him; not from any delight in the
poor child's misery, but that the multitude, seeing the desperateness of the case,
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47. might the more admire the power fo Christ in his deliverance.
Observe, 7. The sovereign power and absolute authority, which Christ had even
here upon earth, when in his state of humiliation, over the devil and his angels;
he commands him to go out, and enter no more into the child, and is obeyed.
This was a proof and demonstration of the Godhead of our Saviour, that he had
power and authority over devils, to command and over-rule them, to curb and
restrain them at his pleasure.
And whereas Christ commands the devil not only to come ut, but to enter no
more into the person; it implies, that Satan being cast out of his hold, earnestly
desires to enter in again to recover his hold, and to regain his possession; but if
Christ says, Enter no more, Satan shall obey his voice.
Observe, 8. The disciples enquire into the reasons why they could not cast this
stubborn devil out, according to the power which he had given them to work
miracles.
Christ tells them it was, 1. Because of their unbelief; by which understand the
weakness of their faith, not their total want of faith.
2. Because they did not in this extraordinary case apply themselves to the use of
extraordinary means; namely, Prayer and fasting.
Learn hence, First, That in extraordinary cases, where the necessities either of
soul or body do require it, recourse must be had to the use of extraordinary
means; one of which is an importunate application unto God by solemn prayer.
Secondly, That fasting and prayer are two special means of Christ's own
appointment for the enabling of his people victoriously to overcome Satan, and
cast him out of ourselves or others. We must set an edge upon our faith by
prayer, and upon our prayer by fasting.
BENSON, "Mark 9:14-19. When he came to his disciples he saw a great
multitude — Probably this multitude had remained there all night, waiting till
Jesus should return from the mountain, and the scribes questioning — Greek,
συζητουντας, disputing with them, namely, with the nine who remained on the
plain. Doubtless they took the opportunity of their Master’s absence to expose
and distress them. And all the people, when they beheld him, were greatly
amazed — At his coming so suddenly, so seasonably, so unexpectedly: perhaps,
also, at some unusual rays of majesty and glory, which yet remained on his
countenance; as, it seems, Moses’s face shone several hours after he had been
with God on the mount. And running to him, saluted him — With the greatest
marks of respect and affection. The scribes and Pharisees, however, without
regarding his return, continued their ill-natured attacks on his disciples. And he
asked the scribes — Namely, when the salutations of the multitude were over.
What question ye with them? — What is the subject of your dispute with them?
What is the point you are debating so warmly? The scribes gave no answer to
our Lord’s question. They did not care to repeat what they had said to his
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48. disciples: but one of the multitude said, Master, I have brought unto thee my son,
&c. — From the narrative which this man gives, in answer to what Jesus said to
the scribes, it appears that they had been disputing about the cure of this youth,
which the disciples had unsuccessfully attempted. And probably their want of
success had given the scribes occasion to boast that a devil was found that
neither the disciples nor their Master was able to cast out. See notes on Matthew
17:14-21. Which hath a dumb spirit — A spirit that takes his speech from him;
and wheresoever he taketh him, he teareth him — Or rather convulseth him, and
he foameth — At the mouth; and gnasheth with his teeth — In extremity of
anguish; and pineth away — Though in the bloom of his age. And I spake to thy
disciples — Entreated them to cast him out; and they could not. The Lord Jesus
permitted this for wise reasons, chiefly, perhaps, to keep them humble, and
sensible of their entire dependance on him for all their power to perform cures,
or do any manner of thing that was good.
BARCLAY, "COMING DOWN FROM THE MOUNT (Mark 9:14-18)
9:14-18 When they came to the disciples, they saw a great crowd gathered
around them, and the experts in the law engaged in discussion with them. And as
soon as they saw him the whole crowd were amazed and ran to him and greeted
him. He asked them, "What are you discussing among yourselves?" And one of
the crowd answered him, "Teacher, I brought my son to you because he has a
spirit which makes him dumb. And whenever the spirit seizes him, it convulses
him, and he foams at the mouth and grinds his teeth, and he is wasting away.
And I asked your disciples to cast it out and they could not."
This is the kind of thing that Peter had wanted to avoid. On the mountain top, in
the presence of the glory, Peter had said, "This is a good place for us to be."
Then he had wanted to build three booths for Jesus and Moses and Elijah, and
to stay there. Life was so much better, so much nearer God, there on the
mountain top. Why ever come down again? But it is of the very essence of life
that we must come down from the mountain top. It has been said that in religion
there must be solitude, but not solitariness. The solitude is necessary, for a man
must keep his contact with God; but if a man, in his search for the essential
solitude, shuts himself off from his fellow-men, shuts his ears to their appeal for
help, shuts his heart to the cry of their tears, that is not religion. The solitude is
not meant to make us solitary. It is meant to make us better able to meet and
cope with the demands of everyday life.
Jesus came down to a delicate situation. A father had brought his boy to the
disciples, and the boy was an epileptic. All the symptoms were there. The
disciples had been quite unable to deal with his case, and that had given the
scribes their chance. The helplessness of the disciples was a first-rate opportunity
to belittle not only them but their Master. That is what made the situation so
delicate, and that is what makes every human situation so delicate for the
Christian. His conduct, his words, his ability or inability to cope with the
demands of life, are used as a yard-stick, not only to judge him, but to judge
Jesus Christ.
A. Victor Murray, in his book on Christian Education, writes, "There are those
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49. into whose eyes comes a far-away look when they talk about the church. It is a
supernatural society, the body of Christ, his spotless bride, the custodian of the
oracles of God, the blessed company of the redeemed, and a few more romantic
titles, none of which seem to tally with what the outsider can see for himself in
'St. Agatha's Parish Church,' or 'High Street Methodists.'" It does not matter
how high-sounding a man's professions may be, it is by his actions that people
judge him, and, in judging him, judge his Master. That was the situation here.
Then Jesus arrived. When the people saw him, they were astonished. We are not
for one moment to think that the radiance of the transfiguration still lingered on
him. That would have been to undo his own instructions that it be kept as yet a
secret. The crowd had thought him away up in the lonely slopes of Hermon.
They had been so engrossed in their argument that they had not seen him come,
and now, just when the moment was right, here he was in the midst of them. It
was at his sudden, unexpected but opportune arrival, that they were surprised.
Here we learn two things about Jesus.
(i) He was ready to face the Cross and he was ready to face the common problem
just as either came. It is characteristic of human nature that we can face the
great crisis-moments of life with honour and dignity, but allow the routine
demands of everyday to irritate and annoy us. We can face the shattering blows
of life with a certain heroism, but allow the petty pinpricks to upset us. Many a
man can face a great disaster or a great loss with calm serenity and yet loses his
temper if a meal is badly cooked or a train late. The amazing thing about Jesus
was that he could serenely face the Cross, and just as calmly deal with the day-
to-day emergencies of life. The reason was that he did not keep God only for the
crisis as so many of us do. He walked the daily paths of life with him.
(ii) He had come into the world to save the world, and yet he could give himself
in his entirety to the helping of one single person. It is much easier to preach the
gospel of love for mankind than it is to love individual not-very-lovable sinners.
It is easy to be filled with a sentimental affection for the human race, and just as
easy to find it too much bother to go out of our way to help an individual
member of it. Jesus had the gift, which is the gift of a regal nature, of giving
himself entirely to every person with whom he happened to be.
BI 9-29, "And when He came to His disciples, He saw a great multitude about
them.
The evil spirit cast out
Learn from this narrative-
I. The omnipotence of true faith in God. It is not so much the amount of one’s faith
as the kind, and the fact that one really has it (Mat_17:20).
II. The powerlessness of Christians without true faith.
III. The discreditableness of Christian inefficiency, leading to questionings and
discussions that do more harm than good.
IV. The inefficiency of Christians their own fault. In Christ they may be complete
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50. (Col_2:10).
V. The duty of ever living year to Christ, relying on Him always and everywhere.
(Anon.)
The secret of power
Christ’s reply taught the disciples that-
1. Miracles needed force to work them.
2. Soul forces are the highest class of forces, and faith force is the highest of all
soul forces.
3. Faith force needs cherishing
(1) by consecration watchfully kept up, i.e., fasting;
(2) by communion with God carefully maintained, i.e., prayer. Indulgence of
the body enfeebles the soul; living apart from God is living apart from
omnipotence.
4. Earnest love is the secret of all miracles. Had they made this sorrow their own-
fasted as for their own trouble, prayed as for their own mercy-their love would
have “believed all things,” and been triumphant in its faith. (R. Glover.)
The afflicted child
This miracle stands inseparably connected with the transfiguration.
I. The Christian is the representative of Christ. The father came to consult Christ, but
in His absence appealed to His disciples, it should have been a safe appeal. So,
everywhere and always, the Christian represents Christ. He holds in his hands the
great trust of Christianity. Coming to him should be equivalent in the healing, saving
result to coming to Christ.
II. The failure of the disciple is charged as the failure of Christianity. We do not claim
the continuance of the power of miraculous healing, but we do claim the presence of
Divine power in the Church. The Christian is entrusted with it. He should be always
in possession of it. Let our ideas be clear, our claims carefully scriptural, but let it
concern us when Christianity is without manifested power. Men will be turned astray
and led to question and despise religion.
III. Christ always manifests himself to protect His Church and to assert His power. It
may be after delay. But He comes. He cannot fail.
IV. If one fails with a disciple, let him go directly to Jesus. The petitioner who fails
with the captain, goes to the colonel. If he fails again, an earnest petitioner will not
stop until he has appealed, if necessary, at headquarters, to the commander-in-chief.
V. Parents should know the condition of their children. Make the moral nature of
your child as careful a study as his physical nature. Do not assume too readily that,
because young, he is innocent, and good, and harmless.
VI. The difficulty in the way of healing is not want of power in God, but want of faith
in man. Faith all must have who would receive benefits from Christ. The blessing
given is in proportion to the degree of faith. No faith, no blessing; little faith, partial
blessing; great faith, great blessing. (G. R. Leavitt.)
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51. The disciples nonplussed
Like some mighty general who, having been absent from the field of battle, finds that
his lieutenants have rashly engaged in action and have been defeated, the left wing is
broken, the right has fled, and the centre begins to fail; he lifts his standard in the
midst of his troops, and bids them rally around him; they gather; they dash upon the
all-but triumphant foemen, and soon they turn the balance of victory, and make the
late victors turn their ignominious backs to the flight. Brethren, here is a lesson for
us. What we want for conquest is the shout of a King in the midst of us. The presence
of Christ is victory to His Church: the absence of the Lord Jesus entails disgraceful
defeat. O armies of the living God, count not on your numbers, rely not on your
strength; reckon not upon the ability of your ministers; vaunt not in human might;
nor on the other hand be discouraged because ye are feeble; if He be with you, more
are they that are for you than all they that are against you. If Christ be in your midst,
there are horses of fire and chariots of fire round about you. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The afflicted son
I. The man’s affliction.
1. It was not personal: not in himself, but through his child.
2. It was the consequence of affection. Our love is the source of joy; it is also the
cause of pain. Our relationships are a blessing; they often become a curse.
3. It was very terrible. A son not only imbecile, but who could do nothing for his
own support.
II. The man’s advantage. Affliction is not an unmixed evil. On the contrary, God
often makes it a means of the greatest blessings. In this particular case it led to two
great mercies.
(1) It led to the lad himself being brought to Christ, and
(2) it led to the father going as well. How often are parents led to Christ
through the sufferings and death of their children.
III. The man’s mistake. Instead of going to the Master at once, he went to the
servants. They tried to afford relief, but they tried in vain. This course is very natural
to mankind.
1. Our pride induces it. Naaman was too proud to simply obey the Divine
command; he wanted the prophet to come and touch him with adulation and
respect.
2. Our carnality causes it. We are of the earth earthy. We do not apprehend
spiritual things, and will have nothing of them.
3. Our faithlessness produces it. We don’t believe in the power of an unseen God.
It is a painful tendency of the human mind to make gods of men, a tendency
which in ancient times developed into idolatry.
IV. His application. Finding no other help, the man was obliged to go at last to
Christ. We may see here, however-
1. His persistency. Although not relieved by the disciples, he was not deterred by
their failure; and probably the disciples, when they failed, did as they ought to
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52. do-pointed him to their Master.
2. His small amount of faith. Apparently he was so disheartened that he did not
know what to do. Faith differs in degree. How strong was that of the centurion-
“Speak but the word, and my servant shall be healed.”
3. The training of his understanding. Christ first rebuked him-“O faithless
generation,” etc.
and then encouraged him-“All things are possible to him that believeth.”
V. His developing faith.
1. He acknowledges his conviction. He began to realize the truth of what the
Master said. The germs of belief had existed before; otherwise he would not have
approached at all.
2. He confesses his imperfection-“Help my unbelief.” There are degrees in
everything-in growth, health, wealth.
3. He regrets his weakness-“He said, with tears.”
4. He applied for succour. We may bring all our weakness to the Saviour.
VI. His success. Jesus saved the son. There is help for the weakest. (B. L.)
Sinful men may be looked upon as possessed of the devil
In a hundred ways he tears them, and throws them down; he stops their intelligent
speech, and sends them wallowing and foaming in sin. None but Jesus can do
helpless sinners good. Even disciples fail. No priest can offer sufficient sacrifice; no
man can redeem his brother. “Bring him unto Me!” Faith is in every case of
instrumental usefulness positively indispensable. There are times when Christ
Himself will do no mighty works because of unbelief. “O faithless generation!” How
quickly this explains the coldness and backwardness of the churches. When faith is
feeble, what faith there is may well be employed in securing more faith. “Help mine
unbelief.” Pray to the “Lord,” even if the word be not in this verse; and pray “with
tears” too! (C. S. Robinson, D. D.)
The dumb man possessed with a devil
I. The case of this man.
1. This does not appear to be an ordinary case of dumbness.
2. It was not due to mental ecstasy, such as occasionally produced a temporary
suspension of speech. The father of Baptist.
3. The man is described in simple and instructive language as having “a dumb
spirit.”
(1) There is the dumbness of a careless heart.
(2)The dumbness of formalism.
(3) The dumbness of shame and disappointment.
(4) The dumbness of despair.
II. The intervention of the man’s friends.
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53. III. The power of Jesus.
1. Absolute supremacy.
2. The manner of the exercise.
3. The mystery of its power. (L. H. Wiseman, M. A.)
I. The application itself.
1. It was made by an afflicted parent. The child mentally afflicted in mind and
body-“Oft times the evil spirit.” Every sinner is so far under the power of the
devil.
2. It was made by a party that deeply felt the circumstances in which he himself
and his suffering child were placed
3. That the person who made it stood ready to do whatever our Lord should
direct. For this readiness to obey a truly humble heart prepares us, softened by
grace.
4. He despaired of help from any other quarter. He was on the verge of despair
previous to our Saviour’s administering help. Our minds must be brought off
from every other dependence.
5. The party before us had a little faith, and was pleading for more.
II. The reception which this application to our Saviour met with.
1. Jesus administers reproof to His disciples and to all around Him. Christ often
has to reprove us; we deserve it.
2. Jesus directs the sufferer to be brought to Him.
3. Jesus proceeds to correct the views, and inform the mind of the suppliant.
Light is given with grace.
4. Jesus gives the party before us the warrant or authority for that faith which He
called him to exercise.
5. He strengthens the confidence of the party, whom He thus authorizes to draw
near to Him for the blessing requested.
6. The earnestness with which we should draw near to the Great Physician for
spiritual help.
7. In some cases of healing special means are to be employed-“Prayer and
fasting.” (Joseph Taylor.)
15 As soon as all the people saw Jesus, they were
overwhelmed with wonder and ran to greet him.
BARNES, "Were greatly amazed - Were astonished and surprised at his
53

54. sudden appearance among them.
Saluted him - Received him with the customary marks of affection and respect. It
is probable that this was not by any “formal” manner of salutation, but by the “rush”
of the multitude, and by hailing him as the Messiah.
CLARKE, "Were greatly amazed - Probably, because he came so
unexpectedly; but the cause of this amazement is not self-evident.
GILL, "And straightway all the people, when they beheld him,.... As soon as
ever they saw him, to many of whom, especially those that followed him out of
Galilee, he was personally known.
Were greatly amazed; either that he should come at that juncture, to assist and
relieve his disciples, when the Scribes were triumphing over them, as some think; or
rather, as others, on account of that remaining lustre and glory which was on his
countenance, through his transfiguration, and not yet wholly gone off; like that which
was on the face of Moses, when he came down from Mount Sinai:
and running to him, saluted him; wishing him all peace and prosperity,
expressing their great joy at his coming to them; which was very desirable by them,
and exceedingly pleasing to them, and especially at this time, as both their words and
gesture showed.
JAMIESON, "And straightway all the people — the multitude.
when they beheld him, were greatly amazed — were astounded.
and running to him saluted him — The singularly strong expression of
surprise, the sudden arrest of the discussion, and the rush of the multitude towards
Him, can be accounted for by nothing less than something amazing in His
appearance. There can hardly be any doubt that His countenance still retained traces
of His transfiguration-glory. (See Exo_34:29, Exo_34:30). So Bengel, Deuteronomy
Wette, Meyer, Trench, Alford. No wonder, if this was the case, that they not only ran
to Him, but saluted Him. Our Lord, however, takes no notice of what had attracted
them, and probably it gradually faded away as He drew near; but addressing Himself
to the scribes, He demands the subject of their discussion, ready to meet them where
they had pressed hard upon His half-instructed and as yet timid apostles.
COFFMAN, "Greatly amazed ... This has been taken by some to indicate that
Jesus' face still bore some traces of the glory of the transfiguration; but, since
that would have been to nullify the Saviour's injunction of secrecy imposed on
the three, their amazement must have derived from something else. Perhaps it
was in the fact that, when they looked up from the mess they were in, they were
amazed to find the answer to their problems, not in themselves, but in the Lord.
It was certainly so with the nine frustrated disciples who had failed to cure the
boy.
16 “What are you arguing with them about?” he
54

55. asked.
BARNES, "What question ye? - What is the subject of your inquiry or debate
with the disciples?
GILL, "And he asked the Scribes,.... The Vulgate Latin renders it, "he asked
them"; and the Ethiopic version, he said unto them; meaning either that he asked the
disciples when he came to them, or else the people that ran to salute him; but the
Syriac, Arabic, and Persic versions read, "the Scribes"; seeing them about his
disciples, in close debate with them, and running hard upon them, he asks them,
what question ye with them? what is it ye seek and require of them? what is your
dispute with them? what is your debate about? The Vulgate Latin version reads,
"what question ye among you?" among themselves, and one another; and so Beza's
most ancient copy.
JAMIESON, "And he asked the scribes, What question ye with them? —
Ere they had time to reply, the father of the boy, whose case had occasioned the
dispute, himself steps forward and answers the question; telling a piteous tale of
deafness, and dumbness, and fits of epilepsy - ending with this, that the disciples,
though entreated, could not perform the cure.
COFFMAN, "The nature of the malady which afflicted this child seems to have
been compound. The symptoms certainly suggest epilepsy; but the Greek word
which describes it is literally "moonstruck" and much more reasonably bears
the translation "lunatic." (Both the Emphatic Diaglott and the Nestle Greek text
concur in this). Further, there is the phenomenon of demon possession,
confirmed by our Savior's conversation with the Twelve afterward. The
complicated nature of the malady, as well as the evident slackening of the
apostles' faith, perhaps due to the campaign of the scribes, seems to have entered
into the failure of the disciples to effect a cure. See under Mark 9:29.
17 A man in the crowd answered, “Teacher, I
brought you my son, who is possessed by a spirit
that has robbed him of speech.
BARNES, "A dumb spirit - A spirit which deprived his son of the power of
speaking.
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56. CLARKE, "A dumb spirit - That is, a demon who afflicted those in whom it
dwelt with an incapacity of speaking. The spirit itself could not be either deaf or
dumb. These are accidents that belong only to organized animate bodies. See this
case explained, Mat_17:14 (note), etc.
GILL, "And one of the multitude answered and said,.... The Scribes made no
reply, being afraid to engage with him, whom they had often found too hard for
them; and the disciples, if they were spoken to, were silent, through shame, because
they had not succeeded in the cure of the person brought to them, which gave their
enemies an handle against them: wherefore the parent of the afflicted child made
answer, saying; the occasion of this debate between the Scribes, and thy disciples, is
as follows:
Master, I have brought unto thee my son, which hath a dumb spirit;
signifying, that he had heard much of him, as a very great man, and he believed him
to be a master in Israel, who was famous both for doctrine and miracles, and
therefore he brought his son to him, to be cured by him; but Christ not being in the
way, he proposed him to his disciples, who attempted it without success. The case of
his son was, he had a "dumb spirit". The Evangelist Matthew says he was "lunatic",
Mat_17:15; and by his account of him it appears, that he had the "epilepsy", or falling
sickness; and which, when upon him, took away the use of his speech. And so the
Jews ascribe dumbness to the violence of a disease: thus they ask (g);
"what is "Cordiacus" (kardiakov)? one that has a disorder which affects the heart,
and causes a deliquium (a fainting and swooning away), but a man, ‫אלם‬ ‫,שנעשה‬ "who
is become dumb", through the force of a disease;''
which was the case of this child: though this disease did not arise from natural
causes, but from a diabolical possession; for he had a spirit, a foul spirit, a devil, as
he is called: some further account is given of this unhappy case, in the next verse.
HENRY, "II. The case which perplexed the disciples, brought before him. He
asked the scribes, who, he knew, were always vexatious to his disciples, and teasing
them upon every occasion, “What question ye with them? What is the quarrel now?”
The scribes made no answer, for they were confounded at his presence; the disciples
made none, for they were comforted, and now left all to him. But the father of the
child opened the case, Mar_9:17, Mar_9:18. 1. His child is possessed with a dumb
spirit; he has the falling-sickness, and in his fits is speechless; his case is very sad,
for, wheresoever the fit takes him, the spirit tears him, throws him into such violent
convulsions as almost pull him to pieces; and, which is very grievous to himself, and
frightful to those about him, he foams at his mouth, and gnashes with his teeth, as
one in pain and great misery; and though the fits go off presently, yet they leave him
so weak, that he pines away, is worn to a skeleton; his flesh is dried away; so the
word signifies, Psa_102:3-5. This was a constant affliction to a tender father. 2. The
disciples cannot give him any relief; “I desired they would cast him out, as they had
done many, and they would willingly have done it, but they could not; and therefore
thou couldest never have come in better time; Master, I have brought him to thee.”
JAMIESON, "And one of the multitude answered, and said, Master, I
56

57. have brought unto thee my son — “mine only child” (Luk_9:38).
which hath a dumb spirit — a spirit whose operation had the effect of
rendering his victim speechless, and deaf also (Mar_9:25). In Matthew’s report of the
speech (Mat_17:15), the father says “he is lunatic”; this being another and most
distressing effect of the possession.
CALVIN, "17.Master, I have brought to thee my son. Matthew describes a
different sort of disease from what is described by Mark, for he says that the
man was lunatic But both agree as to these two points, that he was dumb, and
that at certain intervals he became furious. The term lunatic is applied to those
who, about the waning of the moon, are seized with epilepsy, or afflicted with
giddiness. I do not admit the fanciful notion of Chrysostom, that the word
lunatic was invented by a trick of Satan, in order to throw disgrace on the good
creatures of God; for we learn from undoubted experience, that the course of the
moon affects the increase or decline of these diseases. (488) And yet this does not
prevent Satan from mixing up his attacks with natural means. I am of opinion,
therefore, that the man was not naturally deaf and dumb, but that Satan had
taken possession of his tongue and ears; and that, as the weakness of his brain
and nerves made him liable to epilepsy, Satan availed himself of this for
aggravating the disease. The consequence was, that he was exposed to danger on
every hand, and was thrown into violent convulsions, which left him lying on the
ground, in a fainting state, and like a dead man.
Let us learn from this how many ways Satan has of injuring us, were it not that
he is restrained by the hand of God. Our infirmities both of soul and body, which
we feel to be innumerable, are so many darts with which Satan is supplied for
wounding us. We are worse than stupid, if a condition so wretched does not,
arouse us to prayer. But in this we see also an amazing display of the goodness of
God, that, though we are liable to such a variety of dangers, (489) he surrounds
us with his protection; particularly if we consider with what eagerness our
enemy is bent on our destruction. We ought also to call to remembrance the
consoling truth, that Christ has come to bridle his rage, and that we are safe in
the midst of so many dangers, because our diseases are effectually counteracted
by heavenly medicine.
We must attend also to the circumstance of the time. The father replies, that his
son had been subject to this grievous disease from his infancy. If Satan was
permitted to exert his power, to such an extent, on a person of that tender age,
what reason have not we to fear, who are continually exposing ourselves by our
crimes to deadly strokes, who even supply our enemy with darts, and on whom
he might justly be permitted to spend his rage, if it were not kept under restraint
by the astonishing goodness of God?
COKE, "Mark 9:17-19. And one of the multitude answered and said,— From
the man's narrative before us, in answer to what Jesus said to the scribes, What
question ye with them? it appears that the scribes had been disputing with the
disciples about the cure of this youth, which they had unsuccessfully attempted.
Perhaps their want of success had given the scribes occasion to boast, that a devil
was found, which neither the disciples nor their Master were able to cast out; but
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58. the disciples affirming that this devil, however obstinate, was not able to
withstand their Master, the debate was drawn out to some length: and to say the
truth, as Jesus had already given many undeniable demonstrations of his power,
the behaviour of the scribes in this, as in every instance, discovered the most
criminal infidelity: wherefore he treated them no worse than they deserved, in
calling them a faithless and perverse generation, altogether intolerable, because
they had resisted demonstrations of his power sufficient to have convinced the
most abandoned. He answereth him and saith;—He answered the man by saying
to the scribes, O faithless and perverse generation! (see Luke 9:41.) how long
shall I be with you ere you be convinced? How long shall I suffer you? Must I
always bear with your infidelity?—A reproof much more applicable to the
scribes than to the disciples, whose wrong notions proceeded rather from
weakness of capacity, than from perverseness of disposition; though even in
them there was much unbelief. At the same time, that he might give a fresh
demonstration of the greatness of his power before them all, and put the folly of
the scribes in particular to shame, he ordered the youth to be brought to him.
Compare Luke 9:41
18 Whenever it seizes him, it throws him to the
ground. He foams at the mouth, gnashes his
teeth and becomes rigid. I asked your disciples
to drive out the spirit, but they could not.”
BARNES, "And wheresoever - In whatever place - at home or abroad, alone or
in public.
He teareth him - He rends, distracts, or throws him into convulsions.
He foameth - At the mouth, like a mad animal. Among us these would all be
considered as marks of violent derangement or madness.
And pineth away - Becomes thin, haggard, and emaciated. This was the effect of
the violence of his struggles, and perhaps of the want of food.
CLARKE, "Pineth away - By these continual torments; so he was not only deaf
and dumb, but sorely tortured besides.
GILL, "And wheresoever he taketh him,.... The spirit, or devil, whether it be
near fire, or water, whatsoever danger, or dangerous place:
he teareth him; or throws him into it, or dashes him against it; or inwardly racks,
tortures, and convulses him:
and he foameth; at the mouth, like one that is mad:
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59. and gnasheth with his teeth; through the excessive pain he is in:
and pineth away; his flesh is withered, dried up, and consumed away. This was the
sad deplorable case this child was in, who was his father's only child, and therefore
his health and life were very desirable: now he further observes to Christ, saying,
and I spake to thy disciples that they should cast him out, and they could
not. Christ being absent, he entreated the disciples, who had power against unclean
spirits, to cast them out; that they would make use of it, and dispossess this dumb
and evil spirit; and who did make trial to cast him out, but were not able to effect it;
See Gill on Mat_17:16.
JAMIESON, "And wheresoever he taketh him, he teareth him; and he
foameth, and gnasheth with his teeth, and pineth away — rather, “becomes
withered,” “dried up,” or “paralyzed”; as the same word is everywhere else rendered
in the New Testament. Some additional particulars are given by Luke, and by our
Evangelist below. “Lo,” says he in Luk_9:39, “a spirit taketh him, and he suddenly
crieth out; and it teareth him that he foameth again, and bruising him hardly [or with
difficulty] departeth from him.”
and I spake to thy disciples that they should cast him out; and they
could not — Our Lord replies to the father by a severe rebuke to the disciples. As if
wounded at the exposure before such a multitude, of the weakness of His disciples’
faith, which doubtless He felt as a reflection on Himself, He puts them to the blush
before all, but in language fitted only to raise expectation of what He Himself would
do.
19 “You unbelieving generation,” Jesus replied,
“how long shall I stay with you? How long shall
I put up with you? Bring the boy to me.”
GILL, "He answereth him,.... The father of the child, and who is included in the
reproof afterwards given, for his unbelief, and taking part with the Scribes against his
disciples; though the Vulgate Latin, Arabic, Persic, and Ethiopic versions, read,
"them"; meaning not his disciples, but the Scribes and Pharisees, with the father of
the child: and saith,
O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I
suffer you? bring him unto me; See Gill on Mat_17:17.
HENRY, "III. The rebuke he gave to them all (Mar_9:19); O faithless generation,
how long shall I be with you? How long shall I suffer you? Dr. Hammond
understands this as spoken to the disciples, reproving them for not exerting the
power he had given them, and because they did not fast and pray, as in some cases
he had directed them to do. But Dr. Whitby takes it as a rebuke to the scribes, who
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60. gloried in this disappointment that the disciples met with, and hoped to run them
down with it. Them he calls a faithless generation, and speaks as one weary of being
with them, and of bearing with them. We never heard him complaining, “How long
shall I be in this low condition, and suffer that?” But, “How long shall I be among
these faithless people, and suffer them?”
JAMIESON, "He answereth him, and saith, O faithless generation —
“and perverse,” or “perverted” (Mat_17:17; Luk_9:41).
how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you? — language
implying that it was a shame to them to want the faith necessary to perform this cure,
and that it needed some patience to put up with them. It is to us surprising that some
interpreters, as Chrysostom and Calvin, should represent this rebuke as addressed,
not to the disciples at all, but to the scribes who disputed with them. Nor does it
much, if at all, mend the matter to view it as addressed to both, as most expositors
seem to do. With Bengel, Deuteronomy Wette, and Meyer, we regard it as addressed
directly to the nine apostles who were unable to expel this evil spirit. And though, in
ascribing this inability to their “want of faith” and the “perverted turn of mind” which
they had drunk in with their early training, the rebuke would undoubtedly apply,
with vastly greater force, to those who twitted the poor disciples with their inability,
it would be to change the whole nature of the rebuke to suppose it addressed to those
who had no faith at all, and were wholly perverted. It was because faith sufficient for
curing this youth was to be expected of the disciples, and because they should by that
time have got rid of the perversity in which they had been reared, that Jesus exposes
them thus before the rest. And who does not see that this was fitted, more than
anything else, to impress upon the by-standers the severe loftiness of the training He
was giving to the Twelve, and the unsophisticated footing He was on with them?
Bring him unto me — The order to bring the patient to Him was instantly
obeyed; when, lo! as if conscious of the presence of his Divine Tormentor, and
expecting to be made to quit, the foul spirit rages and is furious, determined to die
hard, doing all the mischief he can to this poor child while yet within his grasp.
COFFMAN, "The evident exasperation of Jesus here is understandable. All of
Israel were in the process of rejecting the Lord. The scribes, so diligent in the
situation, were opposing the Lord with every conceivable device, their efforts
having had a perceptible influence even on the Twelve, and only the Saviour's
great love of mankind motivated him to go forward. How frustrating such a
situation must have been for Jesus.
BARCLAY, "THE CRY OF FAITH (Mark 9:19-24)
9:19-24 "O faithless generation!" Jesus answered. "How long am I to be with
you? How long am I to bear you? Bring him to me!" They brought him to Jesus.
When he saw Jesus, the spirit immediately sent the boy into a convulsion, and he
fell upon the ground, and rolled about, foaming at the mouth. Jesus asked his
father, "How long is it since this happened to him?" He said, "He has been like
this since he was a child. Often it throws him into the fire and into waters for it is
out to destroy him. But, if you can, let your heart be moved with pity, and help
us." Jesus said to him, "You say, 'If you can.' All things are possible to him who
believes." Immediately the father of the boy cried out, "I do believe. Help my
unbelief."
This passage begins with a cry wrung from the heart of Jesus. He had been on
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61. the mountain top and had faced the tremendous task that lay ahead of him. He
had decided to stake his life on the redemption of the world. And now he had
come back down to find his nearest followers, his own chosen men, beaten and
baffled and helpless and ineffective. The thing, for the moment, must have
daunted even Jesus. He must have had a sudden realization of what anyone else
would have called the hopelessness of his task. He must at that moment have
almost despaired of the attempt to change human nature and to make men of the
world into men of God.
How did he meet the moment of despair? "Bring the boy to me," he said. When
we cannot deal with the ultimate situation, the thing to do is to deal with the
situation which at the moment confronts us. It was as if Jesus said, "I do not
know how I am ever to change these disciples of mine, but I can at this moment
help this boy. Let me get on with the present task, and not despair of the future."
Again and again that is the way to avoid despair. If we sit and think about the
state of the world, we may well become very depressed; then let us get to action
in our small corner of the world. We may sometimes despair of the church; then
let us get to action in our own small part of the church. Jesus did not sit appalled
and paralysed at the slowness of men's minds; he dealt with the immediate
situation. As Kingsley had it,
"Do the work that's nearest,
Though it's dull at whiles,
Helping when we meet them
Lame dogs over stiles."
The surest way to avoid pessimism and despair is to take what immediate action
we can--and there is always something to be done.
To the father of the boy Jesus stated the conditions of a miracle. "To him who
believes," said Jesus, "all things are possible." It was as if Jesus said, "The cure
of your boy depends, not on me, but on you." This is not a specially theological
truth; it is universal. To approach anything in the spirit of hopelessness is to
make it hopeless; to approach anything in the spirit of faith is to make it a
possibility. Cavour once said that what a statesman needed above all was "a
sense of the possible." Most of us are cursed with a sense of the impossible, and
that is precisely why miracles do not happen.
The whole attitude of the father of the boy is most illuminating. Originally he
had come seeking for Jesus himself. Since Jesus was on the mountain top he had
had to deal with the disciples and his experience of them was discouraging. His
faith was badly shaken, so badly shaken that when he came to Jesus all he could
say at first was, "Help me, if you can." then, face to face with Jesus, suddenly his
faith blazed up again. "I believe," he cried. "If there is still some discouragement
in me, still some doubts, take them away and fill me with an unquestioning
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62. faith."
It sometimes happens that people get less than they hoped for from some church
or from some servant of the church. When that happens they ought to press
beyond the church to the Master of the church, beyond the servant of Christ to
Christ himself. The church may at times disappoint us, and God's servants on
earth may disappoint us. But when we battle our way face to face with Jesus
Christ, he never disappoints us.
MACLAREN, "CHRIST'S LAMENT OVER OUR FAITHLESSNESS
There is a very evident, and, I think, intentional contrast between the two scenes, of
the Transfiguration, and of this healing of the maniac boy. And in nothing is the
contrast more marked than in the demeanour of these enfeebled and unbelieving
Apostles, as contrasted with the rapture of devotion of the other three, and with the
lowly submission and faith of Moses and Elias. Perhaps, too, the difference between
the calm serenity of the mountain, and the hell-tortured misery of the plain-between
the converse with the sainted perfected dead, and the converse with their unworthy
successors-made Christ feel more sharply and poignantly than He ordinarily did His
disciples’ slowness of apprehension and want of faith. At any rate, it does strike one
as remarkable that the only occasion on which there came from His lips anything
that sounded like impatience and a momentary flash of indignation was, when in
sharpest contrast with ‘This is my beloved Son: hear Him,’ He had to come down
from the mountain to meet the devil-possessed boy, the useless agony of the father,
the sneering faces of the scribes, and the impotence of the disciples. Looking on all
this, He turns to His followers-for it is to the Apostles that the text is spoken, and not
to the crowd outside-with this most remarkable exclamation: ‘O faithless generation!
how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you?’
Now, I said that these words at first sight looked almost like a momentary flash of
indignation, as if for once a spot had come on His pallid cheek-a spot of anger-but I
do not think that we shall find it so if we look a little more closely.
The first thing that seems to be in the words is not anger, indeed, but a very distinct
and very pathetic expression of Christ’s infinite pain, because of man’s faithlessness.
The element of personal sorrow is most obvious here. It is not only that He is sad for
their sakes that they are so unreceptive, and He can do so little for them-I shall have
something to say about that presently-but that He feels for Himself, just as we do in
our poor humble measure, the chilling effect of an atmosphere where there is no
sympathy. All that ever the teachers and guides and leaders of the world have in this
respect had to bear-all the misery of opening out their hearts in the frosty air of
unbelief and rejection-Christ endured. All that men have ever felt of how hard it is to
keep on working when not a soul understands them, when not a single creature
believes in them, when there is no one that will accept their message, none that will
give them credit for pure motives-Jesus Christ had to feel, and that in an altogether
singular degree. There never was such a lonely soul on this earth as His, just because
there never was one so pure and loving. ‘The little hills rejoice together? as the Psalm
says, ‘on every side,’ but the great Alpine peak is alone there, away up amongst the
cold and the snows. Thus lived the solitary Christ, the uncomprehended Christ, the
unaccepted Christ. Let us see in this exclamation of His how humanly, and yet how
divinely, He felt the loneliness to which His love and purity condemned Him.
The plain felt soul-chilling after the blessed communion of the mountain. There was
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63. such a difference between Moses and Elias and the voice that said, ‘This is My
beloved Son: hear Him,’ and the disbelief and slowness of spiritual apprehension of
the people down below there, that no wonder that for once the pain that He generally
kept absolutely down and silent, broke the bounds even of His restraint, and shaped
for itself this pathetic utterance: ‘How long shall I be with you? how long shall I
suffer you?’
Dear friends, here is ‘a little window through which we may see a great matter’ if we
will only think of how all that solitude, and all that sorrow of uncomprehended aims,
was borne lovingly and patiently, right away on to the very end, for every one of us. I
know that there are many of the aspects of Christ’s life in which Christ’s griefs tell
more on the popular apprehension; but I do not know that there is one in which the
title of ‘The Man of Sorrows’ is to all deeper thinking more pathetically vindicated
than in this-the solitude of the uncomprehended and the unaccepted Christ and His
pain at His disciples’ faithlessness.
And then do not let us forget that in this short sharp cry of anguish-for it is that-there
may be detected by the listening ear not only the tone of personal hurt, but the tone
of disappointed and thwarted love. Because of their unbelief He knew that they could
not receive what He desired to give them. We find Him more than once in His life,
hemmed in, hindered, baulked of His purpose, thwarted, as I may say, in His design,
simply because there was no one with a heart open to receive the rich treasure that
He was ready to pour out. He had to keep it locked up in His own spirit, else it would
have been wasted and spilled upon the ground. ‘He could do no mighty works there
because of their unbelief’; and here He is standing in the midst of the men that knew
Him best, that understood Him most, that were nearest to Him in sympathy; but
even they were not ready for all this wealth of affection, all this infinitude of blessing,
with which His heart is charged. They offered no place to put it. They shut up the
narrow cranny through which it might have come, and so He has to turn from them,
bearing it away unbestowed, like some man who goes out in the morning with his
seed-basket full, and finds the whole field where he would fain have sown covered
already with springing weeds or encumbered with hard rock, and has to bring back
the germs of possible life to bless and fertilise some other soil. ‘He that goeth forth
weeping, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with joy’; but He that
comes back weeping, bearing the precious seed that He found no field to sow in,
knows a deeper sadness, which has in it no prophecy of joy. It is wonderfully pathetic
and beautiful, I think, to see how Jesus Christ knew the pains of wounded love that
cannot get expressed because there is not heart to receive it.
Here I would remark, too, before I go to another point, that these two elements-that
of personal sorrow and that of disappointed love and baulked purposes-continue
still, and are represented as in some measure felt by Him now. It was to disciples that
He said, ‘O faithless generation!’ He did not mean to charge them with the entire
absence of all confidence, but He did mean to declare that their poor, feeble faith,
such as it was, was not worth naming in comparison with the abounding mass of
their unbelief. There was one spark of light in them, and there was also a great heap
of green wood that had not caught the flame and only smoked instead of blazing. And
so He said to them, ‘O faithless generation!’
Ay, and if He came down here amongst us now, and went through the professing
Christians in this land, to how many of us-regard being had to the feebleness of our
confidence and the strength of our unbelief-He would have to say the same thing, ‘O
faithless generation!’
The version of that clause in Matthew and Luke adds a significant word,-’faithless
and perverse generation.’ The addition carries a grave lesson, as teaching us that the
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64. two characteristics are inseparably united; that the want of faith is morally a crime
and sin; that unbelief is at once the most tragic manifestation of man’s perverse will,
and also in its turn the source of still more obstinate and wide-spreading evil.
Blindness to His light and rejection of His love, He treats as the very head and crown
of sin. Like intertwining snakes, the loathly heads are separate; but the slimy
convolutions are twisted indistinguishably together, and all unbelief has in it the
nature of perversity, as all perversity has in it the nature of unbelief. ‘He will convince
the world of sin, because they believe not on Me.’
May we venture to say, as we have already hinted, that all this pain is in some
mysterious way still inflicted on His loving heart? Can it be that every time we are
guilty of unbelieving, unsympathetic rejection of His love, we send a pang of real pain
and sorrow into the heart of Christ? It is a strange, solemn thought. There are many
difficulties which start up, if we at all accept it. But still it does appear as if we could
scarcely believe in His perpetual manhood, or think of His love as being in any real
sense a human love, without believing that He sorrows when we sin; and that we can
grieve, and wound, and cause to recoil upon itself, as it were, and close up that loving
and gracious Spirit that delights in being met with answering love. If we may venture
to take our love as in any measure analogous to His-and unless we do, His love is to
us a word without meaning-we may believe that it is so. Do not we know that the
purer our love, and the more it has purified us, the more sensitive it becomes, even
while the less suspicious it becomes? Is not the purest, most unselfish, highest love,
that by which the least failure in response is felt most painfully? Though there be no
anger, and no change in the love, still there is a pang where there is an inadequate
perception, or an unworthy reception, of it. And Scripture seems to countenance the
belief that Divine Love, too, may know something, in some mysterious fashion, like
that feeling, when it warns us, ‘Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are
sealed unto the day of redemption.’ So we may venture to say, Grieve not the Christ
of God, who redeems us; and remember that we grieve Him most when we will not
let Him pour His love upon us, but turn a sullen, unresponsive unbelief towards His
pleading grace, as some glacier shuts out the sunshine from the mountain-side with
its thick-ribbed ice.
Another thought, which seems to me to be expressed in this wonderful exclamation
of our Lord’s, is-that this faithlessness bound Christ to earth, and kept Him here. As
there is not anger, but only pain, so there is also, I think, not exactly impatience, but
a desire to depart, coupled with the feeling that He cannot leave them till they have
grown stronger in faith. And that feeling is increased by the experience of their utter
helplessness and shameful discomfiture during His brief absence They had shown
that they were not fit to be trusted alone. He had been away for a day up in the
mountain there, and though they did not build an altar to any golden calf, like their
ancestors, when their leader was absent, still when He comes back He finds things all
gone wrong because of the few hours of His absence. What would they do if He were
to go away from them altogether? They would never be able to stand it at all. It is
impossible that He should leave them thus-raw, immature. The plant has not yet
grown sufficiently strong to take away the prop round which it climbed. ‘How long
must I be with you?’ says the loving Teacher, who is prepared ungrudgingly to give
His slow scholars as much time as they need to learn their lesson. He is not
impatient, but He desires to finish the task; and yet He is ready to let the scholars’
dulness determine the duration of His stay. Surely that is wondrous and heart-
touching love, that Christ should let their slowness measure the time during which
He should linger here, and refrain from the glory which He desired. We do not know
all the reasons which determined the length of our Lord’s life upon earth, but this
was one of them,-that He could not go away until He had left these men strong
64

65. enough to stand by themselves, and to lay the foundations of the Church. Therefore
He yielded to the plea of their very faithlessness and backwardness, and with this
wonderful word of condescension and appeal bade them say for how many more days
He must abide in the plain, and turn His back on the glories that had gleamed for a
moment on the mountain of transfiguration.
In this connection, too, is it not striking to notice how long His short life and
ministry appeared to our Lord Himself? There is to me something very pathetic in
that question He addressed to one of His Apostles near the end of His pilgrimage:
‘Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known Me?’ It was not so
very long-three years, perhaps, at the outside-and much less, if we take the shortest
computation; and yet to Him it had been long. The days had seemed to go tardily. He
longed that the ‘fire’ which He came to fling on earth were already ‘kindled,’ and the
moments seemed to drop so slowly from the urn of time. But neither the holy longing
to consummate His work by the mystery of His passion, to which more than one of
His words bear witness, nor the not less holy longing to be glorified with ‘the glory
which He had with the Father before the world was,’ which we may reverently
venture to suppose in Him, could be satisfied till his slow scholars were wiser, and
His feeble followers stronger.
And then again, here we get a glimpse into the depth of Christ’s patient forbearance.
We might read these other words of our text, ‘How long shall I suffer you?’ with such
an intonation as to make them almost a threat that the limits of forbearance would
soon be reached, and that lie was not going to ‘suffer them’ much longer. Some
commentators speak of them as expressing ‘holy indignation,’ and I quite believe that
there is such a thing, and that on other occasions it was plainly spoken in Christ’s
words. But I fail to catch the tone of it here. To me this plaintive question has the
very opposite of indignation in its ring. It sounds rather like a pledge that as long as
they need forbearance they will get it; but, at the same time, a question of ‘how long’
that is to be. It implies the inexhaustible riches and resources of His patient mercy.
And Oh, dear brethren! that endless forbearance is the only refuge and ground of
hope we have. His perfect charity ‘is not soon angry; beareth all things,’ and ‘never
faileth.’ To it we have all to make the appeal-
‘Though I have most unthankful been
Of all that e’er Thy grace received;
Ten thousand times Thy goodness seen,
Ten thousand times Thy goodness grieved;
Yet, Lord, the chief of sinners spare.’
And, thank God! we do not make our appeal in vain.
There is rebuke in His question, but how tender a rebuke it is! He rebukes without
anger. He names the fault plainly. He shows distinctly His sorrow, and does not hide
the strain on His forbearance. That is His way of cure for His servants’ faithlessness.
It was His way on earth; it is His way in heaven. To us, too, comes the loving rebuke
of this question, ‘How long shall I suffer you?’
Thank God that our answer may be cast into the words of His own promise: ‘I say not
unto thee, until seven times; but until seventy times seven.’ ‘Bear with me till Thou
hast perfected me; and then bear me to Thyself, that I may be with Thee for ever, and
grieve Thy love no more.’ So may it be, for ‘with Him is plenteous redemption,’ and
His forbearing ‘mercy endureth for ever.’
65

66. SBC, "Christ’s Lament over Faithlessness.
I. The first thing that seems to be in this lament is not anger, but a very distinct and
very pathetic expression of Christ’s infinite pain, because of man’s faithlessness. The
element of personal sorrow is most obvious here. All that men have ever felt—of how
hard it is to keep on working when not a soul understands them, when not a single
creature believes in them, when there is nobody that will accept their message, nor
that will give them credit for pure motives,—Jesus Christ had to feel, and that in an
altogether singular degree. There never was such a lonely soul on this earth as His,
just because there never was another so pure and loving.
II. In this short sharp cry of anguish, there may be detected by the listening ear not
only the tone of personal hurt, but the tone of disappointed and thwarted love.
Because of their unbelief He knew that they could not receive what He desired to give
them. We find Him more than once in His life hemmed in, hindered, balked of His
purpose,—thwarted in His design—simply because there was nobody with a heart
open to receive the rich treasure that He was ready to pour out.
III. Another thought which seems to me to be expressed in this wonderful
exclamation of our Lord is, that their faithlessness bound Christ to earth, and kept
Him there. As there is not anger, but only pain, so there is also, I think, not exactly
impatience, but a desire to depart, coupled with the feeling that He cannot leave
them till they have grown stronger in faith, and that feeling is increased by the
experience of their utter helplessness and shameful discomfiture during His brief
absence. They had shown that they were not fit to be trusted alone. He had been
away for a day up in the mountain there, and though they did not build an altar to
any golden calf, like their ancestors, when their leader was absent, still when He
comes back He finds all things gone wrong because of the few hours of His absence.
What would they do if He were to go away from them altogether? "How long must I
be with you?" said the loving Teacher, who is prepared ungrudgingly to give His slow
scholar as much time as he needs to learn his lesson.
IV. Again, we here get a glimpse into the depth of Christ’s patience and forbearance.
This plaintive question sounds like a pledge that as long as they need forbearance
they will get it, but at the same time a question of how long that is to be. It implies
the inexhaustible riches and resources of His patient mercy,
A. Maclaren, Week Day Evening Addresses, p. 54.
20 So they brought him. When the spirit saw
Jesus, it immediately threw the boy into a
convulsion. He fell to the ground and rolled
around, foaming at the mouth.
CLARKE, "When he saw him the spirit tare him; and he fell on the
ground, etc. - When this demon saw Jesus, he had great rage, knowing that his
time was short; and hence the extraordinary convulsions mentioned above.
GILL, "And they brought him unto him,.... The father of the child, and those
66

67. that were with him, brought the child to Jesus, into his presence, before him:
and when he saw him, that is, either when Jesus saw the child, or the child saw
Jesus; or the evil spirit in him, and by him which were all at once:
straightway the spirit tare him; threw him into a violent fit, shook him, and
convulsed him in a dreadful manner; knowing his time was short, and being filled
with indignation and rage, that he should be obliged, as he knew he must, to leave the
child very speedily; and was therefore resolved to do all the mischief, and put him to
all the pain he could:
and he fell on the ground; at the feet of Jesus, not being able to stand, through
the violent motions and convulsions he threw him into:
and wallowed, foaming; rolled about from side to side, foaming at the mouth, and
in the most exquisite rack and torture.
HENRY, "IV. The deplorable condition that the child was actually in, when he
was brought to Christ, and the doleful representation which the father made of it.
When the child saw Christ, he fell into a fit; The spirit straightway tore him, boiled
within him, troubled him (so Dr. Hammond); as if the devil would set Christ at
defiance, and hoped to be too hard for him too, and to keep possession in spite of
him. The child fell on the ground, and wallowed foaming. We may put another
construction upon it - that the devil raged, and had so much the greater wrath,
because he knew that his time was short, Rev_7:12. Christ asked, How long since
this came to him? And, it seems, the disease was of long standing; it came to him of a
child (Mar_9:21), which made the case the more sad, and the cure more difficult. We
are all by nature children of disobedience, and in such the evil spirit works, and has
done so from our childhood; for foolishness is bound in the heart of a child, and
nothing but the mighty grace of Christ can cast it out.
JAMIESON, "And they brought him unto him: and when he saw him,
straightway the spirit tare him — Just as the man with the legion of demons,
“when he saw Jesus, ran and worshipped Him” (Mar_5:6), so this demon, when he
saw Him, immediately “tare him.” The feeling of terror and rage was the same in
both cases.
and he fell on the ground, and wallowed foaming — Still Jesus does
nothing, but keeps conversing with the father about the case - partly to have its
desperate features told out by him who knew them best, in the hearing of the
spectators; partly to let its virulence have time to show itself; and partly to deepen
the exercise of the father’s soul, to draw out his faith, and thus to prepare both him
and the by-standers for what He was to do.
CALVIN, "Mark 9:20.And as soon as he saw him. That the devil should rage
with more than ordinary cruelty against the man, when he is brought to Christ,
ought not to excite surprise; for in proportion as the grace of Christ is seen to be
nearer at hand, and acts more powerfully, the fury of Satan is the more highly
excited. The presence of Christ awakens him like the sound of a trumpet. He
raises as violent a storm as he can, and contends with all his might. We ought to
be prepared beforehand with such meditations, that our faith may not be
disturbed, when the approach of the grace of Christ is met by more than
ordinary violence on the part of our enemy. Nor ought we to lose sight of another
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68. point, that the true commencement of our cure is, when our affliction is so heavy
that we are almost at the point of death. It must also be taken into account that,
by means of the furious attack of Satan, our Lord lights a torch to cause his
grace to be seen; for, when the spectators were appalled at the dreadful
spectacle, the display of the power of Christ, which immediately followed, was
more distinctly perceived.
COFFMAN, "The hatred of the evil spirit for the Lord is evident in his
malignant tearing of his victim in anticipation of his impending cure. The
implications of the text cannot be explained as the normal ravages of any disease.
Demonic possession and affliction of humanity are indicated. The physical
phenomenon evident here in the demon's aggressiveness before the boy's healing
has its counterpart in the spiritual realm also. When any soul is in the act of
turning to Jesus for life and redemption, evil restraints and impediments against
it are always multiplied. Souls on the brink of salvation always confront the
active hostility and opposition of the evil one. Spurgeon devoted an entire sermon
to this phenomenon.[14]
ENDNOTE:
[14] Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Sermons (New York: Funk and Wagnalls
Company, Vol. 2), p. 297.
COKE, "Mark 9:20-24. The spirit tare him— Cast him into convulsions.
Doubtless Jesus could easily have prevented this attack; but he wisely permitted
it, that the minds of the spectators might be impressed with a more lively notion
of the young man's distress. It was for the same reason also that he asked his
father how long he had been in that deplorable condition? who informed him,
that he had been so even from his childhood. The afflicted father, greatly
discouraged by the inability of our Lord's disciples, and dispirited by the sight of
his son's misery, and by the remembrance of its long continuance, was afraid
that this possession might surpass the power even of Jesus himself, as the scribes
averred; and so could not help expressing his doubts and fears, If thou canst do
any thing, &c. Wherefore, to make him sensible of his mistake, Jesus said unto
him, Mark 9:23 in allusion to the expressions of diffidence which he had uttered,
If thou canst believe, &c. The father, hearing this, cried out with tears, that he
believed; and besought Jesus to supply, by his goodness and pity, whatever
deficiency he might find in his faith, Mark 9:24. As Christ's miracles were the
proof of his mission, it may seem strange that on this and several other occasions,
(see Matthew 9:28.) before he would work the desired miracles, he required the
subjects of them to believe on him. Perhaps these were the reasons: 1. His
enemies frequently desired to see signs or miracles, feigning a disposition to
believe (Matthew 16:1.): but the persons they brought to be cured, and the signs
that they demanded, being generally such as they hoped would prove superior to
his power, their true intention was, that, failing in the attempt, he should expose
himself. For Jesus, therefore, to have wrought miracles in such circumstances,
would have served scarcely any purpose, unless it was to gratify the
unreasonable curiosity of his enemies, or rather their malignant disposition; a
conduct, which instead of convincing must have enraged them, and prompted
68

69. them to contrive, if possible, some more speedy method of destroying him. We
know that Lazarus's resurrection had this effect; which is an incontestable
demonstration that the obstinacy of Christ's enemies was not to be overcome by
any evidence, how clear or strong soever; and therefore he in his divine wisdom
avoided performing miracles before this sort of persons, who could not be
profited by them; as for instance, in his own country, where he did not many
mighty works, because of their unbelief. Matthew 13:58. For the same reason,
when any came to him begging miraculous cures, whether for themselves or
others, it was very proper to ask, if the cure was sought to gratify a vain
curiosity, and with secret hopes that Jesus would fail in the attempt, or from a
real persuasion that he was able to perform it. Our Lord, it is true, was
intimately acquainted with the thoughts and intentions of all men, and so had no
needto put this question for his own information; but he did it to signify, that he
would not work miracles merely to gratify the evil dispositions of unreasonable
men. 2. It should be considered, that while the secular power did not interpose its
authority to support the credit of our Lord's miracles, the more universally the
faith of them prevailed in the country, where, and at the same time when they
were wrought, the greater must their evidence be to us in after-times. Because
such a general persuasion demonstrates, that our Lord's miracles were publicly
performed; that many persons were present at them; that the eye-witnesses
entertained no doubt of them; and that they related them to others, who, giving
their testimony, believed them to be real. In this view of the matter, it concerns
us not a little to know the opinion which our Lord's countrymen entertained of
him, and of his works. We may therefore justly suppose, that one of the reasons
of his asking those who came to him, if they believed that he was able toperform
the cures they solicited, might be, to make us, who live in after-times, sensible
how far the reports of his miracles were spread, how firmly they were believed,
how great was the number of those who believed them, and how highly he
himself was reverenced on account of them. This observation shews the wisdom
and propriety of the expression which our Lord often made use of in conferring
his miraculous cures; Matthew 8:13. As thou hast believed, so be it done unto
thee. Matthew 9:22. Thy faith hath made thee whole. Luke 8:50. Believe only,
and she shall be made whole. Luke 18:42. Thy faith hath saved thee. For the
cures following leave us no room to suspect, that the declarations which they
gave of their faith in his miracles were feigned or doubtful. See Luke 8:48. But, 3
and especially, it must be added, that faith in the goodness and power of Christ,
tended so much to the glory of the Creator, and the humiliation of the creature,
that above all things it prepared the poor petitioner to receive the
benefitofourLord'smiraculousinterference;which,consistentlywithhisownhonour
and perfections, he could in this case exert to the uttermost.
BENSON, "Mark 9:20-22. And when he saw him — When the child saw Jesus,
being brought to him by his father: when his deliverance was at hand;
immediately the spirit tore him — Made his last, grand effort to destroy him. Is
it not generally so, before Satan relinquishes his power over a soul of which he
has long had possession? And he (Christ) asked, How long is it, &c. — The Lord
Jesus made this inquiry for the same reason for which he suffered Satan to make
the violent attack upon the youth just mentioned, namely, that the spectators
might be impressed with a more lively sense of his deplorable condition. And he
69

70. said, From a child — Greek, παιδιοθεν, from his childhood, or, as some render it,
from his infancy. And ofttimes it — The evil spirit; hath cast him into the fire,
&c., to destroy him — Such is the power it has over him, and such its infernal
rage and malice! But if thou canst do any thing — In so desperate a case; have
compassion on us — On me as well as him; and help us — The afflicted father,
greatly discouraged by the inability of our Lord’s disciples, and dispirited by the
sight of his son’s misery, and by the remembrance of its long continuance, was
afraid this possession might surpass the power of Jesus himself, and therefore
spoke thus, expressing his doubts and fears in a manner very natural, and yet
strongly pathetic, and obliquely interesting the honour of Christ in the issue of
the affair.
21 Jesus asked the boy’s father, “How long has
he been like this?”
“From childhood,” he answered.
GILL, "And he asked his father,.... As he lay rolling about in this miserable
condition, that the length and stubbornness of his disorder might be known, and so
the cure the more remarkable, and appear the more expressive of his divine power
and goodness:
how long is it ago since this came unto him? since this evil spirit entered into
him, and these disorders have attended him?
and he said of a child; or "from his infancy"; so that it was not for any actual sin
that he had committed, that this sore affiction came upon him; and yet he could not
be without sin, since it was not agreeable to the justice, mercy, and goodness of God,
to afflict, or suffer to be afflicted, one that is innocent; and therefore must be tainted
with original sin, which is the source and spring of all afflictions, calamities and
judgments.
JAMIESON, "And he asked his father, How long is it ago since this
came unto him? And he said, Of a child, etc. — Having told briefly the
affecting features of the case, the poor father, half dispirited by the failure of the
disciples and the aggravated virulence of the malady itself in presence of their
Master, yet encouraged too by what he had heard of Christ, by the severe rebuke He
had given to His disciples for not having faith enough to cure the boy, and by the
dignity with which He had ordered him to be brought to Him - in this mixed state of
mind, he closes his description of the case with these touching words:
CALVIN, "21.From a child. Hence we infer that this punishment was not
inflicted on account of the sins of the individual, but was a secret judgment of
70

71. God. True indeed, even infants, as soon as they have come out of the womb, are
not innocent in the sight of God, or free from guilt; but God’s chastisements have
sometimes hidden causes, and are intended to try our obedience. We do not
render to God the honor which is due to Him, unless with reverence and modesty
we adore His justice, when it is concealed from us. Whoever wishes to obtain
more full information on this point, may consult my Commentary on these
words, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents, (John 9:3.)
22 “It has often thrown him into fire or water to
kill him. But if you can do anything, take pity on
us and help us.”
BARNES, "If thou canst do any thing - I have brought him to the disciples,
and they could not help him. If thou canst do anything, have compassion.
CLARKE, "If Thou canst Do any thing - I have already tried thy disciples, and
find they can do nothing in this case; but if thou hast any power, in mercy use it in
our behalf.
GILL, "And ofttimes it hath cast him into the fire,.... When he has been near
it; so that one part or other of his body has been scorched, or burnt, and his life in
danger:
and into the waters to destroy him: when he has been near any brook, or river,
it has thrown him into it, in order to drown him, as into the fire to burn him. The
Ethiopic version before fire and water reads, "into the deep"; meaning either the sea
or some deep pit, or off a precipice. All this is said to aggravate the case, and show
the miserable condition the child was in, from the frequency of the fits, and the
danger he was exposed to:
but if thou canst do any thing. This man's faith was very weak, and perhaps
weaker than when he first came from home with his child. He had brought him to the
disciples of Christ, and they could not cure him; the evil spirit was as strong, or
stronger in him than ever; he now lay in a violent fit, and in a most miserable
condition; so that he was almost ready to despair of healing: some small hopes he
had that Christ might be able to relieve in this case; but he puts an if upon his power,
and earnestly entreats him, if he had any, he would put it forth:
have compassion on us, and help us; his child that lay in such a deplorable
condition, rolling on the ground at his feet; and himself, who was greatly afflicted for
him: he tries, in very moving language, both the power and pity of Christ; and begs
that if he had either, he would exert them on this occasion.
71

72. HENRY, " The pressing instances which the father of the child makes with Christ
for a cure (Mar_9:22); Ofttimes it hath cast him into the fire, and into the waters, to
destroy him. Note, The devil aims at the ruin of those in whom he rules and works,
and seeks whom he may devour. But, if thou canst do any thing, have compassion
on us, and help us. The leper was confident of Christ's power, but put an if upon his
will (Mat_8:2); If thou wilt, thou canst. This poor man referred himself to his good-
will, but put an if upon his power, because his disciples, who cast out devils in his
name, had been non-plussed in this case. Thus Christ suffers in his honour by the
difficulties and follies of his disciples.
JAMIESON, "but if thou canst do anything, have compassion on us, and
help us — “us,” says the father; for it was a sore family affliction. Compare the
language of the Syrophoenician woman regarding her daughter, “Lord, help me.” Still
nothing is done: the man is but struggling into faith: it must come a step farther. But
he had to do with Him who breaks not the bruised reed, and who knew how to
inspire what He demanded. The man had said to Him, “If Thou canst do.”
CALVIN, "22.If thou canst do any thing, have compassion on us, and help us.
We see how little honor he renders to Christ; for, supposing him to be some
prophet, whose power was limited, he approaches to him with hesitation. On the
other hand, the first foundation of faith is, to embrace the boundless power of
God; and the first step to prayer is, to raise it above all opposition by the firm
belief that our prayers are not in vain. As this man did not suppose Christ to be
at all different from other men, his false opinion is corrected; for our faith must
be so formed as to be capable and prepared for receiving the desired favor. In his
reply Christ does not administer a direct reproof, but indirectly reminding the
man of what he had said amiss, points out to him his fault, and informs him how
a remedy may be obtained.
COFFMAN, "If thou canst do anything ... By such a remark, the father of the
afflicted boy would have made the burden of responsibility for his son's healing
to rest upon the Lord; but he was not correct in such an insinuation, as Jesus'
following words quickly showed. There are many in all generations who would
like to shift the burden of all betterment to some other than themselves, but they
too are wrong. A great deal of the improvement of the human condition is
inherently incumbent upon the needy themselves, who under every circumstance
of whatever extremity must first do everything possible to alleviate their own
affliction, that being the basic and invariable precondition to any effective help
from without. Here, the thing required of the father was faith in the Lord.
Have compassion on us, and help us ... The use of possessive pronouns here is
very poignant and touching and shows that the whole family of the unfortunate
lad had identified themselves with the afflicted and considered his distress as also
their own. This is an expressive picture of all members of a family suffering with
one of its members.
23 “‘If you can’?” said Jesus. “Everything is
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73. possible for one who believes.”
BARNES, "If thou canst believe - This was an answer to the request, and there
was a reference in the answer to the “doubt” in the man’s mind about the power of
Jesus. “I” can help him. If thou” canst believe,” it shall be done. Jesus here demanded
“faith” or confidence in his power of healing. His design here is to show the man that
the difficulty in the case was not in the want of “power” on his part, but in the want of
“faith” in the man; in other words, to rebuke him for having “doubted” at all whether
he “could” heal him. So he demands faith of every sinner that comes to him, and
none that come without “confidence” in him can obtain the blessing.
All things are possible to him that believeth - All things can be effected or
accomplished - to wit, by God - in favor of him that believes, and if thou canst
believe, this will be done. God will do nothing in our favor without faith. It is right
that we should have confidence in him; and if we “have” confidence, it is easy for him
to help us, and he willingly does it. In our weakness, then, we should go to God our
Saviour; and though we have no strength, yet “he” can aid us, and he will make all
things easy for us.
CLARKE, "If Thou canst Believe - This was an answer to the inquiry above. I
can furnish a sufficiency of power, if thou canst but bring faith to receive it. Why are
not our souls completely healed? Why is not every demon cast out? Why are not
pride, self-will, love of the world, lust, anger, peevishness, with all the other bad
tempers and dispositions which constitute the mind of Satan, entirely destroyed?
Alas! it is because we do not believe; Jesus is able; more, Jesus is willing; but we are
not willing to give up our idols; we give not credence to his word; therefore hath sin a
being in us, and dominion over us.
GILL, "Jesus said unto him, if thou canst believe,.... As the man put an "if" on
the power of Christ, Christ puts an "if" on the faith of the man; and tacitly suggests,
that power was not wanting in himself, but faith in him; and should that cure not be
performed, it would not be owing to any inability in him, but to his own incredulity.
The Arabic version renders it, "what is this thy: saying, if thou canst do any thing?"
What dost thou mean by it? Thou oughtest not to doubt of my power; there is no
reason for it, after so many miracles wrought; upbraiding the man with his unbelief;
and the Ethiopic version renders it thus, "because thou sayest, if thou canst":
wherefore to show that power was not wanting in him, provided he had but faith, it
follows,
all things are possible to him that believeth; that is, "to be done" to him, as the
Syriac and Ethiopic versions supply: for all things are not possible to be done by the
believer himself, but all things are possible to be done for him, by God, or Christ, or
the Spirit of God: thus our Lord, as he elsewhere does, ascribes that to faith, which is
done by a divine power.
HENRY, "The answer Christ gave to his address (Mar_9:23); If thou canst
believe, all things are possible to him that believeth. Here, 1. He tacitly checks the
weakness of his faith. The sufferer put it upon Christ's power, If thou canst do any
thing, and reflected on the want of power in the disciples; but Christ turns it upon
him, and puts him upon questioning his own faith, and will have him impute the
73

74. disappointment to the want of that; If thou canst believe. 2. He graciously
encourages the strength of his desire; “All things are possible, will appear possible, to
him that believes the almighty power of God, to which all things are possible;” or
“That shall be done by the grace of God, for them that believe in the promise of God,
which seemed utterly impossible.” Note, In dealing with Christ, very much is put
upon our believing, and very much promised it. Canst thou believe? Darest thou
believe? Art thou willing to venture thy all in the hands of Christ? To venture all thy
spiritual concerns with him, and all thy temporal concerns for him? Canst thou find
in thy heart to do this? If so, it is not impossible but that, though thou has been a
great sinner, thou mayest be reconciled; though thou art very mean and unworthy,
thou mayest get to heaven. If thou canst believe, it is possible that thy hard heart may
be softened, thy spiritual diseases may be cured; and that, weak as thou art, thou
mayest be able to hold out to the end.
JAMIESON, "Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe — The man had
said, “If Thou canst do anything.” Jesus replies.
all things are possible to him that believeth — “My doing all depends on thy
believing.” To impress this still more, He redoubles upon the believing: “If thou canst
believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.” Thus the Lord helps the birth of
faith in that struggling soul; and now, though with pain and sore travail, it comes to
the birth, as Trench, borrowing from Olshausen, expresses it. Seeing the case stood
still, waiting not upon the Lord’s power but his own faith, the man becomes
immediately conscious of conflicting principles, and rises into one of the noblest
utterances on record.
CALVIN, "23.If thou canst believe. “You ask me,” says he, “to aid you as far as I
can; but you will find in me an inexhaustible fountain of power, provided that
the faith which you bring be sufficiently large.” Hence may be learned a useful
doctrine, which will apply equally to all of us, that it is not the Lord that
prevents his benefits from flowing to us in large abundance, but that it must be
attributed to the narrowness of our faith, that it comes to us only in drops, and
that frequently we do not feel even a drop, because unbelief shuts up our heart.
It is an idle exercise of ingenuity to prove Christ’s meaning to be, that a man can
believe of himself: for nothing more was intended than to throw back on men the
blame of their poverty, whenever they disparage the power of God by their
unbelief.
All things are possible to him that believeth. Christ undoubtedly intended to
teach that the fullness of all blessings has been given to us by the Father, and that
every kind of assistance must be expected from him alone in the same manner as
we expect it from the hand of God. “Only exercise,” says he, “a firm belief, and
you will obtain.” In what manner faith obtains any thing for us we shall
immediately see.
COFFMAN, "These words must be understood as Jesus' rebuke of the father's
lack of faith, and so the father accepted them. It is as if Jesus had said, "Look,
any man who has faith will not set any limit on what the Lord is able to do." As
Cranfield observed: "The father, instead of doubting the power of Jesus to help
him, ought to have had a faith like that of the leper in Mark 1:40."[15]
74

75. ENDNOTE:
[15] C. E. B. Cranfield, op. cit., p. 303.
CONSTABLE, "The father thought the crucial question was whether Jesus
could heal the boy. Jesus explained that it was really whether the father believed
that Jesus could heal him. This pinpointed the father's understanding of who
Jesus was. The issue was not how strongly the father believed Jesus would heal
his son. This is an important distinction. Modern "faith healers" usually stress
the amount of trust that the person coming for help has rather than the object of
that trust. Later Jesus revealed that the disciples' failure to heal the boy resulted
from lack of trust in Him too (Mark 9:29).
"One who has faith will set no limits to the power of God." [Note: Rawlinson, p.
124.]
"But the faith that has such mighty results will submit to the will of God in
making its petitions. Faith-prompted prayer asks in harmony with the will of
God." [Note: Hiebert, p. 223. Cf. John 14:13-14; 15:16; 16:23-24; and 1 John
5:11-15.]
The father voiced his confidence in Jesus, imperfect as it was, and asked Jesus to
strengthen his faith.
"He declares that he believes and yet acknowledges himself to have unbelief.
These two statements may appear to contradict each other but there is none of us
that does not experience both of them in himself." [Note: Calvin, 2:325.]
He was an unbelieving believer, namely, a believer whose faith was weak.
BENSON, "Mark 9:23-27. Jesus said, If thou canst believe, &c. — As if he had
said, The question is not respecting my power, but thy faith. I can do all things:
canst thou believe? If thou canst believe — Canst rely with confidence on my
power, love, and faithfulness, and be persuaded that I can and will grant thy
request, the deliverance which thou desirest will surely be effected; for all things
are possible — To God, and all things of this kind, such as the deliverance of a
person’s soul or body from the power of Satan, or the recovery of a person from
sickness, or from any calamity or trouble, are possible to him that believeth — In
the power and goodness of God, and makes application to him in prayer, lifting
up holy hands, as without wrath, and every unkind temper, so without doubting.
And straightway the father — Touched to the very heart to think that his dear
son might possibly lose the cure through the weakness of his faith; cried out with
tears, Lord, I believe — That thy power and goodness are unlimited; yet such is
my frailty, that when I look on my child, and consider the miserable condition he
is in, my faith is ready to fail me again: therefore, help thou mine unbelief —
That is, help me against my unbelief, by mitigating the circumstances of the trial,
or communicating suitable strength to my soul. The Greek is, βοηθει μη τη
απιστια, which Dr. Campbell renders, Supply thou the defects of my faith,
observing, “It is evident from the preceding clause, that απιστια denotes here a
deficient faith, not a total want of faith. I have used the word supply, as hitting
more exactly what I take to be the sense of the passage.” Grotius justly expresses
it, Quod fiduciæ meæ deest, bonitate tua supple: “What is wanting to my faith,
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76. supply by thy goodness.” When Jesus saw the people running together — The
vehemence with which the father of the child spake, occasioned by the greatness
of his grief, brought the crowd about them. Jesus, therefore, to prevent further
disturbance, immediately commanded the unclean spirit to depart from the
youth, saying unto him, Thou dumb and deaf spirit — So termed because he
made the child deaf and dumb: when Jesus spake, the devil heard, though the
child could not: I charge thee — I myself, now; not my disciples; come out of
him, and enter no more into him — Leave him instantly, and presume not any
more to trouble or disquiet him as long as he lives. And the spirit cried, and rent
him sore, &c. — Scarcely had Jesus uttered the word when the devil came out of
the child, making a hideous howling, and convulsing him to such a degree, that
he lay senseless and without motion, as one dead, till Jesus took him by the hand,
instantly brought him to life, and then delivered him to his father perfectly
recovered.
SBC, "Christ’s "If" answered and more than answered the man’s "if." The man had
said, "if thou canst do anything"; Christ reversed it and showed where the real
contingency lay. "If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth."
And why are all things possible to him that believeth? Because he that believeth takes
hold of Christ and uses His omnipotence.
I. Observe first the expression. "If thou canst believe," not, "if thou dost believe."
Every man who has not made himself lower than a man, and so lost the position of
our common humanity—every man has some faith. And every man who uses the faith
he has, will increase its’ power and acquire more. You are the arbiter of your own
creed, and your faith is also the test of your own moral condition. And our Lord was
not mocking the father of the lunatic child—He was not making a requirement of that
which was an impossibility, but He was elevating his mind, and carrying on his own
spiritual life, when He said to him "If thou canst believe."
II. The outside boundary line of the province of faith, properly so called, is promises.
Faith is laying hold, I do not say of what God is, for God may be and is much which
we cannot understand enough even to believe—but it is laying hold of what God has
covenanted Himself to us—what God is to His people. The promises are what God is
to His Church, therefore faith confines itself to promises.
III. The text does not say "All things are given to him that believeth," but "All things
are possible to him that believeth." It may happen, for various causes, that a man
may not, at a certain period, receive even what he believes and seeks. God may have
some wise, secret reason for not giving it at that time. The man himself, though, he
has the faith, may yet have to learn how to use and express his faith better. There is
no promise respecting the time, or the way; there is the promise, but not the how or
the when. All that is asserted is this, that when a man has the faith of a mercy, he has
then the possibility of that mercy. Then, all barriers have been removed, and he may
have that mercy at any time, and be sure to have that mercy some time.
J. Vaughan, Sermons, 1868, p. 85.
MACLAREN, "THE OMNIPOTENCE OF FAITH
The necessity and power of faith is the prominent lesson of this narrative of the
healing of a demoniac boy, especially as it is told by the Evangelist Mark, The lesson
76

77. is enforced by the actions of all the persons in the group, except the central figure,
Christ. The disciples could not cast out the demon, and incur Christ’s plaintive
rebuke, which is quite as much sorrow as blame: ‘O faithless generation I how long
shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you?’ And then, in the second part of the
story, the poor father, heart-sick with hope deferred, comes into the foreground. The
whole interest is shifted to him, and more prominence is given to the process by
which his doubting spirit is led to trust, than to that by which his son is healed.
There is something very beautiful and tender in Christ’s way of dealing with him, so
as to draw him to faith. He begins with the question, ‘How long is it ago since this
came unto him?’ and so induces him to tell all the story of the long sorrow, that his
burdened heart might get some ease in speaking, and also that the feeling of the
extremity of the necessity, deepened by the very dwelling on all his boy’s cruel
sufferings, might help him to the exercise of faith. Truly ‘He knew what was in man,’
and with tenderness born of perfect knowledge and perfect love, He dealt with sore
and sorrowful hearts. This loving artifice of consolation, which drew all the story
from willing lips, is one more little token of His gentle mode of healing. And it is
profoundly wise, as well as most tender. Get a man thoroughly to know his need, and
vividly to feel his helpless misery, and you have carried him a long way towards
laying hold of the refuge from it.
How wise and how tender the question is, is proved by the long circumstantial
answer, in which the pent-up trouble of a father’s heart pours itself out at the tiny
opening which Christ has made for it. He does not content himself with the simple
answer, ‘Of a child,’ but with the garrulousness of sorrow that has found a listener
that sympathises, goes on to tell all the misery, partly that he may move his hearer’s
pity, but more in sheer absorption with the bitterness that had poisoned the
happiness of his home all these years. And then his graphic picture of his child’s state
leads him to the plaintive cry, in which his love makes common cause with his son,
and unites both in one wretchedness. ‘If thou canst do anything, have compassion on
us and help us.’
Our Lord answers that appeal in the words of our text. There are some difficulties in
the rendering and exact force of these words with which I do not mean to trouble
you. We may accept the rendering as in our Bible, with a slight variation in the
punctuation. If we take the first clause as an incomplete sentence, and put a break
between it and the last words, the meaning will stand out more clearly: ‘If thou canst
believe-all things are possible to him that believeth.’ We might paraphrase it
somewhat thus: Did you say ‘If thou canst do anything’? That is the wrong ‘if.’ There
is no doubt about that. The only ‘if’ in the question is another one, not about me, but
about you. ‘If thou canst believe-’ and then the incomplete sentence might be
supposed to be ended with some such phrase as ‘That is the only question. If thou
canst believe-all depends on that. If thou canst believe, thy son will be healed,’ or the
like. Then, in order to explain and establish what He had meant in the half-finished
saying, He adds the grand, broad statement, on which the demand for the man’s faith
as the only condition of his wish being answered reposes: ‘All things are possible to
him that believeth.’
That wide statement is meant, I suppose, for the disciples as well as for the father.
‘All things are possible’ both in reference to benefits to be received, and in reference
to power to be exercised. ‘If thou canst believe, poor suppliant father, thou shalt have
thy desire. If thou canst believe, poor devil-ridden son, thou shalt be set free. If ye
can believe, poor baffled disciples, you will be masters of the powers of evil.’
Do you remember another ‘if’ with which Christ was once besought? ‘There came a
leper to Him, beseeching Him, and kneeling down to Him, and saying unto Him, If
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78. Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean.’ In some respects that man had advanced
beyond the father in our story, for he had no doubt at all about Christ’s power, and he
spoke to Him as ‘Lord.’ But he was somehow not quite sure about Christ’s heart of
pity. On the other hand, the man in our narrative has no doubt about Christ’s
compassion. He may have seen something of His previous miracles, or there may still
have been lying on our Lord’s countenance some of the lingering glory of the
Transfiguration-as indeed the narrative seems to hint, in its emphatic statement of
the astonishment and reverential salutations of the crowd when He approached-or
the tenderness of our Lord’s listening sympathy may have made him feel sure of His
willingness to help. At any rate, the leper’s ‘if’ has answered itself for him. His own
lingering doubt, Christ waives aside as settled. His ‘if’ is answered for ever. So these
two ‘ifs’ in reference to Christ are beyond all controversy; His power is certain, and
His love. The third ‘if’ remains, the one that refers to us-’If thou canst believe’; all
hinges on that, for ‘all things are possible to him that believeth.’
Here, then, we have our Lord telling us that faith is omnipotent. That is a bold word;
He puts no limitations; ‘all things are possible.’ I think that to get the true force of
these words we should put alongside of them the other saying of our Lord’s, ‘With
God all things are possible.’ That is the foundation of the grand prerogative in our
text. The power of faith is the consequence of the power of God. All things are
possible to Him; therefore, all things are possible to me, believing in Him. If we
translate that into more abstract words, it just comes to the principle that the power
of faith consists in its taking hold of the power of God. It is omnipotent because it
knits us to Omnipotence. Faith is nothing in itself, but it is that which attaches us to
God, and then His power flows into us. Screw a pipe on to a water main and turn a
handle, and out flows the water through the pipe and fills the empty vessel. Faith is
as impotent in itself as the hollow water pipe is, only it is the way by which the
connection is established between the fulness of God and the emptiness of man. By it
divinity flows into humanity, and we have a share even in the divine Omnipotence.
‘My strength is made perfect in weakness.’ In itself nothing, it yet grasps God, and
therefore by it we are strong, because by it we lay hold of His strength. Great and
wonderful is the grace thus given to us, poor, struggling, sinful men, that, looking up
to the solemn throne, where He sits in His power, we have a right to be sure that a
true participation in His greatness is granted to us, if once our hearts are fastened to
Him.
And there is nothing arbitrary nor mysterious in this flowing of divine power into our
hearts on condition of our faith. It is the condition of possessing Christ, and in
Christ, salvation, righteousness, and strength, not by any artificial appointment, but
in the very nature of things. There is no other way possible by which God could give
men what they receive through their faith, except only their faith.
In all trust in God there are two elements: a sense of need and of evil and weakness,
and a confidence more or less unshaken and strong in Him, His love and power and
all-sufficiency; and unless both of these two be in the heart, it is, in the nature of
things, impossible, and will be impossible to all eternity, that purity and strength and
peace and joy, and all the blessings which Christ delights to give to faith, should ever
be ours.
Unbelief, distrust of Him, which separates us from Him and closes the heart fast
against His grace, must cut us off from that which it does not feel that it needs, nor
cares to receive; and must interpose a non-conducting medium between us and the
electric influences of His might. When Christ was on earth, man’s want of faith
dammed back His miracle-working power, and paralysed His healing energy. How
strange that paradox sounds at first hearing, which brings together Omnipotence and
impotence, and makes men able to counter-work the loving power of Christ. ‘He
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79. could there do no mighty work.’ The Evangelist intends a paradox, for he uses two
kindred words to express the inability and the mighty work; and we might
paraphrase the saying so as to bring out the seeming contradiction: ‘He there had no
power to do any work of power.’ The same awful, and in some sense mysterious,
power of limiting and restraining the influx of His love belongs to unbelief still,
whether it take the shape of active rejection, or only of careless, passive non-
reception. For faith makes us partakers of divine power by the very necessity of the
case, and that power can attach itself to nothing else. So, ‘if thou canst believe, all
things are possible to him that believeth.’
Still further, we may observe that there is involved here the principle that our faith
determines the amount of our power. That is true in reference to our own individual
religious life, and it is true in reference to special capacities for Christ’s service. Let
me say a word or two about each of these. They run into each other, of course, for the
truest power of service is found in the depth and purity of our own personal religion,
and on the other hand our individual Christian character will never be deep or pure
unless we are working for the Master. Still, for our present purpose, these two
inseparable aspects of the one Christian life may be separated in thought.
As to the former, then, the measure of my trust in Christ is the measure of all the rest
of my Christian character. I shall have just as much purity, just as much peace, just as
much wisdom or gentleness or love or courage or hope, as my faith is capable of
taking up, and, so to speak, holding in solution. The ‘point of saturation’ in a man’s
soul, the quantity of God’s grace which he is capable of absorbing, is accurately
measured by his faith. How much do I trust God? That will settle how much I can
take in of God.
So much as we believe, so much can we contain. So much as we can contain, so much
shall we receive. And in the very act of receiving the ‘portion of our Father’s goods
that falleth’ to us, we shall feel that there is a boundless additional portion ready to
come as soon as we are ready for it, and thereby we shall be driven to larger desires
and a wider opening of the lap of faith, which will ever be answered by ‘good
measure, pressed together and running over, measured into our bosoms.’ But there
will be no waste by the bestowment of what we cannot take. ‘According to your faith,
be it unto you.’ That is the accurate thermometer which measures the temperature of
our spiritual state. It is like the steam-gauge outside the boiler, which tells to a
fraction the pressure of steam within, and so the power which can at the moment be
exerted.
May I make a very simple, close personal application of this thought? We have as
much religious life as we desire; that is, we have as much as our faith can take. There
is the reason why such hosts of so-called Christians have such poor, feeble
Christianity. We dare not say of any, ‘They have a name to live, and are dead.’ There
is only one Eye who can tell when the heart has ceased to beat. But we may say that
there are a mournful number of people who call themselves Christians, who look so
like dead that no eye but Christ’s can tell the difference. They are in a syncope that
will be death soon, unless some mighty power rouse them.
And then, how many more of us there are, not so bad as that, but still feeble and
languid, whose Christian history is a history of weakness, while God’s power is open
before us, of starving in the midst of abundance, broken only by moments of firmer
faith, and so of larger, happier possession, that make the poverty-stricken ordinary
days appear ten times more poverty-stricken. The channel lies dry, a waste chaos of
white stones and driftwood for long months, and only for an hour or two after the
clouds have burst on the mountains does the stream fill it from bank to bank. Do not
many of us remember moments of a far deeper and more earnest trust in Christ than
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80. marks our ordinary days? If such moments were continuous, should not we be the
happy possessors of beauties of character and spiritual power, such as would put our
present selves utterly to shame? And why are they not continuous? Why are our
possessions in God so small, our power so weak? Dear friends! ‘ye are not straitened
in yourselves.’ The only reason for defective spiritual progress and character is
defective faith.
Then look at this same principle as it affects our faculties for Christian service. There,
too, it is true that all things are possible to him that believeth. The saying had an
application to the disciples who stood by, half-ashamed and half-surprised at their
failure to cast out the demon, as well as to the father in his agony of desire and doubt.
For them it meant that the measure of Christian service was mainly determined by
the measure of their faith. It would scarcely be an exaggeration to say that in Christ’s
service a man can do pretty nearly what he believes he can do, if his confidence is
built, not on himself, but on Christ.
If those nine Apostles, waiting there for their Master, had thought they could cast out
the devil from the boy, do you not think that they could have done it? I do not mean
to say that rash presumption, undertaking in levity and self-confidence unsuitable
kinds of work, will be honoured with success. But I do mean to say that, in the line of
our manifest duty, the extent to which we can do Christ’s work is very much the
extent to which we believe, in dependence on Him, that we can do it. If we once make
up our minds that we shall do a certain thing by Christ’s help and for His sake, in
ninety cases out of a hundred the expectation will fulfil itself, and we shall do it. ‘Why
could not we cast him out?’ They need not have asked the question. ‘Why could not
you cast him out? Why, because you did not think you could, and with your timid
attempt, making an experiment which you were not sure would succeed, provoked
the failure which you feared.’ The Church has never believed enough in its Christ-
given power to cast out demons. We have never been confident enough that the
victory was in our hands if we knew how to use our powers.
The same thing is true of each one of us. Audacity and presumption are humility and
moderation, if only we feel that ‘our sufficiency is of God.’ ‘I can do all things’ is the
language of simple soberness, if we go on to say ‘through Christ which strengthened
me.’
There is one more point, drawn from these words, viz., our faith can only take hold
on the divine promises. Such language as this of my text and other kindred sayings of
our Lord’s has often been extended beyond its real force, and pressed into the service
of a mistaken enthusiasm, for want of observing that very plain principle. The
principle of our text has reference to outward things as well as to the spiritual life.
But there are great exaggerations and misconceptions as to the province of faith in
reference to these temporal things, and consequently there are misconceptions and
exaggerations on the part of many very good people as to the province of prayer in
regard to them.
It seems to me that we shall be saved from these, if we distinctly recognise a very
obvious principle, namely, that ‘faith’ can never go further than God’s clear promises,
and that whatever goes beyond God’s word is not faith, but something else assuming
its appearance.
For instance, suppose a father nowadays were to say: ‘My child is sore vexed with
sickness. I long for his recovery. I believe that Christ can heal him. I believe that He
will. I pray in faith, and I know that I shall be answered.’ Such a prayer goes beyond
the record. Has Christ told you that it is His will that your child shall be healed? If
not, how can you pray in faith that it is? You may pray in confidence that he will be
healed, but such confident persuasion is not faith. Faith lays hold of Christ’s distinct
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81. declaration of His will, but such confidence is only grasping a shadow, your own
wishes. The father in this story was entitled to trust, because Christ told him that his
trust was the condition of his son’s being healed. So in response to the great word of
our text, the man’s faith leaped up and grasped our Lord’s promise, with ‘Lord, I
believe.’ But before Christ spoke, his desires, his wistful longing, his imploring cry for
help, had no warrant to pass into faith, and did not so pass.
Christ’s word must go before our faith, and must supply the object for our faith, and
where Christ has not spoken, there is no room for the exercise of any faith, except the
faith, ‘It is the Lord; let Him do what seemeth to Him good.’ That is the true prayer of
faith in regard to all matters of outward providence where we have no distinct word
of God’s which gives unmistakable indication of His will. The ‘if’ of the leper, which
has no place in the spiritual region, where we know that ‘this is the will of God, even
our sanctification,’ has full force in the temporal region, where we do not know
before the event what the will of the Lord is, ‘If Thou wilt, Thou canst,’ is there our
best prayer.
Wherever a distinct and unmistakable promise of God’s goes, it is safe for faith to
follow; but to outrun His word is not faith, but self-will, and meets the deserved
rebuke, ‘Should it be according to thy mind?’ There are unmistakable promises about
outward things on which we may safely build. Let us confine our expectations within
the limits of these, and turn them into the prayer of faith, so shooting back whence
they came His winged words, ‘This is the confidence that we have, that if we ask
anything according to His will He heareth us.’ Thus coming to Him, submitting all
our wishes in regard to this world to His most loving will, and widening our
confidence to the breadth of His great and loving purpose in regard to our own
inward life, as well as in regard to our practical service, His answer will ever be,
‘Great is thy faith; be it unto thee even as thou wilt.’
24 Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, “I
do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”
BARNES, "Said with tears - The man felt the implied rebuke in the Saviour’s
language; and feeling grieved that he should be thought to be destitute of faith, and
feeling deeply for the welfare of his afflicted son, he wept. Nothing can be more
touching or natural than this. An anxious father, distressed at the condition of his
son, having applied to the disciples in vain, now coming to the Saviour; and not
having full confidence that he had the proper qualification to be aided, he wept. Any
man would have wept in his condition, nor would the Saviour turn the weeping
suppliant away.
I believe - I have faith. I do put confidence in thee, though I know that my faith is
not as strong as it should be.
Lord - This word here signifies merely “master,” or “sir,” as it does often in the
New Testament. We have no evidence that he had any knowledge of the divine nature
of the Saviour, and he applied the word, probably, as he would have done to any
other teacher or worker of miracles.
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82. Help thou mine unbelief - Supply thou the defects of my faith. Give me
strength and grace to put “entire” confidence in thee. Everyone who comes to the
Saviour for help has need of offering this prayer. In our unbelief and our doubts we
need his aid, nor shall we ever put sufficient reliance on him without his gracious
help.
CLARKE, "Lord, I believe - The word Lord is omitted by ABCDL, both the
Syriac, both the Arabic later Persic, Ethiopic, Gothic, and three copies of the Itala.
Griesbach leaves it out. The omission, I think, is proper, because it is evident the man
did not know our Lord, and therefore could not be expected to accost him with a title
expressive of that authority which he doubted whether he possessed, unless we grant
that he used the word κυριε after the Roman custom, for Sir.
Help thou mine unbelief - That is, assist me against it. Give me a power to
believe.
GILL, "And straightway the father of the child cried out,.... As soon as ever
he found it was put upon his faith, and that the issue of things would be according to
that, he expressed himself with much vehemency, being in great distress; partly with
indignation at his unbelief, and partly through fear of missing a cure, by reason of it:
and said with tears; repenting of his unbelief, and grieved at the present weakness
of his faith; which he very ingenuously confesses, saying,
Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief; not forward, but out of the way: he
found in himself some small degree of faith in the power of Christ, but it was mixed
with much unbelief, through the greatness of the child's disorder; and therefore
desires it might be removed from him, and he might be helped against it: he saw it
was not in his own power to believe; nor had he strength of himself to oppose his
unbelief; but that both faith must be given him, and power against unbelief. The
Syriac version renders it, "help", ‫הימנותי‬ ‫,לחסירות‬ "the defect of my faith": till up that
which is lacking in it, it is very deficient, Lord, increase it; and the Arabic and
Ethiopic translate thus, "help the weakness of my faith". He found his faith very
weak, he desires it might be strengthened, that he might be strong in faith, and give
glory to God; and in this way belief is helped, or men helped against it: every believer,
more or less, at one time or another, finds himself in this man's case; and also that it
is necessary to make use of the same petition; for faith is but imperfect in this life,
and often very weak and defective in its exercise.
HENRY, "VII. The profession of faith which the poor man made hereupon (Mar_
9:24); He cried out, “Lord, I believe; I am fully persuaded both of thy power and of
thy pity; my cure shall not be prevented by the want of faith; Lord, I believe.” He
adds a prayer for grace to enable him more firmly to rely upon the assurances he had
of the ability and willingness of Christ to save; Help thou my unbelief. Note, 1. Even
those who through grace can say, Lord, I believe, have reason to complain of their
unbelief; that they cannot so readily apply to themselves, and their own case, the
word of Christ as they should, no so cheerfully depend upon it. 2. Those that
complain of unbelief, must look up to Christ for grace to help them against it, and his
grace shall be sufficient for them. “Help mine unbelief, help me to a pardon for it,
help me with power against it; help out what is wanting in my faith with thy grace,
the strength of which is perfected in our weakness.”
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83. JAMIESON, "And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said
with tears, Lord, I believe: help thou mine unbelief — that is, “It is useless
concealing from Thee, O Thou mysterious, mighty Healer, the unbelief that still
struggles in this heart of mine; but that heart bears me witness that I do believe in
Thee; and if distrust still remains, I disown it, I wrestle with it, I seek help from Thee
against it.” Two things are very remarkable here: First, The felt and owned presence
of unbelief, which only the strength of the man’s faith could have so revealed to his
own consciousness. Second, His appeal to Christ for help against his felt unbelief - a
feature in the case quite unparalleled, and showing, more than all protestations could
have done, the insight he had attained into the existence of a power in Christ more
glorious them any he had besought for his poor child. The work was done; and as the
commotion and confusion in the crowd was now increasing, Jesus at once, as Lord of
spirits, gives the word of command to the dumb and deaf spirit to be gone, never
again to return to his victim.
CALVIN, "24.Lord, I believe. He declares that he believes, and yet acknowledges
himself to have unbelief These two statements may appear to contradict each
other, but there is none of us that does not experience both of them in himself. As
our faith is never perfect, it follows that we are partly unbelievers; but God
forgives us, and exercises such forbearance towards us, as to reckon us believers
on account of a small portion of faith. It is our duty, in the meantime, carefully to
shake off the remains of infidelity which adhere to us, to strive against them, and
to pray to God to correct them, and, as often as we are engaged in this conflict, to
fly to him for aid. If we duly inquire what portion has been bestowed on each, it
will evidently appear that there are very few who are eminent in faith, few who
have a moderate portion, and very many who have but a small measure.
GREAT TEXTS OF THE BIBLE, "Faith and Doubt
Straightway the father of the child cried out, and said, I believe; help thou mine
unbelief.—Mar_9:24.
The text is a part of St. Mark’s reference to the great problem which confronted
our Lord when He came down from the Mount of Transfiguration. There are
many aspects of the scene which call for interest and sympathy; the blight and
bitterness of a father’s heart over the limitations of human love; the epilepsy of a
son; the paroxysms of this awful malady in the presence of them all; and the
mental unbalancing which was worse than death.
We owe to this Gospel the fullest account of this pathetic incident. St. Mark
alone gives us this part of the conversation between our Lord and the afflicted
child’s father. The poor man had brought his boy to the disciples, and found
them unable to do anything with him. Now a torrent of appeal breaks from his
lips as soon as the Lord gives him an opportunity of speaking. He dwells upon all
the piteous details, with that fondness for repetition which sorrow knows so well.
In the background of the story is the Mount and the glory of the
Transfiguration. It is true that the “mist is on the river,” and the “sun is on the
hill”; but the sun shines into the valley, and the mist goes. The Master comes
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84. down from the Mount, and the child is healed. Is it not the message of the
Incarnation? Sin and sorrow are at the foot of the Mount; but though the light
be in heaven, the Christ shall be born in Bethlehem. The glory of heaven must
cast its light on the earth. As we come to the study of a passage such as this, we
learn that darkness is not to shut out the light, but light is to banish darkness.
The end is to be not eternal night, but eternal light. Grace is to master sin, and
our imperfect life is to know the joy of eternal perfection.
Hours there will come of soulless night,
When all that’s holy, all that’s bright,
Seems gone for aye:
When truth and love, and hope and peace,
All vanish into nothingness,
And fade away.
Fear not the cloud that veils the skies,
’Tis out of darkness light must rise,
As e’er of old:
The true, the good, the fair endure,
And thou, with eyes less dim, more pure,
Shalt them behold.1 [Note: Frederick M. White.]
The subject may be considered under two aspects—
I. The Suppliant’s Attitude towards Christ
II. Christ’s Attitude towards the Suppliant
I
The Suppliant’s Attitude towards Christ
i. His Distress
The case has been in the hands of the disciples, but they have failed to do
anything effective, and so the hope that mercifully turns men from one failure to
a new test, brings this woe to the Master Himself, if perchance He can do
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85. anything. We cannot tell how much hope this father had. Hope is hard to kill,
but years of sorrow and disappointment are full of wear and tear, so far as the
element of expectation is concerned, and though the expectation of hope may
grow less and less, the longing of hope, which bids recourse to new expedients,
always lingers where love is. There does not seem to be a great deal of expectancy
on his part, but he is full of yearning for the recovery of his son. He is sure that
he wants the Christ to try to help his boy and him. “If thou canst do anything,
have compassion on us, and help us.”
1. One thing is certain: the man knew what he wanted. And he wanted it very
sorely. He felt his sense of utter helplessness. How often this poor father had
looked at his boy in the grip of the fiend, and had wrung his hands in despair
that he could do nothing for him. It was this sense of absolute impotence that
urged him to seek Divine help. If only he could believe in the omnipotence of
Jesus. How those words must have sounded in his ear, giving birth to the faith
which was trembling in his heart. “If thou canst! Do not say that to Me. I can.
And because I can, all things are possible for thee to receive.” As soon as the
consciousness of belief dawned upon the father, and the effort to exercise it was
put forth, there sprang up the consciousness of its own imperfection. He would
never have known that he did not believe unless he had tried to believe. “I
believe; help thou mine unbelief.” The man’s desire for the moment was not so
much that his faith might be increased, as that his unbelief, which he recognises
as the barrier to the healing of his child, might be removed. His words mean
rather—“Help my child, though it is unbelief as much as faith that asks Thee to
do it.” It is the intense longing of a father’s love that breaks forth in his
distracted cry.
Sweet cares for love or friend
Which ever heavenward tend,
Too deep and true and tender to have on earth their end.
These in the soul do breed
Thoughts which, at last, shall lead
To some clear, firm assurance of a satisfying creed.1 [Note: Lewis Morris, Poems
(The Muses’ Library), 114.]
2. If our faith is dim and variable, so was that of those who walked with Christ
when He was on earth. “O ye of little faith,” “O faithless generation,” “If ye had
faith as a grain of mustard seed,” said our Lord. But to whom? To the self-
complacent Scribes and Pharisees? To the thoughtless, ignorant crowd? No; He
thus spoke to His disciples. His nearest of kin “believed not on him.” The
apostles “as yet believed not the Scriptures.” It was not only the two on the road
to Emmaus who were “slow to believe.” We will hope, then, though our faith be
almost nothing, that the light will grow. The perfect clay will not be here, but it
will lie hereafter.
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86. For deep in many a brave, though bleeding heart,
There lurks a yearning for the Healer’s face—
A yearning to be free from hint and guess,
To take the blessings Christ is fain to give:
To all who dare not with their conscience strive,
To all who burn for this most dear success,
Faith shall be born!
3. Many are the times in our own lives, in the lives of our friends, when we
cannot tell scoffers or even ourselves where God is. Perhaps it is bodily pain or
moral guilt that clouds our vision; or the sin and suffering everywhere visible ask
us, “Where is now thy God?” At such times we make a great mistake if we look
for comfort in ourselves; for this is just the quarter whence the mists and clouds
spring which hide God from us. Nor should we too much blame ourselves, as if
mourning after an absent God always indicated want of love in us; for a man
may think more of God and be more anxious to serve Him while doubting His
existence, and in the anguish of his soul crying for light, than while resting
comfortably in a taken-for-granted creed and coldly serving Him. We know that
even to Him whose meat it was to do God’s will, and who loved His father as only
He could, there came in His dying agony a moment of mysterious forsakenness—
“My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”
A conscientious, intelligent woman, who had been in deep distress for many
weeks, at last said to the clergyman who visited her, “Peace with God I know
nothing about, but I have done quarrelling with Him. I have resolved to submit
to God and serve Him, and do all the good I can while I live, and then go to hell
as I deserve.” The clergyman smiled and quietly remarked, “You will find it
hard to go to hell in that way.” The poor woman soon found that her willing
submission to God brought her lasting peace. She had found the true religion,
which is to know Christ’s will and to do it without stopping to bargain for the
ready pay of joy and happiness.1 [Note: E. J. Hardy.]
ii. His Faith
“I believe.”
1. In this particular instance, as in all instances, a man’s belief is of vastly greater
significance than his unbelief; and, besides that, it is only by one’s distinct
possession of belief that one is ever able to get the better of unbelief. So that
clearly it is the first of the two clauses rather than the second that makes prior
claim to our thought and interest. It is to the moral and intellectual credit of the
man in question that he was thoughtful enough to be able to state his case in a
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87. manner at once so simple and thorough.
One of the outstanding characteristics of the present age is the extent to which
believers doubt, and doubters believe. This strange blending of earnest faith and
honest doubt is a great puzzle to some thinkers, and a source of painful anxiety
to others. To those who love truth above everything, and believe in its final
victory, it is a welcome sign of the times, inasmuch as it proves that men think on
these problems; and the Christian faith is never in danger when men exercise
their mind upon it. Such men will often find themselves among shadows, and
some of their discoveries during the progress of their research will startle and
even frighten them; but if they think on, and continue the quest, every step they
advance will bring them nearer the clarified and revealing light which surrounds
the Person and the presence of the Christ, and farther from the shadows where
He is only dimly known.1 [Note: H. E. Thomas.] We should not deprecate
thoughtful doubt; we should say with Browning:
Rather I prize the doubt
Low kinds exist without,
Finished and finite clods, untroubled by a spark.
2. What is Faith in its essence—this mysterious power which brought the man an
answer to his prayer? Faith in its essence is the power by which we grasp the
future, the unseen, the infinite, the eternal; and in its application it is a principle
of knowledge, a principle of power, a principle of action. (1) It is a principle of
knowledge. Revelation tells us what we can know of the invisible and eternal
world, and faith makes the message her own. In this sense it is most true that we
believe in order that we may know. (2) It is a principle of power. For faith not
only apprehends the unseen, but enters into vital union with it, and so wields,
according to its strength, the powers of the world to come. (3) It is a principle of
action. Our temptation at present is to acquiesce in worldly motives for right-
doing: to stop short of the clear confession, to ourselves and to others, that as
citizens and workers we take our share in public business, we labour to fulfil our
appointed task, because the love of Christ constraineth us. And yet no other
motive has that permanence, that energy, that universality, which can support
our efforts through failure, or make them independent of praise, or bring them
into harmony with the countless activities of life.1 [Note: B. F. Westcott.]
3. The weakness of new-born faith calls for the compassion of all who love the
souls of men. In addition to their own weakness they are liable to special
dangers, for at such times Satan is frequently very active. No king will willingly
lose his subjects, and the Prince of Darkness labours to bring back those who
have just escaped over the confines of his dominion. If souls are never tried
afterwards, they are pretty sure to be assailed on their outset from the City of
Destruction to the Celestial City. Bunyan very wisely placed the Slough of
Despond at the very commencement of the spiritual journey. The cowardly fiend
of hell assails the weak, because he would put an end to them before they get
strong enough to do mischief to his kingdom. Like Pharaoh, he would destroy the
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88. little ones. He seeks, if possible, to beat out of them every hope, so that their
trembling faith may utterly perish.
4. Let us remember that, whilst the cry of infant faith is heard, the stronger voice
of stronger faith is more abundantly heard. Jesus Christ once for all laid down
the law when He said to one of the suppliants at His feet, “According to your
faith be it unto you.” The measure of our belief is the measure of our blessing.
The wider you open the door, the more angels will crowd into it, with their white
wings and their calm faces. The bore of the pipe determines the amount of water
that flows into the cistern. Every man gets, in the measure in which he desires.
Though a tremulous hand may hold out a cup into which Jesus Christ will not
refuse to pour the wine of the Kingdom, yet the tremulous hand will spill much
of the blessing; and he that would have the full enjoyment of the mercies
promised, and possible, must “ask in faith, nothing wavering.” The sensitive
paper, which records the hours of sunshine in a day, has great gaps upon its line
of light answering to the times when clouds have obscured the sun; and the
communication of blessings from God is intermittent, if there be intermittency of
faith. If you desire an unbroken line of mercy, joy, and peace, keep up an
unbroken continuity of trustful confidence.
iii. His Doubt
“Help thou mine unbelief.”
We have considered the man’s faith. And now, when we come to consider his
doubt, we find that it is not so desperate. At any rate, whatever it was, he took
the right way with it.
1. He made a frank confession of it.—Doubts which loom large in the dark,
sometimes assume far less alarming proportions when brought to the light.
Faltering faith is better confessed than concealed.
A great-minded and tender-hearted bishop, whose name is cherished by us all,
said to a mother who was much distressed by the disposition of her son, a college
student, to talk sceptically, “Let him ventilate his notions. Let him air his views.
He is trying to find out what he believes, and he will not find out until he exposes
his ideas to the full light of day.” Another, equally wise, said in a similar
instance: “It is a plain case of intellectual measles. This kind of scepticism is the
rash. It is best to let it come out. Don‘t drive it in.”1 [Note: C. C. Albertson.]
2. He went straight to the Master with his confession.—How many knots would
be untangled, how many vexed and vexing problems would be solved, by going to
the very central source of authority! The rest that our Saviour promises to the
labouring and heavy-laden is rest from perturbing thoughts, rest from
tormenting uncertainties, rest from harassing doubts, as well as rest from
weariness, and weakness, and wickedness. Faltering faith, in the case of this
doubter, not only honours itself by candid confession, but points out the way of
peace by the very nature of its expression. The confession is a prayer. The
doubter who makes the confession of his doubts an advertisement, a mere cheap
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89. appeal to publicity, alienates himself, by that very act, from the spirit of the
truth-seeker. It is as indelicate to expose one’s doubts in the market-place as to
display one’s sorrows to the gaze of passers-by. Here is the golden rule for all
such souls as this father, this half-believer: Tell your doubts to God; publish
your faith to your fellow-man. There is no place where doubt so quickly
vanishes, where weak faith so certainly grows strong, where lame faith leaps, and
blind faith sees, as at the Master’s feet, the throne of Grace. There is wisdom in
the prayer, “Help thou mine unbelief.”
We do not say there are no others to help our unbelief. There are books and
teachers and pastors and friends who help our unbelief. A Cambridge professor
once declared that no student of his ever left the university without being
permanently influenced by the study of Butler’s Analogy. Walker’s Philosophy
of the Plan of Salvation has been useful in dissipating doubt and stimulating
faith in many a student’s life. When Phillips Brooks died, a great company of
men rose up to call him blessed, to testify that when, in crises of their lives, they
went to him, they found light and leading. If anywhere within your reach there is
a man of firm faith, a man like Tennyson’s friend who “fought his doubts and
gathered strength,” one who has faced the spectres of the mind and laid them,
one whose faith is refreshing and contagious, and who knows how to prove that
“the soul has reasons that Reason cannot know,” go to that friend, that teacher,
and say, “Help thou mine unbelief.” Not to the doubter, to compare your doubts
or to confirm them, lest you be like a sick man who seeks advice of fellow-
patients in a hospital, but to the believer who has a well-reasoned creed and the
capacity to vindicate it, to him go with the request, “Help thou mine unbelief.”
But the skill of all such men is feeble compared with His to whom, at this or any
moment, we may appeal with the absolute certainty that He will speak to us the
one word we most need to hear.
O Thou! unseen by me, that like a child
Tries in the night to find its mother’s heart,
And weeping, wanders only more apart,
Not knowing in the darkness that she smiled—
Thou, all unseen, dost hear my tired cry,
As I, in darkness of a half belief,
Grope for Thy heart, in love and doubt and grief:
O Lord! speak soon to me—“Lo, here am I!”1 [Note: Margaret Deland.]
3. He kept his mind in vital touch with the little that he was already assured of.—
All wholesome faith, whether religious or otherwise, is a growth, a process of
vital expansion from below upward, and the maintenance of that growth is made
possible only by a careful observance of the laws of growth. If you have a bud on
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90. your rose-bush that you want to blossom, the last device you would think of
resorting to would be to detach the bud from the stalk and to toss it into the air.
And yet that is precisely what hosts of young men and young women are doing
who are not merely questioning,—which is perfectly proper,—but are nipping
the fibre of connection that would unite what they do doubt with what they do
not doubt; and so of course their doubts never become faith, cannot become
faith. Buds of doubt do not blossom and become conviction when separated from
the live stalk of assurance, any more than rosebuds become rose blossoms when
cut from the living stalk of the bush. It makes very little difference how small a
man’s conviction is if only it is conviction, and if only he will stand to it and be
true to it in his thought and in his life, and make that conviction the basis of his
thinking, the support of his inquiring, and the law of his conduct.
The heathen philosopher, Plato, said, “My son, many have ere now doubted of
the existence of the gods, but no man ever passed from youth to age without at
some time or other believing.”2 [Note: B. Jowett.]
When Horace Bushnell was in college he lost his belief in God as God is usually
understood. All that remained to him from his previous conviction was a belief in
the abstract principle of right. That was not much of a God, but it was
something, and that something he held to. Instead of entangling himself in the
intricacies of the darkened realm of mystery in which he could so easily have
become enslaved and submerged, and thus letting his splendid career of
Christian faith and service be sacrificed, he simply held his ground inside the
very small area of assurance remaining to him. Instead of dissipating his
religious energies by roaming aimlessly in a world where nothing offered to him
a basis of firm support, he kept simply and unswervingly to his confidence in the
abstract principle of right, and not simply kept to it, but knelt down and prayed
to it. “A dreary prayer,” he said it was, but it was a prayer; it was the best he
could do, and it was honest, and, as he afterwards told the students at Yale, the
God that he had lost came back to him in his act of trying faithfully and sincerely
to worship the small fraction of God that had survived to him.1 [Note: C. H.
Parkhurst.]
Constrained at the darkest hour to confess humbly that without God’s help I was
helpless, I vowed a vow in the forest solitude that I would confess His aid before
men. A silence as of death was round about me; it was midnight; I was weakened
by illness, prostrated with fatigue, and worn with anxiety for my white and black
companions, whose fate was a mystery. In this physical and mental distress I
besought God to give me back my people. Nine hours later we were exulting with
rapturous joy. In full view of all was the crimson flag with the crescent, and
beneath its waving folds was the long-lost rear column.2 [Note: H. M. Stanley, In
Darkest Africa, i. 2.]
iv. His Prayer
“I believe; help thou mine unbelief.”
1. When we take the prayer in its entirety, it may seem to us a brief and
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91. imperfect confession, and a prayer which it were needless for us to use. Certainly
the words recorded by St. Mark were the expression of a weak, rudimentary
faith: a confession due to interested motives, followed by the petition of one
struggling to attain just such a measure of belief as was the necessary condition
of his request being granted. “Only he who really believes,” it has been said,
“guesses aught of the unbelief of his heart.” He is no true believer who is not
keenly alive to the weakness and unworthiness of his faith. No one who has any
true faith can fail to realise how this continually requires enlarging and
strengthening. We can never dispense with the prayer, “Help thou mine
unbelief,” until this life is ended, and faith is exchanged for the open vision of
those who know even as they are known. The disciples themselves were rebuked
on this very occasion for their unbelief. Later in the ministry they were
constrained to address to their Master the petition, “Lord, add to our faith.”3
[Note: T. H. Stokoe.]
“What God requires and looks at,” says Bishop Hall, “is neither the arithmetic of
our prayers—how many they are; nor the rhetoric of our prayers—how eloquent
they be; nor the geometry of our prayers—how long they be; nor the music of
our prayers—how sweet our voice may be; nor the logic, nor the method, nor
even the orthodoxy of our prayers. The one thing which prevails is ferventness
and sincerity.”
2. The very appeal is a tribute to God.—May we not say that there is a faith of
the mind and a faith of the heart? One climbs to his creed by syllogisms, from
premise to conclusion, and seems to know not only what he believes, but why he
believes it. Another is averse to logic, and clings to God in trustfulness through
the magnetism of love. He does not know why he believes; it is enough for him
that the character of God finds a response and an affinity in the impulses of his
own soul. He may not exactly believe in the God of other men, at least according
to the portraiture given by other men, but he believes in God as he understands
His portraiture in the Gospel, and he worships what he sees. From the view-point
of other men he may be an unbeliever, but his soul clings to an ideal which he
finds in the Book of God; and at least he can say: “Lord, I believe; help thou
mine unbelief.” And he may take to himself the words of the apostle: “If our
heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God.” It is something to
know what is in your mind, but it is more to know what is in your heart, for out
of the heart are the issues of life. The brain is the birthplace of ideas. The heart is
the touchstone of impulse. The mind moulds creeds. The heart may have no
spoken language, but it is a dynamo, and it throbs motive into life.
A Society of Atheists at Venice sent an address to Victor Emmanuel
congratulating him on the escape of his son and daughter from assassination.
Forgetting that they were atheists, they thanked Divine Providence for the
miraculous escape.
It is told of Thistlewood, the Cato Street conspirator, that, after arguing against
the existence of a God, the moment he was left alone he was heard to fling
himself on his knees in his prison cell in a passion of entreaty, and that on the
scaffold he poured out the agonised supplication, “O God, if there be a God, save
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92. my soul, if I have a soul!”1 [Note: E. J. Hardy.]
II
Christ’s Attitude towards the Suppliant
i. The Sympathy of Christ
1. There are people so superior in their own estimation that it is impossible to
approach them. They do not suffer fools gladly or suffer them at all. If we ask
them a question they snap us up; they cannot tolerate our ignorance and
stupidity. It is different with those who are really great. Their patience with our
infirmities often surprises us. And the greatest of all, the perfect Man, was, and
is, the most accessible. He suffered children to come unto Him when His
followers would have driven them away. Any one might touch His garment, and
He put His hand even on lepers. Few of us believe enough to tolerate doubt. How
different was the Truth in this respect! The greater than Solomon who answered
the hard questions of humanity was most patient to faithless, awkward, stupid
interrogators. The Lord Jesus Christ did not insist upon a confession of His
Divinity. Christ’s first followers were far from possessing the full Christian
belief. A centurion merely said that a word of His would heal, and the Lord
commended the greatness of his faith. An alien woman asked to eat the crumbs
of His mercy, and He answered, “O woman, great is thy faith.” When one of His
followers declared Him to be “the Christ, the Son of the living God,” he received
the beatitude which may now be read in huge letters underneath the dome of St.
Peter’s.
Chief Justice Coleridge once confessed that his mind was sorely perplexed on the
question of inspiration. He was told that “most of the men who had difficulties
on that subject were too wicked to be reasoned with.” We may be sure that this
answer was as little pleasing to our Lord Jesus Christ, for whom the man who
gave it was mistakenly zealous, as was the desire of the sons of Zebedee to call
down fire from heaven against opponents. Believers should recognise those weak
in faith as “men of like passions” with themselves, and give them credit for
wishing to believe if they could do so, instead of, by their manner, conveying to
them, while using the endearing term “beloved brethren,” the compliment which
some Egyptian kings are said to have paid their people before asking for any
special favour, “By the head of Pharaoh, ye are all swine.” They should let them
see that they appreciate the difficulties to faith which are felt only by those who
try to realise to themselves the meaning of what they profess to believe. Very
often unbelievers are in revolt, not against Christianity, but against a grim,
repulsive perversion of it.1 [Note: E. J. Hardy.]
2. What constitutes the difference between the believer and the unbeliever, since
they both doubt and both believe? Are they not therefore in the same spiritual
order? Think not so. The great fact, the determining fact, in the life of the
believer is his belief; in the life of the unbeliever it is his doubt. The believer
clings to his faith, and suspects his doubt. The unbeliever clings to his doubts and
suspects his faith. The poor man of the text, the man with a sick child (and how
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93. we pity him, and pity the child!)—is he a believer or an unbeliever? Which does
he put first, his faith or his unfaith? “Lord, I believe.” That is the first thing in
his mind. That counts most. The other thought is secondary. So he is a believer,
but he is a doubting believer. His prayer is the prayer of a doubter, but he is a
believing doubter. There is a world of difference between honest doubt and
stupid or stubborn unbelief. Jesus dealt differently with the two, and so should
we. “Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations.”
And again, “Tarry one for another.” Some are able to make more rapid progress
in truth than others; let not such despise those who find it hard to take their first
few steps in faith.
You know how it is in school. There are always some bright, precocious scholars
who leave the others far behind. You know the contempt with which the prize
scholar sometimes looks upon the “trailer.” You know the impatience of the
teacher sometimes when a whole class is held back by one student who cannot get
over a hard place or see through an intricate problem. I do not know that the
best pedagogy would say to the teacher, “Tarry for the slow scholar,” but many a
slow scholar has caught up with his class because some teacher patiently tarried
for him. You know what soldiers do on a long march. They tarry for the weak
and the lame, except in the emergency of approaching battle. The strong and
vigorous will bear the arms of the weak, and if one sinks down by the roadside,
there is an ambulance for him, and, in the absence of an ambulance, officers
have been known to dismount, and repeat the beautiful self-denial of the
Samaritan who put a wounded man on his own beast and brought him to the inn.
Look at the Master’s treatment of this doubter. The man confesses his faith is
faltering. Something is in the way of his belief. I have wondered if it may not
have been that barrier to faith which all of us have stumbled over at times when
approaching some great promise of God, that common reflection, “It is too good
to be true.” Whatever it was, it was no barrier to the love and power of Jesus,
for, without delay, He granted the father’s request, and spoke the word that
released and relieved the afflicted child.1 [Note: C. C. Albertson.]
ii. The Power of Christ
1. The father of the boy comes to Christ as a doubter; he is sure of nothing but
his own distress. “If thou canst do anything, have compassion on us, and help
us.” Christ gives him back his doubts. He repeats the father’s words, and places
them in contrast with the spiritual facts which he had yet to learn: “If thou
canst! For one who believes, all things are possible”: i.e. it is for thee rather than
for Me to decide whether this thing can be done; it can be, if thou believest.
It is the majestic power of Christ that draws the distracted father to lay hold of
His omnipotence. His word is like the blow of steel upon flint; it strikes a little
spark of faith which lights up the soul, and turns the smoky pillar of doubt into
clear flame of confidence, “I believe; help thou mine unbelief.”
Bishop Westcott has said, “Faith is a principle of power.” Yes, and Christ is the
great Power which, as a magnet, draws all faith to Himself. It is to be in touch
with Christ that gives faith power.
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94. Can peach renew lost bloom,
Or violet lost perfume;
Or sullied snow turn white as overnight?
Man cannot compass it, yet never fear:
The leper Naaman
Shows that God will and can;
God who worked there is working here;
Wherefore let shame, not gloom, betinge thy brow,
God who worked then is working now.
2. Christ is our great argument. He is both the glory and the defence of
Christianity. The case of John Stuart Mill may be taken as a typical one. That
this calm, guarded, sceptical thinker should close a life of research by
acknowledging the validity of the argument from design, extolling Christianity,
attributing its main power to the doctrine of an incarnate God, admitting that
Christ is really historical, praising and vindicating His character, and in so many
words recommending Him to the worship of men, is certainly something to make
the most inveterate unbeliever think and think again. And any man who is
conversant with the chief writers of the time will perceive that John Stuart Mill
is not solitary, but that, in spite of a materialistic drift, there is an under-current
of the earnest, intensely ethical, philanthropic, and spiritual which is turning
hearts more and more to Christ. The character of Christ was never so much or
so widely appreciated as at the present day, nor has the difficulty of accounting
for Him on purely natural principles ever pressed so heavily. In the history of
Christ, the materialist is confronted with this question: Was this noble, self-
denying, compassionate Holy One, who bore mankind on His heart, who on the
Cross prayed for His murderers and resigned His spirit into the hands of His
heavenly Father—was He only a fleeting combination of atoms, and was all this
sublime self-devotion a delusion? Is this life and death of Jesus a creation of
human thought? Is that great picture of God manifest in the flesh, a God so
loving that He comes into human nature to suffer and die and thus win men back
to Himself, simply the projection of the human heart, an ideal which it forms for
itself? Then what depths there must be in the heart that creates such an ideal
and worships it! Is this the ideal that man forms? and is he himself only
perishable matter?
The history of Jesus is wholly unparalleled. It is so splendid, so wrapt in deepest
mystery, so clear, so simple, and so deep, with roots through all the past, and
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95. throwing such light over God and man. Is that history a human creation? This is
the difficulty that unbelief has to meet. Objections raised against particular parts
of the Bible and difficulties about inspiration do not affect this. Treat the Bible
as you like, you can never throw the Divine out of it. You can never obliterate the
marks of a great Divine purpose in it or remove the glory of its great miracle and
proof—Jesus Christ. “Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal
life.”1 [Note: J. Leckie.]
MACLAREN, "UNBELIEVING BELIEF
We owe to Mark’s Gospel the fullest account of the pathetic incident of the healing of
the demoniac boy. He alone gives us this part of the conversation between our Lord
and the afflicted child’s father. The poor man had brought his child to the disciples,
and found them unable to do anything with him. A torrent of appeal breaks from his
lips as soon as the Lord gives him an opportunity of speaking. He dwells upon all the
piteous details with that fondness for repetition which sorrow knows so well. Jesus
gives him back his doubts. The father said, ‘If thou canst do anything, have
compassion on us and help us.’ Christ’s answer, according to the true reading, is not
as it stands in our Authorised Version, ‘If thou canst believe’-throwing, as it were, the
responsibility on the man-but it is a quotation of the father’s own word, ‘If Thou
canst,’ as if He waved it aside with superb recognition of its utter unfitness to the
present case. ‘Say not, If Thou canst. That is certain. All things are possible to thee’
(not to do, but to get) ‘if’-which is the only ‘if’ in the case-’thou believest. I can, and if
thy faith lays hold on My Omnipotence, all is done.’
That majestic word is like the blow of steel upon flint; it strikes a little spark of faith
which lights up the soul and turns the smoky pillar of doubt into clear flame of
confidence. ‘Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief.’
I think in these wonderful words we have four things-the birth, the infancy, the cry,
and the education, of faith. And to these four I turn now.
I. First, then, note here the birth of faith.
There are many ways to the temple, and it matters little by which of them a man
travels, if so be he gets there. There is no royal road to the Christian faith which saves
the soul. And yet, though identity of experience is not to be expected, men are like
each other in the depths, and only unlike on the surfaces, of their being. Therefore
one man’s experience carefully analysed is very apt to give, at least, the rudiments of
the experience of all others who have been in similar circumstances. So I think we
can see here, without insisting on any pedantic repetition of the same details in every
case, in broad outline, a sketch-map of the road. There are three elements here: eager
desire, the sense of utter helplessness, and the acceptance of Christ’s calm
assurances. Look at these three.
This man knew what he wanted, and he wanted it very sorely. Whosoever has any
intensity and reality of desire for the great gifts which Jesus Christ comes to bestow,
has taken at least one step on the way to faith. Conversely, the hindrances which
block the path of a great many of us are simply that we do not care to possess the
blessings which Jesus Christ in His Gospel offers. I am not talking now about the so-
called intellectual hindrances to belief, though I think that a great many of these, if
carefully examined, would be found, in the ultimate analysis, to repose upon this
same stolid indifference to the blessings which Christianity offers. But what I wish to
insist upon is that for large numbers of us, and no doubt for many men and women
whom I address now, the real reason why they have not trust in Jesus Christ is
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96. because they do not care to possess the blessings which Jesus Christ brings. Do you
desire to have your sins forgiven? Has purity any attraction for you? Do you care at
all about the calm and pure blessings of communion with God? Would you like to live
always in the light of His face? Do you want to be the masters of your own lusts and
passions? I do not ask you, Do you want to go to Heaven or to escape Hell, when you
die? but I ask, Has that future in any of its aspects any such power over you as that it
stirs you to any earnestness and persistency of desire, or is it all shadowy and vain,
ineffectual and dim? What we Christian teachers have to fight against is that we are
charged to offer to men a blessing that they do not want, and have to create a demand
before there can be any acceptance of the supply. ‘Give us the leeks and garlics of
Egypt,’ said the Hebrews in the wilderness; ‘our soul loatheth this light bread.’ So it is
with many of us; we do not want God, goodness, quietness of conscience, purity of
life, self-consecration to a lofty ideal, one-thousandth part as much as we want
success in our daily occupations, or some one or other of the delights that the world
gives. I remember Luther, in his rough way, has a story-I think it is in his Table-talk-
about a herd of swine to whom their keeper offered some rich dainties, and the pigs
said, ‘Give us grains.’ That is what so many men do when Jesus Christ comes with
His gifts and His blessings. They turn away, but if they were offered some poor
earthly good, all their desires would go out towards it, and their eager hands would
be scrambling who should first possess it.
Oh brethren, if we saw things as they are, and our needs as they are, nothing would
kindle such intensity of longing in our hearts as that rejected or neglected promise of
life eternal and divine which Jesus Christ brings. If I could only once wake in some
indifferent heart this longing, that heart would have taken at least the initial step to a
life of Christian godliness.
Further, we have here the other element of a sense of utter helplessness. How often
this poor father had looked at his boy in the grip of the fiend, and had wrung his
hands in despair that he could not do anything for him! That same sense of absolute
impotence is one which we all, if we rightly understand what we need, must cherish.
Can you forgive your own sins? Can you cleanse your own nature? Can you make
yourselves other than you are by any effort of volition, or by any painfulness of
discipline? To a certain small extent you can. In regard to superficial culture and
eradication, your careful husbandry of your own wills may do much, but you cannot
deal with your deepest needs. If we understand what is required, in order to bring
one soul into harmony and fellowship with God, we shall recognise that we ourselves
can do nothing to save, and little to help ourselves. ‘Every man his own redeemer,’
which is the motto of some people nowadays, may do very well for fine weather and
for superficial experience, but when the storm comes it proves a poor refuge, like the
gay pavilions that they put up for festivals, which are all right whilst the sun is
shining and the flags are fluttering, but are wretched shelters when the rain beats and
the wind howls. We can do nothing for ourselves. The recognition of our own
helplessness is the obverse, so to speak, and underside, of confidence in the divine
help. The coin, as it were, has its two faces. On the one is written, ‘Trust in the Lord’;
on the other is written, ‘Nothing in myself.’ A drowning man, if he tries to help
himself, only encumbers his would-be rescuer, and may drown him too. The truest
help he can give is to let the strong arm that has cleft the waters for his sake fling
itself around him and bear him safe to land. So, eager desire after offered blessings
and consciousness of my own impotence to secure them-these are the initial steps of
faith.
And the last of the elements here is, listening to the calm assurance of Jesus Christ:
‘If Thou canst! Do not say that to Me; I can, and because I can, all things are possible
for thee to receive.’ In like manner He stands at the door of each of our hearts and
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97. speaks to each of our needs, and says: ‘I can satisfy it. Rest for thy soul, cleansing for
thy sins, satisfaction for thy desires, guidance for thy pilgrimage, power for thy
duties, patience in thy sufferings-all these will come to thee, if thou layest hold of My
hand.’ His assurance helps trembling confidence to be born, and out of doubt the
great calm word of the Master smites the fire of trust. And we, dear brethren, if we
will listen to Him, shall surely find in Him all that we need. Think how marvellous it
is that this Jewish peasant should plant Himself in the front of humanity, over
against the burdened, sinful race of men, and pledge Himself to forgive and to
cleanse their sins, to bear all their sicknesses, to be their strength in weakness, their
comfort in sorrow, the rest of their hearts, their heaven upon earth, their life in
death, their glory in heaven, and their all in all; and not only should pledge Himself,
but in the blessed experience of millions should have more than fulfilled all that He
promised. ‘They trusted in Him, and were lightened, and their faces were not
ashamed.’ Will you not answer His sovereign word of promise with your ‘Lord, I
believe’?
II. Then, secondly, we have here the infancy of faith.
As soon as the consciousness of belief dawned upon the father, and the effort to
exercise it was put forth, there sprang up the consciousness of its imperfection. He
would never have known that he did not believe unless he had tried to believe. So it is
in regard to all excellences and graces of character. The desire of possessing some
feeble degree of any virtue or excellence, and the effort to put it forth, is the surest
way of discovering how little of it we have. On the other side, sorrow for the lack of
some form of goodness is itself a proof of the partial possession, in some rudimentary
and incipient form, of that goodness. The utterly lazy man never mourns over his
idleness; it is only the one that would fain work harder than he does, and already
works tolerably hard, who does so. So the little spark of faith in this man’s heart, like
a taper in a cavern, showed the abysses of darkness that lay unillumined round about
it.
Thus, then, in its infancy, faith may and does coexist with much unfaith and doubt.
The same state of mind, looked at from its two opposite ends, as it were, may be
designated faith or unbelief; just as a piece of shot silk, according to the angle at
which you hold it, may show you only the bright colours of its warp or the dark ones
of its weft. When you are travelling in a railway train with the sun streaming in at the
windows, if you look out on the one hand you will see the illumined face of every tree
and blade of grass and house; and if you look out on the other, you will see their
shadowed side. And so the same landscape may seem to be all lit up by the sunshine
of belief, or to be darkened by the gloom of distrust. If we consider how great and
how perfect ought to be our confidence, to bear any due proportion to the firmness of
that upon which it is built, we shall not be slow to believe that through life there will
always be the presence in us, more or less, of these two elements. There will be all
degrees of progress between the two extremes of infantile and mature faith.
There follows from that thought this practical lesson, that the discovery of much
unbelief should never make a man doubt the reality or genuineness of his little faith.
We are all apt to write needlessly bitter things against ourselves when we get a
glimpse of the incompleteness of our Christian life and character. But there is no
reason why a man should fancy that he is a hypocrite because he finds out that he is
not a perfect believer. But, on the other hand, let us remember that the main thing is
not the maturity, but the progressive character, of faith. It was most natural that this
man in our text, at the very first moment when he began to put his confidence in
Jesus Christ as able to heal his child, should be aware of much tremulousness
mingling with it. But is it not most unnatural that there should be the same relative
proportion of faith and unbelief in the heart and experience of men who have long
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98. professed to be Christians? You do not expect the infant to have adult limbs, but you
do expect it to grow. True, faith at its beginning may be like a grain of mustard seed,
but if the grain of mustard seed be alive it will grow to a great tree, where all the fowls
of the air can lodge in the branches. Oh! it is a crying shame and sin that in all
Christian communities there should be so many grey-headed babies, men who have
for years and years been professing to be Christ’s followers, and whose faith is but
little, if at all, stronger-nay! perhaps is even obviously weaker-than it was in the first
days of their profession. ‘Ye have need of milk, and not of strong meat,’ very many of
you. And the vitality of your faith is made suspicious, not because it is feeble, but
because it is not growing stronger.
III. Notice the cry of infant faith.
‘Help Thou mine unbelief’ may have either of two meanings. The man’s desire was
either that his faith should be increased and his unbelief ‘helped’ by being removed
by Christ’s operation upon his spirit, or that Christ would ‘help’ him and his boy by
healing the child, though the faith which asked the blessing was so feeble that it
might be called unbelief. There is nothing in the language or in the context to
determine which of these two meanings is intended; we must settle it by our own
sense of what would be most likely under the circumstances. To me it seems
extremely improbable that, when the father’s whole soul was absorbed in the healing
of his son, he should turn aside to ask for the inward and spiritual process of having
his faith strengthened. Rather he said, ‘Heal my child, though it is unbelief as much
as faith that asks Thee to do it.’
The lesson is that, even when we are conscious of much tremulousness in our faith,
we have a right to ask and expect that it shall be answered. Weak faith is faith. The
tremulous hand does touch. The cord may be slender as a spider’s web that binds a
heart to Jesus, but it does bind. The poor woman in the other miracle who put out
her wasted finger-tip, coming behind Him in the crowd, and stealthily touching the
hem of His garment, though it was only the end of her finger-nail that was laid on the
robe, carried away with her the blessing. And so the feeblest faith joins the soul, in
the measure of its strength, to Jesus Christ.
But let us remember that, whilst thus the cry of infant faith is heard, the stronger
voice of stronger faith is more abundantly heard. Jesus Christ once for all laid down
the law when He said to one of the suppliants at His feet, ‘According to your faith be
it unto you.’ The measure of our belief is the measure of our blessing. The wider you
open the door, the more angels will crowd into it, with their white wings and their
calm faces. The bore of the pipe determines the amount of water that flows into the
cistern. Every man gets, in the measure in which he desires. Though a tremulous
hand may hold out a cup into which Jesus Christ will not refuse to pour the wine of
the kingdom, yet the tremulous hand will spill much of the blessing; and he that
would have the full enjoyment of the mercies promised, and possible, must ‘ask in
faith, nothing wavering.’ The sensitive paper which records the hours of sunshine in
a day has great gaps upon its line of light answering to the times when clouds have
obscured the sun; and the communication of blessings from God is intermittent, if
there be intermittency of faith. If you desire an unbroken line of mercy, joy, and
peace, keep up an unbroken continuity of trustful confidence.
IV. Lastly, we have here the education of faith.
Christ paid no heed in words to the man’s confession of unbelief, but proceeded to do
the work which answered his prayer in both its possible meanings. He responded to
imperfect confidence by His perfect work of cure, and, by that perfect work of cure,
He strengthened the imperfect confidence which it had answered.
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99. Thus He educates us by His answers-His over-answers-to our poor desires; and the
abundance of His gifts rebukes the poverty of our petitions more emphatically than
any words of remonstrance beforehand could have done. He does not lecture us into
faith, but He blesses us into it. When the Apostle was sinking in the flood, Jesus
Christ said no word of reproach until He had grasped him with His strong hand and
held him safe. And then, when the sustaining touch thrilled through all the frame,
then, and not till then, He said-as we may fancy, with a smile on His face that the
moonlight showed-as knowing how unanswerable His question was, ‘O thou of little
faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?’ That is how He will deal with us if we will; over-
answering our tremulous petitions, and so teaching us to hope more abundantly that
‘we shall praise Him more and more.’
The disappointments, the weaknesses, the shameful defeats which come when our
confidence fails, are another page of His lesson-book. The same Apostle of whom I
have been speaking got that lesson when, standing on the billows, and, instead of
looking at Christ, looking at their wrath and foam, his heart failed him, and because
his heart failed him he began to sink. If we turn away from Jesus Christ, and
interrupt the continuity of our faith by calculating the height of the breakers and the
weight of the water that is in them, and what will become of us when they topple over
with their white crests upon our heads, then gravity will begin to work, and we shall
begin to sink. And well for us if, when we have sunk as far as our knees, we look back
again to the Master and say, ‘Lord, save me; I perish!’ The weakness which is our own
when faith sleeps, and the rejoicing power which is ours because it is His, when faith
wakes, are God’s education of it to fuller and ampler degrees and depth. We shall lose
the meaning of life, and the best lesson that joy and sorrow, calm and storm, victory
and defeat, can give us, unless all these make us ‘rooted and grounded in faith.’
Dear friend, do you desire your truest good? Do you know that you cannot win it, or
fight for it to gain it, or do anything to obtain it, in your own strength? Have you
heard Jesus Christ saying to you, ‘Come . . . and I will give you rest’? Oh! I beseech
you, do not turn away from Him, but like this agonised father in our story, fall at His
feet with ‘Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief,’ and He will confirm your feeble
faith by His rich response.
FBC, "The transfiguration marks, so it seems, a crisis in our blessed Lord’s history. It
was a great out-shining of the glory of God in the sacred Humanity, permitted alike
for the strengthening of the Son for His bitter passion, and for the more confirmation
of the staggering faith of the holy Apostles as they witnessed the descent of their
Master low down into the valley of His unfathomable humiliation. Henceforth His
eye seems ever to be fixed on the cross. Many people have seen Raphael’s famous
picture of the Transfiguration. It is a striking contrast and absolutely necessary if we
would really grasp the meaning of the miracle. The lesson of the contrast is:
I. "Seek ye My face." Cultivate the presence of Jesus Christ; realise that any
conversation, any pleasure, any companionship, any business where He cannot be
called, tempts Him to leave the soul; that a life lived without Him must end in
darkness and in shame. Realise on the other hand, that wherever our lot may be cast,
in poverty, in sickness, in loneliness, it matters not where, it is well, so only in
meekness we cling to Him.
II. As you think of our Lord descending from the height of glory to this scene of
sadness and sorrow, see a picture of His love. This demoniac boy, what was he but a
type of the sin-stricken world? These vain attempts alike of the Jewish Church and of
the Apostles not yet gifted with the Holy Ghost, how it all tells us of the thousand
efforts made, now by pious Jews, now by those outside the covenant of Promise, to
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100. heal the plague of a fallen world, yet was it all in vain. So He, the Eternal, left the
Holy Mount, clad Himself in the robe of flesh, and all that He might expel from our
souls the evil spirit who had robbed God of His creature, man.
III. See the power of faith: "All things are possible to him that believeth." The father
cried, "If Thou canst do any thing, have compassion on us, and help us." The reason
why miracles are not wrought today is, not because Christ has failed in power, but
because we have failed in faith, the faith as a grain of mustard seed is lacking.
IV. See the power of self purification. "This kind goeth not out but by prayer and
fasting."
T. Birkett Dover, The Ministry of Mercy, p. 175.
If these words express a real state of mind—and who that knows his own heart can
doubt for a moment that they do?—it is evident that belief and unbelief can co-exist
at the same time; that unbelief is not at once eradicated because we say "I believe;"
that belief is not unreal, not hollow, because it is sadly lacerated, and sometimes as it
would seem almost interpenetrated, with the poison of unbelief.
I. When the father of the stricken child cried out and said with tears, "Lord, I believe;
help Thou mine unbelief," He knew what he meant. He meant this: "Lord, I do
believe that Thou canst heal my child. How it can be, I know not; but everything tells
me that Thou canst aid me. I do believe, though I hardly know why. Give me clearer
knowledge. Help my unbelief. But meanwhile heal my son. I know that Thou canst do
that." We need healing. Do we know that we need it? If we do, the doctrine of the
Trinity is not far from our hearts, however perplexing it may be to our intellects. If
we do not know it, our Lord Himself, though He were again present on the earth,
could not prove to us that He is one with the Father and the Comforter.
II. Men believed to be inspired have by all people been regarded with peculiar
veneration. The veneration has often been paid to an inspiration which certainly did
not come from the spirit of good. But our temptation is to disbelieve inspiration
altogether, as a present, operative reality; to regard men as left to themselves, as the
authors of their own good and their own evil; to deny a Divine presence; to regard
God as a Being historically past or indefinitely future; as One who did speak to the
Jews, and will hereafter speak to us, but leaves us now to pass unassisted through a
probation which is to fit us for knowing Him in a different state of existence. He who
believes in a Holy Ghost sees mankind under a different aspect. They are either
grieving or obeying that Divine Spirit. Their evil is rebellion. Their good is God’s. It is
possible to say in folly, "There is no God"—no Spirit. It is also possible to say and to
feel, "Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief." God revealed Himself gradually to
the world. He reveals Himself gradually to us. We pray that His work may go on in
our hearts; that no prejudice, or sin, or indolence, or insincerity of ours may thwart
Him. We believe that the doctrine of three Persons in one God, so far from being an
abysmal mystery which it may be right to accept but impossible to make practical, is
the one thing which it is most needful for us all to know. "Lord, we believe; help Thou
our unbelief."
H. M. Butler, Harrow Sermons, p. 61.
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101. Take these words:
I. As the voice of one seeking salvation. Now, if one ask salvation for another, or for
himself, Christ demands faith, and in demanding, helps faith to exist and act. "Lord I
believe." How do I believe? It is the Lord who, by the secret power of His Holy Spirit,
enables me to believe at all. And yet, what we are conscious of, when we first believe,
is not of that Divine touch of the quickening Spirit, but of the action of our own souls,
taking hold upon Him, according to His words, as our only and all-sufficient Helper
and Healer, and putting our entire trust in Him. "Lord, I believe; help Thou mine
unbelief."
II. As the voice of the Christian in some anguish of spirit. Grant that the first lessons
of faith have been learned, and the elements of new life and hope have been planted
in the soul. It is seldom that men understand the real use and value of faith, or the
real strength and mischief of unbelief, until they have fallen into some distress, or
wrestled with some great sorrow. Adversity or discouragement comes, and words will
not support us then. We are alone with a heavy grief, or involved in something that,
of all things, we wanted to avoid and shrink from, or face to face with what we know
not how to bear. We toss on the sea and the wind is contrary, and where is our faith?
Ah! it is with a struggle then that we believe, and we quickly add, "Lord, help mine
unbelief."
III. As the words of the believer in view of duty, or of some holy privilege. (1) Say of
duty first. You have some lowly work to do for the Lord on whom you wait. There are
trials about very lowly work. At times you have your temptations. Your motives
become complicated because you have lost your simplicity of faith and purpose and
your singleness of eye looking at your Master’s hand and countenance. Then make
haste to the Saviour and pray unto Him. "Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief."
(2) It may be, you advance to some holy privilege of grace, say the Lord’s table. Go
with your faint heart, your feeble faith, and your emptiness and helplessness, to the
fulness of Jesus Christ, and you will not fare worst at His table. And when you say,
"Lord Jesus, I do believe," then add in a breath, "Help Thou mine unbelief."
IV. As the voice of the whole Church on earth anxious for the salvation of her
children. She has a constant struggle to maintain the holy faith, and overcome the
doubts and incredulities that are springing up within her pale. The mediæval
missionary, the Reformer, the Puritan, and the Covenanter, had none of that dapper
orthodoxy which now-a-days casts its measuring line over all. He fought his doubts
and gathered strength, and while he had a faith that gave courage to his heart and
gravity to his character and heroism to his life, on that very account he felt that he
must judge himself rather than other men, and that he must cry for himself in the
battle of life, "Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief." I should have more hope for
the cause of truth now if we saw the same type of brave and humble Christian
character returning, of course with the additional charm of the culture of the present
age.
D. Fraser, Penny Pulpit (New Series), No. 444
The Struggle and Victory of Faith.
We learn here:
I. That faith and unbelief are often found in the same heart.
II. That whenever faith and unbelief meet in an earnest heart there will be war.
III. We can foretell how the war will go, by the side which a man’s heart takes.
IV. The way to be sure of the victory of faith is to call in the help of Christ.
101

102. J. Ker, Sermons, 2nd series, p. 1.
25 When Jesus saw that a crowd was running to
the scene, he rebuked the impure spirit. “You
deaf and mute spirit,” he said, “I command you,
come out of him and never enter him again.”
CLARKE, "I charge thee - Considerable emphasis should be laid on the
pronoun: - Thou didst resist the command of my disciples, now I command thee to
come out. If this had been only a natural disease, for instance the epilepsy, as some
have argued, could our Lord have addressed it, with any propriety, as he has done
here: Thou deaf and dumb spirit, come out of him, and enter no more into him? Is
the doctrine of demoniacal influence false? If so, Jesus took the most direct method
to perpetuate the belief of that falsity, by accommodating himself so completely to
the deceived vulgar. But this was impossible; therefore the doctrine of demoniacal
influence is a true doctrine, otherwise Christ would never have given it the least
countenance or support.
GILL, "When Jesus saw that the people came running together,.... ‫,לותיה‬
"to him", as the Syriac version adds, and so the Persic; upon hearing the vehement
cry of the father of the child, and the earnest solicitations he made, expecting that
something would be done:
he rebuked the foul spirit; that brought this disorder on the child, had continued
it so long, and with so much violence. Matthew calls this foul spirit, "the devil"; see
Gill on Mat_17:18,
saying unto him, thou dumb and deaf spirit; so calling him, not because the
spirit was dumb and deaf, but because he had been the cause of dumbness and
deafness in the child: he had at times taken away both his speech and hearing:
I charge thee come out of him, and enter no more into him. Christ, in an
authoritative way, ordered the unclean spirit to leave his possession, and never
attempt to regain it more. This he said, partly with regard to the devil, who would be
desirous of repossession; and partly with respect to the disease, which had its
intervals, and returned at certain times; and also with respect to the father of the
child, to confirm his faith in the cure, and that he might be in no pain about the
return of the disorder.
HENRY, "VIII. The cure of the child, and the conquest of this raging devil in the
child. Christ saw the people come running together, expecting to see the issue of this
102

103. trial of skill, and therefore kept them in suspense no longer, but rebuked the foul
spirit; the unclean spirit, so it should be rendered, as in other places. Observe, 1.
What the charge was which Christ gave to this unclean spirit; “Thou dumb and deaf
spirit, that makest the poor child dumb and deaf, but shalt thyself be made to hear
thy doom, and not be able to say any thing against it, come out of him immediately,
and enter no more into him. Let him not only be brought out of this fit, but let his fits
never return.” Note, Whom Christ cures, he cures effectually. Satan may go out
himself, and yet recover possession; but if Christ cast him out, he will keep him out.
2. How the unclean spirit took it; he grew yet more outrageous, he cried, and rent
him sore, gave him such a twitch at parting, that he was as one dead; so loth was he
to quit his hold, so exasperated at the superior power of Christ, so malicious to the
child, and so desirous was he to kill him. Many said, He is dead. Thus the toss that a
soul is in at the breaking of Satan's power in it may perhaps be frightful for the
present, but opens the door to lasting comfort. 3. How the child was perfectly
restored (Mar_9:27); Jesus took him by the hand, kratēsas - took fast hold of him,
and strongly bore him up, and he arose and recovered, and all was well.
SIMEON, "A DEAF AND DUMB SPIRIT CAST OUT
Mark 9:25-27. 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.
VARIOUS, and extremely opposite, were the states, which our Lord, in the
course of his ministry, experienced. He was not wholly a stranger to seasons of
exalted joy; but he was chiefly conversant with scenes of sorrow and affliction.
He had just come down from the mount on which he had been transfigured, and
the splendour of his glory was yet visible in his countenance [Note: This is not
absolutely asserted by the Evangelist: but it is the most probable reason for the
“great amazement” which the people discovered at the sight of him, ver. 15. This
idea is confirmed by the account given us of Moses the Jewish lawgiver, who
experienced a similar continuance of glory on his countenance after conversing
with God on Mount Sinai, Exodus 34:29-30. with 2 Corinthians 3:7.]; but he
descended only to behold the miseries to which sin had reduced us, and to renew
his labours among a scoffing and unbelieving people.
To bring into view the various circumstances of the history before us, we shall
consider,
I. The wretched state of the youth who was brought to him—
Imagination can scarcely point out a more distressing scene than that exhibited
in the context:
[Here was a youth afflicted with an epilepsy, or falling-sickness [Note: Matthew
17:15.]. This affliction was greatly increased by his being a lunatic [Note:
Matthew 17:15.]: to complete his misery, he was possessed by an evil spirit [Note:
103

104. Luke 9:39.]. This evil spirit took advantage of his natural infirmities, and
impelled him, on the returns of his disorder, to rush into the fire, or into the
water [Note: ver. 22]: he moreover tare and rent the youth with most
excruciating agonies [Note: ver. 18.], and deprived him of the powers of speech
and hearing [Note: ver. 25.]. Thus had Satan tormented him even from his very
childhood [Note: ver. 21.]: so that, in the very bloom of life, the youth pined and
languished in the extremest misery [Note: ver. 18.].]
This scene too justly describes the invisible influence of Satan over the souls of
men—
[We have reason to rejoice that his power over men’s bodies is now greatly
contracted, if not wholly destroyed. What a miserable world would this be, if the
malice of that fiend were not restrained! but his power over the souls of men is as
extensive as ever [Note: 1 Peter 5:8.]. He still takes advantage of our
constitutional propensities [Note: Some he stimulates to the pursuit of vain
amusements, others to the gratification of grosser lusts and pleasures.]; and
impels us to the commission of of the most self-destructive acts [Note: Acts
13:10.]. Doubtless much of our wickedness must be ascribed to our depraved
appetites; but our malicious adversary concurs with them, and actuates us by
them [Note: Compare John 12:6. with Luke 22:3-5.];. While we continue to walk
after the course of this world, and of those who are of the same age and station
with ourselves, we are altogether his vassals [Note: Ephesians 2:2.]; and the
whole world, if viewed in a spiritual light, exhibits little else than such wretched
spectacles as that before us [Note: 2 Timothy 2:26.].]
With such scenes, however, Jesus was continually conversant—
II. The application made to Jesus on his behalf—
The father of the youth had in vain applied to the Disciples for relief—
[The Disciples had been endued with power to cast out devils [Note: Matthew
10:8.]; but in this instance they were foiled in their attempt to exercise that
power. This disappointment afforded to the unbelieving Scribes much occasion
for malicious triumph [Note: ver. 14.]. Our Lord, being asked afterwards by his
Disciples in private, assigned the reasons of their failure. They had not made the
attempt in the full exercise of faith [Note: Matthew 17:20.]. Had they truly
believed, nothing should have been impossible to them. They had moreover
neglected to use extraordinary means on this extraordinary occasion. They
should have had recourse to God in fasting and prayer [Note: Matthew 17:21. It
seems from hence that some of the evil spirits have more power and malignity
than others. See also Matthew 12:45.]. From these circumstances we may gather
much useful instruction. Our Lord has promised us the victory over all the
powers of darkness [Note: Romans 16:20.]; but we must have our strength
renewed by fasting and prayer [Note: Ephesians 6:18.] — — — and must put it
forth in a believing dependence on his word [Note: Ephesians 6:16.]: nor can we
hope to succeed but in the use of these appointed means.]
104

105. He now applied to Jesus himself—
[Kneeling with deepest humility, he implored the mercy which he needed [Note:
Matthew 17:14.]; but manifested that the disappointment he had experienced
had shaken his faith even in Jesus himself [Note: ver. 22.].Our Lord gently
reproves him for his unbelief, and bids him be more concerned about the
increase of his own faith than about the ability of the person to whom he was
applying [Note: ver. 23.] The father instantly with tears confesses the justice of
the reproof [Note: ver. 24.], and entreats the Lord to increase and confirm his
faith. (How amiable was this concern for his child, and this contrition for his
fault!) And should we be less earnest in interceding for our unconverted
relatives? Like him, when human powers have failed, we are ready to question
the sufficiency of God himself: but we should be careful never to limit the
almighty power of Jesus; and should deeply bewail the sad remains of unbelief
that are within us! Let us then labour more to imitate this afflicted parent, and in
every application to Jesus offer that suitable petition [Note: ver. 24.]—.]
Like thousands of other suppliants he soon obtained his request—
III. The miracle which Jesus wrought for him—
Our Lord immediately interposed for the relief of the youth; and Satan laboured
to the utmost to obstruct his design—
[Jesus ordered the young man to be brought unto him. Satan, enraged at the
prospect of his own disgrace, assaulted him with greater fury than ever, nor left
him, till he had made one more effort to destroy his life [Note: ver. 26.]. Satan
exerted himself thus to defeat our Lord’s purpose. Our Lord permitted him thus
to act for the more abundant display of his own power. It is in this very manner
that Satan still acts towards us; he cannot endure that any soul should come to
Jesus for help; he usually makes his fiercest assaults upon us, when he is fearful
of losing his dominion over us [Note: Some he discourages by inward
suggestions, (you are not elect, your sins are too great, you have committed the
sin against the Holy Ghost, &c.) and some by opposition from without.]. Yea, not
infrequently does he reduce us almost to a despair of life, just before our perfect
deliverance is about to be effected.]
But in vain were Satan’s efforts against the sovereign power of Jesus—
[Jesus raised up the youth, who lay, to all appearance, dead, and delivered him
in perfect health to his astonished father [Note: Luke 9:42.]. Thus shall also the
grace of Jesus finally prevail in his people’s hearts. In vain shall be the renewed
attacks of their great adversary: however fiercely they be assaulted, they shall be
more than conquerors over every enemy [Note: Romans 8:37.] — — — And the
malice of Satan shall only render them more distinguished monuments of their
Redeemer’s power.]
BARCLAY, "THE CAUSE OF FAILURE (Mark 9:25-29)
9:25-29 When Jesus saw that the crowd was running together, he rebuked the
105

106. unclean spirit. "Spirit of dumbness and deafness," he said, "I order you, come
out of him, and don't go into him again." When it had cried and violently
convulsed him it came out, and he became like a dead man, so that many said,
"He is dead." But Jesus took him by the hand, and raised him up, and he stood
up. When he had gone into the house, and when they were by themselves, his
disciples asked him, "Why were we not able to cast it out?" "This kind," he said
to them, "cannot come out except by prayer."
Jesus must have taken father and son aside. But the crowd, hearing their cries,
came running up, and Jesus acted. There was one last struggle, a struggle to
complete exhaustion, and the boy was cured.
When they were by themselves the disciples asked the cause of their failure. They
were no doubt remembering that Jesus had sent them out to preach and heal and
cast out devils (Mark 3:14-15). Why, then, had they this time so signally failed?
Jesus answered quite simply that this kind of cure demanded prayer.
In effect he said to them, "You don't live close enough to God." They had been
equipped with power, but it needed prayer to maintain it.
There is a deep lesson here. God may have given us a gift, but unless we maintain
close contact with him it may wither and die. That is true of any gift. God may
give a man great natural gifts as a preacher, but unless he maintains contact with
God, he may in the end become only a man of words and not a man of power.
God may give a man a gift of music or of song, but unless he maintains contact
with God, he may become a mere professional, who uses the gift only for gain,
which is a dreary thing. That is not to say a man should not use a gift for gain.
He has a right to capitalize any talent. But it does mean that, even when he is so
using it, he should be finding joy in it because he is also using it for God. It is told
of Jenny Lind, the famous Swedish soprano, that before every performance she
would stand alone in her dressing-room and pray, "God, help me to sing true to-
night."
Unless we maintain this contact with God we lose two things however great our
gift may be.
(i) We lose vitality. We lose that living power, that something plus which makes
for greatness. The thing becomes a performance instead of an offering to God.
What should be a vital, living body becomes a beautiful corpse.
(ii) We lose humility. What should be used for God's glory we begin to use for
our own, and the virtue goes out of it. What should have been used to set God
before men is used to set ourselves before them, and the breath of loveliness is
gone.
Here is a warning thought. The disciples had been equipped with power direct
from Jesus, but they had not nurtured power with prayer, and power had
vanished. Whatever gifts God has given us, we lose them when we use them for
ourselves. We keep them when we enrich them by continual contact with the God
106

107. who gave them.
26 The spirit shrieked, convulsed him violently
and came out. The boy looked so much like a
corpse that many said, “He’s dead.”
GILL, "And the spirit cried, and rent him sore,.... We rightly supply, "the
spirit", as do the Syriac and Persic versions, "the demon"; for it was he, and not the
child, that cried, and made an hideous noise, at his ejection; being filled with wrath
and rage, that he must be obliged to quit the possession he had so long held; and
therefore, in spite and malice, before it left him, shook and tore him, and threw him
into dreadful convulsions:
and came out of him; though sore against his will, being obliged to it, by the
superior power of Christ:
and he was as one dead: that is, the child, when the devil had left him, lay as still
as if he had no breath, nor life in him:
insomuch that many said, he is dead; really dead: that there was no life in him,
nor any hopes of his coming to himself again.
JAMIESON, "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 — The
malignant, cruel spirit, now conscious that his time was come, gathers up his whole
strength, with intent by a last stroke to kill his victim, and had nearly succeeded. But
the Lord of life was there; the Healer of all maladies, the Friend of sinners, the Seed
of the woman, “the Stronger than the strong man armed,” was there. The very faith
which Christ declared to be enough for everything being now found, it was not
possible that the serpent should prevail. Fearfully is he permitted to bruise the heel,
as in this case; but his own head shall go for it - his works shall be destroyed (1Jo_
3:8).
27 But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted
him to his feet, and he stood up.
GILL, "But Jesus took him by the hand,.... "Took hold of the hand of the child",
as the Persic version renders it;
107

108. and lifted him up; from the ground, on which he was cast by the spirit;
and he arose: this is omitted in the Syriac and Arabic versions, though in one
edition of the latter, according to De Dieu, it is rendered, "and he stood"; to which is
added, "and went into his own house". The Persic version, instead of this clause,
reads, "and the child was healed"; and all the expressions show, that he was perfectly
well.
HENRY, "How the child was perfectly restored (Mar_9:27); Jesus took him by
the hand, kratēsas - took fast hold of him, and strongly bore him up, and he arose and
recovered, and all was well.
JAMIESON, "But Jesus took him by the hand, and lifted him up; and he
arose.
28 After Jesus had gone indoors, his disciples
asked him privately, “Why couldn’t we drive it
out?”
GILL, "And when he was come into the house,.... Perhaps into the man's
house whose child he had healed, or into some other in these parts, for the sake both
of retirement and refreshment:
his disciples asked him privately, why could not we cast him out? The nine
disciples, who were particularly concerned in this matter, fearing they had lost the
power of casting out devils, conferred upon them, inquired of Jesus, when he was
alone, why they could not cast the demon out of the child, when they had ejected
unclean spirits out of many others; See Gill on Mat_17:19.
COFFMAN, "Asked him privately ... It was well for the reputation of the
apostles that they sought a private answer, for they were grievously at fault.
Matthew quoted Jesus as saying their failure was due to their "little faith"
(Matthew 17:20), and Mark's words indicate either a failure to pray at all or
some serious lack in their prayers. Even the greatest miracles performed by
Jesus were done so in answer to prayer (John 9:31; John 11:41); and, although
the mention of the Saviour's prayers in connection with his mighty deeds was not
always included by the sacred writers, the assumption must ever be that all of
them included the Saviour's asking of God in prayer the accomplishment of the
wonders recorded. The failure of the apostles here seems to have been that of
omitting prayer. That they fully expected to succeed is evident, so their faith was
not that of failing to expect success, but of taking it for granted that they could
succeed without praying to God for the expected blessing. The apostles had often
108

109. succeeded before (Mark 6:13,30); and they perhaps believed that they had the
power IN THEMSELVES to continue doing such things.
They had to learn that God's power is not given to men in that way. It has rather
ever to be asked for afresh. To trust in God's power in the sense that we imagine
we have it in our control and at our disposal ... is to trust in ourselves instead of
in God.[17]
ENDNOTE:
[17] C. E. B. Cranfield, op. cit., p. 305.
CONSTABLE, "Evidently the nine disciples were ineffective because they
believed that the power to cast out demons that Jesus had given them was now
inherent in themselves. It was not. It was still God's power, and it came directly
from Him. Therefore they needed to acknowledge their dependence on Him for
power to be successful. Jesus' prayer life reflected even His dependence on the
Father. Some cases require more spiritual power than others, and some demons
are stronger than others (Matthew 12:45). Probably later copyists added "and
fasting" because fasting often accompanied earnest prayer in the early church,
as it did in Israel.
This incident taught the disciples that they needed to serve God in constant
conscious dependence on Him that expresses itself in prayer. Prayer is a
discipline that reminds disciples of and expresses their dependence on God. It
also reinforced their belief in Jesus as the Messiah who can defeat Satan and so
is worthy of glory, as the Transfiguration witnessed.
BENSON, "Mark 9:28-29. When he was come into the house, his disciples asked
him, &c. — See notes on Matthew 17:19-21. This kind can come forth by nothing
but by prayer and fasting — “Some doubts have been raised in regard to the
meaning of the words, this kind. The most obvious interpretation is, doubtless,
that which refers them to the word demon, immediately preceding. But as in the
parallel passage in Matthew 17:19, mention is made of faith, as the necessary
qualification for dispossessing demons, Knatchbull and others have thought that
this kind, refers to the faith that is requisite. But it is an insurmountable
objection to this hypothesis, that we have here the same sentiment, almost the
same expression, and ushered in with the same words, this kind, though, in what
goes before, there is no mention of faith, or of any thing but demon, to which it
can refer. It would be absurd to suppose, that the pronouns and relatives in one
gospel refer to antecedents in another. Every one of the gospels does indeed give
additional information, and in various ways serves to throw light upon the rest.
But every gospel must be a consistent history by itself; otherwise, to attempt an
explanation would be in vain. Now the argument stands thus: The story related
in both gospels is manifestly the same: that the words in question may refer to
demon in Matthew, no person who attentively reads the passage can deny; that
they cannot refer to faith, but must refer to demon, in Mark, is equally evident.
Either, then, they refer to demon in both, or the evangelists contradict one
another. Some have considered it as an objection to the above explanation, that it
supposes different kinds of demons; and that the expulsion of some kinds is more
109

110. difficult than that of others. This objection is founded entirely on our own
ignorance. Who can say that there are not different kinds of demons? or that
there may not be degrees in the power of expelling? Revelation has not said that
they are all of one kind, and may be expelled with equal ease.” — Campbell.
SIMEON, "FASTING AND PRAYER
Mark 9:28-29. 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.
THE gift of working miracles was possessed by all the Apostles. Yet it does not
appear that the power could be exercised at all times, and at their own option,
but only at such times and on such occasions as God saw fit to permit. Had the
exercise of this gift been purely optional, we can scarcely conceive that Paul
would have “left Trophimus at Miletum sick [Note: 2 Timothy 4:20.],” when he
wanted him much for his companion in travel; or that, when “Epaphroditus was
sick nigh unto death,” that same Apostle, who felt so deeply interested in his
welfare, would not have interposed to restore him to health [Note: Philippians
2:27.]. It should seem, that a certain kind and degree of faith was necessary to be
exercised by them, when they would put forth their miraculous powers; and that
that faith was not always at their command, but needed to be brought down
from heaven, by fresh and more abundant communications, in answer to their
prayers. The Apostles, on having a youth, who was possessed by a dumb spirit,
brought to them by his father, endeavoured to expel the demon from him, but
were not able. The youth was then brought to Jesus himself, who, by a word,
effected that which all his Disciples together could not effect. The Disciples then
asked Jesus privately, What it was that had occasioned their failure? Our Lord
told them, that they had failed through their want of faith; a more abundant
measure of which was necessary, when so malignant a fiend as this was to be
expelled: and that faith could be obtained only by a more particular and solemn
application to God than they had used on this occasion: “for that kind could
come forth by nothing but by fasting and prayer [Note: Compare Matthew
17:19-21. with the text.].”
Miraculous gifts having ceased in the Church, we shall forbear to speak of them.
But the power of Satan over men has not ceased: the only difference is, that
formerly he could operate immediately upon the body, by a preternatural power,
without any concurrence on our part; whereas now he can only act on the soul,
through the medium of our own corruptions, and in concurrence with our own
will. But, as formerly, it was not in the power of unassisted man to withstand his
efforts; so neither at this time can we hope to prevail against him, but by a power
received from on high. This is true at all times, and under all circumstances: but
there are times and seasons when he appears to have assaulted us with more than
ordinary violence, and to have gained a peculiar advantage over us, through the
instrumentality of some deep-rooted corruption. To withstand him then, is found
more difficult than at other times; and we can do nothing against him, without
such a measure of grace and strength as is communicated to those only who, with
deliberate and determined purpose of heart, set themselves to seek it in solemn
110

111. fasting and prayer. In reference, then, to these occasions we may well apply the
text: in doing which, I will shew,
I. The extraordinary difficulties which some have to encounter—
There is no man who has not much to encounter both from within and from
without. But some have far greater difficulties to contend with than others,
1. From the great adversary of souls—
[We know but little respecting angels; except that the good angels are
“ministering spirits, sent forth to minister unto those who are the heirs of
salvation;” and that the evil angels are occupied in constant endeavours to
ensnare and ruin the souls of men. Of the evil angels, as well as of the good, there
are different ranks and orders, called “angels and principalities and powers;”
and that they act under the guidance of one, even of “Beelzebub, who is the
prince of the devils [Note: Matthew 12:24.].” It should seem, too, that some
possess a deeper measure of malignity than others; since one spirit, on being
driven out of a man, is said to “take unto himself seven other spirits more wicked
than himself, and to enter into him again, and make his last state worse than the
first [Note: Matthew 12:45.].” Sometimes several of them take possession of a
man at once: for “out of Mary Magdalen our Lord cast seven devils;” and out of
another person a whole “legion.” Over Satan’s family these bear an undisputed
sway [Note: John 8:44.]; and over the godly themselves they maintain a very
considerable influence; insomuch, that, if not restrained by Almighty God, they
would “sift” every living man “as wheat,” and reduce even an inspired Apostle to
chaff [Note: Luke 22:31-32.]. On some he acts “by guile, putting on the
semblance of “an angel of light [Note: 2 Corinthians 11:3; 2 Corinthians
11:14.]:” and so subtle are “his wiles,” and so crafty “his devices,” that it is
inconceivably difficult to be always on our guard against them [Note: 2
Corinthians 2:11. Ephesians 6:11.]. Love to the Saviour himself may even be
perverted by him into an occasion of evil; and be rendered, through the
ignorance and inadvertence of man, subservient to the advancement of Satan’s
purposes [Note: Matthew 16:21-23.]. At other times, Satan comes rather “like a
roaring lion, ready to devour us [Note: 1 Peter 5:8.];” and, with an overwhelming
power, carries men to the commission of the most palpable and damning sins;
instigating Judas to betray his Lord [Note: John 13:27.], and Ananias and
Sapphira to “lie unto the Holy Ghost [Note: Acts 5:3.].” Well is he called “the
god of this world;” for, by blinding some [Note: 2 Corinthians 4:4.], and
impelling others, he maintains a sway over all “the children of disobedience
[Note: Ephesians 2:2.].”
Now, to contend with these is, more or less, the lot of all God’s people [Note:
Ephesians 6:12.]: but some experience his assaults in a more violent degree than
others; and would be utterly destroyed by his “fiery darts,” if God had not
furnished them with “the shield of faith, whereby to quench” or ward them off
[Note: Ephesians 6:16.].]
2. From their own indwelling corruptions—
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112. [All have a “heart full of evil [Note: Ecclesiastes 9:3.]:” but there is a “spiritual
and a fleshly filthiness;” and in some the one has the ascendant; and in others,
the other. Some, from their very infancy, are swollen with pride, or corroded
with envy, or inflamed with passion, or envenomed with malice. Some betray a
very early propensity to deceit, and falsehood, and dishonesty, and selfishness in
all its bearings. In some profaneness and impiety are dominant; so that, without
any interest to serve, or lust to gratify, they will find pleasure in insulting to his
face the Most High God. In others, a disposition to lewdness and intemperance is
marked from a very early period of life; and soon acquires such an entire
dominion, that it bids defiance to all the efforts that are made to check it; nor
can all the calamities which it entails on its unhappy victim induce him to
withstand its influence. In truth, to such a degree are many subjected to some
reigning sin, whether of a spiritual or fleshly nature, that one cannot but regard
them as under Satanic influence; or, to use the words of St. Paul, as “taken in the
snare of the devil, and as led captive by him at his will [Note: 2 Timothy 2:26.].”]
Now, where men are thus enslaved by any besetting sin, they have difficulties
which others have scarcely any idea of: and to them I would declare,
II. The extraordinary means which they should use, in order to surmount
them—
Resolutions will be of little avail: they will yield to even the smallest temptation.
The passionate man may resolve to restrain his anger; the drunkard to contract
a habit of sobriety; the lewd person to mortify his passions: but he resolves in
vain, as long as his resolutions are formed in dependence on his own strength: he
returns, again and again, “like a dog to his vomit;” nor can all the bitter
consequences which he has experienced in this world, nor those more awful
terrors which he is taught to expect in the world to come, suffice to keep him
steadfast to his purpose. Even prayer itself has but a slight and transient effect;
insomuch that, in some instances, he is even afraid to pray; because it seems as if
his very prayers only stirred up his enemy to renew with greater vigour and
success his irresistible assaults. But, by the ordinances of our Church, as well as
by the Holy Scriptures, we are taught, and especially at this season [Note: Lent.],
that “with prayer, fasting” should be joined—
[Fasting is a duty enjoined by God himself. Under the law, a day was appointed
whereon the whole nation of Israel were to observe an annual fast [Note:
Leviticus 23:27-29.]: and all the most eminent servants of God recorded in the
Old Testament combined fasting with prayer [Note: Ezra 8:21. Nehemiah 1:4.
Esther 4:16.]. Under the New Testament dispensation the same duty is
inculcated, and, on proper occasions, was practised also by the servants of the
Lord [Note: Mark 2:20. Matthew 6:17. Luke 2:37. 2 Corinthians 11:27.]. For
seasons of affliction, it is peculiarly suited; and, above all, for such a season as
has been before described. It tends to honour God, whom we have offended by
our sins. It tends to humble ourselves, as being itself an acknowledgment of our
desert of his wrath. It tends to mortify the very corruptions we mourn over: and
it greatly aids our urgency in prayer. In these respects it may justly be deemed of
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113. great importance: for though in itself it has no kind of merit, yet, as manifesting
our sincerity, and approving us both to God and to our own consciences, it is of
singular use, especially if accompanied with a corresponding humiliation of our
souls before God: for, without that, it will be only an empty ceremony, an
hypocritical profession, a senseless mockery.]
Though neither of them apart should have prevailed, the two combined will be
effectual for the desired end—
[In no instance has God ever withheld his blessing from the two combined.
Prayer alone, if fervent and believing, will not be suffered to go forth in vain;
but, in the extraordinary cases before referred to, a man truly in earnest will
address himself to the work of prayer in the more solemn attitude of penitential
sorrow, “in weeping, and mourning, and fasting [Note: Joel 2:12.].” And how
successful such prayer shall be, may be seen in the case of Nineveh, where the
whole city was spared from destruction in consequence of their turning to the
Lord in fasting and in prayer [Note: Jonah 3:7-10.]. The example of Daniel is yet
more encouraging than this, inasmuch as it brought down upon him not merely a
suspension from evil, but the most extraordinary tokens of God’s favour. See
how his fast was conducted; and with what fervent prayers it was accompanied:
and then see what an answer it brought down from heaven [Note: Daniel 9:3-5;
Daniel 9:17-23.]: and know, assuredly, that such humiliation shall prevail,
whatever enemies you have to contend with, whatever corruptions you have to
strive against.]
Address—
1. Those who are yielding to their spiritual enemies—
[Many think it sufficient to say, that such or such propensities are naturally
inherent in them; and that they are regarded rather as constitutional infirmities,
than as any deep grounds for personal humiliation. But, on this ground, there is
no sin whatever which may not be cloked with a suitable apology. That a man
will find a greater difficulty in mortifying his besetting sin, is true: and that he
will, to his latest hour, be more in danger from it, is also true: but it must be put
away [Note: Hebrews 12:1.]; and, if not subdued and mortified, it will inevitably
plunge the soul into everlasting perdition. The eye, the hand, the foot, are
natural, and dear, and necessary: but, if any one of them stand in competition
with our duty, it must not be spared: there is no alternative, but to part with
that, or to have both body and soul cast into the flames of hell [Note: Mark
9:43-48.]. If a man shall say ‘I have grace, but not enough for that;’ I answer,
that grace insufficient, is no grace; and that the man who thinks he is a partaker
of divine grace, whilst he is led captive by any constitutional or habitual sin, is
only deceiving his own soul, and will find out his error when it is past a remedy
[Note: James 1:26.]. A life of alternate sinning and repenting, sinning and
repenting, (a life, alas! too common amongst those who profess religion,) will
never be approved of God. I will readily allow that a man may have more than
ordinary difficulties to contend with; but then he must adopt more than ordinary
measures for the surmounting of them; and if he will not do this, he has only
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114. himself to blame: for “there is no kind, either of spirit or corruption, that shall
not go forth by prayer and fasting.”]
2. Those who are conflicting with them—
[“Be strong, and of good courage: for no enemy shall be able to stand before
you.” Only go forth in faith, and all the Goliaths in the universe shall fall under
your hand. God has said, that, “provided you are not under the law, but under
grace, sin shall not have dominion over you [Note: Romans 6:14.].” “The grace of
Christ, which was sufficient for” Paul, shall be alike sufficient for all who trust
in it [Note: 2 Corinthians 12:9.]. A very “worm shall thresh the mountains, and
reduce them all to dust [Note: Isaiah 41:14-16.]:” and Satan himself, that great
enemy, shall be bruised under the feet of all who will withstand him manfully
[Note: 1 Peter 5:8-9. James 4:7. Romans 16:20.]. The armour provided for us
shall not be girt on in vain [Note: Ephesians 6:11.]. Only go forth in the strength
of the Lord Jesus [Note: Ephesians 6:10.], and you shall “be more than
conquerors through Him that loveth you [Note: Romans 8:37.].”]
29 He replied, “This kind can come out only by
prayer.[a]”
CLARKE, "Prayer and fasting - See on Mat_17:21 (note).
This demon may be considered as an emblem of deeply rooted vices, and inveterate
habits, over which the conquest is not generally obtained, but through extraordinary
humiliations.
This case is related by both Matthew and Luke, but it is greatly amplified in Mark’s
account, and many new circumstances related. Another proof that Mark did not
abridge Matthew.
GILL, "And he said unto them,.... Matthew, besides the following reason,
assigns another, as given by our Lord, why they could not cast out the foul spirit,
which was their unbelief; of which they were guilty in some sort, as well as the Jews,
and the father of the child; but Mark omits it, and only relates this as the reason;
this kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting; which they
had not observed; See Gill on Mat_17:21.
HENRY, "IX. The reason he gave to the disciples why they could not cast out this
devil. They enquired of him privately why they could not, that wherein they were
defective might be made up another time, and they might not again be thus publicly
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115. shamed; and he told them (Mar_9:29), This kind can come forth by nothing but
prayer and fasting. Whatever other difference there really might be, none appears
between this and other kinds, but that the unclean spirit had had possession of this
poor patient from a child, and that strengthened his interest, and confirmed his hold.
When vicious habits are rooted by long usage, and begin to plead prescription, like
chronical diseases that are hardly cured. Can the Aethiopian change his skin? The
disciples must not think to do their work always with a like ease; some services call
them to take more than ordinary pains; but Christ can do that with a word's
speaking, which they must prevail for the doing of by prayer and fasting.
JAMIESON, "And he said unto them, This kind can come forth by
nothing but by prayer and fasting — that is, as nearly all good interpreters are
agreed, “this kind of evil spirits cannot be expelled,” or “so desperate a case of
demoniacal possession cannot be cured, but by prayer and fasting.” But since the
Lord Himself says that His disciples could not fast while He was with them, perhaps
this was designed, as Alford hints, for their after-guidance - unless we take it as but a
definite way of expressing the general truth, that great and difficult duties require
special preparation and self-denial. But the answer to their question, as given in
Mat_17:20, Mat_17:21 is fuller: “And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief.
For verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto
this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place, and it shall remove; and nothing shall
be impossible unto you” (Mat_17:20). See on Mar_11:23. “Howbeit this kind goeth
not out but by prayer and fasting” (Mat_17:21), that is, though nothing is impossible
to faith, yet such a height of faith as is requisite for such triumphs is not to be
reached either in a moment or without effort - either with God in prayer or with
ourselves in self-denying exercises. Luke (Luk_9:43) adds, “And they were all
amazed at the mighty power of God” - “at the majesty” or “mightiness of God,” in this
last miracle, in the Transfiguration, etc.; or, at the divine grandeur of Christ rising
upon them daily.
Jesus Predicts His Death a Second Time
30 They left that place and passed through
Galilee. Jesus did not want anyone to know
where they were,
CLARKE, "They - passed through Galilee - See on Mat_17:22-27 (note).
GILL, "And they departed thence,.... From the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, from
that part of the country where the mountain was, on which Christ was transfigured,
and at the foot of which the above miracle was wrought. This is to be understood of
Christ and his twelve disciples, though the Syriac, Arabic, and Ethiopic versions read
in the singular number, "he went out"; not alone, but with his disciples, as the
following account shows:
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116. and passed through Galilee; in order to go to the coasts of Judea, and so to
Jerusalem, where he was shortly to suffer: and therefore that his journey might not
be retarded, and he be hindered by the conversation of the people in Galilee, and
their importunity to stay with them, and teach, and work miracles among them, he
passed through the country, in as private a manner as could be:
and he would not that any man should know it; partly for the reason just
mentioned, and partly that he might have the opportunity of conversing alone with
his disciples, and of reminding, and informing them, of some important things,
which it was necessary they should be acquainted with, and observe.
HENRY, "Here, I. Christ foretels his own approaching sufferings. He passed
through Galilee with more expedition than usual, and would not that any man
should know of it (Mar_9:30); because he had done many mighty and good works
among them in vain, they shall not be invited to see them and have the benefit of
them, as they have been. The time of his sufferings drew nigh, and therefore he was
willing to be private awhile, and to converse only with his disciples, to prepare them
for the approaching trial, Mar_9:31. He said to them, The Son of man is delivered by
the determinate council and fore-knowledge of God into the hands of men (Mar_
9:31), and they shall kill him. He had been delivered into the hands of devils, and
they had worried him, it had not been so strange; but that men, who have reason,
and should have love, that they should be thus spiteful to the Son of man, who came
to redeem and save them, is unaccountable. But still it is observable that when Christ
spoke of his death, he alway spoke of his resurrection, which took away the reproach
of it from himself, and should have taken away the grief of it from his disciples.
JAMIESON, "Mar_9:30-32. Second explicit announcement of His approaching
death and resurrection.
And they departed thence, and passed — were passing along.
through Galilee; and he would not that any man should know it — By
comparing Mat_17:22, Mat_17:23 and Luk_9:43, Luk_9:44 with this, we gather,
that as our Lord’s reason for going through Galilee more privately than usual on this
occasion was to reiterate to them the announcement which had so shocked them at
the first mention of it, and thus familiarize them with it by little and little, so this was
His reason for enjoining silence upon them as to their present movements.
COFFMAN, "ANOTHER PREDICTION OF THE PASSION
These verses show the Lord's great need for privacy and the opportunity to
instruct his apostles regarding the forthcoming Passion. Here Christ again
mentioned, more briefly, the teachings given in Mark 8:31, which see. For their
lack of understanding, see under Mark 9:10.
BURKITT, "Observable it is, how frequently our Saviour forewarned his
disciples of his approaching sufferings; and as the time of his sufferings drew
near, he did more frequently warn them of it. But all was little enough to warn
them against the scandal of the cross, and to reconcile their thoughts to a
suffering condition. The disciples had taken up the common opinion, that the
Messiah was to be a temporal prince, and as such to reign here upon earth, and
they knew not how to reconcile this with his being delivered up into the hands of
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117. men that should kill him; and yet they were afraid to ask him concerning this
matter.
Now from Christ's frequent forewarning his disciples of approaching sufferings,
we may gather, That we can never hear either too often, or too much, of the
doctrine of the cross, nor be too frequently instructed in our duty to prepare for
a suffering state. As Christ went by his cross to is crown, from a state of
abasement to a state of exaltation, so must all his disciples and followers likewise.
BENSON, "Mark 9:30-32. And they departed thence — From the country of
Cesarea Philippi; and passed through Galilee — Not through the cities, but by
them, in the most private ways; for he would not that any man should know it —
Lest the important conversation into which he then intended to enter with his
disciples should be interrupted by company; for he purposed to converse freely
with them, and instruct them fully concerning his sufferings. For he taught his
disciples, &c. — The evangelist here assigns this as the reason why he desired his
journey to be private, namely, that he might have an opportunity to talk over
this subject at large. And said, The Son of man is delivered into the hands of
men — It is as sure as if it were done already. This declaration, according to
Luke, he prefaced with saying, Let these sayings sink down into your ears,
signifying hereby, not only their certain truth, but their unspeakable importance,
and that they ought to be seriously considered and laid to heart. But they
understood not that saying — They could not comprehend how he, who was to
abide on earth for ever, and was to deliver others from the universal destroyer,
should himself fall under his stroke: Or, they could not reconcile his death, nor
consequently his resurrection, which supposed his death, with their notions of his
temporal kingdom: Luke says, And it was hid from them, namely, by their own
prejudices and misconceptions concerning the Messiah. For, seeing he spake of
rising again the third day, they were not able to divine any reason for his dying
at all, being ignorant, as yet, of the nature and ends of his death. And they were
afraid to ask him — Taking no comfort from the mention that was made of his
resurrection, the prediction raised such fears in their minds, that they durst not
ask him to explain it; especially as they remembered that he had often inculcated
it, and had reprimanded Peter for being unwilling to hear it.
BARCLAY, "FACING THE END (Mark 9:30-31)
9:30-31 When they left there, they made their way through Galilee, and Jesus did
not wish anyone to know where he was, for he kept teaching the disciples and
saying to them, "The Son of Man is being delivered into the hands of men, and
they will kill him, and, when he has been killed, after three days he will rise
again." But they did not understand what he said, and they were afraid to ask
him what it meant.
This passage marks a mile-stone. Jesus had now left the north country where he
was safe and was taking the first step towards Jerusalem and to the Cross which
awaited him there. For once he did not watt the crowds around him. He knew
quite clearly that unless he could write his message on the hearts of his chosen
men, he had failed. Any teacher can leave behind him a series of propositions,
but Jesus knew that that was not enough. He had to leave behind him a band of
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118. persons on whom these propositions were written. He had to make sure, before
he left this world in the body, that there were some who understood, however
dimly, what he had come to say.
This time the tragedy of his warning is even more poignant. If we compare it
with the previous passage in which he foretold his death (Mark 8:31), we see that
one phrase is added, "The Son of Man is being delivered into the hands of men."
There was a traitor in the little band, and Jesus knew it. He could see the way in
which the mind of Judas was working. Maybe he could see it better than Judas
could himself. And when he said, "The Son of Man is being delivered into the
hands of men." he was not only announcing a fact and giving a warning, he was
also making a last appeal to the man in whose heart was forming the purpose of
betrayal.
Even yet the disciples did not understand. The thing they did not understand
was the bit about rising again. By this time they were aware of the atmosphere of
tragedy, but to the end of the day they never grasped the certainty of the
Resurrection. That was a wonder that was too great for them, a wonder that they
grasped only when it became an accomplished fact.
When they did not understand, they were afraid to ask any further questions.
They were like men who knew so much that they were afraid to know more. A
man might receive a verdict from his doctor. He might think the general purport
of the verdict bad, but not understand all the details, and he might be afraid to
ask questions, for the simple reason that he is afraid to know any more. The
disciples were like that.
Sometimes we are amazed that they did not grasp what was so plainly spoken.
The human mind has an amazing faculty for rejecting what it does not wish to
see. Are we so very different? Over and over again we have heard the Christian
message. We know the glory of accepting it and the tragedy of rejecting it, but
many of us are just as far off as ever we were from giving it our full allegiance
and moulding our lives to fit it. Men still accept the parts of the Christian
message which they like and which suit them, and refuse to understand the rest.
BI, "And they departed thence, and passed through Galilee.
Christ teaching His disciples
I. He explained to them His present state. He was about to be delivered by a
traitorous disciple, etc.
II. He told them the parties into whose power He had been given.
1. To be delivered into the hands of men, is to be put into their power-to do to
Him, and with Him, as they chose.
2. They could have this power only by special permission-from the Father, and
Himself.
3. It is marvellous that He should have been so delivered. God in humanity! It
brought out their desperate wickedness, proved the voluntariness of His
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119. obedience, showed how blind sin is in its supposed triumphs, etc.
III. He told them what must befall Him at the hands of men.
1. That Christ was to die, was not now foretold for the first time, predicted, etc.
2. This death of Christ was necessary, etc.
IV. He further revealed to them the future, by telling them of His resurrection. The
result of an agency, neither human nor satanic, but Divine; prophecy, etc., called for
it. Conclusion:
1. Christ had His sufferings ever in view (Luk_12:50; Joh_12:27).
2. In His sufferings and resurrection He saw His people.
3. He unveiled the future to His disciples. They were contending for honour-on
the brink of sufferings-understood not the warning of Christ (Expository
Discourses.)
The complete truth
About this announcement there are two things remarkable-Christ’s care in preparing
His disciples for the cross, and the confidence with which Christ affirms His own
resurrection. To have spoken of the betrayal alone, would have been to have put
before His disciples a fragmentary truth; over the darkness of death Christ sheds the
light of resurrection. The revelation of Christ’s purposes can occasion grief only when
it is incompletely apprehended; sorrow attaches to some of the intermediate points,
but never to the issue; “the Lamb slain” is a part of the process; the Lamb slain, but
seated in the midst of the throne, is the sublime consummation. (J. Parker, D. D.)
The utility of truth not understood
It is not to no purpose, to speak things that are not immediately understood. Seed,
though it lies in the ground awhile unseen, is not lost or thrown away, but will bring
forth fruit. If you confine your teacher, you hinder your learning; if you limit his
discourses to your present apprehensions, how shall he raise your understandings? If
he accommodate all things to your present weakness, you will never be the wiser,
than you are now; you will be always in swaddling clothes. (Dr. Whichcote.)
Understood not
When I was a little girl I had a sovereign given to me. If it had been a shilling I might
have put it in my own little purse, and spent it at once; but, being a sovereign, my
dear father took care of it for me, and I expect I forgot all about it. But one day when
I was quite grown up, he called me into his study and gave me the sovereign,
reminding me how it had been given me when I was about as high as the back of a
chair. And I was very glad to have it then, for I understood how much it was worth
and knew very well what to do with it. Now, when you come to some saying of the
Lord Jesus that you do not understand or see how to make any use of yourself, do not
think it of no consequence whether you read it or not. When you are older you will
find that it is just like my sovereign, coming back to you when you want it and are
able to make use of it. (Frances Ridley Havergal.)
119

120. 31 because he was teaching his disciples. He said
to them, “The Son of Man is going to be
delivered into the hands of men. They will kill
him, and after three days he will rise.”
BARNES, "Is delivered - Is given to men to make an atonement by his
sufferings and death, and will in due time be taken and killed.
CLARKE, "For he taught his disciples, and said unto them,.... What he had
some little time before suggested to them; see Mar_8:31.
The son of man is delivered into the hands of men: in one of Beza's copies it
is read, "sinful men", as in Luk_24:7 and so the Persic version reads here, and adds
rebellious. This is represented as if it was already done, because it was determined
and agreed upon, that it should be; and because, in a very little time, the son of man
would be delivered into the hands of wicked men, according to the will of God, with
his own consent, by the means of Judas, the Jews, and Pilate:
GILL, "For he taught his disciples, and said unto them,.... What he had
some little time before suggested to them; see Mar_8:31.
The son of man is delivered into the hands of men: in one of Beza's copies it
is read, "sinful men", as in Luk_24:7 and so the Persic version reads here, and adds
rebellious. This is represented as if it was already done, because it was determined
and agreed upon, that it should be; and because, in a very little time, the son of man
would be delivered into the hands of wicked men, according to the will of God, with
his own consent, by the means of Judas, the Jews, and Pilate:
JAMIESON, "For he taught his disciples, and said unto them — “Let these
sayings sink down into your ears” (Luk_9:44); not what had been passing between
them as to His grandeur, but what He was now to utter.
The Son of man is delivered — The use of the present tense expresses how near
at hand He would have them to consider it. As Bengel says, steps were already in
course of being taken to bring it about.
into the hands of men — This remarkable antithesis, “the Son of man shall be
delivered into the hands of men,” it is worthy of notice, is in all the three Evangelists.
and they shall kill him — that is, “Be not carried off your feet by all that
grandeur of Mine which ye have lately witnessed, but bear in mind what I have
already told you and now distinctly repeat, that that Sun in whose beams ye now
rejoice is soon to set in midnight gloom.”
and after he is killed, he shall rise the third day.
120

121. CONSTABLE, "Jesus was concentrating on teaching His disciples during this
phase of His ministry. Here He revealed to them for the first time that someone
would deliver Him up or hand Him over (Gr. paradidotai) to His enemies.
Ultimately God did this, but Judas was the human agent that brought His will to
pass. Probably there is an intended contrast between "Son of Man" and "men"
in this verse.
". . . in a fallen world men had become so hostile to God that when, as the
culmination of his plans for their salvation, he sent to them the Man, their
Saviour and ultimate model, they regarded and treated him as their worst
enemy. Men and the Son of Man stood on opposite sides in God's eschatological
battle against the powers of evil." [Note: Plummer, p. 222.]
Mark recorded Jesus saying that He would rise of His own power (active voice).
Matthew said Jesus spoke of being raised (passive voice, Matthew 17:23).
Probably Jesus said both things in the course of His teaching. This verse
probably summarizes instruction that Jesus gave the disciples as they walked.
[Note: Bruce, 1:404.]
32 But they did not understand what he meant
and were afraid to ask him about it.
CLARKE, "But they understood not - This whole verse is wanting in two
MSS., in the first edition of Erasmus, and in that of Aldus. Mill approves of the
omission. It does not appear likely, from Matthew’s account, that three of the
disciples, Peter, James, and John, could be ignorant of the reasons of Christ’s death
and resurrection, after the transfiguration; on the contrary, from the circumstances
there related, it is very probable that from that time they must have had at least a
general understanding of this important subject; but the other nine might have been
ignorant of this matter, who were not present at the transfiguration; probably it is of
these that the evangelist speaks here. See the observations on the transfiguration,
Mat_17:9 (note), etc., and Mat_18:1 (note).
GILL, "But they understood not that saying,.... Meaning either the whole of
what he had said, concerning his delivery, death, and resurrection: and which then
must be interpreted with some limitation; for they must understand the sense of his
words, which were clear and express; especially concerning his death, which affected
their minds with trouble and grief; for Matthew says, "they were exceeding sorry
upon it"; see Gill on Mat_17:23; but they could not understand how it could be, and
upon what account, and for what end, so holy and good, and innocent a man as he
was, could be put to death; nor how this could consist with his character, as the Son
of God, the Messiah, and king of Israel; and with the notions they had of the
Messiah's abiding for ever, and setting up a temporal kingdom on earth: or this may
regard only his resurrection from the dead; which whether it was to be taken in a
literal or mystical sense, they could not tell:
121

122. and were afraid to ask him; lest they should be upbraided with their ignorance
and stupidity, as they had been lately rebuked by him for their unbelief, and the
neglect of their duty; and as Peter had been severely reprimanded for expostulating
with him about the selfsame things, delivered by him to them, not before.
HENRY, "But they understood not that saying, Mar_9:32. The words were plain
enough, but they could not be reconciled to the thing, and therefore would suppose
them to have some mystical meaning which they did not understand, and they were
afraid to ask him; not because he was difficult of access, or stern to those who
consulted him, but either because they were loth to know the truth, or because they
expected to be chidden for their backwardness to receive it. Many remain ignorant
because they are ashamed to enquire.
JAMIESON, "But they understood not that saying — “and it was hid from
them, [so] that they preceived it not” (Luk_9:45).
and were afraid to ask him — Their most cherished ideas were so completely
dashed by such announcements, that they were afraid of laying themselves open to
rebuke by asking Him any questions. But “they were exceeding sorry” (Mat_17:23).
While the other Evangelists, as Webster and Wilkinson remark, notice their
ignorance and their fear, Matthew, who was one of them, retains a vivid recollection
of their sorrow.
CONSTABLE, "The disciples did not understand because God withheld
understanding from them (Luke 9:45). Initially God may appear to have been
working at cross purposes with Himself revealing through Jesus and concealing
by hardening the disciples' hearts. The solution seems to be that God was
working with the disciples as He had worked with the multitudes through Jesus'
parables. If so, the disciples' ignorance was a result of divine blindness that their
unbelief produced. Their willingness to remain in ignorance and not ask Jesus to
clarify His statement is the evidence of their unbelief. Mark implied that all they
gained from this revelation was a sense of sorrow (Matthew 17:23). Similarly we
manifest a form of unbelief when we fail to seek clarification of biblical
revelation that we find confusing.
BARCLAY, "THE TRUE AMBITION (Mark 9:32-35)
9:32-35 So they came to Capernaum. When Jesus was in the house he asked
them, "What were you arguing about on the road?" They remained silent. for on
the road they had been arguing with each other who was to be greatest. So Jesus
sat down, and called the Twelve, and said to them, "If anyone wishes to be first,
he must be the last of all, and the servant of all."
Nothing so well shows how far the disciples were from realizing the real meaning
of Jesus' Messiahship as this does. Repeatedly he had told them what awaited
him in Jerusalem, and yet they were still thinking of his Kingdom in earthly
terms and of themselves as his chief ministers of state. There is something heart-
breaking in the thought of Jesus going towards a Cross and his disciples arguing
about who would be greatest.
Yet in their heart of hearts they knew they were wrong. When he asked them
what they had been arguing about they had nothing to say. It was the silence of
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123. shame. They had no defence. It is strange how a thing takes its proper place and
acquires its true character when it is set in the eyes of Jesus. So long as they
thought that Jesus was not listening and that Jesus had not seen, the argument
about who should be greatest seemed fair enough, but when that argument had
to be stated in the presence of Jesus it was seen in all its unworthiness.
If we took everything and set it in the sight of Jesus it would make all the
difference in the world. If of everything we did, we asked, "Could I go on doing
this if Jesus was watching me?"; if of everything we said, we asked, "Could I go
on talking like this if Jesus was listening to me?" there would be many things
which we would be saved from doing and saying. And the fact of Christian belief
is that there is no "if" about it. All deeds are done, all words are spoken in his
presence. God keep us from the words and deeds which we would be ashamed
that he should hear and see.
Jesus dealt with this very seriously. It says that he sat down and called the
Twelve to him. When a Rabbi was teaching as a Rabbi, as a master teaches his
scholars and disciples, when he was really making a pronouncement, he sat to
teach. Jesus deliberately took up the position of a Rabbi teaching his pupils
before he spoke. And then he told them that if they sought for greatness in his
Kingdom they must find it, not by being first but by being last, not by being
masters but by being servants of all. It was not that Jesus abolished ambition.
Rather he recreated and sublimated ambition. For the ambition to rule he
substituted the ambition to serve. For the ambition to have things done for us he
substituted the ambition to do things for others.
So far from being an impossibly idealistic view, this is a view of the soundest
common-sense. The really great men, the men who are remembered as having
made a real contribution to life, are the men who said to themselves, not, "How
can I use the state and society to further my own prestige and my own personal
ambitions?" but, "How can I use my personal gifts and talents to serve the
state?"
Stanley Baldwin paid a noble tribute to Lord Curzon when he died. In it he said,
"I want, before I sit down, to say one or two things that no one but I can say. A
Prime Minister sees human nature bared to the bone, and it was my chance to
see him twice when he suffered great disappointment--the time when I was
preferred to him as Prime Minister, and the time when I had to tell him that he
could render greater service to the country as chairman of the Committee of
Imperial Defence than in the Foreign Office. Each of these occasions was a
profound and bitter disappointment to him, but never for one moment did he
show by word, look, or innuendo, or by any reference to the subject afterwards,
that he was dissatisfied. He bore no grudge, and he pursued no other course than
the one I expected of him, of doing his duty where it was decided he could best
render service." Here was a man whose greatness lay not in the fact that he
reached the highest offices of state, but in the fact that he was ready to serve his
country anywhere.
True selflessness is rare, and when it is found it is remembered. The Greeks had
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124. a story of a Spartan called Paedaretos. Three hundred men were to be chosen to
govern Sparta and Paedaretos was a candidate. When the list of the successful
was announced his name was not on it. "I am sorry," said one of his friends,
"that you were not elected. The people ought to have known what a wise officer
of state you would have made." "I am glad," said Paedaretos, "that in Sparta
there are three hundred men better than I am." Here was a man who became a
legend because he was prepared to give to others the first place and to bear no ill
will.
Every economic problem would be solved if men lived for what they could do for
others and not for what they could get for themselves. Every political problem
would be solved if the ambition of men was only to serve the state and not to
enhance their own prestige. The divisions and disputes which tear the church
asunder would for the most part never occur if the only desire of its office-
bearers and its members was to serve it without caring what position they
occupied. When Jesus spoke of the supreme greatness and value of the man
whose ambition was to be a servant, he laid down one of the greatest practical
truths in the world.
33 They came to Capernaum. When he was in
the house, he asked them, “What were you
arguing about on the road?”
CLARKE, "And being in the house - That is, Peter’s house, where he
ordinarily lodged. This has been often observed before.
GILL, "And he came to Capernaum,.... Where he met with the collectors of the
tribute money, and paid it to them, as related by Matthew, Mat_17:24, though Mark
takes no notice of it. The Vulgate Latin and the Syriac versions, read in the plural
number, "they came"; Christ and his twelve apostles; and which is the sense of the
words, read in the singular number; for Christ came not alone, but with his disciples:
and being in the house; of Simon and Andrew, very likely where he used to be
when at Capernaum:
he asked them, what was it that ye disputed among yourselves by the
way? Whilst in their journey from Caesarea Philippi, to Galilee; or as they travelled
through the parts of Galilee to Capernaum. This question Christ put, not as ignorant
of what had passed among them, but in order to have the case laid before him; that
he might reprove them for their pride and ambition, and have an opportunity of
teaching them humility, and of informing them of the nature of his kingdom, and
subjects; concerning which, they had entertained very wrong notions. The phrase
"among yourselves", is omitted in the Vulgate Latin and Arabic versions, but stands
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125. in the Syriac, Persic, and Ethiopic.
HENRY, "II. He rebukes his disciples for magnifying themselves. When he came
to Capernaum, he privately asked his disciples what it was they disputed among
themselves by the way, Mar_9:33. He knew very well what the dispute was, but he
would know it from them, and would have them to confess their fault and folly in it.
Note, 1. We must all expect to be called to an account by our Lord Jesus, concerning
what passes while we are in the way in this state of passage and probation. 2. We
must in a particular manner be called to an account about our discourses among
ourselves; for by our words we must be justified or condemned. 3. As our other
discourses among ourselves by the way, so especially our disputes, will be all called
over again, and we shall be called to an account about them. 4. Of all disputes, Christ
will be sure to reckon with his disciples for their disputes about precedency and
superiority: that was the subject of the debate here, who should be the greater, Mar_
9:34. Nothing could be more contrary to the two great laws of Christ's kingdom,
lessons of his school, and instructions of his example, which are humility and love,
than desiring preferment in the world, and disputing about it. This ill temper he took
all occasions to check, both because it arose from a mistaken notion of his kingdom,
as if it were of this world, and because it tended so directly to be debasing of the
honour, and the corrupting of the purity, of his gospel, and, he foresaw, would be so
much the bane of the church.
JAMIESON, "Mar_9:33-50. Strife among the twelve who should be greatest in
the Kingdom of Heaven, with relative teaching - Incidental rebuke of John for
exclusiveness. ( = Mat_18:1-9; Luk_9:46-50).
Strife among the twelve, with relative teaching (Mar_9:33-37).
What was it that ye disputed among yourselves by the way? — From this
we gather that after the painful communication He had made to them, the Redeemer
had allowed them to travel so much of the way by themselves; partly, no doubt, that
He might have privacy for Himself to dwell on what lay before Him, and partly that
they might be induced to weigh together and prepare themselves for the terrible
events which He had announced to them. But if so, how different was their
occupation!
BURKITT, "It may justly seem a wonder, that when our blessed Saviour
discoursed so frequently with his disciples about his sufferings, they should at
the same time be disputing among themselves about precedency and pre-
eminency, which of them should be the greatest, the first in place, and the highest
in dignity and honour.
But from this instance we may learn, That the holiest and best of men are subject
to pride and ambition, prone to covet worldly dignity and greatness, ready to
catch at the bait of honour, to affect a precedency before, and a superiority over,
others. The apostles themselves were touched, if not tainted, with the itch of
ambition. To cure which, our Saviour preaches to them the doctrine of humility.
Where observe, 1. Our Lord doth not say, he that is fist, but he that desireth to
be first, shall be last of all, and servant of all.
Teaching us, That all persons in general, and ministers in particular, ought not
to seek out places of dignity and pre-eminency for themselves, but be sought out
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126. for them: he that is first in seeking them usually least deserves them, and last
obtains them; If any man desire to be first, the same shall be last of all.
Observe 2. Our Saviour teaches his disciples humility by the type and example of
a little child, which he set before them as the proper emblem of humility;
shewing them, that they ought to be as free from ambition as a young child,
which affects nothing of precedency or superiority. Such as are of highest
eminency in the church of Christ, ought to be adorned with humility, and look
upon themsleves as lying under the greatest obligations to be most eminently
useful and serviceable for the church's good.
Observe 3. How exceeding dear and precious such persons are to Christ, who
resemble little children in true humility and lowliness of mind; assuring the
world, that whatsoever kindness or respect they shew to them, be accounts shewn
to himself; He that receiveth them, says Christ, receiveth me. So near is the
union, so dear the relation, betwixt Christ and his members, that whatever good
or evil is done to them, he reckons it as done unto himself.
BENSON, "Mark 9:33-37. Being in the house — With his apostles, with a view to
introduce the discourse he intended; he asked, What was it that ye disputed
among yourselves, &c. — Our Lord’s late prediction concerning his sufferings
had made the disciples exceeding sorry, Matthew 17:23; but their grief soon went
off, or their ignorance quickly got the better of it; for in a day or two after, some
of them, forming a separate company, fell a disputing about the chief posts of
honour and profit in their Master’s kingdom. This debate Jesus overheard; and
though he said nothing to them at the time, yet afterward, when they were alone
in the house, he did not fail to inquire about it. They were at first silent, not
caring to discover the matter to him. Therefore, he sat down, and called the
twelve — Namely, to stand round him, and attend to what he should say and do.
It is natural to suppose that twelve persons, travelling together on foot, would
form themselves into two or three little companies, while some of them no doubt
would be attending Christ and discoursing with him: but our Lord judged it
proper, being now in the house, that all the twelve should hear this admonition,
though they might not all have been engaged in the dispute which occasioned it.
And saith, If any man desire to be first, the same shall be, or let him be, last of
all — Let him abase himself the most: And servant of all — Let him serve his
brethren in all the offices of humility, condescension, and kindness. In other
words, If any man desire to be the greatest person in my kingdom, let him
endeavour to obtain that dignity by preferring others in honour, and by doing
them all the good in his power. This he said, to signify that in his kingdom, they
who are most humble and modest, and zealous in doing good, shall be
acknowledged as the greatest persons. And he took a child — That happened
then to be in the house where they lodged; and set him in the midst of them —
That they might all fix their eyes upon him, and attend to the instruction which
Jesus was about to draw from such an emblem of simplicity, sincerity, humility,
teachableness, and innocence. Luke expresses it thus: And Jesus, perceiving the
thought of their heart, took a child. His perceiving their thought does not seem to
relate to the dispute which happened some hours before, and which they had
sufficiently declared in their question, but it relates to their present frame of
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127. mind. He knew that each of them ardently wished to be the greatest in his
kingdom, and he proposed to cure their ambition. See the notes on Matthew
18:1-4. He said, Whosoever shall receive one of such children — Whosoever shall
show kindness, even to the least of my disciples; whosoever shall encourage and
assist such a one because he belongs to me; receiveth me — Thus, after showing
how acceptable a grace humility is, he next declares that kindness shown to such
as humble themselves, like little children, is in reality kindness shown to him,
especially if it be done out of obedience to his command. Whosoever shall receive
me, receiveth him that sent me — Even my heavenly Father, who is honoured or
affronted as I am respected or slighted. And this regard to the meanest of my
servants, I must urge upon you as of the utmost importance. For (Luke) he that
is least among you all, that acts as if he were the least, or meanest, or who is most
humble and condescending, the same shall be great, in my esteem, and be
distinguished by peculiar marks of the divine favour. See notes on Matthew
18:4-5.
MACLAREN, "AN UNANSWERED QUESTION
Was it not a strange time to squabble when they had just been told of His death?
Note-
I. The variations of feeling common to the disciples and to us all: one
moment ‘exceeding sorrowful,’ the next fighting for precedence.
II. Christ’s divine insight into His servants’ faults.
This question was put because He knew what the wrangle had been about. The
disputants did not answer, but He knew without an answer, as His immediately
following warnings show. How blessed to think that Psa_139:1 applies to Him-’There
is not a word in my tongue, but lo, O Lord! Thou knowest it altogether,’
III. The compassion of Christ seeking to cure the sins He sees.
His question is not to rebuke, but to heal; so His perfect knowledge is blended with
perfect love.
IV. The test of evil. They were ashamed to tell Him the cause of their
dispute.
V. The method of cure. The presence of Christ is the end of strife and of
sin in general.
Mark 9:33-42
RECEIVING AND FORBIDDING
Surely the disciples might have found something better to talk about on the road
from Caesarea, where they had heard from Jesus of His sufferings, than this
miserable wrangle about rank! Singularly enough, each announcement of the Cross
seems to have provoked something of the sort. Probably they understood little of His
meaning, but hazily thought that the crisis was at hand when He should establish the
kingdom; and so their ambition, rather than their affection, was stirred. Perhaps,
too, the dignity bestowed on Peter after his confession, and the favour shown to the
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128. three witnesses of the Transfiguration, may have created jealousy. Matthew makes
the quarrel to have been about future precedence; Mark about present. The one was
striven for with a view to the other. How chill it must have struck on Christ’s heart,
that those who loved Him best cared so much more for their own petty superiority
than for His sorrows!
I. Note the law of service as the true greatness (Mar_9:33 - Mar_9:35).
‘When He was in the house, He asked them.’ He had let them talk as they would on
the road, walking alone in front, and they keeping, as they thought, out of ear-shot;
but, when at rest together in the house (perhaps Peter’s) where He lived in
Capernaum, He lets them see, by the question and still more by the following
teaching, that He knew what He asked, and needed no answer. The tongues that had
been so loud on the road were dumb in the house-silenced by conscience. His
servants still do and say many things on the road which they would not do if they saw
Him close beside them, and they sometimes fancy that these escape Him. But when
they are ‘in the house’ with Him, they will find that He knew all that was going on;
and when He asks the account of it, they, too, will be speechless. ‘A thing which does
not appear wrong by itself shows its true character when brought to the judgment of
God and the knowledge of Jesus Christ. ( Bengel).
Christ deals with the fault with much solemnity, seating Himself, as Teacher and
Superior, and summoning the whole Twelve to hear. We do not enter on the difficult
question of the relation of Mark’s report of our Lord’s words to those of the other
Evangelists, but rather try to bring out the significance of their form and connection
here. Note, then, that here we have not so much the nature of true greatness, as the
road to it. ‘If any man would be first,’ he is to be least and servant, and thereby he will
reach his aim. Of course, that involves the conception of the nature of true greatness
as service, but still the distinction is to be kept in view. Further, ‘last of all’ is not the
same as ‘servant of all.’ The one phrase expresses humility; the other, ministry. An
indolent humility, so very humble that it does nothing for others, and a service which
if not humble, are equally incomplete, and neither leads to or is the greatness at
which alone a Christian ought to aim. There are two paradoxes here. The lowest is
the highest, the servant is the chief; and they may be turned round with equal truth-
the highest is the lowest, and the chief is the servant. The former tells us how things
really are, and what they look like, when seen from the centre by His eye. The latter
prescribes the duties and responsibilities of high position. In fact and truth, to sink is
the way to rise, and to serve is the way to rule-only the rise and the rule are of
another sort than contents worldly ambition, and the Christian must rectify his
notions of what loftiness and greatness are. On the other hand, distinguishing gifts of
mind, heart, leisure, position, possessions, or anything else, are given us for others,
and bind us to serve. Both things follow from the nature of Christ’s kingdom, which
is a kingdom of love; for in love the vulgar distinctions of higher and lower are
abolished, and service is delight. This is no mere pretty sentiment, but a law which
grips hard and cuts deep. Christ’s servants have not learned it yet, and the world
heeds it not; but, till it governs all human society, and pulls up ambition, domination,
and pride of place by the roots, society will groan under ills which increase with the
increase of wealth and culture in the hands of a selfish few.
II. Note the exhibition of the law in a life.
Children are quick at finding out who loves them, and there would always be some
hovering near for a smile from Christ. With what eyes of innocent wonder the child
would look up at Him, as He gently set him there, in the open space in front of
Himself! Mark does not record any accompanying words, and none were needed, The
unconsciousness of rank, the spontaneous acceptance of inferiority, the absence of
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129. claims to consideration and respect, which naturally belong to childhood as it ought
to be, and give it winningness and grace, are the marks of a true disciple, and are the
more winning in such because they are not of nature, but regained by self-
abnegation. What the child is we have to become. This child was the example of one-
half of the law, being ‘least of all,’ and perfectly contented to be so; but the other half
was not shown in him, for his little hands could do but small service. Was there, then,
no example in this scene of that other requirement? Surely there was; for the child
was not left standing, shy, in the midst, but, before embarrassment became weeping,
was caught up in Christ’s arms, and folded to His heart. He had been taken as the
instance of humility, and he then became the subject of tender ministry. Christ and
he divided the illustration of the whole law between them, and the very inmost
nature of true service was shown in our Lord’s loving clasp and soothing pressure to
His heart. It is as if He had said, ‘Look! this is how you must serve; for you cannot
help the weak unless you open your arms and hearts to them.’ Jesus, with the child
held to His bosom, is the living law of service, and the child nestling close to Him,
because sure of His love, is the type of the trustful affection which we must evoke if
we are to serve or help. This picture has gone straight to the hearts of men; and who
can count the streams of tenderness and practical kindliness of which it has been the
source? Christ goes on to speak of the child, not as the example of service, but of
being served. The deep words carry us into blessed mysteries which will recompense
the lowly servants, and lift them high in the kingdom. Observe the precision of the
language, both as regards the persons received and the motive of reception. ‘One of
such little children’ means those who are thus lowly, unambitious, and unexacting.
‘In My name’ defines the motive as not being simple humanity or benevolence, but
the distinct recognition of Christ’s command and loving obedience to His revealed
character. No doubt, natural benevolence has its blessings for those who exercise it;
but that which is here spoken of is something much deeper than nature, and wins a
far higher reward.
That reward is held forth in unfathomable words, of which we can but skim the
surface. They mean more than that such little ones are so closely identified with Him
that, in His love, He reckons good done to them as done to Him. That is most
blessedly true. Nor is it true only because He lovingly reckons the deed as done to
Him, though it really is not; but, by reason of the derived life which all His children
possess from Him, they are really parts of Himself; and in that most real though
mystic unity, what is done to them is, in fact, done to Him. Further, if the service be
done in His name, then, on whomsoever it may be done, it is done to Him. This great
saying unveils the true sacredness and real recipient of all Christian service. But more
than that is in the words. When we ‘receive’ Christ’s little ones by help and loving
ministry, we receive Him, and in Him God, for joy and strength. Unselfish deeds in
His name open the heart for more of Christ and God, and bring on the doer the
blessing of fuller insight, closer communion, more complete assimilation to his Lord.
Therefore such service is the road to the true superiority in His kingdom, which
depends altogether on the measure of His own nature which has flowed into our
emptiness.
III. The Apostles’ conscience-stricken confession of their breach of the
law (Mar_9:38 - Mar_9:40).
Peter is not spokesman this time, but John, whose conscience was more quickly
pricked. At first sight, the connection of his interruption with the theme of the
discourse seems to be merely the recurrence of the phrase, ‘in Thy name’; but,
besides that, there is an obvious contrast between ‘receiving’ and ‘forbidding.’ The
Apostle is uneasy when he remembers what they had done, and, like an honest man,
he states the case to Christ, half-confessing, and half-asking for a decision. He begins
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130. to think that perhaps the man whom they had silenced was ‘one such little child,’ and
had deserved more sympathetic treatment. How he came to be so true a disciple as to
share in the power of casting out devils, and yet not to belong to the closer followers
of Jesus, we do not know, and need not guess. So it was; and John feels, as he tells
the story, that perhaps their motives had not been so much their Master’s honour as
their own. ‘He followeth not us,’ and yet he is trenching on our prerogatives. The
greater fact that he and they followed Christ was overshadowed by the lesser that he
did not follow them. There spoke the fiery spirit which craved the commission to
burn up a whole village, because of its inhospitality. There spoke the spirit of
ecclesiastical intolerance, which in all ages has masqueraded as zeal for Christ, and
taken ‘following us’ and ‘following Him’ to be the same thing. But there spoke, too, a
glimmering consciousness that gagging men was not precisely ‘receiving’ them, and
that if ‘in Thy name’ so sanctified deeds, perhaps the unattached exorcist, who could
cast out demons by it, was ‘a little one’ to be taken to their hearts, and not an enemy
to be silenced. Pity that so many listen to the law, and do not, like John, feel it prick
them! Christ forbids such ‘forbidding,’ and thereby sanctions ‘irregularities’ and
‘unattached’ work, which have always been the bugbears of sticklers for ecclesiastical
uniformity, and have not seldom been the life of Christianity. That authoritative,
unconditional ‘forbid him not’ ought, long ago, to have rung the funeral knell of
intolerance, and to have ended the temptation to idolise ‘conformity,’ and to
confound union to organised forms of the Christian community with union to Christ.
But bigotry dies hard. The reasons appended serve to explain the position of the man
in question. If he had wrought miracles in Christ’s name, he must have had some
faith in it; and his experience of its power would deepen that. So there was no danger
of his contradicting himself by speaking against Jesus. The power of ‘faith in the
Name’ to hallow deeds, the certainty that rudimentary faith will, when exercised,
increase, the guarantee of experience as sure to lead to blessing from Jesus, are all
involved in this saying. But its special importance is as a reason for the disciples’
action. Because the man’s action gives guarantees for his future, they are not to
silence him. That implies that they are only to forbid those who do speak evil of
Christ; and that to all others, even if they have not reached the full perception of
truth, they are to extend patient forbearance and guidance. ‘The mouth of them that
speak lies shall be stopped’; but the mouth that begins to stammer His name is to be
taught and cherished.
Christ’s second reason still more plainly claims the man for an ally. Commentators
have given themselves a great deal of trouble to reconcile this saying with the
other-’He that is not with Me is against Me.’ If by reconciling is meant twisting both
to mean the same thing, it cannot be done. If preventing the appearance of
contradiction is meant, it does not seem necessary. The two sayings do not
contradict, but they complete, each other. They apply to different classes of persons,
and common-sense has to determine their application. This man did, in some sense,
believe in Jesus, and worked deeds that proved the power of the Name. Plainly, such
work was in the same direction as the Lord’s and the disciples’. Such a case is one for
the application of tolerance. But the principle must be limited by the other, else it
degenerates into lazy indifference. ‘He that is not against us is for us,’ if it stood
alone, would dissolve the Church, and destroy distinctions in belief and practice
which it would be fatal to lose. ‘He that is not with Me is against Me,’ if it stood alone,
would narrow sympathies, and cramp the free development of life. We need both to
understand and get the good of either.
IV. We have the reward of receiving Christ’s little ones set over against
the retribution that seizes those who cause them to stumble (Mar_9:41 -
Mar_9:42).
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131. These verses seem to resume the broken thread of Mar_9:37, whilst they also link on
to the great principle laid down in Mar_9:40. He that is ‘not against’ is ‘for,’ even if
he only gives a ‘cup of water’ to Christ’s disciple because he is Christ’s. That shows
that there is some regard for Jesus in him. It is a germ which may grow. Such an one
shall certainly have his reward. That does not mean that he will receive it in a future
life, but that here his deed shall bring after it blessed consequences to himself. Of
these, none will be more blessed than the growing regard for the Name, which
already is, in some degree, precious to him. The faintest perception of Christ’s
beauty, honestly lived out, will be increased. Every act strengthens its motive. The
reward of living our convictions is firmer and more enlightened conviction. Note, too,
that the person spoken of belongs to the same class as the silenced exorcist, and that
this reads the disciples a further lesson. Jesus will look with love on the acts which
even a John wished to forbid. Note, also, that the disciples here are the recipients of
the kindness. They are no longer being taught to receive the ‘little ones,’ but are
taught that they themselves belong to that class, and need kindly succour from these
outsiders, whom they had proudly thought to silence.
The awful, reticent words, which shadow forth and yet hide the fate of those who
cause the feeblest disciple to stumble, are not for us to dilate upon. Jesus saw the
realities of future retribution, and deliberately declares that death is a less evil than
such an act. The ‘little ones’ are sacred because they are His. The same relation to
Him which made kindness to them so worthy of reward, makes harm to them so
worthy of punishment. Under the one lies an incipient love to Him; under the other,
a covert and perhaps scarcely conscious opposition. It is devil’s work to seduce
simple souls from allegiance to Christ. There are busy hands to-day laying stumbling-
blocks in the way, especially of young Christians-stumbling-blocks of doubt, of
frivolity, of slackened morality, and the like. It were better, says One who saw clearly
into that awful realm beyond, if a heavy millstone were knotted about their necks,
and they were flung into the deepest place of the lake that lay before Him as he
spoke. He does not speak exaggerated words; and if a solemn strain of vehemence,
unlike His ordinary calm, is audible here, it is because what He knew, and did not
tell, gave solemn earnestness to His veiled and awe-inspiring prophecy of doom.
What imagination shall fill out the details of the ‘worse than’ which lurks behind that
‘better’?
SBC, "The child in the midst.
Note:—
I. That our Lord’s lesson lay, not in the humanity, but in the childhood of the child.
The disciples had been disputing who should be the greatest, and the Lord wanted to
show them that such a dispute had nothing to do with the way things went in His
kingdom. Therefore, as a specimen of His subjects, He took a child and set him
before them. It was not, it could not, be in virtue of his humanity, it was in virtue of
his childhood that this child was thus shown as representing a subject of the
Kingdom. It was not to show the scope, but the nature of the Kingdom. He told them
they could not enter into the Kingdom save by becoming little children—by humbling
themselves, for the idea of ruling was excluded where childlikeness was the one
essential quality. It was to be no more who should rule, but who should serve; no
more who should look down on his fellows from the conquered heights of authority—
even of sacred authority—but who should look up, honouring humanity and
ministering unto it, so that humanity itself might be persuaded of its own honour as
a temple of the living God.
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132. II. This lesson led to the enunciation of a yet higher truth, upon which it was
founded, and from which indeed it sprung. Nothing is required of man that is not
first in God. It is because God is perfect that we are required to be perfect; and it is
for the revelation of God to all the human souls, that they may be saved by knowing
Him, and so becoming like Him, that this child is thus chosen, and set before them in
the gospel. It is the recognition of the childhood as Divine, that will show the disciple
how vain is the strife after relative place or honour in the great Kingdom.
III. To receive a child in the name of God is to receive God Himself. How to receive
Him? As alone He can be received—by knowing Him as He is. Here is the argument
of highest import, founded upon the teaching of our Master in the utterance before
us. God is represented in Jesus, for that God is like Jesus; Jesus is represented in the
child, for that Jesus is like the child. Therefore God is represented in the child, for
that He is like the child. God is childlike. In the true vision of this fact lies the
receiving of God in the child.
G. Macdonald, Unspoken Sermons, p. 1.
BI 33-37, "What was it that ye disputed among yourselves by the way?
The true child our pattern
What is the true child like?
I. He is unconscious of himself; self-dissection or analysis is unknown to him.
II. He lives in the present.
1. He never worries or is anxious about the future; sufficient to the day, for him,
is the evil thereof.
2. So also, though always aspiring, he is never discontented in the ungrateful or
peevish sense; sufficient likewise for the day is the good thereof; he would not
have it otherwise.
III. His pleasures are simple, pure, natural, fresh from the hand of God. The least of
His gifts, even a cup of cold water, has value in his eyes, so that he wastes not
wilfully.
IV. He looks forward with boundless hope to a greater, more complete life (i.e., to be
“grown up”).
V. He knows not how to sneer or be cynical: but instinctively shrinks from a sneer as
from a blow or a sting.
VI. His aversions and dreads are true and symbolical (until, like his tastes and
likings, made artificial by example and training). E.g.
(1) Darkness and all that is black;
(2) bitterness, sourness, all that is acrid or sickening;
(3) all that wounds and kills.
VII. His obedience is not reluctant, but faithful.
VIII. His heart responds to the touch of truth, if honestly and faithfully appealed to.
(Vita.)
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133. The lesson of humility
Children are patterns of humility in these respects.
1. They are not so puffed up as older people with conceit of themselves, or of their
own good parts and gifts; they do not think the better of themselves because they
possess these advantages nor do they boast of them.
2. They do not disdain or despise others, but think as well of them as of
themselves, even if inferiors.
3. They are not ambitious in seeking after vain glory.
4. They are not given to strife and contention, but are of a quiet and peaceable
disposition.
5. They do not envy the good fortune of others, but rejoice in each other’s
prosperity.
6. They are tractable to admonition and reproof, ready to submit to it, and easily
reclaimed from a fault. (G. Petter.)
Lesson against pride
I. The humility and trustfulness of children should be preserved by men.
II. They who have most power should render most service.
III. They who descend most in love will rise most in honour.
IV. God is served by obedience to Christ, and Christ by kindness to the least and
lowest who belong to Him. (J. H. Godwin.)
Disciples disputing
I. Those whose conduct is before us are the followers of Christ. Externally, really and
spiritually; hence, this spectacle is one within the bosom of the Church.
II. They disputed among themselves by the way. How fitly did the College of Apostles
foreshadow the state of the Church in after ages.
III. The cause of disagreement among them-“Who should be the greatest.” Worldly
ambition was the rooter bitterness. The secret of most of the contentious of seeming
Christians.
IV. Christ did not interfere to prevent these contendings.
V. Christ, though He suffered them to end their contest, called their to account.
Divisions are most offensive to Him. He will call the sowers of division to account.
VI. To the inquiry of Christ as to the grounds of their dispute, they made at first no
answer.
VII. Christ takes advantage of what had occurred, in order to inculcate the duty and
recommend the grace of humility. Beware of disputes, and therefore of pride.
Cultivate true Christian greatness-Christ’s example. (Expository Discourses.)
Ambition
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134. I. What is it?
II. Proof that it is evil.
III. Means of cure.
I. Ambition is to be distinguished from the desire of excellence.
II. That ambition is evil in its nature, and therefore degrading in its influence, is
evident.
1. Because it is inconsistent with our relation to God as creatures.
2. It is inconsistent with our relation to God as sinners.
3. Because Christ always reproved this desire of preeminence.
4. This trait of character did not belong to Christ.
5. We always approve of the opposite temper whenever we see it manifested.
6. It is inconsistent with our being governed by right motives and affections.
III. Means of cure.
1. Cultivating a sense of our insignificance and unworthiness.
2. Having our hearts filled with Christ.
3. By constantly refusing to yield to this evil desire; refusing to cherish it or to
obey its dictates. By uniformly avoiding to seek the honour which comes from
men. (Chas. Hedge, D. D.)
Who is the greatest
I. The world’s opinion. The world’s great men are usually great conquerors, or great
philosophers, poets, etc. Many of them small men, viewed in their moral relations.
Alexander wept for another world to conquer. “Greater is he that ruleth his spirit
than he that taketh a city.” See the world’s great ones described (Mat_20:25-26).
Haman was one such, yet a very little man. It is said there are three classes of great
men.
1. Those who are born great.
2. Those who have greatness thrust upon them.
3. Those who achieve greatness. The world sees no greatness in lowliness.
II. The disciples’ wish. Even they wished to be great. Not, indeed, after the world’s
fashion, but each one wanted to be above the rest. Each one might think he deserved
to be first, or had qualities that fitted him for preeminence.
III. The master’s lesson. Note-
1. The kindness of His manner. “Speak the truth in love.”
2. The simplicity and clearness of illustration. Might have argued, but took a little
child in His arms.
3. The nature of the lesson. Goodness is greatness.
Learn:
1. Not to be deceived by the world’s notions of greatness.
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135. 2. Not to give place to ambitious desires.
3. To aim after goodness, and let the greatness follow if it may. (J. C. Gray.)
A child for a text
I. Let us begin with the mistake sometimes made, which will certainly need
correction. Our Lord does not teach by any implication that children are sinless little
creatures.
1. For the argument and illustration of the discourse He gave are all against such
a supposition. According to the authorized version, Christ says that they are
“lost,” that the Son of Man needed to come to “save” them, and without the will of
the Father they would “perish” (Mat_18:11-14).
2. The story offers no proof of any innocence even in the child He chose.
Ecclesiastical tradition, not reliable, states that this boy became afterwards the
martyr Ignatius, and was in the subsequent persecutions thrown to the wild
beasts at Rome. That is the best which could be said of him, and we do not know
even so much to be true. Surely, he was never offered as a model child, and we do
not suppose he was born unlike others.
II. So now let us inquire what is the true spiritual doctrine of the passage. It is
evident that our Lord was rebuking His disciples for a foolish dispute they had had
“by the way.” And he did this by commending to them a child-like disposition.
1. A child is remarkable for his considerateness of ethers. It is the hardest thing
we ever try to do to teach our children to be aristocratic and keep up “style.” They
are instinctive in their fondness for what is agreeably human. It was asked of the
good Cecil’s daughter what made everybody love her? She thought a moment
with a curious sort of surprise, then answered with her own kind of logic,
“Because I love everybody.”
2. A child is remarkable for his obedience to rightful authority. His subjection is
instinctive as his charity is. He accepts the parental will as law. So his fidelity is
spontaneous; he does not recognize any merit in it. He does the exact thing he
was set to do. When the young girl in the class heard the teacher say, “How is the
will of God done in heaven?” she answered, “It is done without anybody’s asking
any questions.”
3. A child is remarkable for his contentment in the home circle. There is only one
mother in the world, and where that mother is, there is home. Disturb him,
wound him, frighten him, maltreat him, and his earliest wish is, “Please let me go
home.”
4. A child is remarkable for his persistency of trust. Children are the most logical
creatures in the world. A lady asked the small daughter of the missionary Judson,
“Were you not afraid to journey so far over the ocean?” And the reply was, “Why,
no, madam: father prayed for us when we started!” Do a boy a real kindness, and
nothing on earth can keep him from insisting to all the others that you are a kind
man. Help him once, and he will keep coming with a pathetic sort of confidence
that you like to help him. For one, having stumbled around a good deal in this
muddle of a world, in which nobody seems to stick to anything, I am ready to say
I know nothing more beautiful than the sweet forgiveness, and renewal of
confidence, which a child shows when, having met a rebuff once and been turned
away, it sits wondering and waiting, as if sure you would come round by and by
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136. and be good again.
III. Thus, now, having studied the real meaning of this incident, let us try to find out
its practical bearing.
1. In the first place, consider how it would modify our estimates of human
greatness. Here is the point at which our Lord meant His instruction should be
felt earliest. These disciples had been contending about preeminence. Perhaps
Peter began the jealous dispute, reminding them that he kept the house where
Jesus was entertained. Perhaps John asked him to remember the place Jesus
usually gave him at the table. Perhaps Andrew suggested that Simon might as
well bear in mind that he had led him to Jesus down in Bethabara. Perhaps
Matthew hushed them imperiously, declaring that none of them were business
men as he had been. And perhaps James insisted that age and experience had
some rights in the reckoning of precedence. Thus they worked themselves up into
a passion. All this petulance was met by the spectacle of a tranquil little boy, who
possibly wondered how he came to be put into show: and while they were looking
curiously at him, Jesus said, calmly: “Whosoever therefore shall humble himself
as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”
2. Next, let us consider bow this teaching would modify our aims for attainment.
We need more of this child spirit in our hearts. Does anyone ask how it may be
attained? In the old fable which the Hebrews used to teach their children about
the fallen angels, they said that the angels of knowledge, proud and wilful, were
cast down hopelessly into hell; but the angels of love, humble and tearful, crept
back once more into the blessed light, and were welcomed home.
3. Again, let us consider how these words of Christ would modify our intellectual
processes of study. Yes: but the Bible says do this thing like a child. Study with
your faith rather than your intellect. A man needs conversion, not conviction. Our
Lord here reverses human terms of counsel. We say to a child, “Be a man,” but
Jesus says to a man, “Be a child.” That is the way to enter the kingdom.
4. Once more: let us consider how this doctrine will modify our formulas of
belief. There is something for the great divines to learn also. Do we never force
our theories beyond the confines of the gospel? A child’s theology is frequently
wiser for real human need than a man’s. It often comes to pass that when a
mature intellect has been worrying itself into most discouraging confusion, it is
startled by the keen penetration and almost oracular deliverance of an infant
trust. Ask one of our young girls, “What is God?” Perhaps she will give answer,
“God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in His being, wisdom, power,
holiness, justice, goodness, and truth.” And perhaps she will reply, “God is my
father in heaven.” For all availableness to deep experience of need, some of us
think that, little as this seems to say, really it says more than the other does. Faith
cannot climb up on the north side of a doctrine in the shade. She took her notion
out of the prayer, and not out of the catechism; that is all. These great formulas
ought to be explained in the very warmth and light of the figures and
relationships of the gospel.
5. Let us consider likewise how Christ’s teaching would modify our advice to
inquirers. Some of those who claim to be honest seekers after truth completely
invert the order of relation between belief and duty. Much of the difficulty they
profess to find in the gospel is irrelevant in the matter of obligation, and entirely
illogical in the matter of faith. Any sensible child is aware that its father’s
relationship by marriage, social standing in the community, form of daily
occupation, political influence in the party, or citizenship by naturalization, has
nothing to do with the question of its own obedience to his just commands. To
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137. reckon how much money he owes or owns, does not come before minding what
he says. But inquirers will often insist on having the Trinity made clear, before
they will take up repentance. They say they are stumbled about praying, because
they cannot understand the Incarnation. Now the child spirit knows that taking
the yoke comes even before learning of Christ (see Mat_11:29). Jesus says, Do My
will (Joh_7:17).
6. Finally, let us consider how this teaching will modify our tests of experience in
grace. It is only a strange perversity which makes us seem to prefer the more
subtle evidences of a change of heart. Here a plain test is proposed. The last
result, the positively completed picture, of regeneration, is found in a child’s
temper and disposition. Anyone ought to know whether he possesses that or not.
He can find out. His life will answer his questions, when possibly he cannot
exactly find out about so mysterious a thing as his heart. Nobody is going to be
excluded from heaven because he cannot find out his election or his regeneration,
if he is holy, and truly believes in Christ, “as this little child.” (C. S. Robinson, D.
D.)
The desire to be first
If any man desire to be first, the same shall be last (Mar_5:35). There is no way in
which men are surer to outwit themselves than in looking out for themselves over
everybody else. The poorest servant in the world is the one who always puts himself
before his employer. The poorest place to buy anything is where the dealer never
regards the interest of his customers. He is less than nothing as a friend who gives his
friend the second place in his plans and course. No politician can be a leader while it
appears that he cares only for his own advancement, and nothing for the voters.
What would a soldier be worth whose aim was to look out for his own safety and
comfort in times of service and battle? And if this principle be applicable in other
fields, how much more does it apply to Christian service! He who is intent on what he
can gain out of his religion, will be behind the poorest servant of Christ who is a
servant in truth as well as in name. Self-seeking is self- destroying in the kingdom of
God. (H. Clay Trumbull.)
In My name
This means, for My sake, and it includes
(1) because they belong to Christian parents;
(2) because they partake of the nature which Christ took upon Him;
(3) because they belong to the race which Christ redeemed;
(4) because, like Christ, they are poor;
(5) because, Christ may be honoured in their after-life.
Such children are received in Christ’s Name, not only in orphanages or in Sunday
schools, but by many of the Christ-loving poor, who have children of their own, and
yet take into their homes some poor waif or stray, and cherish it as their own flesh
and blood, for no reward except the Lord’s approval. (M. F. Sadler.)
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138. Receiveth Me
The grace of this promise seems almost incredible. What an honour would any
Christian have esteemed it, if he had been permitted to receive Christ under his roof
for a single hour, and yet that receiving might have been external and transitory; but
the Lord here undoubtedly promises that to receive a little one in His Name is to
receive Him effectually. (M. F. Sadler.)
34 But they kept quiet because on the way they
had argued about who was the greatest.
GILL, "But they held their peace,.... Fearing a reprimand, for their vanity and
affectation of worldly grandeur:
for by the way they had disputed among themselves, who should be the
greatest; that is, who should be advanced to the highest post, and have the greatest
place of authority, honour, and dignity, in the temporal kingdom of the Messiah, they
expected would be in a little time set up; for notwithstanding what Christ had said to
them, concerning his being given up to the power of men, and concerning his death
and resurrection, they still retained their former principle, to which they knew not
how to reconcile his dying; and therefore chose rather to leave his meaning in
suspense, and remain ignorant about it, than quit so darling a notion: and doubtless
this dispute was occasioned by what Christ had said to them; who afterwards, getting
by themselves, talked about it, which led on to a warm contest, about precedence in
his kingdom.
HENRY, "Now, (1.) They were willing to cover this fault (Mar_9:34); they held
their peace. As they would not ask (Mar_9:32), because they were ashamed to own
their ignorance, so here they would not answer because they were ashamed to own
their pride. (2.) He was willing to amend this fault in them, and to bring them to a
better temper; and therefore sat down, that he might have a solemn and full
discourse with them about this matter; he called the twelve to him, and told them,
[1.] That ambition and affectation of dignity and dominion, instead of gaining them
preferment in his kingdom, would but postpone their preferment; If any man desire
and aim to be first, he shall be last; he that exalteth himself, shall be abased, and
men's pride shall bring them low. [2.] That there is no preferment to be had under
him, but an opportunity for, and an obligation to, so much the more labour and
condescension; If any man desire to be first, when he is so, he must be much the
more busy and serviceable to every body. He that desires the office of a bishop,
desires a good work, for he must, as St. Paul did, labour the more abundantly, and
make himself the servant of all. [3.] That those who are most humble and self-
denying, do most resemble Christ, and shall be most tenderly owned by him. This he
taught them by a sign; He took a child in his arms, that had nothing of pride and
ambition in it. “Look you,” saith he; “whosoever shall receive one like this child,
receives me. Those of a humble, meek, mild disposition are such as I will own and
countenance, and encourage every body else to do so too, and will take what is done
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139. to them as done to myself; and so will my Father too, for he who thus receiveth me,
receiveth him that sent me, and it shall be placed to his account, and repaid with
interest.”
JAMIESON, "But they held their peace: for by the way they had
disputed among themselves, who should be the greatest — From Mat_18:1
we should infer that the subject was introduced, not by our Lord, but by the disciples
themselves, who came and asked Jesus who should be greatest. Perhaps one or two
of them first referred the matter to Jesus, who put them off till they should all be
assembled together at Capernaum. He had all the while “perceived the thought of
their heart” (Luk_9:47); but now that they were all together “in the house,” He
questions them about it, and they are put to the blush, conscious of the temper
towards each other which it had kindled. This raised the whole question afresh, and
at this point our Evangelist takes it up. The subject was suggested by the recent
announcement of the Kingdom (Mat_16:19-28), the transfiguration of their Master,
and especially the preference given to three of them at that scene.
MACXLAREN, "RECEIVING AND FORBIDDING
Surely the disciples might have found something better to talk about on the road
from Caesarea, where they had heard from Jesus of His sufferings, than this
miserable wrangle about rank! Singularly enough, each announcement of the Cross
seems to have provoked something of the sort. Probably they understood little of His
meaning, but hazily thought that the crisis was at hand when He should establish the
kingdom; and so their ambition, rather than their affection, was stirred. Perhaps,
too, the dignity bestowed on Peter after his confession, and the favour shown to the
three witnesses of the Transfiguration, may have created jealousy. Matthew makes
the quarrel to have been about future precedence; Mark about present. The one was
striven for with a view to the other. How chill it must have struck on Christ’s heart,
that those who loved Him best cared so much more for their own petty superiority
than for His sorrows!
I. Note the law of service as the true greatness (Mar_9:33 - Mar_9:35).
‘When He was in the house, He asked them.’ He had let them talk as they would on
the road, walking alone in front, and they keeping, as they thought, out of ear-shot;
but, when at rest together in the house (perhaps Peter’s) where He lived in
Capernaum, He lets them see, by the question and still more by the following
teaching, that He knew what He asked, and needed no answer. The tongues that had
been so loud on the road were dumb in the house-silenced by conscience. His
servants still do and say many things on the road which they would not do if they saw
Him close beside them, and they sometimes fancy that these escape Him. But when
they are ‘in the house’ with Him, they will find that He knew all that was going on;
and when He asks the account of it, they, too, will be speechless. ‘A thing which does
not appear wrong by itself shows its true character when brought to the judgment of
God and the knowledge of Jesus Christ. ( Bengel).
Christ deals with the fault with much solemnity, seating Himself, as Teacher and
Superior, and summoning the whole Twelve to hear. We do not enter on the difficult
question of the relation of Mark’s report of our Lord’s words to those of the other
Evangelists, but rather try to bring out the significance of their form and connection
here. Note, then, that here we have not so much the nature of true greatness, as the
road to it. ‘If any man would be first,’ he is to be least and servant, and thereby he will
reach his aim. Of course, that involves the conception of the nature of true greatness
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140. as service, but still the distinction is to be kept in view. Further, ‘last of all’ is not the
same as ‘servant of all.’ The one phrase expresses humility; the other, ministry. An
indolent humility, so very humble that it does nothing for others, and a service which
if not humble, are equally incomplete, and neither leads to or is the greatness at
which alone a Christian ought to aim. There are two paradoxes here. The lowest is
the highest, the servant is the chief; and they may be turned round with equal truth-
the highest is the lowest, and the chief is the servant. The former tells us how things
really are, and what they look like, when seen from the centre by His eye. The latter
prescribes the duties and responsibilities of high position. In fact and truth, to sink is
the way to rise, and to serve is the way to rule-only the rise and the rule are of
another sort than contents worldly ambition, and the Christian must rectify his
notions of what loftiness and greatness are. On the other hand, distinguishing gifts of
mind, heart, leisure, position, possessions, or anything else, are given us for others,
and bind us to serve. Both things follow from the nature of Christ’s kingdom, which
is a kingdom of love; for in love the vulgar distinctions of higher and lower are
abolished, and service is delight. This is no mere pretty sentiment, but a law which
grips hard and cuts deep. Christ’s servants have not learned it yet, and the world
heeds it not; but, till it governs all human society, and pulls up ambition, domination,
and pride of place by the roots, society will groan under ills which increase with the
increase of wealth and culture in the hands of a selfish few.
II. Note the exhibition of the law in a life.
Children are quick at finding out who loves them, and there would always be some
hovering near for a smile from Christ. With what eyes of innocent wonder the child
would look up at Him, as He gently set him there, in the open space in front of
Himself! Mark does not record any accompanying words, and none were needed, The
unconsciousness of rank, the spontaneous acceptance of inferiority, the absence of
claims to consideration and respect, which naturally belong to childhood as it ought
to be, and give it winningness and grace, are the marks of a true disciple, and are the
more winning in such because they are not of nature, but regained by self-
abnegation. What the child is we have to become. This child was the example of one-
half of the law, being ‘least of all,’ and perfectly contented to be so; but the other half
was not shown in him, for his little hands could do but small service. Was there, then,
no example in this scene of that other requirement? Surely there was; for the child
was not left standing, shy, in the midst, but, before embarrassment became weeping,
was caught up in Christ’s arms, and folded to His heart. He had been taken as the
instance of humility, and he then became the subject of tender ministry. Christ and
he divided the illustration of the whole law between them, and the very inmost
nature of true service was shown in our Lord’s loving clasp and soothing pressure to
His heart. It is as if He had said, ‘Look! this is how you must serve; for you cannot
help the weak unless you open your arms and hearts to them.’ Jesus, with the child
held to His bosom, is the living law of service, and the child nestling close to Him,
because sure of His love, is the type of the trustful affection which we must evoke if
we are to serve or help. This picture has gone straight to the hearts of men; and who
can count the streams of tenderness and practical kindliness of which it has been the
source? Christ goes on to speak of the child, not as the example of service, but of
being served. The deep words carry us into blessed mysteries which will recompense
the lowly servants, and lift them high in the kingdom. Observe the precision of the
language, both as regards the persons received and the motive of reception. ‘One of
such little children’ means those who are thus lowly, unambitious, and unexacting.
‘In My name’ defines the motive as not being simple humanity or benevolence, but
the distinct recognition of Christ’s command and loving obedience to His revealed
character. No doubt, natural benevolence has its blessings for those who exercise it;
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141. but that which is here spoken of is something much deeper than nature, and wins a
far higher reward.
That reward is held forth in unfathomable words, of which we can but skim the
surface. They mean more than that such little ones are so closely identified with Him
that, in His love, He reckons good done to them as done to Him. That is most
blessedly true. Nor is it true only because He lovingly reckons the deed as done to
Him, though it really is not; but, by reason of the derived life which all His children
possess from Him, they are really parts of Himself; and in that most real though
mystic unity, what is done to them is, in fact, done to Him. Further, if the service be
done in His name, then, on whomsoever it may be done, it is done to Him. This great
saying unveils the true sacredness and real recipient of all Christian service. But more
than that is in the words. When we ‘receive’ Christ’s little ones by help and loving
ministry, we receive Him, and in Him God, for joy and strength. Unselfish deeds in
His name open the heart for more of Christ and God, and bring on the doer the
blessing of fuller insight, closer communion, more complete assimilation to his Lord.
Therefore such service is the road to the true superiority in His kingdom, which
depends altogether on the measure of His own nature which has flowed into our
emptiness.
III. The Apostles’ conscience-stricken confession of their breach of the
law (Mar_9:38 - Mar_9:40).
Peter is not spokesman this time, but John, whose conscience was more quickly
pricked. At first sight, the connection of his interruption with the theme of the
discourse seems to be merely the recurrence of the phrase, ‘in Thy name’; but,
besides that, there is an obvious contrast between ‘receiving’ and ‘forbidding.’ The
Apostle is uneasy when he remembers what they had done, and, like an honest man,
he states the case to Christ, half-confessing, and half-asking for a decision. He begins
to think that perhaps the man whom they had silenced was ‘one such little child,’ and
had deserved more sympathetic treatment. How he came to be so true a disciple as to
share in the power of casting out devils, and yet not to belong to the closer followers
of Jesus, we do not know, and need not guess. So it was; and John feels, as he tells
the story, that perhaps their motives had not been so much their Master’s honour as
their own. ‘He followeth not us,’ and yet he is trenching on our prerogatives. The
greater fact that he and they followed Christ was overshadowed by the lesser that he
did not follow them. There spoke the fiery spirit which craved the commission to
burn up a whole village, because of its inhospitality. There spoke the spirit of
ecclesiastical intolerance, which in all ages has masqueraded as zeal for Christ, and
taken ‘following us’ and ‘following Him’ to be the same thing. But there spoke, too, a
glimmering consciousness that gagging men was not precisely ‘receiving’ them, and
that if ‘in Thy name’ so sanctified deeds, perhaps the unattached exorcist, who could
cast out demons by it, was ‘a little one’ to be taken to their hearts, and not an enemy
to be silenced. Pity that so many listen to the law, and do not, like John, feel it prick
them! Christ forbids such ‘forbidding,’ and thereby sanctions ‘irregularities’ and
‘unattached’ work, which have always been the bugbears of sticklers for ecclesiastical
uniformity, and have not seldom been the life of Christianity. That authoritative,
unconditional ‘forbid him not’ ought, long ago, to have rung the funeral knell of
intolerance, and to have ended the temptation to idolise ‘conformity,’ and to
confound union to organised forms of the Christian community with union to Christ.
But bigotry dies hard. The reasons appended serve to explain the position of the man
in question. If he had wrought miracles in Christ’s name, he must have had some
faith in it; and his experience of its power would deepen that. So there was no danger
of his contradicting himself by speaking against Jesus. The power of ‘faith in the
Name’ to hallow deeds, the certainty that rudimentary faith will, when exercised,
141

142. increase, the guarantee of experience as sure to lead to blessing from Jesus, are all
involved in this saying. But its special importance is as a reason for the disciples’
action. Because the man’s action gives guarantees for his future, they are not to
silence him. That implies that they are only to forbid those who do speak evil of
Christ; and that to all others, even if they have not reached the full perception of
truth, they are to extend patient forbearance and guidance. ‘The mouth of them that
speak lies shall be stopped’; but the mouth that begins to stammer His name is to be
taught and cherished.
Christ’s second reason still more plainly claims the man for an ally. Commentators
have given themselves a great deal of trouble to reconcile this saying with the
other-’He that is not with Me is against Me.’ If by reconciling is meant twisting both
to mean the same thing, it cannot be done. If preventing the appearance of
contradiction is meant, it does not seem necessary. The two sayings do not
contradict, but they complete, each other. They apply to different classes of persons,
and common-sense has to determine their application. This man did, in some sense,
believe in Jesus, and worked deeds that proved the power of the Name. Plainly, such
work was in the same direction as the Lord’s and the disciples’. Such a case is one for
the application of tolerance. But the principle must be limited by the other, else it
degenerates into lazy indifference. ‘He that is not against us is for us,’ if it stood
alone, would dissolve the Church, and destroy distinctions in belief and practice
which it would be fatal to lose. ‘He that is not with Me is against Me,’ if it stood alone,
would narrow sympathies, and cramp the free development of life. We need both to
understand and get the good of either.
IV. We have the reward of receiving Christ’s little ones set over against
the retribution that seizes those who cause them to stumble (Mar_9:41 -
Mar_9:42).
These verses seem to resume the broken thread of Mar_9:37, whilst they also link on
to the great principle laid down in Mar_9:40. He that is ‘not against’ is ‘for,’ even if
he only gives a ‘cup of water’ to Christ’s disciple because he is Christ’s. That shows
that there is some regard for Jesus in him. It is a germ which may grow. Such an one
shall certainly have his reward. That does not mean that he will receive it in a future
life, but that here his deed shall bring after it blessed consequences to himself. Of
these, none will be more blessed than the growing regard for the Name, which
already is, in some degree, precious to him. The faintest perception of Christ’s
beauty, honestly lived out, will be increased. Every act strengthens its motive. The
reward of living our convictions is firmer and more enlightened conviction. Note, too,
that the person spoken of belongs to the same class as the silenced exorcist, and that
this reads the disciples a further lesson. Jesus will look with love on the acts which
even a John wished to forbid. Note, also, that the disciples here are the recipients of
the kindness. They are no longer being taught to receive the ‘little ones,’ but are
taught that they themselves belong to that class, and need kindly succour from these
outsiders, whom they had proudly thought to silence.
The awful, reticent words, which shadow forth and yet hide the fate of those who
cause the feeblest disciple to stumble, are not for us to dilate upon. Jesus saw the
realities of future retribution, and deliberately declares that death is a less evil than
such an act. The ‘little ones’ are sacred because they are His. The same relation to
Him which made kindness to them so worthy of reward, makes harm to them so
worthy of punishment. Under the one lies an incipient love to Him; under the other,
a covert and perhaps scarcely conscious opposition. It is devil’s work to seduce
simple souls from allegiance to Christ. There are busy hands to-day laying stumbling-
blocks in the way, especially of young Christians-stumbling-blocks of doubt, of
frivolity, of slackened morality, and the like. It were better, says One who saw clearly
142

143. into that awful realm beyond, if a heavy millstone were knotted about their necks,
and they were flung into the deepest place of the lake that lay before Him as he
spoke. He does not speak exaggerated words; and if a solemn strain of vehemence,
unlike His ordinary calm, is audible here, it is because what He knew, and did not
tell, gave solemn earnestness to His veiled and awe-inspiring prophecy of doom.
What imagination shall fill out the details of the ‘worse than’ which lurks behind that
‘better’?
35 Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and
said, “Anyone who wants to be first must be the
very last, and the servant of all.”
GILL, "And he sat down,.... As their master, as one having authority; and in order
to examine into this matter, and pass judgment upon it:
and called the twelve; all the disciples, who though they might not be all engaged
in this dispute, nor equally criminal, yet were all, possessed of the same notion; and
therefore Christ calls them all unto him, what he had to say, being pertinent unto
them all:
and saith unto them, if any man desire to be first; to have the pre-eminence,
and be in the chief place in the kingdom of the Messiah,
the same shall be last of all, and servant of all: his pride and vanity shall be
checked; his ambitious views shall be frustrated; instead of being first, he shall be
last; and instead of having superior reverence and respect, he shall be debased, and
treated with neglect and contempt; and instead of being the master over others, shall
be the servant of all. Some copies read, "let him be"; and so the Persic version, "let
him be last, and minister to every one"; and the Ethiopic thus, "let him subject
himself to all, and be servant to all"; for the only way to preferment in Christ's
kingdom, or in the Gospel dispensation, is humility and meekness, and performing
the lowest services to all, with diligence and cheerfulness.
JAMIESON, "If any man desire to be first, the same shall be last of all,
and servant of all — that is, “let him be” such: he must be prepared to take the last
and lowest place. See on Mar_10:42-45.
COFFMAN, "Alas, the disciples of the Lord in all ages have invariably lost their
spirituality in just such a manner as this, falling into all kinds of vanity in the
pursuit of human ambition. There has hardly ever been a congregation on earth
in which the question of who would be the "greatest" did not at one time or
another hinder the work of God. Against such ambitions, the Lord has imposed a
standard of greatness that depends upon service and not upon position. However
this was not a problem that the Lord confronted only once. A comparison of
143

144. several New Testament references (Luke 9:48; 22:26; Matthew 20:26; 23:11; and
Mark 10:43) indicates that this question came up frequently in different
situations, the instance before us being, in all probability, "an independent
saying."[18]
ENDNOTE:
[18] Ibid., p. 308.
CONSTABLE, "By seating Himself, Jesus assumed the traditional position of a
rabbi. He taught them that greatness in His kingdom depends on sacrificial
service. All three synoptic evangelists recorded His words, indicating the
importance of this lesson.
"The spirit of service is the passport to eminence in the Kingdom of God, for it is
the spirit of the Master Who Himself became diakonos panton ["servant of
all"]." [Note: Swete, p. 205.]
The Greek word for servant, diakonos, describes someone who serves willingly.
It does not describe the servile status of such a person, which doulos (slave)
suggests. The desire to excel need not be unspiritual (cf. 1 Timothy 3:1). However
it must include willingness to put the welfare of others before selfish interests.
[Note: See Santos, pp. 20-23, 25.]
36 He took a little child whom he placed among
them. Taking the child in his arms, he said to
them,
GILL, "And he took a child,.... Which was in the house, and which he called unto
him, and set by him, as the other evangelists observe:
and set him in the midst of them; his disciples, that all might see and learn from
this instance;
and when he had taken him in his arms; and embraced him, to show his great
regard to humility, and humble persons:
he said unto them; the following words.
JAMIESON, "And he took a child — “a little child” (Mat_18:2); but the word is
the same in both places, as also in Luk_9:47.
and set him in the midst of them: and when he had taken him in his
144

145. arms — This beautiful trait is mentioned by out Evangelist alone.
he said unto them — Here we must go to Matthew (Mat_18:3, Mat_18:4) for the
first of this answer: “Verily I say unto you, except ye be converted, and become as
little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of Heaven:” that is, “Conversion
must be thorough; not only must the heart be turned to God in general, and from
earthly to heavenly things, but in particular, except ye be converted from that carnal
ambition which still rankles within you, into that freedom from all such feelings
which ye see in this child, ye have neither part nor lot in the kingdom at all; and he
who in this feature has most of the child, is highest there.” Whosoever, therefore,
shall “humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of
heaven”: “for he that is [willing to be] least among you all, the same shall be great”
(Luk_9:48).
CONSTABLE, "A child was the least significant person in Jewish and in Greco-
Roman culture. [Note: Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, s.v. "pais,"
by Albrecht Oepke, 5:639-52.] By using a child as His object lesson, Jesus was
saying that service involves caring about people, even insignificant people such
as children. The same Aramaic word means both "child" and "servant." [Note:
Lane, p. 340.]
"Jesus was one of the first ever to see how essentially precious any person is,
particularly a young child. A concern for children was not invented by the
welfare state: it goes back to the teaching of Jesus." [Note: Moule, p. 75.]
Jesus proceeded to compare the humblest of His disciples to the child (cf. Mark
9:42). This was the focus of Jesus' teaching that Matthew recorded (cf. Matthew
18:3-14).
BARCLAY, "HELPING THE HELPLESS IS HELPING CHRIST (Mark
9:36-37)
9:36-37 Jesus took a little child and set him in the midst of them. And he took
him up in the crook of his arm and said to them, "Whoever receives one little
child like this in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me,
but him who sent me."
Jesus is here still dealing with the worthy and the unworthy ambition.
He took a child and set him in the midst. Now a child has no influence at all; a
child cannot advance a man's career nor enhance his prestige; a child cannot
give us things. It is the other way round. A child needs things; a child must have
things done for him. So Jesus says, "If a man welcomes the poor, ordinary
people, the people who have no influence and no wealth and no power, the
people who need things done for them, he is welcoming me. More than that, he is
welcoming God." The child is typical of the person who needs things, and it is
the society of the person who needs things that we must seek.
There is a warning here. It is easy to cultivate the friendship of the person who
can do things for us, and whose influence can be useful to us. And it is equally
easy to avoid the society of the person who inconveniently needs our help. It is
easy to curry favour with the influential and the great, and to neglect the simple,
humble, ordinary folk. It is easy at some function to seek the society and the
145

146. notice of some distinguished person, and to avoid the poor relation. In effect
Jesus here says that we ought to seek out not those who can do things for us, but
those for whom we can do things, for in this way we are seeking the society of
himself. This is another way of saying, "As you did it to one of the least of these
my brethren, you did it to me" (Matthew 25:40).
37 “Whoever welcomes one of these little
children in my name welcomes me; and whoever
welcomes me does not welcome me but the one
who sent me.”
GILL, "Whosoever shall receive one of such children,.... That is, any
believer, who is like to such a child for humility, meekness, and lowliness of mind;
and so the Syriac version renders it, ‫טליא‬ ‫הנא‬ ‫,איך‬ "one like to this child": and so the
Arabic and Persic versions; for it cannot be thought that Christ's meaning is, that
whoever takes up any little child, embraces, and takes notice of it, as he did, does
what is after related; but that whoever shows respect, and performs the least office of
love and kindness to the meanest believer, comparable to a little child, for the above
excellent qualities, and he does this, says Christ,
in my name; on account that he belongs to Christ, is one of his, bears his image,
partakes of his grace, is loved by him, and shall be glorified with, him: such is Christ's
great regard to his humble followers, that he takes it all one as if done to himself:
he receiveth me; this humble believer, being a member of his, and like unto him,
and respected by him;
and whosoever shall receive me; Christ, in any of his members:
receiveth not me; that is, not him only; for he does receive him, otherwise there
would be a contradiction in the words; but his meaning is, that he does not hereby
receive him, by receiving one of his, nor him so much, as his Father:
but him that sent me; for as showing respect to one of Christ's members, is
showing respect to him; so showing respect to Christ, is showing respect to his
Father, from whence he came, by whom he was sent, in whose name he acted, and
whose work and service he was concerned in.
JAMIESON, "Whosoever shall receive one of such children — so
manifesting the spirit unconsciously displayed by this child.
in my name — from love to Me.
receiveth me; and whosoever shall receive me, receiveth not me, but
Him that sent me — (See on Mat_10:40).
146

147. Whoever Is Not Against Us Is for Us
38 “Teacher,” said John, “we saw someone
driving out demons in your name and we told
him to stop, because he was not one of us.”
BARNES, "We saw one ... - There is no improbability in supposing that this
might have been one of the disciples of John, or one of the seventy whom Jesus had
sent out, and who, though he did not “personally” attend on Jesus, yet had the power
of working miracles. There is no evidence that he was merely an “exorcist,” or that he
used the name of Jesus merely as a pretence.
CLARKE, "We saw one casting out devils in thy name - It can scarcely be
supposed that a man who knew nothing of Christ, or who was only a common
exorcist, could be able to work a miracle in Christ’s name; we may therefore safely
imagine that this was either one of John the Baptist’s disciples, who, at his master’s
command, had believed in Jesus, or one of the seventy, whom Christ had sent out,
Luk_10:1-7, who, after he had fulfilled his commission, had retired from
accompanying the other disciples; but as he still held fast his faith in Christ, and
walked in good conscience, the influence of his Master still continued with him, so
that he could cast out demons as well as the other disciples.
He followeth not us - This first clause is omitted by BCL, three others, Syriac,
Armenian, Persic, Coptic, and one of the Itala. Some of the MSS. and versions leave
out the first; some the second clause: only one of them is necessary. Griesbach leaves
out the first.
We forbade him - I do not see that we have any right to attribute any other
motive to John than that which he himself owns - because he followed not us -
because he did not attach himself constantly to thee, as we do, we thought he could
not be in a proper spirit.
GILL, "And John answered him, saying,.... Taking notice of what Christ just
now said, and observing how well pleasing it was to him, to receive in a meek and
humble manner, the least believer in his name; and reflecting upon an action, in
which he and some of his fellow disciples were concerned, and which he perceived
was not so agreeable to this rule of Christ, thought proper to relate it to him; that he
might have his sense of it, and give him an opportunity of enlarging on a subject, so
suitable to the temper and disposition of this beloved disciple.
Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name: very likely he called him
147

148. Rabbi, as the Syriac version renders it, or Rabboni, as in Joh_20:16, a title commonly
given to Christ, both by his disciples and others: the case related, very probably
happened, when the disciples being sent forth by Christ to preach the Gospel and
cast out devils, took a tour through Judea and Galilee, where they saw this man. John
was not alone; there were others with him, at least another, who was an eyewitness
with him; for the apostles were sent out, by two and two: who this man was, is not
said, his name is not mentioned, perhaps was unknown to the apostles; though Beza
says, in one ancient exemplar it is read, "we knew one". This person not only
attempted to cast out devils, but really did; and that more than one; but in which of
Christ's names he did it, is not expressed; if in the name of the Messiah, Dr.
Lightfoot's conjecture may be right, that he was one of John's disciples; who had
been baptized in the name of the Messiah, that was just expected to come; to whom,
as to others of his disciples, was given a power of casting out devils, to make the way
of the Messiah more plain; wherefore the reason why he did not cast out devils in the
name of Jesus, but in the name of the Messiah, and did not follow him, nor his
disciples, was not out of contempt, but ignorance, not knowing that Jesus of
Nazareth was the Messiah: or if he cast out devils in the name of Jesus, which seems
most likely, he might be, as others think, a disciple of John's, who really did believe
in Jesus, though he did not associate with, his disciples, but continued with the
disciples of John: wherefore it is said,
and he followeth not us; was neither one of the twelve apostles; nor one of the
seventy disciples; nor even one of the lower class of the professed disciples of Jesus.
This clause is omitted in the Syriac, Arabic, Persic, and Ethiopic versions:
and we forbad him; going on in this way, casting out any more devils:
because he followeth, not us; was not one of their company, nor any of Christ's
disciples; who had received no authority and commission from Christ, to do what he
did: wherefore they feared, that by such an irregular way of proceeding, the dignity of
Christ would be lessened, and some dishonour and reproach reflected on him: and
besides the honour of Christ, they might consult their own; and their case be too
much like that of Joshua, when Eldad and Medad prophesied in the camp. This
clause is left out in the Vulgate Latin, but stands in all the eastern versions.
HENRY, "III. He rebukes them for vilifying all but themselves; while they are
striving which of them should be greatest, they will not allow those who are not in
communion with them to be any thing. Observe,
1. The account which John gave him, of the restraint they had laid upon one from
making use of the name of Christ, because he was not of their society. Though they
were ashamed to own their contests for preferment, they seem to boast of this
exercise of their authority, and expected their Master would not only justify them in
it, but commend them for it; and hoped he would not blame them for desiring to be
great, when they would thus use their power for maintaining the honour of the
sacred college. Master, saith John, we saw one casting out devils in thy name, but he
followeth not us, Mar_9:38. (1.) It was strange that the one who was not a professed
disciple and follower of Christ, should yet have power to cast out devils, in his name,
for that seemed to be peculiar to those whom he called, Mar_6:7. But some think that
he was a disciple of John, who made use of the name of the Messiah, not as come, but
as near at hand, not knowing that Jesus was he. It should rather seem that he made
use of the name of Jesus, believing him to be the Christ, as the other disciples did.
And why not he receive that power from Christ, whose Spirit, like the wind, blows
where it listeth, without such an outward call as the apostles had? And perhaps there
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149. were many more such. Christ's grace is not tied to the visible church. (2.) It was
strange that one who cast out devils in the name of Christ, did not join himself to the
apostles, and follow Christ with them, but should continue to act in separation from
them. I know of nothing that could hinder him from following them, unless because
he was loth to leave all to follow them; and if so, that was an ill principle. The thing
did not look well, and therefore the disciples forbade him to make use of Christ's
name as they did, unless he would follow him as they did. This was like the motion
Joshua made concerning Eldad and Medad, that prophesied in the camp, and went
not up with the rest to the door of the tabernacle; “My lord Moses, forbid them
(Num_11:28); restrain them, silence them, for it is a schism.” Thus apt are we to
imagine that those do not follow Christ at all, who do not follow him with us, and
that those do nothing well, who do not just as we do. But the Lord knows them that
are his, however they are dispersed; and this instance gives us a needful caution, to
take heed lest we be carried, by an excess of zeal for the unity of the church, and for
that which we are sure is right and good, to oppose that which yet may tend to the
enlargement of the church, and the advancement of its true interests another way.
JAMIESON, "Mar_9:38-41. Incidental rebuke of John for exclusiveness.
And John answered him, saying, Master, we saw one casting out devils
in thy name, and he followeth not us: and we forbade him, because he
followeth not us — The link of connection here with the foregoing context lies, we
apprehend, in the emphatic words which our Lord had just uttered, “in My name.”
“Oh,” interposes John - young, warm, but not sufficiently apprehending Christ’s
teaching in these matters - “that reminds me of something that we have just done,
and we should like to know if we did right. We saw one casting out devils “in Thy
name,” and we forbade him, because he followeth not us. Were we right, or were we
wrong?” Answer - “Ye were wrong.” “But we did it because he followeth not us.” “No
matter.”
CALVIN, "Mark 9:38.Master, we saw one. Hence it is evident that the name of
Christ was at that time so celebrated, that persons who were not of the number
of his intimate disciples used that name, or perhaps even abused it, for I will not
venture to avouch any thing on this point as certain. It is possible that he who is
here mentioned had embraced the doctrine of Christ, and betaken himself to the
performance of miracles with no bad intention; but as Christ bestowed this
power on none but those whom he had chosen to be heralds of his Gospel, I think
that he had rashly taken, or rather seized upon, this office. Now though he was
wrong in making this attempt, and in venturing to imitate the disciples without
receiving a command to do so, yet his boldness was not without success: for the
Lord was pleased, in this way also, to throw luster around his name, (585) as he
sometimes does by means of those of whose ministry he does not approve as
lawful. It is not inconsistent with this to say, that one who was endued with
special faith followed a blind impulse, and thus proceeded inconsiderately to
work miracles.
I now come to John and his companions. They say that they forbade a man to
work miracles Why did they not first ask whether or not he was authorized? For
now being in a state of doubt and suspense, they ask the opinion of their Master.
Hence it follows, that they had rashly taken on themselves the right to forbid;
and therefore every man who undertakes more than he knows that he is
permitted to do by the word of God is chargeable with rashness. Besides, there is
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150. reason to suspect the disciples of Christ of ambition, because they are anxious to
maintain their privilege and honor. For how comes it that they all at once forbid
a man who is unknown to them to work miracles, but because they wish to be the
sole possessors of this right? For they assign the reason, that he followeth not
Christ; as much as to say, “He is not one of thy associates, as we are: why then
shall he possess equal honor?”
COKE, "Mark 9:38. Master, we saw one, &c.— Some commentators have
supposed, that this was one of the Baptist's disciples, who, though he did not
follow Christ with the rest, had been taught by his Master to acknowledge him as
the Messiah, and entertained so great a veneration for him, that he attempted to
cast out devils in his name. Or if the character given of this person, he followeth
not with us, (see Luke 9:49.) and the apostles' prohibition, we forbad him, are
thought inconsistent with the above mentioned opinion, we may suppose that he
was an exorcist, like the seven sons of Sceva (Acts 19:14.); who, having seen the
miracles which the apostles had performed in their Master's name, while out on
their first mission, thought there might be some great occult virtue in it, and so
made use of it in his exorcisms, as Sceva's sons did in theirs, but with better
success; for God might see reason now to grant that efficacy to such adjurations,
which he afterwards denied, when the evidences of the Gospel were proposed so
much more distinctly and fully after the descent of the Holy Spirit. See on Mark
9:40.
CONSTABLE, "This is the only place where the synoptic writers mentioned
John speaking out alone. John spoke for the other disciples in the house (Mark
9:33).
Evidently the exorcist was a believer in Jesus though not one of the Twelve or
possibly not even one who spent much time following Jesus around. He evidently
commanded demons to leave the people they afflicted by using Jesus' name. The
Twelve apparently did not mind that this man claimed Jesus' authority to
exorcize demons. They objected to his actions because Jesus had not
commissioned him to do so as He had the Twelve (Mark 3:14-15). Perhaps his
success and the recent failure of the nine disciples irritated them further. In view
of what Jesus had just said about receiving little children, John wondered if the
Twelve had done right in rebuking the man. They had tried to protect Jesus'
honor by rebuking him (cf. Numbers 11:26-29).
"It is striking ... that after each of the three major prophecies of the passion the
evangelist inserts the response of one of the three disciple who were closest to
Jesus: Peter (Ch. Mark 8:32 f.), John (Ch. Mark 9:38), and James, with John
(Ch. Mark 10:35-37). Mark shows in this way that even the most privileged of
the disciples failed to understand what the passion signified for their life and
mission." [Note: Lane, p. 342.]
BURKITT, "The Evangelist here sets down a conference betwixt our Saviour
Christ and St. John his disciple.
Where observe, 1. St. John's relation of a matter of fact to Christ, namely, his for
150

151. bidding one to cast out devils in Christ's name, that did not follow Christ as they
did, being his professed disciples. Though only the disciples that followd Christ
had a commission to work miracles, yet there were others, no enemies to Christ,
who, in imitation of the disciples, did attempt to do the like; and God was
pleased, for the honour of his son, in whose name they cast out devil's to give
them sometimes success. Almighty God may, and sometimes doth, give success to
such actions and enterprizes as are good in themselves, though undertaken by
persons that have no lawful call or warrant from God to do them. However, it ws
no small confirmation of the truth of Christianity, that Christ's name was thus
powerful, even among those compact with him.
Observe, 2. The action of the disciples towards this person; We forbade him.
This showed, 1. Their ignorance, in supposing that none oculd be true disciples,
nor work miracles, but such as followed them: We forbade him, because he
followed not us. Their rashness, in forbidding him of their own heads, before
they had consulted Christ about it. 2. Their envy and emulation; in that they
were grieved and discontented at this person's casting out devils, because he was
not a follower of them. O the imperfect compostition of the best of saints! how
much weakness, infirmity, and corruption doth John the beloved disciple
discover upon this occasion! The sin of envy and emulation against the gifts of
God in others, is very natural to man, and to good men; yea, to the best of men.
It is as difficult to look upon other men's gifts without envy, as to look upon our
own without pride.
Observe, 3. Our Saviour's answer and reply: Forbid him not. Because our
Saviour would in some manner and measure redound to the glory of his name,
although he undertook the matter without sufficient warrant from Christ. We
ought not to censure and condemn those who do that which is good in itself,
though they fail in the manner of it, and in the means they use for effecting it.
Observe, 4. What encouragement our Saviour gives the world to be kind to his
friends and followers: he assures them that even a cup of cold water given for his
sake, to such as profess his name, shall not miss of a reward.
Learn thence, That the least office of love and respect, of kindness and charity,
shewn to any of the ministers or members of Jesus Christ, for his sake, is
represented as done unto himself, and shall be rewarded by himself.
Observe, 5. He shall gain that which he cannot lose, by parting with that which
he could not keep.
Observe, 6. What a heinous and grievous sin it is to scandalize or offend any of
the disciples of Jesus Christ; he will most severely judge and punish such as give
offence to them, by any wrong or injury done unto them, both in this life and the
next. It were better a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he were cast
into the sea.
LIGHTFOOT, "[We saw one casting out devils in thy name.] I. Without doubt
he truly did this work, whosoever he were. He cast out devils truly and really,
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152. and that by the divine power; otherwise Christ had not said those things which
he did, "Forbid him not: for there is no man which shall do a miracle in my
name, that can lightly speak evil of me," &c.
II. Whence then could any one that followed not Christ cast out devils? Or
whence could any one that cast out devils not follow Christ?
I answer: We suppose,
I. That this man cast not out devils in the name of Jesus, but in the name of
Christ, or Messias: and that it was not out of contempt that he followed not
Jesus, but out of ignorance; namely, because he knew not yet that Jesus was the
Messias.
II. We therefore conjecture that he had been heretofore some disciple of John,
who had received his baptism in the name of the Messias now speedily to come,
(which all the disciples of John had) but he knew not as yet that Jesus of
Nazareth was the Messias: which John himself knew not until it was revealed to
him from heaven.
III. It is probable, therefore, that God granted the gifts of miracles to some lately
baptized by John, to do them in the name of the Messias; and that, to lay a
plainer way for the receiving of the Messias, when he should manifest himself
under the name of 'Jesus of Nazareth.'
See verse 41: In my name, because ye belong to Christ; and chapter 13:6, "Many
shall come in my name"; not in the name of Jesus, but in the name of the
Messias: for those false prophets assumed to themselves the name of the Messias,
to bring to nought the name of Jesus. That, John 16:24, "Hitherto ye have asked
nothing in my name," differs not much from this sense: 'The apostles poured out
their prayers, and all the holy men theirs, in the name of the Messias; but ye
have as yet asked nothing in my name Jesus,' &c.
BENSON, "Mark 9:38-40. And John answered him — As if he had said, But
ought we to receive those who follow not us? Master, we saw one casting out
devils in thy name — Probably this was one of John the Baptist’s disciples, who
believed in Jesus, though he did not yet associate with our Lord’s disciples. And
we forbade him, because he followeth not us — How often is the same temper
found in us! How readily do we also lust to envy! But how ill does that spirit
become a disciple, much more a minister, of the benevolent Jesus! St. Paul had
learned a better temper, when he rejoiced that Christ was preached, even by
those who were his personal enemies. But to confine religion to them that follow
us, is a narrowness of spirit which we should avoid and abhor. Jesus said, &c. —
Christ here gives us a lovely example of candour and moderation. He was willing
to put the best construction on doubtful cases, and to treat as friends those who
were not avowed enemies. Perhaps in this instance it was a means of conquering
the remainder of prejudice, and perfecting what was wanting in the faith and
obedience of these persons. Forbid him not — Neither directly nor indirectly
discourage or hinder any man, who brings sinners from the power of Satan to
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153. God, because he followeth not us, in opinions, modes of worship, or any thing
else which does not affect the essence of religion. For he that is not against us, is
for us — Our Lord had formerly said, He that is not with me, is against me:
thereby admonishing his hearers that the war between him and Satan admitted
of no neutrality, and that those who were indifferent to him now, would finally
be treated as enemies. But here, in another view, he uses a very different
proverb; directing his followers to judge of men’s characters in the most candid
manner; and charitably to hope, that those who did not oppose his cause wished
well to it. Upon the whole, we are to be rigorous in judging ourselves, and candid
in judging each other.
BARCLAY, "A LESSON IN TOLERANCE (Mark 9:38-40)
9:38-40 John said to Jesus, "Teacher, we saw a man casting out demons by the
use of your name, and we tried to stop him because he is not one of our
company." "Don't stop him," said Jesus. "There is no one who can do a work of
power in the strength of my name and lightly speak evil of me. He who is not
against us is for us."
As we have seen over and over again, in the time of Jesus everyone believed in
demons. Everyone believed that both mental and physical illness was caused by
the malign influence of these evil spirits. Now there was one very common way to
exorcise them. If one could get to know the name of a still more powerful spirit
and command the evil demon in that name to come out of a person, the demon
was supposed to be powerless to resist. It could not stand against the might of the
more powerful name. This is the kind of picture we have here. John had seen a
man using the all-powerful name of Jesus to defeat the demons and he had tried
to stop him, because he was not one of the intimate band of the disciples. But
Jesus declared that no man could do a mighty work in his name and be
altogether his enemy. Then Jesus laid down the great principle that "he who is
not against us is for us."
Here is a lesson in tolerance, and it is a lesson that nearly everyone needs to
learn.
(i) Every man has a right to his own thoughts. Every man has a right to think
things out and to think them through until he comes to his own conclusions and
his own beliefs. And that is a right we should respect. We are often too apt to
condemn what we do not understand. William Penn once said, "Neither despise
nor oppose what thou dost not understand." Kingsley Williams in The New
Testament in Plain English, translates a phrase in Jd 10 like this--"Those who
speak abusively of everything they do not understand."
There are two things we must remember.
(a) There is far more than one way to God. "God," as Tennyson has it, "fulfils
himself in many ways." Cervantes once said, "Many are the roads by which God
carries his own to heaven." The world is round, and two people can get to
precisely the same destination by starting out in precisely opposite directions. All
roads, if we pursue them long enough and far enough, lead to God. It is a fearful
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154. thing for any man or any church to think that he or it has a monopoly of
salvation.
(b) It is necessary to remember that truth is always bigger than any man's grasp
of it. No man can possibly grasp all truth. The basis of tolerance is not a lazy
acceptance of anything. It is not the feeling that there cannot be assurance
anywhere. The basis of tolerance is simply the realization of the magnitude of the
orb of truth. John Morley wrote, "Toleration means reverence for all the
possibilities of truth, it means acknowledgment that she dwells in divers
mansions, and wears vesture of many colours, and speaks in strange tongues. It
means frank respect for freedom of indwelling conscience against mechanical
forms, official conventions, social force. It means the charity that is greater than
faith or hope." Intolerance is a sign both of arrogance and ignorance, for it is a
sign that a man believes that there is no truth beyond the truth he sees.
(ii) Not only must we concede to every man the right to do his own thinking, we
must also concede the right to a man to do his own speaking. Of all democratic
rights the dearest is that of liberty of speech. There are, of course, limits. If a
man is inculcating doctrines calculated to destroy morality and to remove the
foundations from all civilized and Christian society, he must be combatted. But
the way to combat him is certainly not to eliminate him by force but to prove him
wrong. Once Voltaire laid down the conception of freedom of speech in a vivid
sentence. "I hate what you say," he said, "but I would die for your right to say
it."
(iii) We must remember that any doctrine or belief must finally be judged by the
kind of people it produces. Dr. Chalmers once put the matter in a nutshell. "Who
cares," he demanded, "about any Church but as an instrument of Christian
good?" The question must always ultimately be, not, "How is a Church
governed?" but, "What kind of people does a Church produce?"
There is an old eastern fable. A man possessed a ring set with a wonderful opal.
Whoever wore the ring became so sweet and true in character that all men loved
him. The ring was a charm. Always it was passed down from father to son, and
always it did its work. As time went on, it came to a father who had three sons
whom he loved with an equal love. What was he to do when the time came to
pass on the ring? The father got other two rings made precisely the same so that
none could tell the difference. On his death-bed he called each of his sons in,
spoke some words of love and to each, without telling the others, gave a ring.
When the three sons discovered that each had a ring, a great dispute arose as to
which was the true ring that could do so much for its owner. The case was taken
to a wise judge. He examined the rings and then he spoke. "I cannot tell which is
the magic ring," he said, "but you yourselves can prove it." "We?" asked the
sons in astonishment. "Yes," said the judge, "for if the true ring gives sweetness
to the character of the man who wears it, then I and all the other people in the
city will know the man who possesses the true ring by the goodness of his life. So,
go your ways, and be kind, be truthful, be brave, be just in your dealings, and he
who does these things will be the owner of the true ring."
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155. The matter was to be proved by life. No man can entirely condemn beliefs which
make a man good. If we remember that, we may be less intolerant.
(iv) We may hate a man's beliefs, but we must never hate the man. We may wish
to eliminate what he teaches, but we must never wish to eliminate him.
"He drew a circle that shut me out--
Rebel, heretic, thing to flout.
But love and I had the wit to win--
We drew a circle that took him in."
BI 38-40, "And we forbade him
Christian toleration
I. That power to do good is not monopolized by one class of believers in Christ. We
can only conjecture, but there is strong reason for supposing, as many have done,
that this man who was encountered in his work by our Lord’s disciples, was a disciple
of John Baptist. It is not unlikely that he may have been but partially enlightened as
to the mission of our Lord; or have fully believed in Him as the Messiah, but have
preferred an independent course of action for himself. We have seen, and we see
today, similar deeds of helpful charity being performed by men not of our party, who
do not worship at the church or chapel which we are accustomed to attend. The
essentials of a good deed are alike in both cases. These neighbours of ours are
engaged in casting out the demons of ignorance, vicious habits, vile passions, and
despairing poverty. Some of them have confronted difficulties which we have not
dared to face, and solved problems which we had pronounced impossible of solution.
All Christian parties and all Christian men can bear testimony to the universal
existence of this fact.
II. We remark that the conduct of the disciples is not singular for its intolerance. The
clannish feeling was very strong amongst these men. There is something really good
at the bottom of this feeling. It implies and involves a binding principle of fealty,
which is one of the truest feelings of noble natures. But unless it is checked in some
of its tendencies, and regulated by judicious reflections, it becomes exclusive and
illiberal. We can hardly imagine the meek, gentle, and tender-spirited John joining in
the exclusive conduct of this severe proceeding. It is difficult to conceive of the
censure which he could pass upon a man who was doing good. But the meekest men
become severe where privileges of a certain order are concerned.
III. We observe the tolerant spirit of Christ. “Forbid him not!” Let him alone; leave
him to his work! “Forbid him not!” for two reasons: first, because “there is no man
which shall do a miracle in My name that can lightly (or ‘easily,’ ‘quickly,’ ‘readily’)
speak evil of Me.” Secondly, “He that is not against us is on our part.” He that cannot
speak against me may be regarded as my friend. In a matter like this the absence of
opposition may be accepted as a proof of support. Tacit approval of our work must be
welcomed as next in importance, if no more, to definite cooperation. Do we not wait
for men to join our ranks before we acknowledge them as followers of Christ? We
have devoted too much of the energy and earnestness of our life to the little matters
that absorb us as denominations rather than to the grander and mightier subjects
that concern us as Christians. Between us and those from whom we stand aloof there
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156. may exist no real barrier to a happy and hearty recognition of our common interest in
the same dear and blessed Lord. Everything which tends to rend away the veil that
separates the follower of Jesus Christ from his brother is to be hailed with devout
and fervent gratitude, and every spirit should yearn to join the prayer of that great
heart while yet upon the earth, “That they all may be one.” (W. Dorling.)
The line of conduct we should adopt towards those who follow not with
us
I would remark-
I. That it becomes us carefully to observe their sentiments, professions, characters,
and conduct. “They follow not with us;” therefore, says one, they must be wrong. Let
them alone, says another. We have sufficient to do to mind our own concerns, replies
a third. Am I my brother’s keeper? observes a fourth. Truth and charity require that
we should ascertain the sentiments and practices of those who follow not with us,
before we forbid them; and that we should ascertain those sentiments from
authorized and acknowledged statements and records, as far as we can obtain access
to them.
II. Such inquires naturally lead to a second remark; namely, that where we have not
opportunity of thus precisely ascertaining the sentiments and conduct of those who
follow not with us; and where it is necessary, notwithstanding, to give some advice
with respect to them, that advice should be given in as favourable a manner as the
circumstances with which we are acquainted will allow. They follow not with us; but
are they casting out Satan in the name of Christ?-They follow not with us. Now, we
are convinced of being right, and this affords a legitimate presumption that those
who differ from us are in some respects wrong; but, at the same time, it is not a
necessary conclusion. The presumption, therefore, of criminality being disposed of,
the next inquiry is, Do they cast out Satan in the name of Christ? or, in plainer terms,
Are they, on Christian principles, endeavouring to diminish the sum of crime and
misery-to promote the cause of peace and purity, to lead men from sin to holiness?
and if so, the answer must be-“Forbid them not.” Observe-It must be in the name of
Christ. Men come continually with this and that ingenious device and philosophical
contrivance; the cant of liberalism, the virtues of universal suffrage, the abolition of
the poor laws-this panacea for all that is wrong, and the patent for the production of
all that is right. I say not, there is nothing in these things; I say not that politicians
and legislators may not do well to consider such topics; but, as a Christian man and a
Christian minister, I say-All these are mere trifles. The philosopher may say-With
this machine, and this standing place, I will move the world. True, says his opponent;
in the longest space of human life you will move the world some thousandth part of
an inch-and what then? Such is the whole value of the labours of many. It must be in
the name of Christ, the dignity of His character, the power, the mercy, the
atonement, the intercession, the grace of Christ. All other means, brethren, of casting
out devils, of overcoming sin, of producing holiness, are utterly in vain; the evil spirit
will return. He will say-Jesus I know, and Paul I know-but who are ye? Even moral
precepts, moral suasion, the terrors of the law, the solemnities of death, the eternal
consequences of judgment, are found ineffectual to break the bondage of iniquity. (T.
Webster, M. A.)
The degrees of Christianity
I. The degree of service. “He that is not against us is on our part.” That man of whom
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157. St. John tells us in our text that he had east out devils in Jesus’s name was mightily
stimulated by the appearance of Jesus and His wonderful works. He was no disciple,
for how could he else have taken his own way, if in his heart he truly belonged to
Jesus. His heart was far from Jesus, but his understanding perceived the importance
of Jesus, and he believed in the power of His name which he had often experienced.
Thus he was a servant, though not a child, of God; in Jesus’s service, but not in His
commission. The name of Jesus exercises an overwhelming authority even upon
those who in heart are far from Him, even on the things of natural human life, law,
science, art, etc. These are not Christianized in the proper sense of that word, and yet
we call them Christian; they are in the service of the cause of Jesus. Christians ought
not to disparage outward Christianity, or call it hypocrisy; it acknowledges the name
of Christ and is serving His cause. When the point in question is our adoption and
salvation, then we must be for Him. But he already serves Him who is not exactly
against Him and His cause. That is the first degree, the degree of serving His cause.
But saving His believing people has a higher value. “Whosoever shall give you a cup
of cold water,” etc. However, nobody has an eye for this hidden beauty, but he who in
the spirit perceives the beauty of Jesus, and nobody has a hearty love for the poor
saints of Jesus but he who in love has shut up the Lord Jesus in his heart. “For
whosoever shall give you a cup of water to drink in My name, because ye belong to
Christ, verily I say unto you, he shall not lose his reward.” The Lord does not speak of
friendly services such as man renders to man from natural sympathy, but of the
service rendered to His disciples, and rendered to them because they are His
disciples. “Whosoever shall give you a cup of water to drink in My name, because ye
belong to Christ.” Such a serving of the saints is not without communion with Jesus
in faith and love.
II. That is the other degree. The degree of communion, of communion of heart. For
communion of the heart with Jesus is that, and that only, which constitutes the
disciple of Jesus the Christian. My beloved brethren, there are many things which we
find and win in Jesus-wisdom, holiness, glory-but what we have to seek in Him, in
the first place, is the pardon of our sins; what we have to see in Him is the Lamb of
God which takes away our sins. Then all other things will be added to us; that is the
communion with Jesus, the following of Jesus, as St. John narrates it of himself, for
our example and stimulation. That is his meaning when he tells Jesus of one “who
followeth not us.” But that is not all. That man of whom St. John speaks exercised an
activity which had a certain resemblance to the working of the apostles. Thus St.
John did not only recognize an imitation of Jesus Christ in faith and love, but also in
good works, not only a communion of the heart, but also of the life. He thought of
this not less when he spoke that word. And though we be no apostles, and though we
are not all ministers of the gospel, we yet have all a share in the one great work of
helping to build up and hasten the full glory of the kingdom of Christ. But our
entering into that communion of working with Jesus is only effected by prayer, by
His prayer and ours. In the communion of the love of the Father and the Son in the
Holy Spirit begins every prayer, and we carry it out in the words of our lips. That
prayer sends down upon us the fulness of the Spirit while our prayer plunges us into
the depth of the Divine spiritual life, that we may emerge from it filled with the
powers of a higher world. Therein the communion with Jesus Christ is finished. (C.
L. E. Luthardt.)
The fellowship of the apostles
It is argued that as the apostles were not allowed to forbid this stranger, neither may
the Church forbid strange preachers; that all have a right to preach, whether they
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158. follow the Church or no, so that they do but preach in the name of Jesus. Such is the
objection, and I propose now to consider it.
1. First, then, this man was not preaching; he was casting out devils. This is a
great difference-he was doing a miracle. “There is no man which shall do a
miracle in My name,” etc. Man cannot overcome the devil, Christ only overcomes
him. If a man casts out a devil, he has power from Christ; and if he has power
from Christ, he must have a commission from Christ; and who shall forbid one,
to whom God gives commission to do miracles, from doing them? That would be
fighting against God. But, on the other hand, many a man may preach without
being sent from God and having power from Him; for Christ expressly warns us
against false prophets.
2. But it may be said, “The effects of preaching are a miracle.” A good preacher
converts persons; he casts out devils from the hearts of those whom he changes
from sin to holiness. This he could not do without power from God. But what
seems good, is often not good.
3. But, again, even if sinners are converted upon such a one’s preaching, this
would net show that he did the work, or, at least, that he had more than a share in
it. The miracle might after all belong to the Church, not to him. They are but the
occasion of the miracle, not the instrument of it. Persons who take up with
strange preachers often grant that they gained their first impressions in the
Church. To proceed.
(1) It should be observed, then, that if our Saviour says on this occasion, “He
that is not against us is on our part”; yet elsewhere He says, “He that is not
with Me is against Me.” The truth is, while a system is making way against an
existing state of things, help of any kind advances it; but when it is
established, the same kind of professed help tells against it. It was at a time
when there was no church; we have no warrant for saying that because men
might work in Christ’s name, without following the apostles, before He had
built up His Church, and had made them the foundations of it, therefore such
persons may do so lawfully since. He did not set up His Church till after the
resurrection. Accordingly, when the Christians at Corinth went into parties,
and set up forms of doctrine of their own, St. Paul forbade them. “What!” he
said, “came the Word of God out from you?” (1Co_14:36). That Church made
you what you are, as far as you are Christian, and has a right to bid you follow
her. And for what we know, the very man in the text was one of St. John’s
disciples; who might lawfully remain as he was without joining the apostles
till the apostles received the gift of the Holy Ghost, then he was bound to join
them.
(2) And here, too, we have light thrown upon an expression in the text, “In
My name.” Merely to use the name of Jesus is not enough; we must look for
that name where He has lodged it. He has not lodged it in the world at large,
but in a secure dwelling place, and we have that name engraven on us only
when we are in that dwelling place (Exo_23:20-21). Thus the stranger in the
text might use the name of Jesus without following the apostles, because they
bad not yet had the name of Christ named upon them. Nothing can be
inferred from the text in favour of those who set up against the Church, or
who interfere with it. On the whole, then, I would say this; when strangers to
the Church preach great Christian truths, and do not oppose the Church,
then, though we may not follow them, though we may not join them, yet we
are not allowed to forbid them; but in proportion as they preach what is in
itself untrue, and do actively oppose God’s great Ordinance, so far they are
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159. not like the man whom our Lord told His apostles not to forbid. But in all
cases, whether they preach true doctrine or not, or whether they oppose us or
not, so much we learn, viz., that we must overcome them, not so much by
refuting them, as by preaching the truth. Let us be far more set upon alluring
souls into the right way than on forbidding them the wrong. Let us be like
racers in a course, who do not impede, but try to outstrip each other by love.
(J. H. Newman, B. D.)
Party spirit
I. Attend to a few general observations on the passage.
1. On the introduction of a new dispensation the power of working miracles was
necessary, in order to establish its Divine authority; and this power consequently
attended the first ages of Christianity.
2. Some who profess a sacred regard for the name of Jesus, and the doctrines of
the gospel, may nevertheless not follow Him in all things as we do, or as they
themselves ought to do. This may arise from ignorance, indolence, and
inadvertence.
3. In the conduct of the disciples we may see our own aptness to imagine that
those do not follow Christ at all who do not follow Him with us.
II. Inquire into the causes of that uncharitable judgment, which professed Christians
are disposed to pass upon one another.
1. An immoderate degree of self-love.
2. Bigotry and party spirit are another source of uncharitable judgment.
3. An idle and pragmatic temper is another of these causes.
4. A liberty taken to censure and condemn others, is often vindicated by the
appearance of a similar disposition on the other side. Let us not judge of men’s
thoughts and intentions when there is nothing reprehensible in their conduct. (B.
Beddome, M. A.)
The spirit of intolerance and sectarianism
Note the “us.” Although no exegetical emphasis is lying on it, yet it is well to read it
with some doctrinal intonation. It is the point at which the principle of exclusiveness
crops up-that spirit of intolerance which so easily develops itself into fagot and fire. It
was rife in the Jewish nation. It had been rife among other peoples. And although it
was nipped in the bud by the Saviour the moment it sprang up among His disciples,
yet by and by it rose again within the circle of Christendom, and grew into a upas tree
that spread its branches, and distilled its blight, almost as far as the name of Christ
was named. The tree still stands, alas-though many a noble hatchet has been raised
to cut it down. It stands; but the hatchets have not been plied in vain. It is moribund.
And here and there some of its larger boughs have been lopped off, so that the sweet
air of heaven is getting in upon hundreds of thousands of the more favoured of those
who were sitting in the shadow of death. (J. Morison, D. D.)
Working with Christ outside the apostolate
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160. The complaint brought by the disciples against the man was, “he followeth not us,”-
us, the apostles; the complaint says nothing about following Christ. There was a
spirit of envy and selfishness in this remark, which would have restrained Christ’s
favours to the persons of the apostles and their immediate adherents. But our Lord
reminds the complainants that the man wrought miracles in their Master’s name, as
they themselves had owned; i.e., he wrought miracles in conformity to Christ’s will,
and for the promotion of Christ’s glory-i.e., in union with Christ-and not for any
private end; therefore the man was with Christ, though he did not personally follow
in the company of the apostles, just as John Baptist was with Christ, though not in
person; and as all the apostles preaching the gospel and administering the
sacraments of Christ in Christ’s name in all parts of the world were with one another
and with Christ, after He had ascended into heaven. The man was not neuter in the
cause, and therefore was not against them; and their Master had authorized him
openly by enabling him to work in His name; and therefore the man was with Him,
and consequently with His apostles, in heart and spirit, though not in person and
presence, and was not to be forbidden or discouraged by them. Thus our Lord
delivered a warning against that sectarian spirit which is eager for its own ends
rather than for Christ’s; and would limit Christ’s graces to personal communion with
itself, instead of inquiring whether those whom it would exclude from grace are not
working in Christ’s name-that is, in obedience to His laws, and for the promotion of
His glory; and in the unity of His Church, and in the full and free administration of
His Word and Sacraments, and so in communion with Him. Besides-even if the man
was separated from their communion, and worked miracles in separation (which
does not appear to have been the case, for he worked in the name of Christ), what
they ought to have forbidden was the being in separation, and not the working
miracles. If a man, separated from Christ and His Church, preaches Christ, then
Christ approves His own Word, preached by one in separation; but He does not
approve the separation itself, any more than God approved the sins of Balaam, Saul,
and Caiaphas, and Judas, when He prophesied and preached by their mouths.
(Bishop Christopher Wordsworth.)
Intolerance rebuked
There lived in Berlin a shoemaker who had a habit of speaking harshly and
uncharitably of all his neighbours who did not think quite as he did about religion.
The old pastor of the parish in which the shoemaker lived heard of this, and felt that
he must try to teach him a lesson of toleration. He did it in this way. Sending for the
shoemaker one morning, he said to him, “John, take my measure for a pair of boots.”
“With pleasure, your reverence, replied the shoemaker, please take off your boot. The
clergyman did so, and the shoemaker measured his foot from toe to heel, and over
the instep, noted all down in his pocket book; and then prepared to leave the room.
But, as he was putting up the measure, the pastor said to him, “John, my son also
requires a pair of boots.” “I will make them with pleasure, your reverence. Can I take
the young gentleman’s measure this morning?” “Oh, that is unnecessary,” said the
pastor; “the lad is fourteen, but you can make my boots and his from the same last.”
“Your reverence, that will never do,” said the shoemaker, with a smile of surprise. “I
tell you, John, to make my boots and those for my son, on the same last.” “No, your
reverence, I cannot do it.” “It must be done-on the same last, remember.” “But, your
reverence, it is not possible, if the boots are to fit,” said the shoemaker, thinking to
himself that the old pastor’s wits must be leaving him. “Ah, then, master shoemaker,”
said the clergyman, “every pair of boots must be made on their own last, if they are to
fit, and yet you think that God is to form all Christians exactly according to your own
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161. last, of the same measure and growth in religion as yourself. That will not do, either.”
The shoemaker was abashed. Then he said, “I thank your reverence for this sermon,
and I will try to remember it, and to judge my neighbours less harshly in the future.”
39 “Do not stop him,” Jesus said. “For no one
who does a miracle in my name can in the next
moment say anything bad about me,
BARNES, "Forbid him not - Do not prevent his doing good. If he can work a
miracle in my name, it is sufficient proof of attachment to me, and he should not be
prevented.
Can lightly speak evil of me - The word here rendered “lightly” means quickly
or “immediately.” The meaning of the passage is, that he to whom God gave the
power of working a miracle, by that gave evidence that he could not be found among
the enemies of Jesus. He ought not, therefore, to be prevented from doing it. There is
no reason to think here that John had any improper designs in opposing the man. He
thought that it was evidence that he could not be right, because he did not join them
and follow the Saviour. Our Lord taught him differently. He opposed no one who
gave evidence that he loved him. Wherever he might be or whatever his work, yet, if
he did it in the name of Jesus and with the approbation of God, it was evidence
sufficient that he was right. Christians should rejoice in good done by their brethren
of any denomination. There are men calling themselves Christians who seem to look
with doubt and suspicion on all that is done by those who do not walk with them.
They undervalue their labors, and attempt to lessen the evidences of their success
and to diminish their influence. True likeness to the Saviour would lead us to rejoice
in all the good accomplished. by whomsoever it may be done - to rejoice that the
kingdom of Christ is advanced, whether by a Presbyterian, an Episcopalian, a Baptist,
or a Methodist. Compare Phi_1:18.
CLARKE, "Forbid him not - If you meet him again, let him go on quietly in the
work in which God owns him. If he were not of God, the demons would not be
subject to him, and his work could not prosper. A spirit of bigotry has little
countenance from these passages. There are some who are so outrageously wedded
to their own creed, and religious system, that they would rather let sinners perish
than suffer those who differ from them to become the instruments of their salvation.
Even the good that is done they either deny or suspect, because the person does not
follow them. This also is vanity and an evil disease.
GILL, "But Jesus said, forbid him not,.... Neither him, nor any other they
should hereafter meet with, who might be casting out devils in his name, giving this
as a reason for it;
for there is no man which shall do a miracle in my name; or "miracles", as
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162. the Syriac version, as to cast out devils, or heal any sickness and disease,
that can lightly speak evil of me: such a man can never reproach and blaspheme
that name, which he makes use of in doing, and by which he does wonderful works;
no man can call Jesus accursed, who casts out devils in his name; see 1Co_12:3, if he
has spoken evil of him before, he cannot do it "again", as the Persic version renders
it, with any face; or he cannot do it "quickly, immediately", as the Vulgate Latin,
Syriac, Arabic, and Ethiopic versions interpret it: there must be some time before
such an one apostatizes, if he ever does; he cannot very easily and readily go into a
way of blaspheming that name, by which he does his mighty works: his conscience
will not admit of it; and besides, it would be contrary to his interest; it must sink his
credit, and he lose the esteem and applause of men, he had gained by his miracles;
for to dishonour that name, would be to reproach himself.
HENRY, "The rebuke he gave to them for this (Mar_9:39); Jesus said, “Forbid
him not, nor any other that does likewise.” This was like the check Moses gave to
Joshua; Enviest thou for my sake? Note, That which is good, and doeth good, must
not be prohibited, though there be some defect or irregularity in the manner of doing
it. Casting out devils, and so destroying Satan's kingdom, doing this in Christ's
name, and so owning him to be sent of God, and giving honour to him as the
Fountain of grace, preaching down sin, and preaching up Christ, are good things,
very good things, which ought not to be forbidden to any, merely because they follow
not with us. If Christ be preached, Paul therein doth, and will rejoice, though he be
eclipsed by it, Phi_1:18. Two reasons Christ gives why such should not be forbidden.
(1.) Because we cannot suppose that any man who makes use of Christ's name in
working miracles, should blaspheme his name, as the scribes and Pharisees did.
There were those indeed that did in Christ's name cast out devils, and yet in other
respects were workers of iniquity; but they did not speak evil of Christ. (2.) Because
those that differed in communion, while they agreed to fight against Satan under the
banner of Christ, ought to look upon one another as on the same side,
notwithstanding that difference. He that is not against us is on our part. As to the
great controversy between Christ an Beelzebub, he had said, He that is not with me is
against me, Mat_12:30. He that will not own Christ, owns Satan. But as to those that
own Christ, though not in the same circumstances, that follow him, though not with
us, we must reckon that though these differ from us, they are not against us, and
therefore are on our part, and we must not be any hindrance to their usefulness.
JAMIESON, "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 — soon,
that is, readily “speak evil of me.”
CALVIN, "39.Forbid him not. Christ did not wish that he should be forbidden;
not that he had given him authority, or approved of what he did, or even wished
his disciples to approve of it, but because, when by any occurrence God is
glorified, we ought to bear with it and rejoice. Thus Paul, (Philippians 1:18,)
though he disapproves of the dispositions of those who used the Gospel as a
pretense for aggrandizing themselves, yet rejoices that by this occurrence the
glory of Christ is advanced. We must attend also to the reason which is added,
thatit is impossible for any man who works miracles in the name of Christ to
speak evil of Christ, and therefore this ought to be reckoned as gain; for hence it
follows, that if the disciples had not been more devoted to their own glory than
anxious and desirous to promote the glory of their Master, they would not have
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163. been offended when they saw that glory heightened and enlarged in another
direction. And yet Christ declares that we ought to reckon as friends those who
are not open enemies.
CONSTABLE, "Verse 39-40
Jesus did not mind that the man was casting out demons by invoking His name.
Since the man had such respect for Jesus he would not speak against Him soon.
By casting out demons he showed that he was not against Jesus. Jesus expressed
the opposite truth in Matthew 12:30 : "He who is not with me is against me."
There is no neutral ground regarding one's orientation to Jesus. Jesus' point was
that the disciples should not view the exorcist as an antagonist just because he
was not part of their group. He was doing God's will and would not oppose them.
40 for whoever is not against us is for us.
CLARKE, "He that is not against us, is on our part - Or rather, Whosoever
is not against You, is for You. Instead of ᅧµων, us, I would read ᆓµων, you, on the
authority of ADSHV, upwards of forty others, Syriac, Armenian, Persic, Coptic,
Ethiopic, Gothic, Slavonic, Vulgate, Itala, Victor, and Opt. This reading is more
consistent with the context - He followed not us - well, he is not against You; and he
who is not against you, in such a work, may be fairly presumed to be on your side.
There is a parallel case to this mentioned in Num_11:26-29, which, for the
elucidation of this passage, I will transcribe. “The Spirit rested upon Eldad and
Medad, and they prophesied in the camp. And there ran a young man, and told
Moses, and said, Eldad and Medad do prophesy in the camp. And Joshua, the servant
of Moses, said, My lord Moses, forbid them! And Moses said unto him, Enviest Thou
for My sake? Would God, that all the Lord’s people were prophets, and that the Lord
would put his Spirit upon them.” The reader will easily observe that Joshua and John
were of the same bigoted spirit; and that Jesus and Moses acted from the spirit of
candour and benevolence. See the notes on Num_11:25-29 (note).
GILL, "For he that is not against us, is on our part. Many copies read, "he
that is not against you, is for you"; as this man; he was not against either Christ, or
his disciples; he was doing the same work, promoting the same interest, and
destroying the kingdom of Satan: and therefore, though he did not follow them, and
had not his commission immediately from Christ; yet, inasmuch as he was opposing
the same common enemy, and did nothing against them, he ought to be reckoned as
one for them, and on their side. It is a proverbial expression, signifying that all that
are not against a man, and take not the part of his enemy, are to be accounted his
friends.
JAMIESON, "For he that is not against us is on our part — Two principles
163

164. of immense importance are here laid down: “First, No one will readily speak evil of
Me who has the faith to do a miracle in My name; and second, If such a person
cannot be supposed to be against us, ye are to consider him for us.” Let it be
carefully observed that our Lord does not say this man should not have “followed
them,” nor yet that it was indifferent whether he did or not; but simply teaches how
such a person was to be regarded, although he did not - namely, as a reverer of His
name and a promoter of His cause.
CALVIN, "40.For he who is not against us is for us. He does not enjoin us to give
a loose rein to rash men, and to be silent while they intermeddle with this and the
other matter, according to their own fancy, and disturb the whole order of the
Church: for such licentiousness, so far as our calling allows, must be restrained.
He only affirms that they act improperly, who unseasonably prevent the
kingdom of God from being advanced by any means whatever. And yet he does
not acknowledge as his disciples, or reckon as belonging to his flock, those who
hold an intermediate place between enemies and friends, but means that,. so far
as they do no harm, they are useful and profitable: for it is a proverbial saying,
which reminds us that we ought not to raise a quarrel till we are constrained.
COKE, "Mark 9:40. For he that is not against us, &c.— This is one of those
maxims which take different senses, as they are applied to different subjects. The
circumstances determine the signification. Our Lord had formerly said, Matthew
12:30. He that is not with me, is against me; thereby giving his hearers a just and
necessary admonition, that on the whole, the war between him and Satan
admitted of no neutrality, and that those who were indifferent would finally be
treated byhim as his enemies. But here, in another view, he very consistently uses
a different and seemingly opposite proverb, the counterpart of the former;
directing his followers to judge of men's characters in the most candid manner,
and charitably to hope, that they who did not oppose his cause, wished well to it;
a conduct peculiarly reasonable, when his cause lay under so
manydiscouragements. Probably, many who now concealed their regard to him,
were afterwards animated courageously to profess it, though at the greatest
hazard. See Doddridge and Heylin.
41 Truly I tell you, anyone who gives you a cup
of water in my name because you belong to the
Messiah will certainly not lose their reward.
BARNES, "Whosoever shall give you a cup ... - How easy it is to be a
Christian! What is easier than to give a cup of cold water to a thirsty disciple of Jesus!
But it must be in his name - that is, because he “is” a Christian, and therefore from
164

165. love “to the Saviour.” This is very different from giving it from a mere motive of
common kindness. If done from love to Christ, it will be rewarded; and hence we
learn that the humblest acts of Christians - the lowest service that is rendered - will
be graciously noticed by Jesus and rewarded. None are so humble in his kingdom as
not to be able to do good, and none so poor that he may not show attachment to him.
The feeblest service will be accepted, and acts of love that may be forgotten by man,
will be remembered by Him, and rewarded in heaven.
CLARKE, "A cup of water to drink - See the notes on Mat_10:42; Mat_
18:6-8.
GILL, "For whosoever shall give you a cup of water to drink,.... Not only
one that does a miracle in the name of Christ, but he that shows the least respect, or
does the least kindness to any one of his; See Gill on Mat_10:42; is to be reckoned a
friend, and is so accounted by Christ; and will be sooner or later taken notice of by
him, especially, if what he does, be it ever so little, is done on his account:
in my name, because ye belong to Christ; or as the Syriac version renders it,
"on account that ye are Christ's"; are his disciples, are called by his name, are
partakers of his grace, bear his image and likeness, are loved by him, interested in
him, given to him, redeemed by him called by his grace, and shall be with him:
verily l say unto you, he shall not lose his reward; See Gill on Mat_10:42.
HENRY, "Here, I. Christ promiseth a reward to all those that are any way kind to
his disciples (Mar_9:41); “Whosoever shall give you a cup of water, when you need
it, and will be a refreshment to you, because ye belong to Christ, and are of his
family, he shall not lose his reward.” Note, 1. It is the honour and happiness of
Christians, that they belong to Christ, they have joined themselves to him, and are
owned by him; they wear his livery and retainers to his family; nay, they are more
nearly related, they are members of his body. 2. They who belong to Christ, may
sometimes be reduced to such straits as to be glad of a cup of cold water. 3. The
relieving of Christ's poor in their distresses, is a good deed, and will turn a good
account; he accepts it, and will reward it. 4. What kindness is done to Christ's poor,
must be done them for his sake, and because they belong to him; for that is it that
sanctifies the kindness, and puts a value upon it in the sight of God. 5. This is a
reason why we must not discountenance and discourage those who are serving the
interests of Christ's kingdom, though they are not in every thing of our mind and
way. It comes in here as a reason why those must not be hindered, that cast out devils
in Christ's name, though they did not follow him; for (as Dr. Hammond paraphrases
it) “It is not only the great eminent performances which are done by you my constant
attendants and disciples, that are accepted by me, but every the least degree of
sincere faith and Christian performance, proportionable but to the expressing the
least kindness, as giving a cup of water to a disciple of mine for being such, shall be
accepted and rewarded.” If Christ reckons kindness to us services to him, we ought to
reckon services to him kindnesses to us, and to encourage them, though done by
those that follow not with us.
JAMIESON, "For whosoever shall give you a cup of water to drink in
my name, because ye belong to Christ, verily I say unto you, he shall not
lose his reward — (See on Mat_10:42).
165

166. CONSTABLE, "The connecting idea with what precedes is the "name." Not only
would the exorcist receive God's blessing, but anyone who does anything to help
another person using even the name of a disciple of Jesus would receive His
reward. This help extends to the almost insignificant act of giving a cup of cold
water to some thirsty person. This act was much less helpful than delivering
from demonic affliction.
This is one of the rare occasions when Jesus used the title "Messiah" of Himself.
His use of it here makes the lesson even more forceful. The person giving the cup
of cold water might have only a superficial understanding of Jesus. Nonetheless
if that person offered simple hospitality to one of Jesus' disciples because he was
a disciple of "Messiah" that one would receive God's blessing.
BENSON, "Mark 9:41-42. For whosoever shall give you a cup of water, &c. —
Having answered John, our Lord resumes the discourse, which was broken off at
Mark 9:37. And to show the apostles further, that they had been in the wrong to
discourage this person, who must have entertained a great veneration for their
Master, and was in a fair way to become his follower, he told them, that the
lowest degree of respect which any one showed him, though it were but the
giving a cup of cold water to one of his thirsty disciples, would be acceptable to
him, and should not lose its reward: whereas, on the other hand, the least
discouragement of his servants in their duty, come from what quarter it might,
should be severely punished. For he added, Whosoever shall offend: και ος αν
σκανδαλιση, whosoever shall cause to stumble one of these little ones — The very
least Christian. It is better for him that a millstone were hanged about his
neck — See note on Matthew 18:5-6.
SIMEON, "CHRIST’S INTEREST IN HIS PEOPLE
Mark 9:41-42. Whosoever shall give you a cup of water to drink in my name,
because ye belong to Christ, verily I say unto you, He shall not lose his reward.
And whosoever shall offend one of these little ones that believe in me, it is better
for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he were cast into the
sea.
THOUGH the Lord requires decision of character, where full information exists;
and therefore says in one place, “He that is not with me, is against me; and he
that gathereth not with me, scattereth abroad [Note: Matthew 12:30.];” yet, in
the passage before us, in reference to one who, for want of fuller information, did
not follow with his Disciples, he said, “He that is not against us, is on our part.”
There may be real integrity, where, from peculiar circumstances, there may be
little profession: and where integrity of heart is, there will the Lord make due
allowance for defects, which, under different circumstances, would provoke his
heavy displeasure. The Apostles were, in this respect, but ill-instructed. They
would have disallowed a brother altogether,
because he came not up to their standard: but our Lord told them, that, however
weak his children were, he would reward every benefit conferred upon them,
and resent every injury done to them.
166

167. Let us consider,
I. The interest which Christ takes in his believing people—
He completely identifies himself with them, and receives as done to himself
whatever is done to them,
1. In a way of good—
[Scarcely any thing can be less than a cup of water: yet, if given to any one
because he belongs to Christ, the donor of it “shall not lose his reward.” It is
necessary that it be given for Christ’s sake; else, though it may be an act of
humanity, it is no act of piety: but given for his sake, it is, and shall be, accepted
of him, and be richly recompensed in the day of judgment [Note: Matthew
25:40.] — — —]
2. In a way of evil—
[To “offend” one of his little ones, is to cast a stumbling-block before him, by
which he may fall. And this may be done either by temptation or persecution:
but, in whatever way it be done, whether by allurement or menace, it shall be
visited with God’s wrathful indignation. To “have a millstone hanged about
one’s neck, and to be cast into the sea,” would be a fearful judgment: but “a far
sorer judgment” awaits the man who endeavours to turn from Christ one of the
least of his people, or to impede his progress heavenward [Note: Hebrews
10:28-29.] Christ considers this also as done to himself [Note: Acts 9:4.], and will
resent it accordingly — — —]
If we view this aright, we cannot doubt,
II. The return it calls for at our hands—
Surely it calls for,
1. Admiration—
[How wonderful is it, that our adorable Redeemer should so condescend to notice
what is done to us, and to regard “the touching of us as the touching of the apple
of his eye!” It were absolutely incredible, if he had not so minutely and
specifically affirmed it — — —]
2. Affiance—
[Is our Lord and Saviour so interested in our behalf? What can we ever want? or
what is there which we have to fear? David says, “The Lord is my Shepherd;
therefore I shall not want [Note: Psalms 23:1.]:” and sure 1 am that we, under
the Christian dispensation, are not a whit, less privileged than he — — —]
167

168. 3. Gratitude—
[What shall we not do for Him, who so cares for us? And can we reach him, so to
speak, by benefiting his poorer members? Whatever then I would do for Him, if
he were personally present with me, that I will do for his Church and people;
accounting nothing too much to do or suffer, if only I may please him, and
honour him — — —]
Address—
1. Are there here any who have discouraged the saints?
[Possibly you may have done it only by sneers and ridicule; but, in whatever way
it may have been, remember the warning here given you, and repent of your
conduct ere it be too late. If you do not choose to go to heaven yourselves, beware
how you aggravate your guilt, by making yourselves accountable also for the
souls of others. It will be a fearful tiling to have the blood of others required at
your hands — — —]
2. Are there any who have delighted to do them good?
[“Be not weary of well-doing; for in due season you shall reap, if you faint
not” — — — None are to be excluded from your benevolent exertions: but“the
household of faith” have a peculiar claim [Note: Galatians 6:10.], as the members
of Christ’s body, and as the very representatives of Christ himself [Note: If this
were a Charity Sermon, it would be proper here to recommend an united
attention to the spiritual wants of the poor with the relief of their temporal
necessities. See both referred to in the text.] — — —]
BARCLAY, "REWARDS AND PUNISHMENTS (Mark 9:41-42)
9:41-42 Whoever gives you a cup of water to drink on the ground that you
belong to Christ, I tell you truly he will not lose his reward. And whoever puts a
stumbling-block in the path of one of these little ones who believe in me, it is
better for him that a great millstone hang about his neck and he be cast into the
sea.
The teaching of this passage is simple, unmistakable and salutary.
(i) It declares that any kindness shown, any help given, to the people of Christ
will not lose its reward. The reason for helping is that the person in need belongs
to Jesus. Every man in need has a claim upon us because he is dear to Christ.
Had Jesus still been here in the flesh he would have helped that man in the most
practical way and the duty of help has devolved on us. It is to be noted how
simple the help is. The gift is a cup of cold water. We are not asked to do great
things for others, things beyond our power. We are asked to give the simple
things that any man can give.
A missionary tells a lovely story. She had been telling a class of African primary
children about giving a cup of cold water in the name of Jesus. She was sitting on
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169. the veranda of her house. Into the village square came a company of native
bearers. They had heavy packs. They were tired and thirsty, and they sat down
to rest. Now they were men of another tribe, and had they asked the ordinary
non-Christian native for water they would have been told to go and find it for
themselves, because of the barrier between the tribes. But as the men sat wearily
there, and as the missionary watched, from the school emerged a little line of tiny
African girls. On their heads they had pitchers of water. Shyly and fearfully they
approached the tired bearers, knelt and offered their pitchers of water. In
surprise the bearers took them and drank and handed them back, and the girls
took to their heels and ran to the missionary. "We have given a thirsty man a
drink," they said, "in the name of Jesus." The little children took the story and
the duty literally.
Would that more would do so! It is the simple kindnesses that are needed. As
Mahomet said long ago, "Putting a lost man on the right road, giving a thirsty
man a drink of water, smiling in your brother's face--that, too, is charity."
(ii) But the converse is also true. To help is to win the eternal reward. To cause a
weaker brother to stumble is to win the eternal punishment. The passage is
deliberately stern. The mill-stone that is mentioned is a great millstone. There
were two kinds of mills in Palestine. There was the hand-mill that the women
used in the house. And there was the mill whose stone was so great that it took an
ass to turn it.
The mill-stone here is literally an ass' mill-stone. To be cast into the sea with that
attached was certainly to have no hope of return. This was in fact a punishment
and a means of execution both in Rome and in Palestine. Josephus tells us that
when certain Galilaeans had made a successful revolt "they took those of
Herod's party and drowned them in the lake." Suetonius, the Roman historian,
tells us of Augustus that, "Because the tutor and attendants of his son Gaius took
advantage of their master's illness to commit acts of arrogance and greed to his
province, he had them thrown into a river with heavy weights about their
necks."
To sin is terrible but to teach another to sin is infinitely worse. O. Henry has a
story in which he tells of a little girl whose mother was dead. Her father used to
come home from work and sit down and take off his jacket and open his paper
and light his pipe and put his feet on the mantelpiece. The little girl would come
in and ask him to play with her for a little for she was lonely. He told her he was
tired, to let him be at peace. He told her to go out to the street and play. She
played on the streets. The inevitable happened--she took to the streets. The years
passed on and she died. Her soul arrived in heaven. Peter saw her and said to
Jesus, "Master, here's a girl who was a bad lot. I suppose we send her straight to
hell?" "No," said Jesus gently, "let her in. Let her in." And then his eyes grew
stern, "But look for a man who refused to play with his little girl and sent her
out to the streets--and send him to hell." God is not hard on the sinner, but he
will be stern to the person who makes it easier for another to sin, and whose
conduct, either thoughtless or deliberate, puts a stumbling-block in the path of a
weaker brother.
169

170. Causing to Stumble
42 “If anyone causes one of these little ones—
those who believe in me—to stumble, it would
be better for them if a large millstone were hung
around their neck and they were thrown into
the sea.
GILL, "And whosoever shall offend one of these little ones that believe in
me,.... Whosoever shall do the, least injury to the meanest person that believes in
Christ, who are mean both in their own eyes, and the eyes of others; for Christ is not
speaking of little children in age, who are neither capable of believing in Christ, nor
are they ready to take offence; but of such as belong to him; his disciples and
followers, of whom he is speaking in the preceding verse:
it is better for him that a mill stone were hanged about his neck, and he
were cast into the sea; and drowned there: the allusion is to the drowning of
malefactors, by tying a stone, or any heavy thing about their necks, and casting them
into the sea. Casaubon, and others, have shown out of Heathen writers, that this has
been a practice of some nations, particularly the Grecians: Jerom says, Christ speaks
according to the custom of the country; this being a punishment of the greatest
crimes among the Jews; but I have no where met with it in their writings: Christ's
sense is, that such who give offence to any of his ministers or people, how mean
soever they may appear, shall undergo the severest punishment; See Gill on Mat_
18:6.
HENRY, "II. He threatens those that offend his little ones, that wilfully are the
occasion of sin or trouble to them, Mar_9:42. Whosoever shall grieve any true
Christians, though they be of the weakest, shall oppose their entrance into the ways
of God, or discourage and obstruct their progress in those ways, shall either restrain
them from doing good, or draw them in to commit sin, it were better for him that a
millstone were hanged about his neck, and he were cast into the sea: his
punishment will be very great, and the death and ruin of his soul more terrible than
such a death and ruin of his body would be. See Mat_18:6.
JAMIESON, "Mar_9:42-50. Continuation of teaching suggested by the disciples’
strife.
What follows appears to have no connection with the incidental reproof of John
immediately preceding. As that had interrupted some important teaching, our Lord
hastens back from it, as if no such interruption had occurred.
170

171. For whosoever shall offend one of these little ones that believe in me —
or, shall cause them to stumble; referring probably to the effect which such unsavory
disputes as they had held would have upon the inquiring and hopeful who came in
contact with them, leading to the belief that after all they were no better than others.
it is better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck — The
word here is simply “millstone,” without expressing of which kind. But in Mat_18:6 it
is the “ass-turned” kind, far heavier than the small hand-mill turned by female slaves,
as in Luk_17:35. It is of course the same which is meant here.
and he were cast into the sea — meaning, that if by such a death that
stumbling were prevented, and so its eternal consequences averted, it would be a
happy thing for them. Here follows a striking verse in Mat_18:7, “Woe unto the
world because of offences!” (There will be stumblings and falls and loss of souls
enough from the world’s treatment of disciples, without any addition from you:
dreadful will be its doom in consequence; see that ye share not in it). “For it must
needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh!”
(The struggle between light and darkness will inevitably cause stumblings, but not
less guilty is he who willfully makes any to stumble).
CONSTABLE, "This verse gives the other side of the idea just expressed.
Anyone who discouraged a disciple of Jesus from following Him faithfully could
expect severe treatment from God. Probably Jesus used the little child present to
illustrate a childlike disciple (Mark 9:36-37; cf. Matthew 18:3-14). Jesus referred
to a large donkey-driven millstone (Gr. mylos onikos), not a small one that
people turned by hand (Gr. mylos). The Romans had so drowned some
insurrectionists in Galilee (cf. Acts 5:37), and a group of the Galileans had so
dealt with some of Herod's supporters. [Note: Ibid., p. 346; Suetonius, De Vita
Caesarum 1:67; Josephus, Antiquities of . . ., 14:15:10.] The disciples had
probably heard about these events.
"This brief incident stands as a firm rebuke to the spirit of sectarianism. It
condemns that exclusive attitude which insists that only those who carry on their
work in harmony with our own views and practices can be accepted as really
doing God's work. If they demonstrate that they are on God's side in the war
with Satan, even though their views may be imperfect, they must not be
condemned for such work or regarded with abhorrence." [Note: Hiebert, p. 231.]
John evidently learned this lesson well as evidenced by the frequent references to
loving one another that appear in his writings.
43 If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off.
It is better for you to enter life maimed than
with two hands to go into hell, where the fire
never goes out.
171

172. CLARKE, "The fire that never shall be quenched - That is, the
inextinguishable fire. This clause is wanting in L, three others, the Syriac, and later
Persic. Some eminent critics suppose it to be a spurious reading; but the authorities
which are for it, are by no means counterbalanced by those which are against it. The
same clause in Mar_9:45, is omitted in BCL, seven others, Syriac, later Persic,
Coptic, and one Itala. Eternal fire is the expression of Matthew.
GILL, "And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off,.... I have observed on Mat_5:30
that by the Jewish canons, cutting off of the hand was ordered in some cases there
mentioned; which, though literally enjoined, must not be understood, as though the
Jewish sanhedrim had a power of inflicting such a punishment, on persons found
guilty of the things instanced in; or that it was required they should do this to
themselves; but such rules were delivered in such language, to show the heinousness
of the crimes committed, to express an abhorrence of them (g), and to deter persons
from them; and to show, as the gloss (h) on one place observes, that it is better that
the hand be cut off; or it should be more eligible to the person himself, to have it cut
off, than to be guilty of such evil: and in like manner, Christ there and here, directs to
what is most proper and fit to be done; even to part with what is ever so near and
dear, rather than be drawn into evil by it: and his sense in this place is, that the
dearest friends and acquaintance, or be they what they will, though ever so near and
dear, like a right hand, the instrument of action, that obstruct the spiritual welfare of
men, are to be renounced and parted with, and treated as real enemies, and of the
most pernicious consequence; See Gill on Mat_5:29, Mat_5:30.
It is better for thee to enter into life maimed: not that there will be any such
thing, as upon the resurrection, going into heaven without a limb; for the words are
to be understood, not literally, but figuratively; and the sense is, it is better to part
with every thing here, that is detrimental to a man's doing, or enjoying, what is
spiritually good, and enter into eternal life,
than having two hands, to go into hell; than by enjoying such persons and
things, agreeable to the flesh, to the ruin of the soul, and be cast into hell;
into the fire that never shall be quenched. This is a periphrasis of hell, and is
an allusion to the valley of Hinnom, from whence hell has its name, here and
elsewhere; where a constant fire was kept, for the burning of polluted things: one of
the Jewish writers says (i), that it
"was a place in the land near to Jerusalem, and was a place contemptible: where they
cast things defiled, and carcasses; and there was there, ‫תמיד‬ ‫,אש‬ "a continual fire", to
burn polluted things and bones; and therefore the condemnation of the wicked, in a
parabolical way, is called "Gehinnom".''
And says another of them (k),
"Gehinnom is a place known, near to Jerusalem, and a valley, ‫נכבית‬ ‫האש‬ ‫,שאין‬ "whose
fire is never quenched"; and in which they burn bones of defilement, and carcasses,
and other polluted things.''
This whole clause is left out in the Syriac, Persic, and Ethiopic versions; and the
172

173. phrase, "that never shall be quenched", is not in the Arabic version.
HENRY, "III. He warns all his followers to take heed of ruining their own souls.
This charity must begin at home; if we must take heed of doing any thing to hinder
others from good, and to occasion their sin, much more careful must we be to avoid
every thing that will take us off from our duty, or lead us to sin; and that which doth
so we must part with, though it be ever so dear to us. This we had twice in Matthew,
Mat_5:29, Mat_5:30, and Mat_18:8, Mat_18:9. It is here urged somewhat more
largely and pressingly; certainly this requires our serious regard, which is so much
insisted upon. Observe,
1. The case supposed, that our own hand, or eye, or foot, offend us; that the impure
corruption we indulge is as dear to us as an eye or a hand, or that that which is to us
as an eye or a hand, is become an invisible temptation to sin, or occasion of it.
Suppose the beloved is become a sin, or the sin a beloved. Suppose we cannot keep
that which is dear to us, but it will be a snare and a stumbling-block; suppose we
must part with it, or part with Christ and a good conscience.
2. The duty prescribed in that case; Pluck out the eye, cut off the hand and foot,
mortify the darling lust, kill it, crucify it, starve it, make no provision for it. Let the
idols that have been delectable things, be cast away as detestable things; keep at a
distance from that which is a temptation, though ever so pleasing. It is necessary that
the part which is gangrened, should be taken off for the preservation of the whole.
Immedicabile vulnus ense recidendum est, ne pars sincera trahatur - The part that
is incurably wounded must be cut off, lest the parts that are sound be corrupted. We
must put ourselves to pain, that we may not bring ourselves to ruin; self must be
denied, that it may not be destroyed.
3. The necessity of doing this. The flesh must be mortified, that we may enter into
life (Mar_9:43, Mar_9:45), into the kingdom of God, Mar_9:47. Though, by
abandoning sin, we may, for the present, feel ourselves as if we were halt and
maimed (it may seem to be a force put upon ourselves, and may create us some
uneasiness), yet it is for life; and all that men have, they will give for their lives: it is
for a kingdom, the kingdom of God, which we cannot otherwise obtain; these halts
and maims will be the marks of the Lord Jesus, will be in that kingdom scars of
honour.
4. The danger of not doing this. The matter is brought to this issue, that either sin
must die, or we must die. If we will lay this Delilah in our bosom, it will betray us; if
we be ruled by sin, we shall inevitably be ruined by it; if we must keep our two hands,
and two eyes, and two feet, we must with them be cast into hell. Our Saviour often
pressed our duty upon us, from the consideration of the torments of hell, which we
run ourselves into if we continue in sin. With what an emphasis of terror are those
words repeated three times here, Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not
quenched! The words are quoted from Isa_66:24. (1.) The reflections and reproaches
of the sinner's own conscience are the worm that dieth not; which will cleave to the
damned soul as the worms do to the dead body, and prey upon it, and never leave it
till it is quite devoured. Son, remember, will set this worm gnawing; and how terrible
will it bite that word (Pro_5:12, Pro_5:23), How have I hated instruction! The soul
that is food to this worm, dies not; and the worm is bred in it, and one with it, and
therefore neither doth that die. Damned sinners will be to eternity accusing,
condemning, and upbraiding, themselves with their own follies, which, how much
soever they are now in love with them, will at the last bite like a serpent, and sting
like an adder. (2.) The wrath of God fastening upon a guilty and polluted conscience,
is the fire that is not quenched; for it is the wrath of the living God, the eternal God,
173

174. into whose hands it is a fearful thing to fall. There are no operations of the Spirit of
grace upon the souls of the damned sinners, and therefore there is nothing to alter
the nature of the fuel, which must remain for ever combustible; nor is there any
application of the merit of Christ to them, and therefore there is nothing to appease
or quench the violence of the fire. Dr. Whitby shows that the eternity of the torments
of hell was not only the constant faith of the Christian church, but had been so of the
Jewish church. Josephus saith, The Pharisees held that the souls of the wicked were
to be punished with perpetual punishment; and that there was appointed for them a
perpetual prison. And Philo saith, The punishment of the wicked is to live for ever
dying, and to be for ever in pains and griefs that never cease.
JAMIESON, "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 — See
Mat_5:29, Mat_5:30. The only difference between the words there and here is that
there they refer to impure inclinations; here, to an ambitious disposition, an irascible
or quarrelsome temper, and the like: and the injunction is to strike at the root of such
dispositions and cut off the occasions of them.
COFFMAN, "Stumble ... was a prominent word in Mark 9:41, referring not to
some inconsequential stumbling, but to a complete falling away from God so as
to be lost eternally. This is another maxim related not to causing another to
stumble, but to one's stumbling himself. The teaching is that whatever must be
sacrificed to maintain faith and loyalty to God must be renounced and given up
by the disciple, regardless of the personal loss or cost to himself.
Hell, into the unquenchable fire ... The saddest teaching in the word of God
relates to the subject introduced here. The word Gehenna (which is translated as
"hell" or "hell-fire") refers to the Valley of Hinnon near Jerusalem, a place
where the city's garbage was burned, and a valley tarnished by many unsavory
memories for the Jews. Here a king made his son pass through the fire to Molech
(2 Kings 23:10; see also 2 Chronicles 28:3). It was a place of defilement and
horror. Perhaps it is in this place's character as a garbage dump that the most
appropriate likeness to HELL is found; because hell is God's cosmic disposal
device for that which is finally unconformable to His holy will. Here also is seen
the necessity for it. No industry, no kitchen, no household were ever possible
without the means of disposing of the refuse; and it would be illogical to suppose
that God could run the whole universe without some means of taking care of the
refuse. For a more extensive discussion of this, see my Commentary on Matthew,
Matthew 25:41ff.
CONSTABLE, "Jesus compared the members of the human body to the agents
of sinful activities. He did not want His disciples to perform physical surgery but
spiritual surgery to excise the sin within us. The language is hyperbolic, but
Jesus described real sins. The threefold repetition highlights the importance of
the warning (cf. Romans 6:12-13).
"It was not a Palestinian custom to refer to an abstract activity but to the specific
member of the body which is responsible for it. For this reason Jesus speaks of
the offending hand, foot and eye, all members which have highly important
functions to fulfill." [Note: Lane, pp. 347-48.]
174

175. "As a surgeon does not hesitate to cut off a gangrenous hand to save a life, so evil
and destructive practices, though precious to us as a very part of our lives, must
be sacrificed to save the soul [person]." [Note: Hiebert, p. 232.]
"Hell" translates the Greek word gehenna, the transliteration of the Hebrew
phrase ge hinnom (lit. "Valley of Hinnom"). This valley, just south of Jerusalem,
is where apostate Jews formerly offered human sacrifices to the pagan god
Molech (cf. Jeremiah 7:31; Jeremiah 19:5-6; Jeremiah 32:35). King Josiah
terminated this practice and converted the site into a city dump where rubbish
burned constantly (2 Kings 23:10). The fire never went out at gehenna and the
worms that fed on the garbage never died. Unquenchable fire must be eternal.
[Note: Lenski, p. 408.] External fire and internal worms are Old Testament
pictures of destruction (cf. Isaiah 66:24). Thus gehenna became a picture of the
place of eternal punishment (Enoch 27:2; 90:26), not annihilation. [Note: See
Robert A. Peterson, "Does the Bible Teach Annihilationism?" Bibliotheca Sacra
156:621 (January-March 1999):13-27.] The word gehenna appears 12 times in
the New Testament, and in all but one of these occurrences Jesus spoke it (i.e.,
James 3:6).
Disciples should take prompt and decisive action against anything that might
lead them away from their allegiance to Jesus. Physical temptations come
through the hands (what we do), the feet (where we go), and the eyes (what we
see) primarily. Disciples who are believers will suffer the loss of rewards in the
kingdom if they do not exercise self-discipline. Disciples who are unbelievers will
experience eternal damnation if they fail to do so.
Mark 9:44; Mark 9:46 are absent in important early manuscripts. Probably
scribes added them later to fill out the parallelism in the passage. They repeat
Mark 9:48.
BURKITT, "In the former verse our Saviour dissuaded from the sin of scandal,
or giving offence to the serious and sincere Christians, threatening a very
grievous judgment against such as should any ways offend them; now in these six
verses he prescribes a remedy against that and all other sins, namely, by
avoiding all occasions that lead to sin.
Here observe, 1. The admonition or warning given by Christ unto us, to remove
far from us all occasion of sin, though ever so dear unto us. We are not to
understand the command literally as if it was our duty to maim our bodily
members; but metaphorically to cut off all occasions that may betray us into sin.
Hence note, That as sin may be avoided, it is our duty to avoid whatever leads
unto it, or may be the instrument and occasion of it.
Observe, 2. A reason enforcing the admonition: this is drawn from the benefit
and advantage that will come by cutting off such occasions of sin. It will further
us in our attainment of eternal life, and prevent our being cast into hell-fire. Now
our Saviour affirms, that it is better for a man to enter into life with the loss of
all those things that are dear and precious to him in this world, rather than to go
into hell with the fruition and enjoyment of them.
175

176. Learn hence, That a diligent and daily care to avoid sin, and all occasions that
lead unto it, will be a special means to escape the torments of hell, and further us
in our attainments of heaven and eternal life.
Observe, 3. The description which our Saviour gives of the torments of hell;
First, by its extremity; it is like a gnawing worm, and a consuming fire.
Secondly, and by its eternity, a worm that never dieth, and a fire that is never
quenched.
Where note, That the remembrance of things past, the experience of things
present, and expectation of things to come, are the bitings of the worm of
conscience, at every bite whereof damned souls give a dreadful shriek; such as
will not hear the voice of conscience, shall feel, and that to purpose, the sting of
conscience.
Learn hence, That there is most certainly a place and state of punishment and
torment of the wicked men to suffer in, upon the score of sin committed in this
world.
Secondly, That the punishment and torments of the wicked in hell are intolerable
and interminable, of exquisite pain, and endless duration: Their worm never
dieth, and their fire is not quenched.
BENSON, "Mark 9:43. And if thy hand offend thee, &c. — The discourse here
passes from the case of offending to that of being offended. If one who is as
useful or dear to thee as a hand or eye, prevent thee from walking in the ways of
God, or hinder thee therein, renounce all intercourse with him. This primarily
relates to persons; secondarily, to things. See the note on Matthew 5:29-30, where
this subject is explained at large. The sum is, It is better to deny one’s self the
greatest earthly satisfactions, and to part with any and every person and thing,
however precious, represented by the figures of a hand, a foot, and eye, than by
these things to cause the weakest of Christ’s disciples to stumble, or to be made
to stumble ourselves. Further, the amputation of our hands and feet, and the
digging out of our eyes, when they cause us to stumble, import also, that we
should deny ourselves such use of our senses and members as may lead us into
sin. Thus the hand and the eye are to be turned away from those alluring objects
which raise in us lust and ambition. The foot must be restrained from carrying
us into evil company, unlawful diversions, and forbidden pleasures. Nor can we
complain of these injunctions as severe, since by causing, or even by tempting
others to sin, as well as by sinning ourselves, we are exposed to the eternal
punishments of hell. Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched —
“These expressions seem to be borrowed from Isaiah 66:24, in which passage the
prophet is describing the miserable end of hardened sinners, by a similitude
taken from the behaviour of conquerors, who, after having gained the battle, and
beaten the enemy out of the field, go forth to view the slain. Thus, at the last day,
the devil, with all his adherents, being finally and completely vanquished, the
176

177. saints shall go forth to view them, doomed by the just judgment of God to eternal
death. And this their punishment is represented by two metaphors, drawn from
the different ways of burying the dead in use among the Jews. Bodies of men,
interred in the earth, are eaten up of worms, which die when their food faileth;
and those that are burned are consumed in fire, which extinguishes itself when
there is no more fuel added to feed it. But it shall not be so with the wicked; their
worm shall not die, and their fire is not quenched. These metaphors, therefore,
as they are used by our Lord, and by the Prophet Isaiah, paint the eternal
punishments of the damned in strong and lively colours.” — Macknight. To this
may be added, that by the worm here spoken of, that dieth not, may be denoted,
the continual torture of an accusing conscience, and the misery naturally arising
from the evil dispositions of pride, self-will, desire, malice, envy, shame, sorrow,
despair; and by the fire that is not quenched, the positive punishment inflicted
by the fiery wrath of God. Dr. Whitby’s note on these verses deserves the
reader’s particular attention. After observing that these words, Where their
worm dieth not, &c., are taken from Isaiah 66:24, (where see the notes,) he adds,
“It seems reasonable to interpret them according to the received opinion of the
Jews, since otherwise our Lord, by using them so frequently in speaking to them,
without saying any thing to show them that he did not understand the expression
as they did, must have strengthened them in their error. Now, it is certain, 1st,
That gehenna (hell) was by them still looked on as the place in which the wicked
were to be tormented by fire. So the Jerusalem Targum, on Genesis 15:17,
represents it as a furnace sparkling and flaming with fire, into which the wicked
fall. And the Targum, upon Ecclesiastes 9:15, speaks of the fire of hell; and,
Mark 10:11, of the sparks of the fire of hell; and, chap. Mark 8:10, of the wicked
who shall go to be burned in hell. Accordingly, our Lord speaks here, Mark 9:47,
and Matthew 5:22, of the wicked being cast into hell fire; and, Matthew 13:42, of
their being cast into a furnace of fire. 2d, The ancient Jews held that the
punishments of the wicked in hell will be perpetual, or without end. So Judith
says, chap. Mark 16:17, κλαυσονται εν αισθησι εως αιωτος, they shall weep
under the sense of their pains for ever. Josephus informs us that the Pharisees
held that the souls of the wicked were to be punished, αιδιω τιμωρια, with
perpetual punishment; and that there was appointed for them, ειργμος αιδιος, a
perpetual prison. Philo saith, “The punishment of the wicked person is, ζην
αποθανοντα αει, to live for ever dying, and to be for ever in pains, and griefs, and
calamities that never cease: accordingly our Lord says of them, that they shall go
away into eternal punishment, Matthew 25:41; that God will destroy the soul
and body in hell, Matthew 10:28; and here, that their worm dieth not, and their
fire is not quenched.” Whence the doctor concludes, 1st, That though it is not to
be doubted that the expression, the worm dieth not, is to be understood
figuratively of remorse of conscience and keen self-reflection; yet, that the bodies
of the wicked shall suffer in fire, properly so called, this he thinks being suitable
not only to the tradition of the Jewish and of the Christian Church, but to the
constant phraseology of the Scriptures. And, 2dly, That the punishment of the
wicked shall be, strictly speaking, eternal; this also being the constant opinion of
the Christian Church, as he shows in a note on Hebrews 6:2; and this
punishment being consistent with divine justice and goodness, as he proves in his
Appendix to 2 Thessalonians 1. It is justly added here, by Dr. Macknight, “The
most superficial reader must be sensible, that our Lord’s repeating so frequently
177

178. his declaration concerning the duration of future punishments, has in it
something very awful, and implies that mankind should attend to it as a matter
of infinite importance to them. It likewise affords a lesson to all the ministers of
the gospel, directing them to enforce the precepts of religion, which they
inculcate, by frequently and earnestly holding forth to the view of their hearers
the terrors of a future judgment.”
SIMEON, "AN OFFENDING MEMBER
Mark 9:43-48. 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 the 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 eyes to be cast into hell-fire: where their worm dieth not,
and the fire is not quenched.
TO oppose and persecute the people of God is to make God himself our enemy;
nor can we cast a stumbling-block in their way without aggravating thereby our
own condemnation [Note: ver. 42.]. But it is not only by open profaneness that
we endanger our salvation; we are no less obnoxious to the dipleasure of God if
we retain any secret sin. Hence our Lord gives us the most solemn and repeated
admonition to cut off every occasion of sin. In discoursing on his words we shall
consider,
I. His injunctions—
There are many things which prove to us an occasion of sin—
[We are too ready to be drawn aside by our worldly interests. How often have
they led men to profane the Sabbath, to engage in unlawful occupations, to
practise deceit and falsehood, and in a thousand other ways to violate the
dictates of their conscience! How has an undue regard to them deterred many
from embracing the Gospel and following the Lord fully [Note: Mark 10:22.]!
And how many have been turned aside by them from the truth of God, even after
they had maintained a long and honourable profession [Note: 2 Timothy 4:10.]!
Carnal affections also frequently prove a very fatal snare. How many spiritual
people have been led to connect themselves for life with an unconverted person,
through an unwillingness to thwart their natural inclinations, and that too, in
opposition to the most express commands of God [Note: 2 Corinthians 6:14; 2
Corinthians 6:17.]? How many through an excess of attachment have idolized the
creature while they possessed it, and murmured against God the instant it was
removed? Need we add sensual appetites to this black catalogue? who, that
knows the danger of an impure look [Note: Matthew 5:28-29.], must not
tremble?]
These, as soon as ever we discover their baneful tendency, should be cut off—
178

179. [We are far from condemning these things as bad in themselves. Our carnal
appetites and affections were given us to be indulged, and our worldly interests
indispensably require a considerable degree of care and attention; but when they
become stumbling-blocks to us and betray us into sin, then they become sinful in
themselves, and must instantly be cut off. Nor must any consideration whatever
induce us to spare them. If they be dear to us as an“eye,” or useful and
apparently necessary to us as a“hand” or“foot,” we must sacrifice them without
pity or reserve. Different situations indeed call for much prudence and discretion
in the execution of this duty. We must not lose sight of meekness and humility
when we are exercising a necessary firmness and self-denial. Nevertheless we
must not tamper with our consciences, but fulfil our duty, and leave events to
God.]
To aid us in obeying our Lord’s injunctions let us consider,
II. The arguments with which he enforced them—
Men in general are averse to hear any thing of the terrors of the Lord; but St.
Paul insisted on them in order to persuade men; and our Lord himself frequently
urged them on his hearers as inducements to obedience. The arguments with
which he enforced his precepts in the text are most solemn and weighty:
1. God will surely deal with men hereafter according to their conduct in this
life—
[This truth is not merely asserted, but assumed in the text as incontrovertible
and undoubted: nor is there any truth whatever that is more agreeable to reason,
or more abundantly confirmed by the sacred oracles [Note: Romans 8:13.
Galatians 6:7-8.]. And can any thing be a stronger argument for self-denial?
Surely if eternal happiness or misery must be the issue of our conduct, we should
diligently consider our ways, and put away the accursed thing that would ruin
our souls. If we had no future account to give of our conduct, we might say, “Let
us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die;” but, if we believe the Scriptures, we
shall rather labour to act with a view to the future judgment.]
2. Heaven, notwithstanding all the trials we may endure in our way to it, is
infinitely better than hell, whatever we may enjoy in our way thither—
[It is certain that the mortification of sin is often painful, like the cutting off a
member from the body. But it is no less certain that that pain is followed by
much peace and joy. But supposing the road to heaven were ever so thorny, will
not eternal glory be a sufficient recompence for our toil? And supposing the
gratifications of sin to be without alloy (though it will be found that the delicious
draught is mixed with much gall) will they not be dearly purchased with the loss
of the soul? Will not the torments of hell be greater than the pleasures of sin?
The worms that may feed upon the body will die when our flesh is consumed;
and the fire that may consume our body will be extinguished at last for want of
fuel: but “the worm that will gnaw our conscience will never die; nor will the fire
179

180. of God’s wrath be ever quenched,” because we shall be preserved as food for the
one and fuel for the other to all eternity. What can sin offer us that can
compensate for such a doom? Surely then this argument should induce us to
mortify our most beloved lusts. Our Lord repeats it thus frequently, that it may
the more deeply impress our minds. Let us then weigh it with the attention it
deserves; and act as those who feel its force and importance.]
Infer—
1. In what a lamentable state are the world at large!
[Men will persuade themselves that they are in the way to heaven, even while
they are neglecting many duties, and committing many actual sins. But can they
derive much encouragement from the words of our text? o that they did but
credit the declarations of our Lord! Shall they, who retain only one bosom lust,
be in danger of “hell-fire,” and they be safe who live in the allowed commission
of many sins? Have they no reason to dread the worm that dieth not, and the fire
that is not quenched? Shall they set up their idols in their heart, and God not
answer them according to the multitude of their idols [Note: Ezekiel 14:4.]?
Would to God that we could weep over such poor deluded creatures; that “our
head were waters, and our eyes a fountain of tears to run down for them day and
night!” May God give them just views of the eternal world! And may they be so
persuaded by these terrors of the Lord as to flee immediately from the wrath to
come, and to lay hold on eternal life!]
2. What need have the professors of religion to watch over their own hearts!
[It is no easy thing to know whether we be freed from our besetting sin. We have
many pleas to urge in extenuation of its guilt, and many specious names whereby
to conceal its malignity. How were even the Disciples themselves led captive by
ambition and revenge, when they were least aware of their subjection to such evil
principles [Note: ver. 35. Luke 9:54.]! Thus it may be with us also. How then
should we search and try our hearts to find out our besetting sins! And how
should we cry to God, “Search me, O God, and try the ground of my heart, &c.
[Note: Psalms 139:23-24.]!” Let all then who name the name of Christ be jealous
of themselves. And, “laying aside every weight, and the sin that doth most easily
beset them, let them run their race with patience.”]
3. What reason have we to be thankful for the covenant of grace!
[Whatsoever God requires of us, he has also promised to us in the covenant of
grace. Has he commanded us to part with every sin, however precious or
profitable it may be? He has also promised, that “sin shall not have dominion
over us [Note: Romans 6:14.].” He has pledged his word not only to forgive the
sins of the penitent, but to “cleanse them from all unrighteousness [Note: 1 John
1:9.].” Let those then who tremble at the injunctions in the text, look up to Jesus
for help. Let them plead the promises which he has made. And doubtless they
shall find his “grace sufficient for them.” “They shall do all things through
Christ strengthening them.” This is the portion of all who embrace that
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181. covenant, which “is ordered in all things and sure [Note: 2 Samuel 23:5.].” Let
every believer then rejoice in that covenant; and “hold fast the beginning of his
confidence steadfast unto the end.”]
BARCLAY, "THE GOAL WHICH IS WORTH ANY SACRIFICE (Mark
9:43-48)
9:43-48 If your hand proves a stumbling-block to you, cut it off. It is better for
you to enter life maimed than to go away to Gehenna with two hands, to the fire
that can never be quenched. And if your foot is a stumbling-block to you, cut it
off. For it is better for you to enter life lame than to be cast into Gehenna with
two feet. And if your eye proves a stumbling-block to you, cast it away. For it is
better for you to enter into the Kingdom of God with one eye than to be cast into
Gehenna with two eyes, where their worm does not die and the fire is never
quenched.
This passage lays down in vivid eastern language the basic truth that there is one
goal in life worth any sacrifice. In physical matters it may be that a man may
have to part with a limb or with some part of the body to preserve the life of the
whole body. The amputation of some limb or the excision of some part of the
body by surgical means is sometimes the only way to preserve the life of the
whole body. In the spiritual life the same kind of thing can happen.
The Jewish Rabbis had sayings based on the way in which some parts of the
body can lend themselves to sin. "The eye and the heart are the two brokers of
sin." "The eye and the heart are the two handmaids of sin." "Passions lodge only
in him who sees." "Woe to him who goes after his eyes for the eyes are
adulterous." There are certain instincts in man, and certain parts of man's
physical constitution, which minister to sin. This saying of Jesus is not to be
taken literally, but is a vivid eastern way of saying that there is a goal in life
worth any sacrifice to attain it.
There are in this passage repeated references to Gehenna. Gehenna is spoken of
in the New Testament in Matthew 5:22; Matthew 5:29-30; Matthew 10:28;
Matthew 18:9; Matthew 23:15; Matthew 23:33; Luke 12:5; James 3:6. The word
is regularly translated Hell. It is a word with a history. It is a form of the word
Hinnom. The valley of Hinnom was a ravine outside Jerusalem. It had an evil
past.
It was the valley in which Ahaz, in the old days, had instituted fire worship and
the sacrifice of little children in the fire. "He burned incense in the valley of the
son of Hinnom, and burned his sons as an offering." (2 Chronicles 28:3). That
terrible heathen worship was also followed by Manasseh (2 Chronicles 33:6). The
valley of Hinnom, Gehenna, therefore, was the scene of one of Israel's most
terrible lapses into heathen customs. In his reformations Josiah declared it an
unclean place. "He defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the sons of Hinnom,
that no one might burn his son or his daughter as an offering to Molech." (2
Kings 23:10).
When the valley had been so declared unclean and had been so desecrated it was
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182. set apart as the place where the refuse of Jerusalem was burned. The
consequence was that it was a foul, unclean place, where loathsome worms bred
on the refuse, and which smoked and smouldered at all times like some vast
incinerator. The actual phrase about the worm which does not die, and the fire
which is not quenched, comes from a description of the fate of Israel's evil
enemies in Isaiah 66:24.
Because of all this Gehenna had become a kind of type or symbol of Hell, the
place where the souls of the wicked would be tortured and destroyed. It is so
used in the Talmud. "The sinner who desists from the words of the Law will in
the end inherit Gehenna." So then Gehenna stands as the place of punishment,
and the word roused in the mind of every Israelite the grimmest and most
terrible pictures.
But what was the goal for which everything must be sacrificed? It is described in
two ways. Twice it is called life, and once it is called the Kingdom of God. How
may we define the Kingdom of God? We may take our definition from the Lord's
Prayer. In that prayer two petitions are set beside each other. "Thy Kingdom
come. Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven." There is no literary device so
characteristic of Jewish style as parallelism. In parallelism two phrases are set
side by side, the one of which either restates the other, or amplifies, explains and
develops it. Any verse of the Psalms will show this device in action. So, then, we
may take it that in the Lord's Prayer the one petition is an explanation and
amplification of the other. When we set the two together we get the definition
that, "The Kingdom of Heaven is a society upon earth in which God's will is as
perfectly done in earth as it is in heaven."
We may then go on to say quite simply that perfectly to do God's will is to be a
citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven. And if we take that and apply it to the passage
we are now studying it will mean that it is worth any sacrifice and any discipline
and any self-denial to do the will of God and only in doing that will is there real
life and ultimate and completely satisfying peace.
Origen takes this symbolically. He says that it may be necessary to excise some
heretic or some evil person from the fellowship of the Church in order to keep
the body of the Church pure. But this saying is meant to be taken very
personally. It means that it may be necessary to excise some habit, to abandon
some pleasure, to give up some friendship, to cut out some thing which has
become very dear to us, in order to be fully obedient to the will of God. This is
not a matter with which anyone can deal for anyone else. It is solely a matter of a
man's individual conscience, and it means that, if there is anything in our lives
which is coming between us and a perfect obedience to the will of God, however
much habit and custom may have made it part of our lives, it must be rooted out.
The rooting out may be as painful as a surgical operation, it may seem like
cutting out part of our own body, but if we are to know real life, real happiness
and real peace it must go. This may sound bleak and stern, but in reality it is
only facing the facts of life.
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183. [44] [b]
BARNES, "Mar_9:44-46
Their worm - This figure is taken from Isa_66:24. See the notes at that passage.
In describing the great prosperity. of the kingdom of the Messiah, Isaiah says that the
people of God “shall go forth, and look upon the carcasses of the men who have
transgressed against God.” Their enemies would be overcome. They would be slain.
The people of God would triumph. The figure is taken from heaps of the dead slain in
battle; and the prophet says that the number would be so great that their worm - the
worm feeding on the dead - would not die, would live long - as long as there were
carcasses to be devoured; and that the fire which was used to burn the bodies of the
dead would continue long to burn, and would not be extinguished until they were
consumed. The figure, therefore, denotes great misery, and certain and terrible
destruction. In these verses it is applied to the state beyond the grave, and is
intended to denote that the destruction of the wicked will be awful, widespread, and
eternal.
It is not to be supposed that there will be any “real” worm in hell - perhaps no
material fire; nor can it be told what was particularly intended by the undying worm.
There is no authority for applying it, as is often done, to remorse of conscience,
anymore than to any other of the pains and reflections of hell. It is a mere image of
loathsome, dreadful, and “eternal” suffering. In what that suffering will consist it is
probably beyond the power of any living mortal to imagine. The word their, in the
phrase “their worm,” is used merely to keep up the “image” or “figure.” Dead bodies
putrefying in that valley would be overrun with worms, while the “fire” would not be
confined to them, but would spread to other objects kindled by combustibles through
all the valley. It is “not” meant, therefore, that every particular sufferer has a special
worm, or has particular sins that cause remorse of conscience. That is a truth, but it
does not appear that it is intended to be taught here.
CLARKE, "Thy hand - foot - eye - cause thee to offend; - See the notes on
Mat_5:29-30 (note).
GILL, "Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. The
passage referred to, is in Isa_66:24, and as there, the words are spoken of such, as
transgressed against the Lord; so here, of such as offended any of Christ's little ones,
or were offended by an hand, a foot, or eye, and retained them: by their worm is
meant, their conscience; for as a worm that is continually gnawing upon the entrails
of a man, gives him exquisite pain; so the consciences of sinners, will be continually
flying in their faces, bringing their sins to remembrance, accusing them of them,
upbraiding them with them, aggravating them, tormenting them for them, filling
them with dreadful anguish and misery, with twinging remorses, and severe
reflections, and which will never have an end. This will be always the case; conscience
will be ever distressing, racking, and torturing them; it will never cease, nor cease
doing this office, and so the Chaldee paraphrase of Isa_66:24 renders this phrase,
‫ימותון‬ ‫לא‬ ‫,נשמתהון‬ "their souls shall not die"; but shall ever continue in the dreadful
183

184. torments and unspeakable horrors of a corroding conscience; and by "the fire" may
be meant the fire of divine wrath let into their souls, which will never be
extinguished; and so Jarchi interprets the phrase in Isa_66:24, "their fire", ‫,בגיהנם‬ "in
hell". It is a tradition of the Jews (l), that the light, fire, which God created on the
second day, "there is no quenching it for ever"; as it is said, "for their worm shall not
die, neither shall their fire be quenched", Isa_66:24, the passage which is here
referred to; the reason they give is, because it is the fire of hell; the sense of which is
sometimes given by the Jewish doctors thus (m); "their worm shall not die" from the
body, "and the fire shall not be quenched" from the soul.
COKE, "Mark 9:44. Where their worm dieth not,— These expressions seem to
be borrowed from Isaiah 66:24. And they shall go forth and look upon the
carcases of the men that have transgressed against me; for their worm shall not
die, neither shall their fire be quenched; and they shall be an abhorring unto all
flesh. In this passage the prophet is describing the miserable end of hardened
sinners, by a similitude taken from the behaviour of conquerors, who, after
having gained the battle, and beaten the enemy out of the field, go forth to view
the slain. Thus at the last day, the devil with all his adherents being finally and
completely vanquished, the saints than go forth to view them doomed by the just
judgment of God to eternal death. And this their punishment is represented by
two metaphors, drawn from the different way of burying the dead, in use among
the Jews. Bodies of men interred in the earth, are eaten up of worms, which die
when their food faileth; and those that are burned, are consumed in fire, which
extinguishes itself when there is no more fuel added to feed it. But it shall not be
so with the wicked; their worm shall not die, and their fire shall not be
quenched. These metaphors, therefore, as they are used by our Lord, and by the
prophet Isaiah, paint the eternal punishments of the damned in strong and lively
colours. Dr. Doddridge observes, that there may indeed be an allusion here to
Isaiah 66:24 but that the expression would have been just and proper without it.
Dr. Rymer supposes, that both the worm and the fire are meant of the body, and
refer to the two different kinds of funerals among the ancients, interment and
burning. So that our Lord may seem here to prevent an objection against the
permanent misery of thewicked in hell, arising from the frail constitution of the
body; as if he should have said, "The body will not then be as it is at present, but
will be incapable of consumption or dissolution. In its natural state, theworms
may devour the whole, and die for want of nourishment; thefire may consume it,
and be extinguished for want of fuel: but there shall be perpetual food for the
worm that corrodes it; perpetual fire for the fuel that torments it." The most
superficial reader must be sensible that our Lord's repeating so frequently his
declaration concerning the duration of future punishment, (see Mark 9:46; Mark
9:48.) has in it something very aweful, and implies that mankind should attend to
it, as a matter of infinite importance to them. It likewise affords a lesson to all
ministers of the gospel, directing them to enforce the principles of religion which
they inculcate, by frequently and earnestly holding forth to the view of their
hearers, the terrors of a future judgment.
BI, "Where their worm dieth not.
The punishment of the wicked, dreadful and interminable
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185. Some will say that this doctrine has no tendency to do good; it is idle to think of
frightening men into religion. It is my duty not to decide what doctrines are likely to
do good, but to preach such as I find in the Scriptures. I dare not pretend to be either
more wise or more compassionate than our Saviour; and He thought it consistent,
both with wisdom and compassion, to utter the words of our text. These expressions
allude to the manner in which the Jews disposed of the bodies of the dead; placed in
tombs they were consumed by worms; or on a funeral pile it was consumed by fire.
You have seen this, but there is another death, of the soul. Those who die this death
shall be preyed upon by worms which will never die, and become the fuel of a fire
that will never be quenched. The language is indeed figurative, but not on that
account less full of meaning.
I. In dilating upon these truths, I shall say little of the corporeal sufferings which
await impenitent sinners beyond the grave. Such sufferings will certainly compose a
part of the punishment; for their bodies shall come forth in the resurrection of
damnation; as it is the servant of the soul, its tempter to many sins, and its
instrument in committing them, there seems to be a manifest propriety in making
them companions in punishment. But to the sufferings of the soul, the Scriptures
chiefly refer. The clause-“where their worm dieth not”-intimates that the soul will
suffer miseries, analogous to those which would be inflicted on a living body, by a
multitude of reptiles constantly preying upon it; that as a dead body appears to
produce the worms which consume it, so the soul dead in trespasses and sins, really
produces the causes of its own misery. What are those causes, what is the gnawing
worm?
1. its own passions and desires. That these are capable of preying upon the soul,
and occasioning acute suffering, even in this life, need not be proved. Look at a
man who is habitually peevish, fretful, and disappointed. Has he not gnawing
worms already at his heart? Look at the envious, covetous, ambitious, proud;
these passions make men miserable here; even while in this world there are many
things calculated to soothe or divert men’s passions. Sometimes they meet with
success, and this produces a transient calm; at another time, the objects which
excite their passions are absent, and this allows quietness. Men have not always
the leisure to indulge their passions; they are under the operations of causes
which tend to restrain them, such as sleep. But suppose all these removed,
deprived of sleep, success, and the objects which excite his strongest passions
constantly before him, and all restraints gone. Would not such a man be
miserable? Nothing inflames the passions of men more than suffering.
2. The gnawing worm includes the consciences of sinners. Conscience has
inflicted terrible agony, as in the case of Judas. Here she speaks only at intervals;
there without intermission. Here she may be stifled by scenes of business or
amusement, sophistical arguments; but there will be no means of silencing her;
she will see everything in the clear light of eternity. What a God she has offended,
Saviour neglected, heaven lost. Well may this be compared to a gnawing worm.
II. Our Saviour speaks not only of a gnawing worm, but of an unquenchable fire. So
far as the soul is concerned, this refers to a keen and constant sense of God’s
presence and righteous displeasure. He says of Himself, “I am a consuming fire.”
III. We learn from the passage before us, that those sufferings will be endless. Their
worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. The passions and consciences of
sinners endure as long as the soul of which they are a part. God lives forever, He
must forever be displeased with sinners. “It is impossible that I should deserve it.”
You know nothing of your sins, or of what sin deserves. As well might a man, who
should put vipers into his bosom, complain of God because they stung him. Christ
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186. died to save them from their misery. (E. Payson, D. D.)
Preserving fire
Preserving fire, or salting with fire. Decay is a species of burning; and only those
things that have been burnt, or cannot be burnt, will not decay.
I. Temptation is a preserving fire. The boy who has been sheltered at home is honest;
but his integrity is not as firm as that of the honest merchant. The clay (Isa_64:8) is
soft and plastic; but after it has been burnt in the furnace it will break before it will
bend. All must pass through the fire of temptation. If you are to be a vessel of honour
fit for the heavenly palace, the Lord must be your potter.
II. Affliction is a preserving fire. The metal comes forth from the furnace more useful
(Mal_3:3).
III. The day of judgment is also compared to a fire (1Co_3:13). Fire is a searching
test. All paint, enamel, pretence of every kind, will melt before it. Its results are
enduring. All must pass through the fiery ordeal. Only such works can stand as
proceed from gospel love.
IV. Another preserving fire is the fire of hell. The misery of hell is two fold: sin and
its punishment. (J. B. Converse.)
Their worm dieth not-Conscience in hell
It has been discovered that there are worms which eat and live upon stone. Many
such have been found in a freestone wall in Normandy. So there is a worm in hell-
conscience-which lives upon the stony heart of the condemned sinner, which gnaws
with remorse all whom grace has not softened.
45 And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it
off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than
to have two feet and be thrown into hell. [46] [c]
GILL, "And if thy foot offend thee, cut it off,.... Such who are that to men, as
the foot is to the body, the support of them through whom they have their
maintenance and subsistence; and yet these, if they are a means of causing them to
stumble and tail, or of leading out of the ways of Christ, and off from him, their
company is to be shunned and abstained from;
it is better for thee to enter halt into life. The Vulgate Latin version reads,
"eternal life", which is undoubtedly intended by "life"; and so reads the Cambridge
copy of Beza's; and the meaning is, that it is better to go alone without such company
into heaven,
186

187. than having two feet to be cast into hell, into the fire that never shall be
quenched; See Gill on Mar_9:44.
HENRY, "4. The danger of not doing this. The matter is brought to this issue, that
either sin must die, or we must die. If we will lay this Delilah in our bosom, it will
betray us; if we be ruled by sin, we shall inevitably be ruined by it; if we must keep
our two hands, and two eyes, and two feet, we must with them be cast into hell. Our
Saviour often pressed our duty upon us, from the consideration of the torments of
hell, which we run ourselves into if we continue in sin. With what an emphasis of
terror are those words repeated three times here, Where their worm dieth not, and
the fire is not quenched! The words are quoted from Isa_66:24. (1.) The reflections
and reproaches of the sinner's own conscience are the worm that dieth not; which
will cleave to the damned soul as the worms do to the dead body, and prey upon it,
and never leave it till it is quite devoured. Son, remember, will set this worm
gnawing; and how terrible will it bite that word (Pro_5:12, Pro_5:23), How have I
hated instruction! The soul that is food to this worm, dies not; and the worm is bred
in it, and one with it, and therefore neither doth that die. Damned sinners will be to
eternity accusing, condemning, and upbraiding, themselves with their own follies,
which, how much soever they are now in love with them, will at the last bite like a
serpent, and sting like an adder. (2.) The wrath of God fastening upon a guilty and
polluted conscience, is the fire that is not quenched; for it is the wrath of the living
God, the eternal God, into whose hands it is a fearful thing to fall. There are no
operations of the Spirit of grace upon the souls of the damned sinners, and therefore
there is nothing to alter the nature of the fuel, which must remain for ever
combustible; nor is there any application of the merit of Christ to them, and
therefore there is nothing to appease or quench the violence of the fire. Dr. Whitby
shows that the eternity of the torments of hell was not only the constant faith of the
Christian church, but had been so of the Jewish church. Josephus saith, The
Pharisees held that the souls of the wicked were to be punished with perpetual
punishment; and that there was appointed for them a perpetual prison. And Philo
saith, The punishment of the wicked is to live for ever dying, and to be for ever in
pains and griefs that never cease.
The two last verses are somewhat difficult, and interpreters agree not in the sense
of them; for every one in general, or rather every one of them that are cast into hell,
shall be salted with fire, and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt. Therefore have
salt in yourselves. [1.] It was appointed by the law of Moses, that every sacrifice
should be salted with salt, not to preserve it (for it was to be immediately
consumed), but because it was the food of God's table, and no flesh is eaten without
salt; it was therefore particularly required in the meat-offerings, Lev_2:13. [2.] The
nature of man, being corrupt, and as such being called flesh (Gen_6:3; Psa_78:39),
some way or other must be salted, in order to its being a sacrifice to God. The salting
of fish (and I think of other things) they call the curing of it. [3.] Our chief concern is,
to present ourselves living sacrifices to the grace of God (Rom_12:1), and, in order to
our acceptableness, we must be salted with salt, our corrupt affections must be
subdued and mortified, and we must have in our souls a savour of grace. Thus the
offering up or sacrificing of the Gentiles is said to be acceptable, being sanctified by
the Holy Ghost, as the sacrifices were salted, Rom_15:16. [4.] Those that have the
salt of grace, must make it appear that they have it; that they have salt in themselves,
a living principle of grace in their hearts, which works out all corrupt dispositions,
and every thing in the soul that tends to putrefaction, and would offend our God, or
our own consciences, as unsavoury meat doth. Our speech must be always with
grace seasoned with this salt, that no corrupt communication may proceed out of
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188. our mouth, but we may loathe it as much as we would to put putrid meat into our
mouths. [5.] As this gracious salt will keep our own consciences void of offence, so it
will keep our conversation with others so, that we may not offend any of Christ's little
ones, but may be at peace one with another. [6.] We must not only have this salt of
grace, but we must always retain the relish and savour of it; for if this salt lose its
saltiness, if a Christian revolt from his Christianity, if he loses the savour of it, and be
no longer under the power and influence of it, what can recover him, or wherewith
will ye season him? This was said Mat_5:13. [7.] Those that present not themselves
living sacrifices to God's grace, shall be made for ever dying sacrifices to his justice,
and since they would not give honour to him, he will get him honour upon them; they
would not be salted with the salt of divine grace, would not admit that to subdue
their corrupt affections, no, they would not submit to the operation, could not bear
the corrosives that were necessary to eat out the proud flesh, it was to them like
cutting off a hand, or plucking out an eye; and therefore in hell they shall be salted
with fire; coals of fire shall be scattered upon them (Eze_10:2), as salt upon the
meat, and brimstone (Job_18:15), as fire and brimstone were rained on Sodom; the
pleasures they have lived in, shall eat their flesh, as it were with fire, Jam_5:3. The
pain of mortifying the flesh now is no more to be compared with the punishment for
not mortifying it, than salting with burning. And since he had said, that the fire of
hell shall not be quenched, but it might be objected, that the fuel will not last always,
he here intimates, that by the power of God it shall be made to last always; for those
that are cast into hell, will find the fire to have not only the corroding quality of salt,
but its preserving quality; whence it is used to signify that which is lasting: a
covenant of salt is a perpetual covenant, and Lot's wife being turned into a pillar of
salt, made her a remaining monument of divine vengeance. Now since this will
certainly be the doom of those that do not crucify the flesh with its affections and
lusts, let us, knowing this terror of the Lord, be persuaded to do it.
COFFMAN, "The teaching here is identical with that of Mark 9:43. The
personal force of such an admonition was reduced by the interpretation favored
by some of the ancients who applied it to the church as meaning that the church
should excommunicate undesirable members whose sins demanded it. However,
it seems to this writer that the Saviour had in view the need of personal sacrifice
to maintain loyalty to God. The metaphor of cutting off hands and feet, and
plucking out eyes, is not any more severe than that of "eating and drinking"
Christ's flesh and blood (John 6:53); and it was doubtless used to emphasize the
extreme importance of loyalty to Christ, as well as the awful consequences of
failure.
47 And if your eye causes you to stumble, pluck
it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom
of God with one eye than to have two eyes and
be thrown into hell,
188

189. GILL, "And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out,.... Than which, nothing is
dearer to man, it being very tender, and exceeding useful: this metaphor the Lord
sometimes makes use of, to show how dear his people are unto him, and what a
tender concern he has for them, Deu_32:10. And here it may design such, as are
most beloved by men, and are their most intimate acquaintance, and bosom friends;
and yet these are to be parted with, when they prove snares and stumbling blocks, or
give offence, by endeavouring to draw into sin, and from Christ:
it is better for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye; that
kingdom, which God has prepared for his people, from the foundation of the world,
and of his rich grace, gives unto them, and in which they will enjoy him to all
eternity;
than having two eyes, to be cast into hell fire. In the two instances before it is
added, "that never shall be quenched".
HENRY, "The two last verses are somewhat difficult, and interpreters agree not in
the sense of them; for every one in general, or rather every one of them that are cast
into hell, shall be salted with fire, and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt.
Therefore have salt in yourselves. [1.] It was appointed by the law of Moses, that
every sacrifice should be salted with salt, not to preserve it (for it was to be
immediately consumed), but because it was the food of God's table, and no flesh is
eaten without salt; it was therefore particularly required in the meat-offerings, Lev_
2:13. [2.] The nature of man, being corrupt, and as such being called flesh (Gen_6:3;
Psa_78:39), some way or other must be salted, in order to its being a sacrifice to
God. The salting of fish (and I think of other things) they call the curing of it. [3.]
Our chief concern is, to present ourselves living sacrifices to the grace of God (Rom_
12:1), and, in order to our acceptableness, we must be salted with salt, our corrupt
affections must be subdued and mortified, and we must have in our souls a savour of
grace. Thus the offering up or sacrificing of the Gentiles is said to be acceptable,
being sanctified by the Holy Ghost, as the sacrifices were salted, Rom_15:16. [4.]
Those that have the salt of grace, must make it appear that they have it; that they
have salt in themselves, a living principle of grace in their hearts, which works out all
corrupt dispositions, and every thing in the soul that tends to putrefaction, and
would offend our God, or our own consciences, as unsavoury meat doth. Our speech
must be always with grace seasoned with this salt, that no corrupt communication
may proceed out of our mouth, but we may loathe it as much as we would to put
putrid meat into our mouths. [5.] As this gracious salt will keep our own consciences
void of offence, so it will keep our conversation with others so, that we may not
offend any of Christ's little ones, but may be at peace one with another. [6.] We must
not only have this salt of grace, but we must always retain the relish and savour of it;
for if this salt lose its saltiness, if a Christian revolt from his Christianity, if he loses
the savour of it, and be no longer under the power and influence of it, what can
recover him, or wherewith will ye season him? This was said Mat_5:13. [7.] Those
that present not themselves living sacrifices to God's grace, shall be made for ever
dying sacrifices to his justice, and since they would not give honour to him, he will
get him honour upon them; they would not be salted with the salt of divine grace,
would not admit that to subdue their corrupt affections, no, they would not submit to
the operation, could not bear the corrosives that were necessary to eat out the proud
flesh, it was to them like cutting off a hand, or plucking out an eye; and therefore in
hell they shall be salted with fire; coals of fire shall be scattered upon them (Eze_
189

190. 10:2), as salt upon the meat, and brimstone (Job_18:15), as fire and brimstone were
rained on Sodom; the pleasures they have lived in, shall eat their flesh, as it were
with fire, Jam_5:3. The pain of mortifying the flesh now is no more to be compared
with the punishment for not mortifying it, than salting with burning. And since he
had said, that the fire of hell shall not be quenched, but it might be objected, that the
fuel will not last always, he here intimates, that by the power of God it shall be made
to last always; for those that are cast into hell, will find the fire to have not only the
corroding quality of salt, but its preserving quality; whence it is used to signify that
which is lasting: a covenant of salt is a perpetual covenant, and Lot's wife being
turned into a pillar of salt, made her a remaining monument of divine vengeance.
Now since this will certainly be the doom of those that do not crucify the flesh with
its affections and lusts, let us, knowing this terror of the Lord, be persuaded to do it.
JAMIESON, "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 eyes
to be cast into hell-fire — On the words “hell” and “hell-fire,” or “the hell of fire,”
see on Mat_5:22.
COKE, "Mark 9:47. It is better, &c.— From what has been said, Mark 9:42 our
Saviour infers, that it is better to deny oneself the greatest earthly satisfactions,
and to part with every thing most precious,—represented by the figures of a
hand, a foot, an eye, than by these things to cause the weakest of his friends to
stumble, as some of the disciples had lately done. The amputation of our hands
and feet, and the plucking out of our eyes, when they cause us to offend, import
also that we should deny ourselves such use of our members and senses as may
lead us into sin. Thus the hand and the eye are to be turned away from those
alluring objects which raise in us lust and ambition; the foot must be restrained
from carrying us into evil company, unlawful diversions, and forbidden
pleasures; nor can we complain of these injunctions as severe, since by tempting
others to sin, as well as sinning ourselves, we are exposed to the eternal
punishments of hell. See on Matthew 5:29. It is observable, that what is called the
kingdom of God in this verse, is called life in those preceding; whence it appears,
that this kingdom, and life, are the same.
48 where
“‘the worms that eat them do not die,
and the fire is not quenched.’[d]
GILL, "Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. This is
repeated again, not only to assure the truth of the thing, but to raise the attention of
the mind unto it, and fix an awful impression upon it: the Persic version renders it,
"from whence thou shall never find redemption": there is no redemption from hell,
190

191. as Origen and others have thought.
JAMIESON, "Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not
quenched — See on Mat_5:30; The “unquenchablesness” of this fire has already
been brought before us (see on Mat_3:12); and the awfully vivid idea of an undying
worm, everlastingly consuming an unconsumable body, is taken from the closing
words of the evangelical prophet (Isa_66:24), which seem to have furnished the later
Jewish Church with its current phraseology on the subject of future punishment (see
Lightfoot).
COFFMAN, "These words were repeated in Mark 9:44 and Mark 9:46, both of
which are omitted in the English Revised Version (1885). They are a description
of Gehenna, the valley of Hinnom (translated "hell" in this version), and were
added to emphasize the undesirability and the awfulness of the place where the
wicked shall be punished with "everlasting destruction." It should be noted that
like other descriptions of hell in the New Testament, the purpose is not that of
describing hell but rather showing its awful nature. Worms and fire, in nature,
do not exist in the same place; and thus, as in the case of "fire and brimstone"
and "outer darkness," are actually opposed to each other. It is thus clear that
Christ is not here describing hell but warning people of its horrible character.
When it is considered that hell is such an awful place that Christ had recourse to
such terrible words as these in his warnings against it, the soul draws back at the
very contemplation of such a place.
BI, "Where their worm dieth not.
The punishment of the wicked, dreadful and interminable
Some will say that this doctrine has no tendency to do good; it is idle to think of
frightening men into religion. It is my duty not to decide what doctrines are likely to
do good, but to preach such as I find in the Scriptures. I dare not pretend to be either
more wise or more compassionate than our Saviour; and He thought it consistent,
both with wisdom and compassion, to utter the words of our text. These expressions
allude to the manner in which the Jews disposed of the bodies of the dead; placed in
tombs they were consumed by worms; or on a funeral pile it was consumed by fire.
You have seen this, but there is another death, of the soul. Those who die this death
shall be preyed upon by worms which will never die, and become the fuel of a fire
that will never be quenched. The language is indeed figurative, but not on that
account less full of meaning.
I. In dilating upon these truths, I shall say little of the corporeal sufferings which
await impenitent sinners beyond the grave. Such sufferings will certainly compose a
part of the punishment; for their bodies shall come forth in the resurrection of
damnation; as it is the servant of the soul, its tempter to many sins, and its
instrument in committing them, there seems to be a manifest propriety in making
them companions in punishment. But to the sufferings of the soul, the Scriptures
chiefly refer. The clause-“where their worm dieth not”-intimates that the soul will
suffer miseries, analogous to those which would be inflicted on a living body, by a
multitude of reptiles constantly preying upon it; that as a dead body appears to
produce the worms which consume it, so the soul dead in trespasses and sins, really
produces the causes of its own misery. What are those causes, what is the gnawing
worm?
1. its own passions and desires. That these are capable of preying upon the soul,
191

192. and occasioning acute suffering, even in this life, need not be proved. Look at a
man who is habitually peevish, fretful, and disappointed. Has he not gnawing
worms already at his heart? Look at the envious, covetous, ambitious, proud;
these passions make men miserable here; even while in this world there are many
things calculated to soothe or divert men’s passions. Sometimes they meet with
success, and this produces a transient calm; at another time, the objects which
excite their passions are absent, and this allows quietness. Men have not always
the leisure to indulge their passions; they are under the operations of causes
which tend to restrain them, such as sleep. But suppose all these removed,
deprived of sleep, success, and the objects which excite his strongest passions
constantly before him, and all restraints gone. Would not such a man be
miserable? Nothing inflames the passions of men more than suffering.
2. The gnawing worm includes the consciences of sinners. Conscience has
inflicted terrible agony, as in the case of Judas. Here she speaks only at intervals;
there without intermission. Here she may be stifled by scenes of business or
amusement, sophistical arguments; but there will be no means of silencing her;
she will see everything in the clear light of eternity. What a God she has offended,
Saviour neglected, heaven lost. Well may this be compared to a gnawing worm.
II. Our Saviour speaks not only of a gnawing worm, but of an unquenchable fire. So
far as the soul is concerned, this refers to a keen and constant sense of God’s
presence and righteous displeasure. He says of Himself, “I am a consuming fire.”
III. We learn from the passage before us, that those sufferings will be endless. Their
worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. The passions and consciences of
sinners endure as long as the soul of which they are a part. God lives forever, He
must forever be displeased with sinners. “It is impossible that I should deserve it.”
You know nothing of your sins, or of what sin deserves. As well might a man, who
should put vipers into his bosom, complain of God because they stung him. Christ
died to save them from their misery. (E. Payson, D. D.)
Preserving fire
Preserving fire, or salting with fire. Decay is a species of burning; and only those
things that have been burnt, or cannot be burnt, will not decay.
I. Temptation is a preserving fire. The boy who has been sheltered at home is honest;
but his integrity is not as firm as that of the honest merchant. The clay (Isa_64:8) is
soft and plastic; but after it has been burnt in the furnace it will break before it will
bend. All must pass through the fire of temptation. If you are to be a vessel of honour
fit for the heavenly palace, the Lord must be your potter.
II. Affliction is a preserving fire. The metal comes forth from the furnace more useful
(Mal_3:3).
III. The day of judgment is also compared to a fire (1Co_3:13). Fire is a searching
test. All paint, enamel, pretence of every kind, will melt before it. Its results are
enduring. All must pass through the fiery ordeal. Only such works can stand as
proceed from gospel love.
IV. Another preserving fire is the fire of hell. The misery of hell is two fold: sin and
its punishment. (J. B. Converse.)
192

193. Their worm dieth not-Conscience in hell
It has been discovered that there are worms which eat and live upon stone. Many
such have been found in a freestone wall in Normandy. So there is a worm in hell-
conscience-which lives upon the stony heart of the condemned sinner, which gnaws
with remorse all whom grace has not softened.
49 Everyone will be salted with fire.
BARNES, "Every one shall be salted with fire - Perhaps no passage in the
New Testament has given more perplexity to commentators than this, and it may be
impossible now to fix its precise meaning. The common idea affixed to it has been,
that as salt preserves from putrefaction, so fire, applied to the wicked in hell, will
have the property of preserving them in existence, or they will “be” preserved amid
the sprinkling of fire, to be continually in their sufferings a sacrifice to the justice of
God; but this meaning is not quite satisfactory. Another opinion has been, that as salt
was sprinkled on the victim preparatory to its being devoted to God (see Lev_2:13),
so would “the apostles,” by trials, calamities, etc., represented here by “fire,” be
prepared as a sacrifice and offering to God. Probably the passage has no reference at
all to future punishment; and the difficulty of interpreting it has arisen from
supposing it to be connected with the 48th verse, or given as a “reason” for what is
said in “that” verse, rather than considering it as designed to illustrate the “general
design” of the passage. The main scope of the passage was not to discourse of future
punishment; that is brought in incidentally. The chief object of the passage was -
1. To teach the apostles that “other men,” not “with them,” might be true
Christians, Mar_9:38-39.
2. That they ought to be disposed to look favorably upon the slightest evidence
that they “might be true believers,” Mar_9:41.
3. That they ought to avoid giving “offence” to such feeble and obscure Christians,
Mar_9:42.
4. That “everything” calculated to give offence, or to dishonor religion, should be
removed, Mar_9:43. And,
5. That everything which would endanger their salvation should be sacrificed;
that they should “deny” themselves in every way in order to obtain eternal life.
In this way they would be “preserved” to eternal life.
The word “fire,” here, therefore denotes self-denials, sacrifices, trials, in keeping
ourselves from the gratification of the flesh. As if he had said, “Look at the sacrifice
on the altar. It is an offering to God, about to be presented to him. It is sprinkled with
“salt, emblematic of purity, of preservation and of fitting it, therefore, for a sacrifice.”
So “you” are devoted to God. You are sacrifices, victims, offerings to him in his
service. To make you “acceptable” offerings, every thing must be done to “preserve”
you from sin and to “purify” you. Self-denials, subduing the lusts, enduring trials,
removing offences, are the proper “preservatives” in the service of God. Doing this,
you will be acceptable offerings and be saved; without this, you will be “unfit” for his
eternal service and will be lost.”
193

194. CLARKE, "For every one shall be salted with fire - Every one of those who
shall live and die in sin: but there is great difficulty in this verse. The Codex Bezae,
and some other MSS., have omitted the first clause; and several MSS. keep the first,
and omit the last clause - and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt. There appears
to be an allusion to Isa_66:24. It is generally supposed that our Lord means, that as
salt preserves the flesh with which it is connected from corruption, so this everlasting
fire, το πυρ το ασβεστον, this inconsumable fire, will have the property, not only of
assimilating all things cast into it to its own nature, but of making them
inconsumable like itself.
Scaliger supposes, that instead of πας πυρι, πασα πυρια, every sacrifice (of flour)
should be read, “Every sacrifice (of flour) shall be salted, and every burnt offering
shall be salted.” This, I fear, is taking the text by storm. Some take the whole in a
good sense, as referring to the influence of the Spirit of God in the hearts of believers,
which shall answer the same end to the soul, in preserving it from the contagion that
is in the world, as salt did in the sacrifices offered to God to preserve them from
putrefaction. Old Trapp’s note on the place pleases me as much as any I have seen: -
“The Spirit, as salt, must dry up those bad humours in us which breed the never-
dying worm; and, as fire, must waste our corruptions, which else will carry us on to
the unquenchable fire.” Perhaps the whole is an allusion to the purification of vessels,
and especially such metallic vessels as were employed in the service of the sanctuary.
Probably the following may be considered as a parallel text: - Every thing that may
abide the fire, ye shalt make go through the fire, and it shall be clean; and all that
abideth not the fire, ye shall make go through the water, Num_31:23. Ye, disciples,
are the Lord’s sacrifice; ye shall go through much tribulation, in order to enter into
my kingdom: but ye are salted, ye are influenced by the Spirit of God, and are
immortal till your work is done; and should ye be offered up, martyred, this shall be a
means of establishing more fully the glad tidings of the kingdom: and this Spirit shall
preserve all who believe on me from the corruption of sin, and from eternal
perdition. That converts to God are represented as his offering, see Isa_66:20, the
very place which our Lord appears to have here in view.
If this passage be taken according to the common meaning, it is awful indeed! Here
may be seen the greatness, multiplicity, and eternity, of the pains of the damned.
They suffer without being able to die; they are burned without being consumed; they
are sacrificed without being sanctified - are salted with the fire of hell, as eternal
victims of the Divine Justice. We must of necessity be sacrificed to God, after one way
or other, in eternity; and we have now the choice either of the unquenchable fire of
his justice, or of the everlasting flame of his love. Quesnel.
GILL, "For every one shall be salted with fire,.... That is every one of those
that transgress the law of God, offend any that, believe in Christ, retain their sins,
and sinful companions; every one of them that are cast into hell, where the worm of
conscience is always gnawing, and the fire of divine wrath is always burning, with
that fire every one of them shall be salted: that fire shall be to them, what salt is to
flesh; as that keeps flesh from putrefaction and corruption, so the fire of hell, as it
will burn, torture, and distress rebellious sinners, it will preserve them in their
beings; they shall not be consumed by it, but continued in it: so that these words are
a reason of the former, showing and proving, that the soul in torment shall never die,
or lose any of its powers and faculties; and particularly, not its gnawing, torturing
conscience; and that the fire of hell is inextinguishable; for though sinners will be
inexpressibly tormented in it, they will not be consumed by it; but the smoke of their
torments shall ascend for ever and ever; and that they will be so far from being
194

195. annihilated by the fire of hell, that they shall be preserved in their beings in it, as
flesh is preserved by salt:
and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt; referring to Lev_2:13. "With all
thine offerings thou shall offer salt"; not only the meat offerings, but the burnt
offerings, and all others, were to be offered with salt (n); of which, the Jews say the
following things (o):
"It is an affirmative precept to salt all the sacrifices, before they go up to the altar, as
it is said, Lev_2:13. With all thine offerings thou shall offer salt; and there is nothing
brought to the altar without salt, except the wine of drink offerings, and blood, and
wood; and this thing is a tradition, and there is no Scripture to support it; and the
commandment is to salt the flesh very well, as one salts flesh for roasting, who turns
the part, and salts it; though if he salts the whole, with even one grain of salt, it is
right; he that offers without any salt at all, is to be beaten; as it is said, "thou shall not
suffer the salt of the covenant of thy God to be lacking": and though he is to be
beaten, the offering is right, and acceptable, except the meat offering.--The salt, with
which they salt all the sacrifices, is from the congregation, as the wood; and a private
person does not bring salt, or wood, for his offering, from his own house: and in
three places (p) they put on salt, in the chamber of salt, and upon the ascent of the
altar, and upon the top of the altar: in the chamber of salt they salt the skins of the
holy things; and upon the ascent of the altar they salt the parts (of the sacrifice); and
upon the top of the altar they salt the handful, and the frankincense and the meat
offerings, that are burnt, and the burnt offerings of fowls.''
Something of this kind also obtained among the Heathens, who thought their
sacrifices were not rightly offered, nor acceptable to God, unless salt was used with
them (q). Now our Lord in this has either respect to the same persons, as before; and
signifies hereby, that the wicked in hell shall be victims to divine justice, and
sacrifices to his wrath and vengeance; and that as the sacrifices under the law were
salted with salt, these shall be salted with the fire of hell, and shall never be utterly
destroyed; but shall ever remain the objects of God's sore displeasure; and fiery
indignation: or he may have respect to a different sort of persons, even to the saints
and people of God, who are an holy, living, and acceptable sacrifice to him; and in the
prophecy referred to in the context, Isa_66:20, they are said to be brought for "an
offering to the Lord--as the children of Israel bring an offering in a clean vessel into
the house of the Lord": and so as the sacrifices of the Jews were salted with salt, and
became acceptable to God; such who are seasoned with the grace of God, are
preserved from the corruptions of the world, are acceptable in the sight of God, and
are kept safe to his kingdom and glory.
JAMIESON, "For every one shall be salted with fire, and every sacrifice
shall be salted with salt — A difficult verse, on which much has been written -
some of it to little purpose. “Every one” probably means “Every follower of mine”;
and the “fire” with which he “must be salted” probably means “a fiery trial” to season
him. (Compare Mal_3:2, etc.). The reference to salting the sacrifice is of course to
that maxim of the Levitical law, that every acceptable sacrifice must be sprinkled
with salt, to express symbolically its soundness, sweetness, wholesomeness,
acceptability. But as it had to be roasted first, we have here the further idea of a
salting with fire. In this case, “every sacrifice,” in the next clause, will mean, “Every
one who would be found an acceptable offering to God”; and thus the whole verse
may perhaps be paraphrased as follows: “Every disciple of Mine shall have a fiery
trial to undergo, and everyone who would be found an odor of a sweet smell, a
195

196. sacrifice acceptable and well-pleasing to God, must have such a salting, like the
Levitical sacrifices.” Another, but, as it seems to us, farfetched as well as harsh,
interpretation - suggested first, we believe, by Michaelis, and adopted by Alexander -
takes the “every sacrifice which must be salted with fire” to mean those who are “cast
into hell,” and the preservative effect of this salting to refer to the preservation of the
lost not only in but by means of the fire of hell. Their reason for this is that the other
interpretation changes the meaning of the “fire,” and the characters too, from the lost
to the saved, in these verses. But as our Lord confessedly ends His discourse with the
case of His own true disciples, the transition to them in Mar_9:48 is perfectly
natural; whereas to apply the preservative salt of the sacrifice to the preserving
quality of hell-fire, is equally contrary to the symbolical sense of salt and the
Scripture representations of future torment. Our Lord has still in His eye the
unseemly jarrings which had arisen among the Twelve, the peril to themselves of
allowing any indulgence to such passions, and the severe self-sacrifice which
salvation would cost them.
CALVIN, "Mark 9:49.Every man shall be salted with fire. I have connected
these words of Mark with the passage in Matthew which we have just
considered: not that I look upon them to have altogether the same meaning, or to
have been spoken at the same place and time, but rather to enable the reader to
understand better, by means of comparison, the different applications of the
same sentence. According to Mark’s narrative, our Lord, having spoken of
eternal fire, (Mark 9:48,) exhorts his own people, on the contrary, to offer
themselves now to God to be seasoned with fire and salt, that they may be
devoted sacrifices, (379) and that they may not draw upon themselves, by their
sins, that fire which is never extinguished. To be salted with fire is an incorrect
phrase; but as salt and fire possess the same quality of purifying and refining,
Christ applied the same term to both. Such was the occasion on which this
sentiment was uttered. It was, that believers may not refuse to be purified by fire
and salt; since, without this seasoning, they cannot be holy to God. He alludes to
an enactment of the Law:
“Every oblation of thy meat-offering shalt thou season with salt, neither shalt
thou suffer the salt of the covenant of thy God to be lacking from thy meat-
offering: with all thine offerings thou shalt offer salt,”
(Leviticus 2:13.)
But now he shows, that believers are salted by the word of the Gospel, that they
may be sanctified.
He next adds, salt is good This extends generally to all, whom God has once been
pleased to season with his own word. He exhorts them to retain always their
savor. To give the name of salt to what is salted is rather a harsh metaphor, but
it creates no doubt as to the meaning. When men have lost, by their carelessness,
that savor which they obtained by the grace of God, there is no farther remedy.
Those who lose their faith, by which they were consecrated to God, and become
without savor, are in a desperate condition: for the good savor cannot be
acquired by any other seasoning. Besides, those who have become corrupted, by
making void the grace of God, are worse than unbelievers, as salt spoils the land
and the dunghill
196

197. COFFMAN, "This maxim seems to have been triggered in Mark's mind by the
mention of fire in the previous verses. And what is the meaning? If we
understand "fire" as a reference to the persecutions and tribulations that
invariably beset the Christian pilgrimage, it means that none shall be saved
except through the endurance of the world's scorn and opposition. Paul
expressed this thought as "All that live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer
persecution" (2 Timothy 3:12). Of course, this is a difficult verse, and all kinds of
notions have been advocated as the meaning of it. Certainly, we may set aside the
superstition that this is a reference to all souls passing through the fires of
purgatory!
COKE, "Mark 9:49. For every one shall be salted— This difficult text has been
interpreted very variously: I shall lay before the reader only such explanations of
it as appear to me most reasonable. I. The proper translation of this passage,
says Dr. Macknight, is, Every one shall be salted for the fire, πας πυρι
αλισθησεται, namely, by you my apostles; for πυρι here is the dative, not the
ablative; as it is likewise 2 Peter 3:7 where the same construction is found, πυρι
τηρουμενοι, reserved for the fire.—"Every one shall be salted for the fire of
God's altar;" that is to say, shall be prepared to be offered a sacrifice to God,
holy and acceptable: For though the proposition be universal, it must be limited
by the nature of the subject, thus, "Every one who is offered a sacrifice unto
God, shall be salted for the fire, as every sacrifice is salted with salt;" nor is it
any objection against this interpretation, that the word αλισθησεται will thus
stand construed with different cases in the same sentence; for both sacred and
profane writers make use of such constructions; nay, they often affix different
senses to the same word in one sentence. See James 4:8. But the reader will have
no doubt of the meaning of the passage, when he considers that our Lord is not
giving a reason of the unquenchableness of hell-fire, as is commonly supposed,
but a reason why his apostles and followers should cut off their hands, and pluck
out their eyes, if these members prove the occasion of sin, either to themselves or
others. This I think is plain from the clause that follows: If the salt have lost its
saltness; if you, who are the salt of the earth, and whose office it is to season
others, have lost your saltness, that is to say, your grace and goodness, wherewith
will you season it?—Have salt in yourselves, &c. According to this interpretation,
the argument stands thus: "That ye, my apostles, do mortify yourselves, is
absolutely necessary, not only on account of your future well-being, but for the
sake of mankind, who are to be salted by you for the fire;" that is, seasoned with
piety, holiness, and virtue, by means of your doctrine and example, and so put
into a fit condition for being offered unto God; in opposition to the condition of
the wicked, who, being an abhorrence unto all flesh, must be consumed by the
worm that never dies, and the fire that is not quenched. The necessity of men's
being thus seasoned with grace, in order to their becoming acceptable sacrifices
unto God, you may learn from its being typically represented under the law, by
the priest's salting the sacrifices for the fire of the altar with salt. Having
therefore this high honour, of salting mankind for the altar of heaven, conferred
upon you, it is fit that you contain in yourselves the spiritual salt of all the graces,
and particularly the holy salt of love and peace, in order that you may be, as
much as possible, free from the corruption of ambition and pride, contention,
197

198. and every evil work. II. Dr. Doddridge, following many learned commentaries,
translates and paraphrases the passage thus: "For as the flesh burned on the
altar has salt rubbed upon it, in consequence of which it burns so much the more
fiercely; so every one of those unhappy creatures, the victims of divine justice,
shall be, as it were, salted with fire; and instead of being consumed by if, shall, in
those wretched abodes, continue immortal in the midst of their flames. Whereas
every acceptable sacrifice shall be seasoned with another kind of salt, even that
of divine grace, which purifies the soul, and preserves it from corruption."
Sinners are represented as victims of divine justice, Isaiah 34:6. Jeremiah 12:3;
Jeremiah 46:10; Jeremiah 46:28 and good men, as in this place, are exhibited as
acceptable sacrifices, consecrated to God. See Romans 12:1; Romans 15:16;
Romans 15:33. The version of 1729 translates this verse, Such a one shall be
consumed by fire; but the offering that is salted, shall be preserved from
corruption: but it does not any where appear that αλισθησεται, bears the sense
of consumed. The learned reader will find in Wolfius a multitude of different
interpretations of this text.
CONSTABLE, "This verse evidently alludes to Leviticus 2:13 (cf. Exodus 30:35;
Ezekiel 43:24). The "everyone" in view could refer to unbelievers who enter hell.
Unbelievers are the immediate antecedent of this verse. As salt preserves food, so
God will preserve them forever in torment.
A second possibility is that "everyone" refers to believers living in a hostile
world. Jesus' believing disciples were those to whom He addressed these words.
As the Old Testament priests salted the animal sacrifices, so God will season His
living sacrifices with fiery trials to purify their faith (cf. 1 Peter 1:7; 1 Peter
4:12). [Note: Hiebert, p. 234; Lane, p. 349; Lenski, pp. 410-11; Cranfield, pp.
315-16; Taylor, p. 413; Cole, p. 224.]
A third interpretation is that "everyone" refers to every person, unbelievers and
believers alike. God will subject everyone to fiery trials. He does this to believers
and unbelievers alike during their earthly lives (James 1:1-18). He will also do
this to believers' works when we stand before the judgment seat of Christ (cf.
Matthew 25:14-46; 1 Corinthians 3:10-15). He will do this to unbelievers when
they stand before Him at the great white throne judgment (Revelation 20:11-15).
This seems to me to be the best interpretation. It takes "everyone" literally and is
consistent with other revelation. The point is that everyone should realize that
divine testing is an inevitable part of life. [Note: H. A. W. Meyer, "Critical and
Exegetical Hand-Book to the Gospels of Mark and Luke," in Meyer's Critical
and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament, pp. 120-23, listed 15
different interpretations.]
Since this verse appears only in Mark it must have had special significance for
the original readers. If they were Roman Christians, it would have encouraged
them to realize that the fires of persecution were part of their calling. Everyone
will experience trials (cf. James 1:1-18). We sometimes say that into every life a
little rain must fall. We could change that a little and say that into every life a
little salt of testing must fall.
198

199. BURKITT, "Everyone shall be salted with fire; that is, everyone of them
mentioned in the foregoing verses, who refuses to cut off a right hand, and pluck
out a right eye; that is, to mortify their bosom lusts, and beloved corruptions,
which are as dear as a right hand or a right eye; every such wicked and
unmortified person shall be salted with fire; that is, thrown into hell-fire, where
the worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched; as our Saviour speaks, Mark
9:44.
And their being salted with fire, imports and implies, that as to their beings they
shall be preserved, even as salt preserves things from corruption, that they may
be the objects of the eternal wrath of God. So that for sinners to be salted with
fire, is to be given up to everlasting destruction.
Learn hence, That all such unsavoury sinners as indulge their corrupt lust and
affections, shall be salted with fire; that is given up to everlasting destruction in
hell-fire! but every sacrifice shall be salted with salt; that is, every Christian who
has given up himself a real sacrifice unto God, shall be salted, not with fire, but
with salt, to be preserved and kept savoury. The grace of mortification is that to
the soul, which salt is to the body; it preserves it from putrefaction, and renders
it savoury.
Learn hence, 1. That every Christian in this life ought to be a spiritual sacrifice
or oblation unto God.
2. That there is a putrid and corrupt part in every sacrifice, in every Christian,
which must be purged out, and the sacrifice purified and cleansed from.
3. That the grace of mortification is the true salt which must clarify the soul, and
with which every sacrifice must be salted, that will be a savoury offering unto
God; Everyone shall be salted with fire, and every sacrifice shall be salted with
salt.
LIGHTFOOT, "[For every one shall be salted with fire.] The great Scaliger is
well chastised, and not without cause, by John Cloppenberg, because he changed
the reading here into every sacrifice shall be salted. See what he saith.
All, is not to be understood of every man, but of every one of them "whose worm
dieth not," &c.
The sense of the place is to be fetched from those words, and the sense of those
words from Isaiah 66:24: "And they shall go forth, and look upon the carcases of
the men that have transgressed against me: for their worm shall not die, neither
shall their fire be quenched; and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh." Upon
which place thus the Jews write; "'They shall go forth and look,' &c. Is not the
finger of a man, if it be put into the fire, immediately burnt? But God gives
power (or being) to wicked men to receive torments." Kimchi upon the place
thus: "They shall see the carcases of them full of worms, and fire burning in
them": and yet the worms die not.
199

200. The words therefore of our Saviour respect this: "Their worm dieth not, and the
fire is not quenched; for every one of them shall be seasoned with fire itself, so as
to become unconsumable, and shall endure for ever to be tormented, as salt
preserves from corruption."
That very learned man mentioned before called the common reading very
improper. For what is it, saith he, to season with fire? Let me retort, And what is
it to fire with salt? And yet that sense occurs very frequently in the Talmudists.
For in them is to burn, (which it signifies properly indeed) and very frequently it
is, to corrupt any thing with too much salting, so that it cannot be eaten: to be
fired with salt. So in this place, to be salted with fire, that it cannot be corrupted
or consumed.
[And every sacrifice shall be salted with salt.] Here the discourse is of salting,
which was done at the altar, see Leviticus 2:13: "In the ascent of the altar, they
salted the parts of the sacrifice: and on the top of the altar they salt the handful
of meal, of frankincense, of incense, and the mincha of the priests, and the
mincha of the anointed priest, and the mincha of the drink-offerings, and the
sacrifice of birds." Yea, the very wood is a corban of the mincha, and is to be
salted.
But in the former clause, the allusion was not to the fire of the altar, but to the
fire in the valley of Hinnom, where dead carcases, bones, and other filthy things
were consumed. Carcases crawl with worms; and instead of salt which secures
against worms, they shall be cast into the fire, and shall be seasoned with flames,
and yet the worms shall not die. But he that is a true sacrifice to God shall be
seasoned with the salt of grace to the incorruption of glory.
Our Saviour speaks in this place with Isaiah 66:20: They shall bring your
brethren out of all the nations for a gift to the Lord,--as the children of Israel
offer their sacrifices to me with psalms in the house of the Lord. And verse 24:
And they shall go forth, and look upon the limbs of men that transgressed
against me: for their worm shall not die, and their fire shall not be quenched, &c.
Every sacrifice, saith our Saviour, concerning holy men seasoned with grace: so
the prophet, "They shall bring your brethren for a gift to the Lord, as the
children of Israel do the sacrifices."
Shall be seasoned with fire, saith our Saviour of wicked men: in the same sense
Isaiah, "They shall be in unquenchable fire, and yet their worm shall not die."
Their fire and their worm: whose? Concerning the former, it is somewhat
obscure in our Saviour's words, and so, indeed, that it is without all obscurity
that he refers his words only to the words of Isaiah: but who they are in Isaiah is
plain enough.
BENSON, "Mark 9:49-50. For every one shall be salted with fire — These words
seem to refer to the preceding, respecting the punishment of those who will not
cut off the offending members, which render them obnoxious to future
200

201. punishment: and so the import of them must be, that all such shall be “seasoned
with fire itself, so as to become inconsumable, and shall endure for ever to be
tormented, and therefore may be said to be salted with fire, in allusion to that
property of salt which is to preserve things from corruption.” — Whitby. This
interpretation supposes the word πας, every one, to signify the same as if the
expression had been πας γαρ αυτων, for every one of them, namely, whose fire is
not quenched; shall be salted with, or in the fire; that is, preserved from
corruption, in and by it. So Mark 12:44, παντες γαρ, for all, that is, all they, as
our translators render it, all those rich men, there spoken of. So Luke 16:16, The
kingdom of God is preached, και πας, and every one, (namely, who believes,)
presseth into it. And Luke 21:32, This generation shall not pass away, εως αν
παντα γενηται, till all things be done, that is, παντα ταυτα, all these things, there
mentioned. The reader may see many other instances in Grotius. The sense,
therefore, of the clause is, Every one, who does not comply with the preceding
advice, and consequently is cast into hell, shall be, as it were, salted with fire,
preserved, not consumed, thereby. And every sacrifice — That is, every person
who offers himself unto God in repentance, faith, and new obedience, as a living
sacrifice; shall be salted with salt — Even with the salt of divine grace, which
purifies the soul, (though frequently with pain,) and preserves it from
corruption. It is evident that there is an allusion here to that part of the law of
Moses which required every meat-offering, or sacrifice, to be seasoned with salt.
See Leviticus 2:13. Salt is good — Highly beneficial to the world in many
respects: But if the salt — Which should season other things; have lost its own
saltness; αναλον γενηται, become insipid; wherewith will ye season it? — By
what means will ye restore its saltness, or seasoning quality, to it? Thus, if you,
whom I have termed the salt of the earth, (Matthew 5:13; where see the note,)
and have appointed to be the chief instruments in seasoning the rest of mankind
with truth and grace, with wisdom and piety, should lose your own grace, and
your faith in, and relish for, the truths of my gospel, or should cease to be
properly influenced thereby, wherewith can you be seasoned? Beware, therefore,
of apostatizing from the truth, and of falling from grace: see that you retain your
savour, and the seasoning virtue wherewith I have endued you, and, as a proof of
it, have peace one with another.
More largely this obscure text might be paraphrased thus: As every burnt-
offering was salted with salt, in order to its being cast into the fire of the altar, so
every one who will not part with his hand or eye, shall fall a sacrifice to divine
justice, and be cast into hell-fire, which will not consume, but preserve him from
a cessation of being. And on the other hand, every one who, denying himself, and
taking up his cross, offers up himself as a living sacrifice to God, shall be
seasoned with grace, which, like salt, will make him savoury, and preserve him
from destruction for ever. As salt is good for preserving meats, and making them
savoury, so it is good that ye be seasoned with grace, for the purifying your
hearts and lives, and for spreading the savour of my knowledge, both in your
own souls, and wherever ye go. But as salt, if it loses its saltness, is fit for nothing,
so ye, if ye lose your faith and love, are fit for nothing but to be utterly destroyed.
See therefore that grace abide in you, and that ye no more contend, Who shall be
greatest?
201

202. SIMEON, "CHRISTIANS TO HAVE SALT IN THEMSELVES
Mark 9:49-50. Every one shall be salted with fire, and every sacrifice shall be
salted with salt. Salt is good: but if the salt have lost his saltness, wherewith will
ye season it? Have salt in yourselves, and have peace one with another.
TO understand this subject aright, we must take into consideration the whole
context. The Disciples had disputed amongst themselves about precedency in
their Master’s kingdom, which they supposed to be of a temporal nature; every
one of them coveting for himself the highest post of dignity and power [Note: ver.
33–37.]. They had also, through jealousy and narrowness of mind, forbidden a
person to cast out devils, merely because he did not exercise that power in
concert with them, and in subserviency to them [Note: ver. 38–41.]. These evil
dispositions our Lord had reproved, by appropriate and weighty observations:
and then he proceeded to declare to them, that the exercise of such corrupt
feelings would issue in the everlasting destruction of all who should indulge
them, and would plunge them into “that fire of hell which never should be
quenched [Note: ver. 42–48.].” After repeating, no less than five times, that “the
fire into which they should be cast should never be quenched,” he told them that
he expected very different tempers from them. The terms which he used on this
occasion you have just heard: they contain a solemn admonition, and suitable
advice; each of which we will consider in its order. Let us notice, then,
I. His solemn admonition—
This is somewhat difficult to be understood. Commentators, supposing that the
word “for,” with which my text is introduced, is to be taken as connecting the
text with the words immediately preceding, explain the first clause of our text
thus: ‘The fire, into which the persons before spoken of shall be cast, shall never
be quenched: neither shall the persons that are cast into it be consumed: for
every one of them shall be salted with fire: and, as salt preserves from
putrefaction the things that are impregnated with it, so shall the fire preserve
from dissolution those who shall be subjected to its power.”
This interpretation is far from satisfactory, because it places two perfectly
similar expressions, that which I have read, and that which follows it, in direct
opposition to each other, (the one as referring to the destruction of the soul, and
the other to the preservation of it,) when they are evidently intended to convey
the same truth under two different figures.
To get rid of this difficulty, one commentator [Note: Macknight.] would translate
the word thus: “Every one shall be salted for the fire.” But any one, who looks at
the original, will see that such a translation is utterly inadmissible.
The translation, as it stands, is right: nor will the sense be difficult, if only the
word “for” be taken as connecting the text with the whole subject contained in
the context. The whole may be explained thus: ‘I expect of you, in future, a
different state of mind from that which you have recently indulged. You are
offered up as living sacrifices to God; and, as such, must be holy, and without
202

203. blemish: and as the sacrifices under the law were offered through the
instrumentality of fire, and always with the accompaniment of salt, so must you
be salted with fire, and salted with salt, in order that your savour may come up
with acceptance before God.’
If it be said that the term “salting with fire” is a strange expression; I answer, it
is no more strange as applied to the preservation of the soul from sin, than as
applied to the preservation of the body from destruction. On the contrary, it is
expressly sanctioned by the Holy Scriptures in the sense now put upon it;
whereas it is nowhere sanctioned in the sense which I am now controverting.
John the Baptist says, “Christ shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with
fire [Note: Luke 3:16.].” And it is no more strange to be “salted with fire,” than
to be “baptized with fire.” If it be said, that “baptizing with fire” means only the
enduing with grace, which shall purify as fire; I answer, this is the precise
meaning which I annex to the “salting with fire;” namely, the enduing with
grace, which shall purify as fire. The two expressions are precisely parallel, both
in terms and import. And, this interpretation brings unity into the subject in the
place of discord; and simplicity in the place of inexplicable confusion.
Having, I hope, thrown the true light upon this difficult passage, I now proceed
to comment upon it, as an injunction from our blessed Lord.
[Under the Mosaic Law, this was God’s command: “Every oblation of thy meat-
offering shalt thou season with salt; neither shalt thou suffer the salt of the
covenant of thy God to be lacking from thy meat-offering: with all thine
offerings thou shalt offer salt [Note: Leviticus 2:13.].” To that ordinance our
Lord refers, when he says, “Every one shall be salted with fire; and every
sacrifice shall be salted with salt.” But as salt, however good, may possibly “lose
its saltness,” so as to become unfit for the service of God; so may immortal souls
lose the divine savour which is pleasing to God: and, as the salt in that case is “fit
for nothing, not even for the land, nor yet for the dunghill;” so those professors
of religion, who lose the spirituality of their minds, must be regarded as the most
unprofitable and contemptible of mankind [Note: Luke 14:34-35.]. Now, the
allowed indulgence of such base feelings as the Apostles had lately manifested
was incompatible with spiritual-mindedness; and therefore our Lord warned
them, that, if they would be useful as ministers, or be accepted as men, they must
mortify all such corrupt affections, and shew themselves to be under the
influence of a purer principle. And the same admonition is proper for us also: for
we, it is to be feared, are, for the most part, as worldly and as carnal as they.
Look at the state of the Christian world: see how ready men are, yea, even good
men, to dispute and quarrel about every thing that concerns their interests in the
world — — — See, too, how ready Christians are to decry and to discourage
those who move not in their line, and belong not to their party — — — in a
word, let the spirit of Christians, both of individuals and communities, be seen at
this day; and it must be acknowledged, that the admonition in my text has in no
degree lost its force, or its applicability to the souls of men.]
In connexion with this solemn admonition, we must consider,
203

204. II. His suitable advice—
The advice here given evidently refers to the whole context, and, in this respect,
confirms the interpretation which we have given of the preceding clauses of our
text. The Disciples had given way to very evil tempers and dispositions; and, to
counteract such corrupt propensities in future, our Lord says to them, “Have salt
in yourselves, and have peace one with another.” The same counsel is proper for
us also:
1. Have salt in yourselves—
[We, whether as ministers or as private Christians, are to be “the salt of the
earth [Note: Matthew 5:13.];” not only richly imbued with grace in our own
souls, but operating, all of us in our respective spheres, to keep the world around
us from corruption. But how can we fulfil our office for the benefit of others, or
how can we answer to our proper character as true believers, if there be not a
savour of divine grace abiding in us, and diffused around us? In all our
intercourse with God, we must exercise a spirituality of mind: for what is prayer
without devotion? or what is praise without fervent love and adoring gratitude?
In truth, what are any services whatever, if sin be unmortified, and corruption
unsubdued? “If we retain any iniquity in our hearts, the Lord will not hear us
[Note: Psalms 66:18.].” “The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the
Lord: it is the prayer of the upright only that is his delight [Note: Proverbs
15:8.].” The same may be said of all our intercourse with men. God’s direction to
us is, “Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt [Note: Colossians
4:6.].” It is not necessary that we be always conversing about religion: but it is
necessary that there always be found in us a religious frame of mind, and that
not a word escape from our lips that is inconsistent with it. “As sons of God, we
must be blameless and harmless, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and
perverse generation, shining among them as lights in the world [Note:
Philippians 2:15.]:” and if we attain not to this character, “all the labour that has
been bestowed upon us will be in vain [Note: Philippians 2:16.].”
But, that we may come more directly to the point which our Lord had chiefly in
view, I add,]
2. Have peace one with another—
[Love ought to be the one habit of the Christian’s mind, and the very element in
which he moves. It is a shame to him to betray ambitious, envious, contentious
dispositions; or to value his brother less on account of some minor differences,
when he is evidently, in his own sphere, doing the Lord’s work. These, and such
like dispositions, are the fruitful sources of contention and hatred; as St. James
has said: “From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not
hence, even of your lusts which war in your members [Note: James 4:1.]?” Now
the Christian world need exceedingly to be instructed on this point. All will
admit that they need to “have salt in themselves;” whilst yet they imagine that
that will consist with bigotry and contention. But I must say to all such
characters, “If ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie
204

205. not against the truth. This wisdom descendeth not from above; but is earthly,
sensual, devilish [Note: James 3:14-15.].” If we would approve ourselves upright
before God, we must “walk worthy the vocation wherewith we are called, with
all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love,
endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace [Note:
Ephesians 4:1-3.].” This is necessary to the enjoyment of God’s presence here:
for then only, “when we are of one mind, and live in peace, will the God of love
and peace be with us [Note: 2 Corinthians 13:11.].” It is necessary, also, for our
acceptance with him in a better world; according as it is written, “Follow peace
with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord [Note:
Hebrews 12:14.].” Remember, brethren, this is essential to your character, as
“living sacrifices [Note: Romans 12:1.]:” and without this ye will in vain hope to
be “acceptable offerings before God [Note: Romans 15:16.].” What then God has
joined together, let no man put asunder;” but seek first to “have salt in
yourselves, and then to live in peace and love one with another.”]
BARCLAY, "THE SALT OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE (Mark 9:49-50)
9:49-50 Everyone must be salted with fire, Salt is good, but, if the salt has
become saltless, with what will you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and so live
at peace with each other.
These three verses are amongst the most difficult in the New Testament. The
commentators produce scores of different interpretations. The interpretation will
become easier if we remember something we have already had cause to note.
Often Jesus dropped pithy sayings which stuck in men's minds because they
could not possibly forget them. But often, although men remembered the saying,
they did not remember the occasion on which it was said. The result is that we
often get a series of quite disconnected sayings of Jesus set together because they
stuck in the writer's mind in that order.
Here is an instance of this. We will not make sense of these two verses at all
unless we recognize that here we have three quite separate sayings of Jesus
which have nothing to do with each other. They came together in the compiler's
mind and stuck there together in this order because they all contain the word
salt. They are a little collection of sayings of Jesus in which he used salt in
various ways as metaphor or illustration. AD this is to say that we must not try
to find some remote connection between these sayings. We must take them
individually and interpret each as it comes.
(i) Everyone must be salted by fire. According to the Jewish Law every sacrifice
must be salted with salt before it was offered to God on the altar (Leviticus 2:13).
That sacrificial salt was called the salt of the covenant (Numbers 18:19; 2
Chronicles 13:5). It was the addition of that salt which made the sacrifice
acceptable to God, and which his covenant law laid down as necessary. This
saying of Jesus will then mean, "Before a Christian life becomes acceptable to
God it must be treated with fire just as every sacrifice is treated with salt." The
fire is the salt which makes the life acceptable to God.
What does that mean? In ordinary New Testament language, fire has two
205

206. connections.
(a) It is connected with purification. It is the fire which purifies the base metal;
the alloy is separated and the metal left pure. Fire then will mean everything
which purifies life, the discipline by which a man conquers his sin, the
experiences of life which purify and strengthen the sinews of the soul. In that
case this will mean, "The life which is acceptable to God is the life which has
been cleansed and purified by the discipline of Christian obedience and
Christian acceptance of the guiding hand of God."
(b) Fire is connected with destruction. In that case this saying will have to do
with persecution. It will mean that the life which has undergone the trials and
hardships and perils of persecution is the life which is acceptable to God. The
man who has voluntarily faced the danger of the destruction of his goods and the
destruction of his own life because of his loyalty to Jesus Christ is the man who is
dear to God.
We may take this first saying of Jesus to mean that the life which is purified by
discipline and has faced the danger of persecution because of its loyalty is the
sacrifice which is precious to God.
(ii) Salt is good, but if the salt has become saltless, with what will you season it?
This is an even harder saying to interpret. We would not say that there are no
other possible interpretations, but we would suggest that it may be understood
on the following lines. Salt has two characteristic virtues. First, it lends flavour to
things. An egg without salt is an insipid thing. Anyone knows how unpleasant
many a dish is when the salt which should have been included is accidentally
omitted in the preparation. Second, salt was the earliest of all preservatives. To
keep a thing from going rotten salt was used. The Greeks used to say that salt
acted like a soul in a dead body. Dead meat left to itself went bad, but, pickled in
salt, it retained its freshness. The salt seemed to put a kind of life into it. Salt
defended against corruption.
Now the Christian was sent into a heathen society to do something for it.
Heathen society had two characteristics. First, it was bored and world-weary.
The very luxuries and excesses of that ancient world were a proof that in its
bored weariness it was looking for some thrill in a life from which all thrill had
gone. As Matthew Arnold wrote,
"On that hard pagan world, disgust
And secret loathing fell;
Deep weariness and sated lust
Made human life a hell.
In his cool hall, with haggard eyes,
206

207. The Roman noble lay;
He drove abroad in furious guise
Along the Appian Way;
He made a feast, drank fierce and fast,
And crowned his hair with flowers--
No easier nor no quicker passed
The impracticable hours."
Into that bored and weary world Christianity came, and it was the task of the
Christian to impart to society a new flavour and a new thrill as salt does to the
dish with which it is used.
Second, that ancient world was corrupt. No one knew that better than the
ancients themselves. Juvenal likened Rome to a filthy sewer. Purity was gone and
chastity was unknown. Into that corrupt world Christianity came, and it was the
task of the Christian to bring an antiseptic to the poison of life, to bring a
cleansing influence into that corruption. Just as salt defeated the corruption
which inevitably attacked dead meat, so Christianity was to attack the
corruption of the world.
So then in this saying Jesus was challenging the Christian. "The world," he said,
"needs the flavour and the purity that only the Christian can bring. And if the
Christian himself has lost the thrill and the purity of the Christian life, where
will the world ever get these things?" Unless the Christian, in the power of
Christ, defeats world-weariness and world corruption, these things must flourish
unchecked.
(iii) Have salt in yourselves and live at peace with each other. Here we must take
salt in the sense of purity. The ancients declared that there was nothing in the
world purer than salt because it came from the two purest things, the sun and
the sea. The very glistening whiteness of salt was a picture of purity. So this will
mean, "Have within yourselves the purifying influence of the Spirit of Christ. Be
purified from selfishness and self-seeking, from bitterness and anger and grudge-
bearing. Be cleansed from irritation and moodiness and self-centredness, and
then, and then only, you will be able to live in peace with your fellow men." In
other words, Jesus is saying that it is only the life that is cleansed of self and
filled with Christ which can live in real fellowship with men.
MACLAREN, "SALTED WITH FIRE
Mark ix. 49.
Our Lord has just been uttering some of the most solemn words that ever came from
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208. His gracious lips. He has been enjoining the severest self-suppression, extending
even to mutilation and excision of the eye, the hand, or the foot, that might cause us
to stumble. He has been giving that sharp lesson on the ground of plain common
sense and enlightened self-regard. It is better, obviously, to live maimed than to die
whole. The man who elects to keep a mortified limb, and thereby to lose life, is a
suicide and a fool. It is a solemn thought that a similar mad choice is possible in the
moral and spiritual region.
To these stern injunctions, accompanied by the awful sanctions of that consideration,
our Lord appends the words of my text. They are obscure and have often been
misunderstood. This is not the place to enter on a discussion of the various
explanations that have been proposed of them. A word or two is all that is needful to
put us in possession of the point of view from which I wish to lay them on your hearts
at this time.
I take the ‘every one’ of my text to mean not mankind generally, but every individual
of the class whom our Lord is addressing-that is to say, His disciples. He is laying
down the law for all Christians. I take the paradox which brings together ‘salting’ and
‘fire,’ to refer, not to salt as a means of communicating savour to food, but as a means
of preserving from putrefaction. And I take the ‘fire’ here to refer, not to the same
process which is hinted at in the awful preceding words, ‘the fire in not quenched,’
but to be set in opposition to that fire, and to mean something entirely different.
There is a fire that destroys, and there is a fire that preserves; and the alternative for
every man is to choose between the destructive and the conserving influences.
Christian disciples have to submit to be ‘salted with fire,’ lest a worse thing befall
them,
I. And so the first point that I would ask you to notice here is-that fiery
cleansing to which every Christian must yield.
Now I have already referred to the relation between the words of my text and those
immediately preceding, as being in some sense one of opposition and contrast. I
think we are put on the right track for understanding the solemn words of this text if
we remember the great saying of John the Baptist, where, in precisely similar
fashion, there are set side by side the two conceptions of the chaff being cast into the
unquenchable fire (the same expression as in our text), and ‘He shall baptize you
with the Holy Ghost and with fire.’
The salting fire, then, which cleanses and preserves, and to which every Christian
soul must submit itself, to be purged thereby, is, as I take it, primarily and
fundamentally the fire of that Divine Spirit which Christ Himself told us that He had
come to cast upon the earth, and yearned, in a passion of desire, to see kindled. The
very frequent use of the emblem in this same signification throughout Scripture, I
suppose I need not recall to you. It seems to me that the only worthy interpretation of
the words before us, which goes down into their depths and harmonises with the
whole of the rest of the teaching of Scripture, is that which recognises these words of
my text as no unwelcome threat, as no bitter necessity, but as a joyful promise
bringing to men, laden and burdened with their sins, the good news that it is possible
for them to be purged from them entirely by the fiery ministration of that Divine
Spirit. Just as we take a piece of foul clay and put it into the furnace, and can see, as it
gets red-hot, the stains melt away, as a cloud does in the blue, from its surface, so if
we will plunge ourselves into the influences of that divine power which Christ has
come to communicate to the world, our sin and all our impurities will melt from off
us, and we shall be clean. No amount of scrubbing with soap and water will do it. The
stain is a great deal too deep for that, and a mightier solvent than any that we can
apply, if unaided and unsupplied from above, is needed to make us clean. ‘Who can
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209. bring a clean thing out of an unclean,’ especially when the would-be bringer is
himself the unclean thing? Surely not one. Unless there be a power ab extra,
unparticipant of man’s evils, and yet capable of mingling with the evil man’s inmost
nature, and dealing with it, then I believe that universal experience and our
individual experience tell us that there is no hope that we shall ever get rid of our
transgressions.
Brethren, for a man by his own unaided effort, however powerful, continuous, and
wisely directed it may be, to cleanse himself utterly from his iniquity, is as hopeless
as it would be for him to sit down with a hammer and a chisel and try by mechanical
means to get all the iron out of a piece of ironstone. The union is chemical, not
mechanical. And so hammers and chisels will only get a very little of the metal out.
The one solvent is fire. Put the obstinate crude ore into your furnace, and get the
temperature up, and the molten metal will run clear. There should be mountains of
scoriae, the dross and relics of our abandoned sins, around us all.
If we desire to be delivered, let us go into the fire. It will burn up all our evil, and it
will burn up nothing else. Keep close to Christ. Lay your hearts open to the hallowing
influences of the motives and the examples that lie in the story of His life and death.
Seek for the fiery touch of that transforming Spirit, and be sure that you quench Him
not, nor grieve Him. And then your weakness will be reinvigorated by celestial
powers, and the live coal upon your lips will burn up all your iniquity.
But, subordinately to this deepest meaning, as I take it, of the great symbol of our
text, let me remind you of another possible application of it, which follows from the
preceding. God’s Spirit cleanses men mainly by raising their spirits to a higher
temperature. For coldness is akin to sin, and heavenly warmth is akin to
righteousness. Enthusiasm always ennobles, delivers men, even on the lower reaches
of life and conduct from many a meanness and many a sin. And when it becomes a
warmth of spirit kindled by the reception of the fire of God, then it becomes the
solvent which breaks the connection between me and my evil. It is the cold Christian
who makes no progress in conquering his sin. The one who is filled with the love of
God, and has the ardent convictions and the burning enthusiasm which that love
ought to produce in our hearts, is the man who will conquer and eject his evils.
Nor must we forget that there is still another possible application of the words. For
whilst, on the one hand, the Divine Spirit’s method of delivering us is very largely
that of imparting to us the warmth of ardent, devout emotion; on the other hand, a
part of this method is the passing of us through the fiery trials and outward
disciplines of life. ‘Every one shall be salted with fire’ in that sense. And we have
learned, dear brethren, but little of the loving kindness of the Lord if we are not able
to say, ‘I have grown more in likeness to Jesus Christ by rightly accepted sorrows
than by anything besides.’ Be not afraid of calamities; be not stumbled by disaster.
Take the fiery trial which is sent to you as being intended to bring about, at the last,
the discovery ‘unto praise and honour and glory’ of your faith, that is ‘much more
precious than gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire.’ ‘Every one shall be
salted with fire,’ the Christian law of life is, Submit to the fiery cleansing. Alas! alas!
for the many thousands of professing Christians who are wrapping themselves in
such thick folds of non-conducting material that that fiery energy can only play on
the surface of their lives, instead of searching them to the depths. Do you see to it,
dear brethren, that you lay open your whole natures, down to the very inmost roots,
to the penetrating, searching, cleansing power of that Spirit. And let us all go and say
to Him, ‘Search me, O God! and try me, and see if there be any wicked way in me.’
II. Notice the painfulness of this fiery cleansing.
The same ideas substantially are conveyed in my text as are expressed, in different
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210. imagery, by the solemn words that precede it. The ‘salting with fire’ comes
substantially to the same thing as the amputation of the hand and foot, and the
plucking out of the eye, that cause to stumble. The metaphor expresses a painful
process. It is no pleasant thing to submit the bleeding stump to the actual cautery,
and to press it, all sensitive, upon the hot plate that will stop the flow of blood. But
such pain of shrinking nerves is to be borne, and to be courted, if we are wise, rather
than to carry the hand or the eye that led astray unmutilated into total destruction.
Surely that is common sense.
The process is painful because we are weak. The highest ideal of Christian progress
would be realised if one of the metaphors with which our Lord expresses it were
adequate to cover the whole ground, and we grew as the wheat grows, ‘first the blade,
then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear.’ But the tranquillity of vegetable
growth, and the peaceful progress which it symbolises, are not all that you and I have
to expect. Emblems of a very different kind have to be associated with that of the
quiet serenity of the growing corn, in order to describe all that a Christian man has to
experience in the work of becoming like his Master. It is a fight as well as a growth; it
is a building requiring our continuity of effort, as well as a growth. There is
something to be got rid of as well as much to be appropriated. We do not only need to
become better, we need to become less bad. Squatters have camped on the land, and
cling to it and hold it vi et armis; and these have to be ejected before peaceful
settlement is possible.
One might go on multiplying metaphors ad libitum, in order to bring out the one
thought that it needs huge courage to bear being sanctified, or, if you do not like the
theological word, to bear being made better. It is no holiday task, and unless we are
willing to have a great deal that is against the grain done to us, and in us, and by us,
we shall never achieve it. We have to accept the pain. Desires have to be thwarted,
and that is not pleasant. Self has to be suppressed, and that is not delightsome. A
growing conviction of the depth of one’s own evil has to be cherished, and that is not
a grateful thought for any of us. Pains external, which are felt by reason of
disciplinary sorrows, are not worthy to be named in the same day as those more
recondite and inward agonies. But, brother, they are all ‘light’ as compared with the
exceeding weight of ‘glory,’ coming from conformity to the example of our Master,
which they prepare for us.
And so I bring you Christ’s message: He will have no man to enlist in His army under
false pretences. He will not deceive any of us by telling us that it is all easy work and
plain sailing. Salting by fire can never be other than to the worse self an agony, just
because it is to the better self a rapture. And so let us make up our minds that no man
is taken to heaven in his sleep, and that the road is a rough one, judging from the
point of view of flesh and sense; but though rough, narrow, often studded with sharp
edges, like the plough coulters that they used to lay in the path in the old rude
ordeals, it still leads straight to the goal, and bleeding feet are little to pay for a seat at
Christ’s right hand.
III. Lastly, notice the preservative result of this painful cleansing.
Our Lord brings together, in our text, as is often His wont, two apparently
contradictory ideas, in order, by the paradox, to fix our attention the more vividly
upon His words. Fire destroys; salt preserves. They are opposites. But yet the
opposites may be united in one mighty reality, a fire which preserves and does not
destroy. The deepest truth is that the cleansing fire which the Christ will give us
preserves us, because it destroys that which is destroying us. If you kill the germs of
putrefaction in a hit of dead flesh, you preserve the flesh; and if you bring to bear
upon a man the power which will kill the thing that is killing him, its destructive
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211. influence is the condition of its conserving one.
And so it is, in regard to that great spiritual influence which Jesus Christ is ready to
give to every one of us. It slays that which is slaying us, for our sins destroy in us the
true life of a man, and make us but parables of walking death. When the three
Hebrews were cast into the fiery furnace in Babylon, the flames burned nothing but
their bonds, and they walked at liberty in the fire. And so it will be with us. We shall
be preserved by that which slays the sins that would otherwise slay us.
Let me lay on your hearts before I close the solemn alternative to which I have
already referred, and which is suggested by the connection of my text with the
preceding words. There is a fire that destroys and is not quenched. Christ’s previous
words are much too metaphorical for us to build dogmatic definitions upon. But
Jesus Christ did not exaggerate. If here and now sin has so destructive an effect upon
a man, O, who will venture to say that he knows the limits of its murderous power in
that future life, when retribution shall begin with new energy and under new
conditions? Brethren, whilst I dare not enlarge, I still less dare to suppress; and I ask
you to remember that not I, or any man, but Jesus Christ Himself, has put before
each of us this alternative-either the fire unquenchable, which destroys a man, or the
merciful fire, which slays his sins and saves him alive.
Social reformers, philanthropists, you that have tried and failed to overcome your
evil, and who feel the loathly thing so intertwisted with your being that to pluck it
from your heart is to tear away the very heart’s walls themselves, here is a hope for
you. Closely as our evil is twisted in with the fibres of our character, there is a hand
that can untwine the coils, and cast away the sin, and preserve the soul. And although
we sometimes feel as if our sinfulness and our sin were so incorporated with
ourselves that it made oneself, with a man’s head and a serpent’s tail, let us take the
joyful assurance that if we trust ourselves to Christ, and open our hearts to His
power, we can shake off the venomous beast into the fire and live a fuller life, because
the fire has consumed that which would otherwise have consumed us.
BI, "For everyone shall he salted with fire.
The salt and the fire
The Lord’s people are represented as being themselves offered up to Him, as His
spiritual sacrifices, both by Isaiah and St. Paul. It was a custom ordained of God in
the Levitical code (Lev_2:13) that “Every oblation of thy meat offering shalt thou
season with salt.” Collecting, then, the points to which we have adverted, we have
seen that believers are represented as the Lord’s sacrifices: that His sacrifices were
anciently purified by the typical salt; that the object of the salt, or grace, is to
preserve them from the corruption of the worm of indwelling sin and the fire of
ultimate judgment; and that in the whole chamber of imagery is inculcated the duty
of sacrificing the lusts of the flesh in order to our being edified in the spirit, and
promoting the edification of others. We recognize in the text a force and a beauty not
discernible to the superficial student, in the declaration of the gracious effect of those
sanctifying trials and mortifications in which all believers have their share; “for
everyone shall be salted with fire, and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt.” Let us,
therefore, consider the teaching of the Spirit in this text to imply, first, an awful
denunciation on the man of unmortified lusts-“Every” such “one shall be salted with
fire;” secondly, the gracious result of fleshly mortification-“every sacrifice shall be
salted with salt;” that is, every believer who “presents his body a living sacrifice,”
“shall be salted with salt”-that is, not with fire to consume, but with salt to preserve.
This is the contrast: on the one hand penal destruction; on the other, gracious
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212. preservation.
I. The career of unfortified lust entails a fearful penalty. This declaration of Scripture
is continually receiving fearful illustrations in the premonitory dealings of
Providence. Days of indulgence are succeeded by nights of pain; a youth of profligacy,
if not prematurely cut short, entails a feeble, diseased, and miserable old age. Sin
receives judgment by installments; the salting fire of the Divine displeasure falls
upon the wretched sinner, in many a striking instance, even in this life, presenting,
like the shock before the earthquake, prelusive warning of the catastrophe about to
follow. It is admitted that the expression in the text is figurative. But the figures of
Scripture never exaggerate the facts of reality. The lost, unransomed soul, exposed to
the searching and protracted agonies of a fire that salts, that is, perpetuates the
anguish of its miserable victims, exhibits the torments of the unbelieving in a broad
glare of horror, as if the letters were illuminated by the reflection of “the lake that
burneth.”
II. The gracious effects of fleshly mortification. The believer is to be also salted, but
with constraining love, with preserving grace, with sanctifying trial. The grace of
mortification is that to the soul which salt is to the body; it preserves it from
putrefaction, and renders it savoury. Inferences:
1. That there is in every believer some lust to be subdued-for “every sacrifice shall
be salted with salt.” We do not apply salt except to those things which have a
natural tendency to corruption. If believers must have “salt in themselves,” it
follows that there is in them the principle of corruption. One man is attacked
through the medium of his ambition; the lust of secular distinction desolates his
heart of all piety. Another man is drawn aside by his avarice. Another man is
seduced by his animal lusts, and the unchecked vagrancy of the eye. Another man
is tempted through the medium of temper, and his ebullitions of frightful rage
shock the ears of his household. Another man is led astray by his pride. Lastly,
the figure suggests the doctrine, that the spiritual health of the believer is to be
promoted and attained by fleshly mortification. It is by this means that the soul is
to be clarified from sin and preserved in grace. (J. B. Owen, M. A.)
A double salting, either with fire or with salt
Every man that lives in the world must be a sacrifice to God. The wicked are a
sacrifice to God’s justice; but the godly are a sacrifice dedicated and offered to Him,
that they may be capable of His mercy. The first are a sacrifice against their wills, but
the godly are a free-will offering, a sacrifice not taken but offered. The grace of
mortification is very necessary for all those who are devoted to God.
I. That the true notion of a Christian is that he is a sacrifice, or a thank offering to
God (Rom_12:1). Under the law, beasts were offered to God, but in the gospel men
are offered to Him; not as beasts were, to be destroyed, slain, and burnt in the fire,
but to be preserved for God’s use and service. In offering anything to God, two things
were of consideration.
1. There is a separation of ourselves from a common use. The beast was separated
from the flock or herd for this special purpose (2Co_5:15).
2. There is a dedicating ourselves to God, to serve, please, honour, and glorify
Him.
We must be sincere in this-
1. Because the truth of our dedication will be known by our use; many give up
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213. themselves to God, but in the use of themselves there is no such matter; they
carry it as though their tongues were their own (Psa_12:4).
2. Because God will one day call us to account.
3. Because we are under the eye and inspection of God.
II. That the grace of mortification is the true salt wherewith this offering and
sacrifice should be seasoned.
1. Salt preserves flesh from putrefaction by consuming that superfluous and
excrementitious moisture, which otherwise would soon corrupt: and so the salt of
the covenant doth prevent and subdue those lusts which would cause us to deal
unfaithfully with God. Alas! meat is not so apt to be tainted as we are to be
corrupted and weakened in our resolutions to God, without the mortifying grace
of the Spirit.
2. Salt hath an acrimony, and doth macerate things and pierce into them; and so
the grace of mortification is painful and troublesome to the carnal nature. We
either must suffer the pains of hell or the pains of mortification; we must be
salted with fire or salted with salt. It is better to pass to heaven with difficulty and
austerity, than to avoid these difficulties and run into sin, and so be in danger of
eternal fire. The strictness of Christianity is nothing so grievous as the
punishment of sin.
3. Salt makes things savoury, so grace makes us savoury, which may be
interpreted with respect either to God or man. We must be seasoned by the grace
of Christ, and so become acceptable in the sight of God; the more we are salted
and mortified, the more we shall do good to others.
III. There is a necessity of this salt in all those that have entered into covenant with
God and have dedicated and devoted themselves to Him.
1. By our covenant vow we are bound to the strictest duties, and that upon the
highest penalties. The duty to which we are bound is very strict.
2. The abundance of sin that yet remains in us, and the marvellous activity of it in
our souls. We cannot get rid of this cursed inmate till our tabernacle be dissolved,
and this house of clay tumbled into the dust, Well, then, since sin is not nullified,
it must be mortified.
3. Consider the sad consequences of letting sin alone, both either as to further sin
or punishment. If lust be not mortified, it grows outrageous. Sins prove mortal if
they be not mortified. The unmortified person spares the sin and destroys his
own soul; the sin lives, but he dies. Now to make application.
I. For the reproof of those that cannot abide to hear of mortification. The
unwillingness and impatience of this doctrine may arise from several causes.
1. From sottish atheism and unbelief.
2. It may come from libertinism. And these harden their hearts in sinning by a
mistaking the gospel.
(1) Some vainly imagine as if God by Jesus Christ were made more
reconcilable to sin, that it needs not so much to be stood upon, nor need we to
be so exact, to keep such ado to mortify, and subdue the inclinations that lead
to it. They altogether run to the comforts of the gospel and neglect the duties
thereof. Christ died for sinners, therefore we need not to be troubled about it.
(2) Another sort think such discourses may be well spared among a company
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214. of believers, and they need not this watchfulness and holy care, especially
against grievous sins; that they have such good command of themselves that
they can keep within compass well enough.
(3) A third sort are such as think believers are not to be scared with
threatenings, but only oiled with grace.
3. It may arise from another cause, the passionateness of carnal affections. There
is no hope; it is an evil and I must bear it. Consider the doleful condition of those
that indulge their carnal affections; and that either threatened by God, or
executed upon the wicked.
(1) Consider it as it is threatened by God. If God threaten so great a misery, it
is for our profit, that we may take heed and escape it. There is mercy in the
severest threatenings, that we may avoid the bait when we see the hook, that
we may digest the strictness of a holy life, rather than venture upon such
dreadful evils.
(2) Consider which trouble is most intolerable-to be salted with salt, or to be
salted with fire; with unpleasing mortification, or the pains of hell; the
trouble of physic, or the danger of a mortal disease. Surely to preserve the life
of the body, men will endure the bitterest pill, take the most loathsome
potion. Better be macerated by repentance, than broken in hell by torments.
Which is worse, discipline or execution? Here the question is put: you must
be troubled first or last. Would you have a sorrow mixed with love and hope,
or else mixed with desperation? Would you have a drop or an ocean? Would
you have your souls cured or tormented? Would you have trouble in the short
moment of this life, or have it eternal in the world to come? (J. Manton, D.
D.)
The church the salt of the earth
The first expression demanding our attention is “salt.” Salt is an object of external
nature, endued with certain properties. It possesses the property of penetration into
the masses of animal matter, to which it shall be applied in sufficient abundance and
with sufficient perseverance; and it possesses the property of extending a preserving
savour as it pervades the mass. Here is the basis of its suitability to represent Christ’s
church on the earth, a characteristic of the population of this fallen world is, moral
corruption. The men of this world, even those who are most advanced in morals and
in respectability amongst their fellows, are nevertheless described in the Word of
God as being corrupt according to their deceitful lusts and defilements. Selfishness,
ostentation, envy, jealousy, taint their boasted morals; and as surely as a mass of
animal matter left to its natural tendencies in our atmosphere would proceed from
one degree of corruption to another, until it reached the putrefaction of dissolution,
so surely would the population of this world, left to its own natural tendency, make
progress from one degree of moral corruption to another, until they all reached the
putrefaction of damnation. Christ’s church is the salt of the earth; it is the Lord’s
preserve and the Lord’s preservative. This brings us to the next word here, which is
“fire.” Fire is another object of external nature possessing certain properties. It
possesses the properties of penetrating and melting, and separating the dross from
the pure ore; and so in this respect it becomes suitable as an emblem of sanctified
affliction, which separates a man from the common and downward course of a
heedless and worldly population, and causes him to pause and meditate, and take
himself to task, and look around and look before him, and to fall upon his knees and
cry to God to have mercy upon him. I have said sanctified affliction; because
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215. affliction itself, considered apart from the special use made of it by the Spirit of God,
has no such power over a man’s character. “The sorrow of this world worketh death;”
mere trouble considered in its natural operation upon man, however it may subdue
him for a season, however it may make him pause in his course, does not change him.
But this is not all, the Lord says in our text. “Everyone”-not every Christian only, but-
“everyone shall be salted with fire.” This leads us to remark, that fire possesses other
properties, the power of consuming the stubble and all the rubbish; and it is thereby
suitable to express those tremendous judgments, which shall overwhelm the
adversaries at the second glorious appearing of the Lord Jesus, when, as the apostle
sublimely tells us, “The Lord shall be revealed from heaven in flames of fire, taking
vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus
Christ, who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the
Lord, and from the glory of His power.” Every ungodly man shall, as it were, be salted
with fire-shall be seasoned with fire-rendered inconsumable in the fire that burneth-
preserved in burning. Salted with fire! This is a tremendous saying, a dreadful
thought. Immortalized in endurance! preserved from burning out! Salted with fire!
Well, well might He call upon them to cut off right hands, pluck out right eyes, to
separate themselves from the dearest lust, from the most fostered and cherished
indulgence, rather than be cast into that eternal fire. But how shall this exhortation
be obeyed? There is no native power in man, whereby he can rescue himself from
what he loves. He must love something; and except he be supplied with something
better to love, he must go on to follow what he now loves. It is only the power of
something he loves better, that can separate him from what he loves well. What can
induce him to part with his sin, which is as precious to his corrupt heart as his eyes
are to the enjoyment of his body? What can induce him to do it? Everyone then, both
he that believeth and he that believeth not, shall be salted with fire. He that believeth
shall be purified by affliction, and he that believeth not shall be immortalized in the
endurance of agony. “And every sacrifice shall be salted with fire.” Here is another
figure, not derived from external nature, but derived from the Mosaic ritual-a
sacrifice. A sacrifice is an offering devoted to God. Hence a sacrifice is suitable to
represent a member of Christ’s Church. He is not separated from the common
actions and lawful actions of the world, for that would be to take him out of the
world; but he is separated from the common state of mind in which those actions are
performed. Instead of withdrawing from the duties of life, it engages him in them for
conscience’ sake, as well as for convenience or reputation or gum. It makes every
action of his life religious; it invests the very drudgeries of the lowest grade of life
with a sanctity, as being done in the service of God. So then, a believer becomes a
sacrifice, and so the Apostle Paul having enlarged upon the glorious blessings of the
gospel, whereby men are so separated, improves the statement thus: “I beseech you
therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living
sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service; and be not
conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye
may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” All the sacrifices
of the Jewish ritual were seasoned with salt. In the second chapter of the book of
Leviticus and at the thirteenth verse you will find the commandment, “And every
oblation of thy meat offering shalt thou season with salt; neither shalt thou suffer the
salt of the covenant of thy God to be lacking from thy meat offering: with all thy
offerings thou shalt offer salt.” “Every sacrifice,” every true believer, “shall be salted
with salt.” Now what is the force of this expression, “salted with salt”? We have seen
that to be salted with fire signifies to be personally purified; to be salted with salt
signifies to be made relatively a blessing. The Christian is salted with fire for his own
personal purification, and he is salted with salt for his extended usefulness among
others. “He shall be blessed and he shall be a blessing,” as was said of the father of
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216. the faithful, Abraham. We inherit this blessing of Abraham, to be salted with fire and
to be salted with salt. To this our Lord clearly refers, when He calls His church “the
salt of the earth.” (H. McNeile, M. A.)
How is the body, it may be said, to become a sacrifice
Let the eye look upon no evil thing, and it has become a sacrifice; let the tongue speak
nothing filthy, and it has become an offering; let thy hand do no lawless deed, and it
has become a whole burnt offering. Or, rather, this is not enough, but we must have
good works also. Let the hand do alms, the mouth bless them that curse one; and the
hearing find leisure evermore for the lections of Scripture. For sacrifice allows of no
unclean thing. Sacrifice is a first fruit of the other actions. Let us then from our
hands, and feet, and mouth, and all other members yield a first fruit unto God.
(Chrysostom.)
Preservation from corruption
Christ is not, in either of these terms (salted, fire), referring to the literal realities. It
is salting and fire, metaphorically viewed, of which He speaks. Among the various
uses of salt, two are popularly outstanding-seasoning and preserving from
corruption. The reference here is to the latter. In hot countries, in particular, killed
meat hastens to a tainted condition, and could not be preserved from spoiling, for
any appreciable length of time, were it not for salting. It is on this antiseptic property
of salt that Christ’s representation is founded. Every one of His disciples shall be
preserved from corruption by fire. The fire referred to, however, is not penal, like the
inextinguishable fire of Gehenna. It is intentionally purificatory, But, though not
penal, it is painful. It scorches, and pierces to the quick. What, then, is this fire? It is
the unsparing spirit of self-sacrifice-the spirit that parts, for righteousness’ sake, with
a hand, a foot, an eye. Every disciple of Christ is preserved from corruption, and
consequent everlasting destruction, by unsparing self-sacrifice. (J. Morison, D. D.)
50 “Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how
can you make it salty again? Have salt among
yourselves, and be at peace with each other.”
BARNES, "Lost its saltness ... - See the notes at Mat_5:13.
Have salt in yourselves - Have the preserving, purifying principle always; the
principles of denying yourselves, of suppressing pride, ambition, contention, etc.,
and thus you will be an acceptable offering to God.
Have peace - Avoid contention and quarrelling, struggling for places, honors, and
office, and seek each other’s welfare, and religion will be honored and preserved in
the world.
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217. CLARKE, "If the salt have lost his saltness - See on Mat_5:13 (note).
Have salt in yourselves - See that ye have at all times the preserving principle
of Divine grace in your hearts, and give that proof of it which will satisfy your own
minds, and convince or silence the world: live in brotherly kindness and peace with
each other: thus shall all men see that you are free from ambition, (see Mar_9:34),
and that you are my disciples indeed. That it is possible for the salt to lose its savor,
and yet retain its appearance in the most perfect manner, see proved on the note on
Mat_5:13 (note).
GILL, "Salt is good,.... To make meat savoury, and keep flesh from corrupting;
and so is the grace of God, to season men's hearts, make their discourse savoury, and
preserve them from the corruption of sin: and so men made partakers of the grace of
God; they are good and useful to others, both by their words and actions, and
especially ministers of the Gospel, who are "the salt of the earth"; see Gill on Mat_
5:13; and here Christ may chiefly intend his apostles:
but if the salt hath lost its saltness, wherewith will ye season it? there is no
recovering it, it becomes good for nothing; See Gill on Mat_5:13;
have salt in yourselves; the doctrine of grace, and word of Christ, prudence in talk
and conversation, and holiness of heart and life, so as to behave wisely towards them
that are without;
and have peace one with another; which the God of peace calls unto, the Gospel
of peace requires, and the grace of God teaches. Salt is an emblem of firm union,
concord, and agreement: hence the covenant of peace is called a covenant of salt,
Num_18:19, compared with Num_25:12. This exhortation, very appropriately
follows upon the making mention of salt in different senses; especially, this
exhortation was the more necessary to the disciples at this time, since they had been
very lately warmly disputing the point among themselves, who should be greatest in
the kingdom of the Messiah; and which had occasioned this discourse of Christ's.
JAMIESON, "Salt is good; but if the salt have lost his saltness — its power
to season what it is brought into contact with.
wherewith will ye season it? — How is this property to be restored? See on
Mat_5:13.
Have salt in yourselves — See to it that ye retain in yourselves those precious
qualities that will make you a blessing to one another, and to all around you.
and — with respect to the miserable strife out of which all this discourse has
sprung, in one concluding word.
have peace one with another — This is repeated in 1Th_5:13.
CALVIN, "Mark 9:50.Have salt in yourselves This word may be taken in a
different sense from what it had in the former verse, as meaning that seasoning
of good odor, which is obtained by faith, or rather the wisdom of the Spirit.
When Paul enjoins, “Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt,”
(Colossians 4:6,) he means, that we ought to be holy, and purified from all
profane follies and corruptions, and filled with spiritual grace, which edifies all
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218. who hear it, and diffuses over them its sweet odor. If this exposition is adopted, it
may be necessary to understand the latter clause as referring to the mutual
peace, which is promoted by that salt. Yet, as it is more probable, that this last
sentence depends on the former discourse, I think that Christ is exhorting his
own people to maintain the rigor of faith, which may serve also to purify others.
“You must do your endeavor, not only to be salted within, but likewise to salt
others.” But as salt bites by its sharpness, he immediately admonishes them to
regulate the seasoning in such a manner, that peace may be preserved entire with
one another
COFFMAN, "Jesus said of his disciples, "Ye are the salt of the earth," and their
saltness would therefore be their quality of having in themselves the likeness and
teachings of Jesus. Such salt is indeed good for this world.
Christians are the salt of the earth in the sense of their preserving it from
destruction.
If the salt have lost its saltness ... is a metaphor based upon the salt commonly
used in Jesus' day, which was not a pure product at all, but mixed with other
elements. If the true salt had been leached out, only a worthless residue was left,
a perfect metaphor of the Christian who has lost his identity with the Lord.
Have salt in yourselves ... is a reference to the Christian's necessity of keeping his
identity with Christ and of continuing faithfully in his teachings.
And be at peace one with another ... is an admonition to brother-love and
forbearance, a requirement frequently stressed by the Lord, and absolutely
mandatory for all who would follow in his steps.
CONSTABLE, "Jesus continued to use salt as a figure for testing. He said that
tests from God, as salt on food, are good for us. Salt preserves food, prevents
decay, and enhances flavor. The trials that God allows people to experience
should have similar beneficial effects on them (cf. James 1:2-4). However if salt
becomes bland, it will not achieve its desired results (cf. Matthew 5:13). Likewise
if God's trials lose their bite-if we become insensible and unresponsive to the self-
discipline that He is seeking to teach us, by hardening our hearts-these trials can
cease to benefit us. Therefore we must have salt in ourselves, namely, accept the
trials that God sends us that demand self-discipline rather than rejecting them.
Furthermore we must live peacefully with one another rather than becoming
sectarian (Mark 9:38) or self-seeking (Mark 9:34).
This command concludes this section of instruction that deals with the enemies of
disciple fidelity (Mark 9:33-50).
BURKITT, "Our blessed Saviour here compares Christians in general, and his
ministers in particular, unto salt, for a double reason.
First, Because it is the nature of salt to preserve things from corruption and
putrefaction, and to render them savoury and pleasant. Thus are the ministers of
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219. Christ to labour and endeavour by the purity of their doctrine, to sweeten
putrifying sinners, that they may become savoury unto god and man, and be
kept from being flyblown with errors and false doctrines.
Secondly, Because salt has an acrimony, a piercing power in it, which subdues
the whole lump, and turns it into its own nature. Such a piercing power is there
in the ministry of the word, that it subdues the whole man to the obedience of
itself; Have salt in yourselves, and have peace one with another; that is, let all
persons, especially ministers, retain a seasoning virtue in themselves, that they
may sweeten and season others, even all that they converse with; and as salt has
an uniting power, and knits the parts of the body salted together, so the
upholding of union and peace one with another, will declare that ye have salt in
yourselves.
Learn hence, That it is the duty of all Christians, but especially of the ministers
of the gospel, to maintan brotherly concord and agreement among themselves,
both as an argument of their sincerity, and an ornament to their profession.
MACLAREN, "‘SALT IN YOURSELVES’
In the context ‘salt’ is employed to express the preserving, purifying, divine energy
which is otherwise spoken of as ‘fire.’ The two emblems produce the same result.
They both salt-that is, they cleanse and keep. And if in the one we recognise the quick
energy of the Divine Spirit as the central idea, no less are we to see the same typified
under a slightly different aspect in the other. The fire transforms into its own
substance and burns away all the grosser particles. The salt arrests corruption, keeps
off destruction, and diffuses its sanative influence through all the particles of the
substance with which it comes in contact. And in both metaphors it is the operation
of God’s cleansing Spirit, in its most general form, that is set forth, including all the
manifold ways by which God deals with us to purge us from our iniquity, to free us
from the death which treads close on the heels of wrongdoing, the decomposition
and dissolution which surely follow on corruption.
This the disciples are exhorted to have in themselves that they may be at peace one
with another. Perhaps we shall best discover the whole force of this saying by
dealing-
I. With the symbol itself and the ideas derived from it.
The salt cleanses, arrests corruption which impends over the dead masses, sweetens
and purifies, and so preserves from decay and dissolution. It works by contact, and
within the mass. It thus stands as an emblem of the cleansing which God brings, both
in respect (a) to that on which it operates, (b) to the purpose of its application, and
(c) to the manner in which it produces its effects.
(a) That on which it operates.
There is implied here a view of human nature, not flattering but true. It is compared
with a dead thing, in which the causes that bring about corruption are already at
work, with the sure issue of destruction. This in its individual application comes to
the assertion of sinful tendency and actual sin as having its seat and root in all our
souls, so that the present condition is corruption, and the future issue is destruction.
The consequent ideas are that any power which is to cleanse must come from
without, not from within; that purity is not to be won by our own efforts, and that
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220. there is no disposition in human nature to make these efforts. There is no
recuperative power in human nature. True, there may be outward reformation of
habits, etc., but, if we grasp the thought that the taproot of sin is selfishness, this
impotence becomes clearer, and it is seen that sin affects all our being, and that
therefore the healing must come from beyond us.
(b) The purpose-namely, cleansing.
In salt we may include the whole divine energy; the Word, the Christ, the Spirit. So
the intention of the Gospel is mainly to make clean. Preservation is a consequence of
that.
(c) The manner of its application.
Inward, penetrating, by contact; but mainly the great peculiarity of Christian ethics is
that the inner life is dealt with first, the will and the heart, and afterwards the
outward conduct.
II. The part which we have to take in this cleansing process.
‘Have salt’ is a command; and this implies that while all the cleansing energy comes
from God, the working of it on our souls depends on ourselves.
(a) Its original reception depends on our faith.
The ‘salt’ is here, but our contact with it is established by our acceptance of it. There
is no magical cleansing; but it must be received within if we would share in its
operation.
(b) Its continuous energy is not secured without our effort.
Let us just recall the principle already referred to, that the ‘salt’ implies the whole
cleansing divine energies, and ask what are these? The Bible variously speaks of men
as being cleansed by the ‘blood of Christ,’ by the ‘truth,’ by the ‘Spirit.’ Now, it is not
difficult to bring all these into one focus, viz., that the Spirit of God cleanses us by
bringing the truth concerning Christ to bear on our understandings and hearts.
We are sanctified in proportion as we are coming under the influence of Christian
truth, which, believed by our understandings and our hearts, supplies motives to our
wills which lead us to holiness by copying the example of Christ.
Hence the main principle is that the cleansing energy operates on us in proportion as
we are influenced by the truths of the Gospel.
Again, it works in proportion as we seek for, and submit to, the guidance of God’s
Holy Spirit.
In proportion as we are living in communion with Christ.
In proportion as we seek to deny ourselves and put away those evil things which
‘quench the Spirit.’
This great grace, then, is not ours without our own effort. No original endowment is
enough to keep us right. There must be the daily contact with, and constant renewing
of the Holy Ghost. Hence arises a solemn appeal to all Christians.
Note the independence of the Christian character.
‘In yourselves.’ ‘The water that I shall give him shall be in him a fountain,’ etc. Not,
therefore, derived from the world, nor at second-hand from other men, but you have
access to it for yourselves. See that you use the gift. ‘Hold fast that which thou hast,’
for there are enemies to withstand-carelessness, slothfulness, and self-confidence,
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221. etc.
III. The relation to one another of those who possess this energy.
In proportion as Christians have salt in themselves, they will be at peace with one
another. Remember that all sin is selfishness; therefore if we are cleansed from it,
that which leads to war, alienation, and coldness will be removed. Even in this world
there will be an anticipatory picture of the perfect peace which will abound when all
are holy. Even now this great hope should make our mutual Christian relations very
sweet and helpful.
Thus emerges the great principle that the foundation of the only real love among men
must be laid in holiness of heart and life. Where the Spirit of God is working on a
heart, there the seeds of evil passions are stricken out. The causes of enmity and
disturbance are being removed. Men quarrel with each other because their pride is
offended, or because their passionate desires after earthly things are crossed by a
successful rival, or because they deem themselves not sufficiently respected by
others. The root of all strife is self-love. It is the root of all sin. The cleansing which
takes away the root removes in the same proportion the strife which grows from it.
We should not be so ready to stand on our rights if we remembered how we come to
have any hopes at all. We should not be so ready to take offence if we thought more
of Him who is not soon angry. All the train of alienations, suspicions, earthly
passions, which exist in our minds and are sure to issue in quarrels or bad blood, will
be put down if we have ‘salt in ourselves.’
This makes a very solemn appeal to Christian men. The Church is the garden where
this peace should flourish. The disgrace of the Church is its envyings, jealousies, ill-
natured scandal, idle gossip, love of preeminence, willingness to impute the worst
possible motives to one another, sharp eyes for our brother’s failings and none for
our own. I am not pleading for any mawkish sentimentality, but for a manly
peacefulness which comes from holiness. The holiest natures are always the most
generous.
What a contrast the Church ought to present to the prevailing tone in the world!
Does it? Why not? Because we do not possess the ‘salt.’ The dove flees from the
cawing of rooks and the squabbling of kites and hawks.
The same principle applies to all our human affections. Our loves of all sorts are safe
only when they are pure. Contrast the society based on common possession of the
one Spirit with the companionships which repose on sin, or only on custom or
neighbourhood. In all these there are possibilities of moral peril.
The same principle intensified gives us a picture of heaven and of hell. In the one are
the ‘solemn troops and sweet societies’; in the other, no peace, no confidence, no
bonds, only isolation, because sin which is selfishness lies at the foundation of the
awful condition.
Friends, without that salt our souls are dead and rotting. Here is the great cure. Make
it your own. So purified, you will be preserved, but, on the other hand, unchecked sin
leads to quick destruction.
The dead, putrefying carcass-what a picture of a soul abandoned to evil and fit only
for Gehenna!
BI, "Salt is good.
Have salt in yourselves
221

222. This is only another form of exhorting Christians to have strength of character as
Christians. But since a strong character, in the spiritual as in the natural man, is apt
to come into collision with others equally strong, our Lord cautions His disciples
against any breach of the law of love. Staunch they must be in their adherence to
principle; but they may not be quarrelsome. “Have peace one with another.”
1. The salt of self-denial.
2. The salt of energy.
3. The salt of truthfulness. (Dean Goulburn.)
Salt
I. Look at what is here so expressively symbolized. Salt is necessary to sacrifice.
1. Christ is the symbol of the covenant of everlasting mercy, but of everlasting
mercy as the basis of a sinner’s new life.
2. Salt symbolizes not only God’s covenant of mercy with man, but man’s
covenant with God. The life of the animal was devoted and offered with salt to
signify-not only the Divine fact of atonement, but the human fact of self-
surrender: and the worshipper said, “I have given the life of the animal to Thee to
signify that henceforth my own life is forever Thine.”
3. Salt is also the principle of counteractive grace-“Have salt in yourselves.”
4. Salt signifies the preventive, corrective, life-nourishing power of the Christian
society in the world-“Ye are the salt of the earth.”
5. Salt is also the principle of peace. It destroys the unbenevolent passions.
II. The Saviour’s lesson concerning the deterioration of the salt.
1. The possibility of deterioration-“If the salt have lost its savour.”
2. Christ marks here three things as characteristic of men in this state.
(1) They are useless,.
(2) They are contemptible.
(3) They are rejected with disdain. (Preachers Monthly.)
True, yet tender-Tender, yet true
The two principal terms are salt and peace.
I. The meaning of each. Salt as a metaphor applied to human character in the New
Testament, signifies in general the grace of God sanctifying the whole nature, and in
particular the sterner virtues-faithfulness, boldness, righteousness, truth, purity. The
term indicates holiness on its harder side; and holiness has a hard side, for it must
needs be strong. In this use of the analogy the preserving power of salt is the
predominating idea. Salt appears here as the stern, sharp antagonist of all
corruption. Christians baptized into the Spirit of Christ act as salt in a tainted world.
In union with the virtue that preserves, there is a pungency that pains. You may
observe, however, that salt does not irritate whole skin. Apply it to an open sore, and
the patient winces; but a healthy member of a living body does not shrink from its
touch. A similar distinction obtains in the moral region. Stringent faithfulness in the
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223. conduct of his neighbour will not offend a just man: but those who do not give justice
do not like to get it. Purity in contact with impurity makes the impure miserable.
Peace. Surely it is not necessary to explain what this word means. You may
comprehend it without the aid of critical analysis. It is like the shining sun or the
sweet breath of early summer; it is its own expositor. Wherever it is, it makes its
presence and its nature known. As the traveller who has missed his way thinks more
of the light, and understands it better, while he is groping in the dark than he did in
the blaze of noon; so those best understand and value peace who suffer the horrors of
war. You know the worth of it when you know the want of it. The greatest peace is,
peace with the Greatest; the greatest peace is, peace with God. The Mediator who
makes it is the greatest Peacemaker. Peace-including all the characteristics of a
Christian which make for peace-is holiness on its softer side; and holiness has a soft
side, that it may win the world.
II. The reciprocal relation between salt in ourselves and peace with one another. To a
certain extent these two are opposites; peace maintained with your neighbour is
antagonist to the vigour of salt in yourselves. Accordingly error appears in two
opposite directions. One man has so much salt in himself that he cannot maintain
peace with his neighbours; another man is so soft and peaceable towards all that he
manifests scarcely any of the faithfulness which is indicated by salt. It is instructive
to examine the limits and extent of this antagonism. Faithfulness does sometimes
disturb peace; and peace is sometimes obtained at the expense of faithfulness. It is
not inherent in the nature, but is introduced by sin. When Christ has made an end of
sin the contradiction will disappear from the new world. In heaven all are peaceful
and yet pure; pure and yet peaceful. There the salt does not disturb, because there is
no corruption; peace does not degenerate into indifference, for there is no vile
appetite to be indulged. Meanwhile, that which comes as a curse is, under the
arrangements of Providence, converted into a blessing. As toil to keep down thorns
and thistles is a useful exercise for physical health, the effort to maintain faithfulness
without breaking peace keeps the spirit healthful and fits for heaven. Every effort
made by the disciple of Christ to soften his own faithfulness and invigorate his own
tenderness goes to increase the treasures which he shall enjoy at God’s right hand.
Watch on the right side, and on the left.
1. On the side of peace. There cannot be too much gentle peace making in the
character and conduct of a man. But if the folds of our peace are so large, and
thick, and warm, as to overlay and smother our faithfulness, the peacemakers are
not blest by God, and are not blessings to the world.
2. On the side of truth and faithfulness. There cannot be too much of faithfulness
in the character of a Christian; but even faithfulness to truth may become hurtful,
if it is dissociated from the gentleness of Christ. Similar antagonisms in the
system of nature constitute at once the exercise and the evidence of the Creator’s
skill. Results are frequently obtained through the union of antagonist forces
neutralizing each other. A familiar example is supplied by the centripetal and
centrifugal forces, which insure the stability of the solar system. Take another
case, equally instructive, though not so obvious. In the structure of a bird, with a
view to the discharge of its functions, two qualities, in a great measure
reciprocally antagonistic, must be united; these are strength and lightness. As a
general rule, strength is incompatible with lightness, and lightness incompatible
with strength. You cannot increase the one without proportionally diminishing
the other. The body of the bird must float in the air, therefore it must be
proportionally lighter than quadrupeds or fishes; but the creature must sustain
itself for long periods in the atmosphere, and perform journeys of vast length,
therefore its members must be strong. The structure of a bird, accordingly,
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224. exhibits a marvellous contrivance for the combination of the utmost possible
lightness. Everyone is familiar with the structure of the feathers that compose the
wing. The quill barrel gives you an example of a minimum of material so disposed
as to produce a maximum of strength. The bones of birds are formed on the same
plan. They are greater in circumference than the corresponding bones of other
animals, but they are hollower in the heart. In iron castings we repeat the process
which we have learned from nature. This union of antagonists for the production
of a common beneficent result is like the labour of a Christian life. Let the timid
and retiring nature stir up his soul to a greater measure of truthful courage,
without letting any of his gentleness go. Let the vine of his tenderness cling to an
oak of stern faithfulness; it will thus bear more fruit than if it were allowed to trail
on the ground. The arms that impart strength to the chair only hurt the occupant
if they lack the cushion that ought to cover them. For strength, there should be an
iron hand in the velvet glove; but for softness, a velvet glove should be on the iron
hand when it grasps the flesh of a brother. Self-love, like a huge lump of iron
concealed under the deck right below the ship’s compass, draws the magnet
aside; thus the life takes a wrong direction, and the soul is shipwrecked. Self-love
draws the life now to the right and now to the left; the errors lie not all on one
side. One man, soft from selfishness, basely sacrifices truth and duty for ease;
another, hard from selfishness, bristles all over with sharp points, like thorns that
tear the flesh of the passenger, and when he has kindled discord among brethren,
calls his own bad temper faithfulness to truth. There is no limit to the aberration
of a human judgment under the bias of self-interest. It will not scruple to dispute
the distinction between black and white, if it can thereby hope to gain its selfish
end. Oh, how precious are these words of our Lord, “Watch and pray, that ye
enter not into temptation.” It is easier to explore the sources of the Nile, than to
discover the true motives whence our own actions spring; and easier to turn the
Nile from his track, than to turn the volume of thoughts and purposes which
issue from a human heart and constitute the body of a human life. We cheat
ourselves and our neighbours as to the character of our motives and the meaning
of our acts. Some people mistake acid for salt; their own passions for godly zeal.
Jehu drives furiously forward to purify the administration of the kingdom; but it
is a cruel, selfish ambition that spurs him on. When such a man scatters a shower
of acid from his tongue, and sees that his neighbours are hurt by the biting drops,
he points to their contortions, and exclaims, See how pungent my salt is! The true
savour is in my salt; for see how these people smart under its sting! Ah, the acid,
in common with salt, makes a tender place smart in a brother; but it possesses
not in common with salt, the faculty of warding off corruption. Itself corrupts and
undermines; it corrodes and destroys all that it drops upon. “Get thee behind me,
Satan: for thou savourest not the things that be of God.” (W. Arnot.)
Saltless salt
In the Valley of Salt, which is about four hours from Aleppo, there is a kind of dry
crust of salt, which sounds, when the horses go upon it, like frozen snow when it is
walked upon. Along on one side of the valley, viz., that towards Gibul, there is a small
precipice about two men’s lengths, occasioned by the continual taking away the salt;
and in this you may see how the veins of it lie. I broke a piece of it, of which the part
that was exposed to the rain, sun, and air, though it had the sparks and particles of
salt, yet it had perfectly lost its savour. The inner part, which was connected with the
rock, retained its savour, as I found by proof. (Maundrell.)
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225. Seasoning characters
Whatever may be the case with literal salt, Christ is referring to spiritual salt, which
undoubtedly, in so far as it consists of a phase of character, may be metamorphosed
into its negative or contradictory. Such metamorphic changes of character are
possible in two directions; They may be realized upwardly, in bad beings becoming
good; or downwardly, in good beings becoming bad. Hatred may be transformed into
love, or love into hatred. In either case there is “conversion” from contrary to
contrary. (J. Morison, D. D.)
Salt is good
Every Christian requires as a sacrifice the salt of fire; the salt of fiery trial, the salt of
searching, fiery self-restraint, refusing sin, breaking off from evil, cutting off the right
hand, plucking out the right eye, preferring the fire of self-denial on earth to the
terrible fire reserved for impenitent sinners in hell. Such salt, such searching,
pungent, self-purifying salt is good; but, if it have lost its saltness, wherewith will ye
season it? If those who are bound in covenant with God to refrain from sin, and offer
themselves holy sacrifices to Him, yield instead of resisting, there is no
acceptableness in them, God will not receive them; shunning the earthly fires of self-
government and self-denial, there is nothing for them to look forward to but that
awful hell fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels. This seems to be the
true and just method of paraphrasing our Lord’s words about salt, with their context,
as they occur in the ninth chapter of St. Mark. (G. Moberly, D. C. L.)
The victory of holiness
Do they not show that to be a Christian, a Christian such as God approves and will
accept, there needs heroism? Yes, not less than a true heroism of spirit, maintaining
a visible or secret strife against evil, and conquering it, even to the loss of hand, foot,
or eye, even to the destruction of friendship, if so be, the loss of love, the
relinquishment even of life. Does it not show that this heroism of spirit, this clear,
bright, searching salt of hearts, is required of all? (G. Moberly, D. C. L.)
A bargain of salt
I. That an inward seasoning with religion and efface is such a thing as all the
disciples of Christ Jesus must endeavour for.
1. Teaching disciples, ministers must be well seasoned within with the power of
godliness.
(1) A teacher who is himself well seasoned is the most fit to season others.
There is ever most life in that man’s teaching who teaches from experience.
(2) An unseasoned minister cannot choose but break forth into some
outward scandal. His inward rottenness cannot possibly be so smothered or
tempered, but it will make his course to be unsavoury.
2. The same is to be endeavoured for by every Christian, that is, every Christian
must labour so as to have a name and a show of godliness without, so that he
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226. feels the power of godliness within.
(1) Until this holy salt has fretted out the evil from the heart the Lord can
have no pleasure therein; until this is done a man does not know what true
religion means; there can be no constancy in religion where this wants. It is
not possible for a man to hold out his profession unless he is well seasoned.
(2) These duties, required of each Christian, admonishing, confuting, etc.,
can never be practised aright but by a man who is able and willing to do them
out of personal feeling. That which is in itself unsavoury can never make
another thing to be sweet. (Samuel Hieron.)
The salting process in the soul
For thine own particular, learn of the housewife; if there be anything in the house
needs seasoning, she falls to work with the salt forthwith. Look into thyself, see what
corrupt affections there be in thee, what careless desires, what inordinate motions,
what crookedness of will, what barrenness of spiritual grace, a thousand to one if the
salt were good which thou broughtest home, it will do thee service for the bringing of
those corrupt humours to a better temper; chiefly take note of this. I am not ashamed
to use this household kitchen similitude still. She that powdereth meat to keep it
sweet, look what places are most bloody and moisty; there she ever puts in most salt,
such parts are most apt to putrify. So do thou, consider with thyself what is thy
chiefest sin, thy most prevailing fault, thy most strong corruption, that which thou
mayest call by David’s phrase, “My wickedness”; thou shalt soon know it by the
strength of the affection to it, and thy unwillingness to forego it. Oh, clap in, put on
store of salt there; rub it in hard. If thou hast heard of any judgment, or reproof,
thrust it on close, it may be it may smart a little; it is no matter, better so than ever
ache, this will soak out the rank humours, and make thee become a sweet lump
before the Lord. It is a fault many times, men sprinkle a little salt of doctrine upon
themselves here and there superficially, they consider not what be their master, their
bloody, their reigning sins, they search not within and without to see where salt
needs especially, and so they become loathsome through the lack of an effectual
powdering. Neither is this all required in the use of this salt for one’s own particular,
but there is also a more general and an universal use to be made thereof. What day is
there in the family, wherein there is no use of common salt? Truth is, there is neither
day in the life of a Christian, nor action in that day, wherein this spiritual salt can
justly be thought superfluous. Every sacrifice must be salted with salt, it was a rule of
the ancient law. (Samuel Hieron.)
Home salting
Good it were if masters of families would think themselves bound to carry home
some of this salt, and bestow it on those that are of their household charge. (Samuel
Hieron.)
That amongst the disciples of Christ there must be mutual peace
Our God is the God of Peace. Our Saviour is the Prince of Peace. The gospel which is
preached amongst us, is the gospel of peace. The substance of it is glad tidings of
peace. Our calling is in peace. They which are the Lord’s are called the sons of peace;
so we ought all to endeavour to keep “the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace”;
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227. and to live in peace. Christians must follow peace with all men; and if it be possible
have peace with all men; and therefore among themselves they must seek it, and
ensue it much more. I must open this as the former doctrine by distinguishing upon
Christ’s disciples. Some are preachers of peace, some are professors of peace. Let me
show you how this doctrine reacheth unto both.
The teachers of peace must have peace one towards another
Their agreement, their peace, their consent, is a great motive to the people to
entertain their doctrine. Hereupon was that use of Paul’s, to prefix the names of
others with his own, as “Paul and our brother Sostenes;” “Paul and our brother
Timotheus;” “Paul and all the brethren that are with me;” “Paul and Silvanus and
Timotheus.” The ease stands in the building of the spiritual body, as it did in the
typical body, in fighting the Lord’s battle, by those whose office it is to fight the good
fight of faith, as in the fighting for Israel against Ammon. The agreement of the
builders will advance the building both with speed and beauty; the joint proceeding
of the leaders will undoubtedly prevail against the common enemy. Solomon’s
temple was builded without noise; neither hammer, nor axe, nor any tool of iron was
heard in the house while it was in building; a type, I doubt not, of the stillness in
respect of freedom from mutual contentions which ought to be amongst pastors.
Again, the want of this agreement and peace will be a great prejudice to the growth of
the truth. The means used in God’s wisdom to hinder Babel’s building was a strife of
tongues among the builders; so when those which are the builders of the spiritual
House of God, the Church, are rent asunder in affection, the work cannot go forward
as it should. The shepherds being divided, the sheep must needs be scattered. This to
prove that the teachers of peace must have peace one towards another. God hath sent
us praedicare, not praeliari, to work and not to wrangle; while we strive the devil
works for himself: atheism, popery, do advantage themselves by our dissentions.
There must be mutual peace among the professors of peace, the places which I first
named in the beginning of the doctrine do enjoin it. This is the mark by which they
are known. “By this shall all men know that ye be my disciples, if ye have love one to
another.” To love one another, and to have peace one towards another, are all one. Be
wise and learn how to judge and what to think in this point of ministerial consent
and peace, that you may not easily stumble through mistaking. Here, therefore, in
order, I pray heartily observe these particulars. First, that consent and agreement of
teachers is no certain mark of truth in that wherein they consent; Aaron and all the
other Levites consented to the making of the golden calf, four hundred prophets
joined together to persuade good success to Ahab, yet that was false which they
persuaded. Our Saviour was condemned by a common consent of elders and priests.
Secondly, that it is possible for some dissention to fall out sometimes even amongst
the best men. A controversy betwixt Peter and Paul, betwixt Peter and the other
Apostles and brethren at Jerusalem. The difference between Paul and Barnabas was
very eager. Dissentions in Corinth. Great and vehement quarrels betwixt Austen and
Hierome, Cyril and Theodoret, Chrysostom and Theophilact, as histories and their
own writings testify. It is so; first, by the cunning of the devil, who, to stop the course
of the gospel, laboureth to sow the seeds of dissention. Secondly, by reason of the
remainders of corruption which are in all; there is much ignorance and self-love even
in the best, and these things cause differences, while men either see not the truth.
That among professors and preachers of religion there is, or may be, a three-fold
consent. First, in one faith and doctrine; namely, a consent of judgment. Secondly, in
affection. Thirdly, in speech; namely, when their teaching and manner of holding and
defending of points of doctrines is the same. (Samuel Hieron.)
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228. One essential
“Salt is good, but if the salt have lost its saltness wherewith will ye season it?” In
every good thing there is one supreme essential, besides much that is of minor
importance. Let that one element be lacking, and all the rest is a mockery. If sugar be
not sweet, if fruit have no flavour, if meat be without nutriment, what folly to give it
commendation for any other quality! If a man lack manliness, if a woman lack
womanliness, if a child lack childlikeness, praise for any other characteristic is little
else than censure or a sneer. What is home without affection? What is friendship
without mutual confidence? What is character without sincerity? What is salt
without saltness? If you are a disciple of Christ the real question is, How much of
Christian discipleship is there in you? Everything else-all your popularity, all your
supposed usefulness, all your zeal in good works-is something outside of the only
that is really worth taking into account in an estimate of your worth as a disciple of
Christ.
COKE, "Mark 9:50. But if the salt have lost, &c.— But if the salt is become
insipid. See on Matthew 5:13 and on Leviticus 2:13. The ancients looked upon
salt, as the symbol of friendship and peace; in reference to which Eschines
speaks of the salt of the city, meaning thereby the public peace and prosperity;
and hence, says Eustathius, to imitate the peace and friendship which should
subsist between all those who partook of the same feast, salt, before all other, was
set before the guests; for, continues he, as salt things, being compacted in many
drops of water, every one in itself fluid and unsteady, becomes one solid body; so
they, who from distant places unite in a league of friendship, meet together both
in the same place and in the same friendly disposition. See Hammond.
Inferences drawn from the transfiguration of Christ on the Mount. How glorious
and delightful must have been the view which the apostles had of our blessed
Redeemer, when he was transfigured before them; clothed, as it were, with the
divine Schechinah, and shining with a lustre like that of the sun! how pleasing
and how edifying must it have been to them, to see with him Moses and Elijah,
those two eminent saints, who had so many ages ago quitted our world, and
whose names they had often read in the sacred records with wonder and
reverence! and how great a happiness was it for these two illustrious prophets to
see that glorified Saviour, who before his incarnation had spoken to them! to
speak to that Man of God by whom they were glorified, and to become prophets,
not to men, but in some sense to God: and what consolation, what confirmation
was it to the disciples, to behold such examples of their future glory! They saw in
Moses and Elijah what they themselves should be: how could they ever fear to be
miserable, who saw such precedents of their ensuing happiness! How could they
fear to die, who saw in others the blessedness of their own change! In this
believing view, how truly may we say to death, Rejoice not mine enemy; though I
fall, yet shall I rise; yea, I shall rise in falling! We shall not all sleep, but we shall
all be changed, says St. Paul: Elijah was changed, Moses slept. When therefore,
O faithful Christian, thou shalt receive the sentence of death on mount Nebo; or
when the fiery chariot shall come, and sweep thee from this vale of mortality;
remember thy glorious and future appearance with thy Saviour, and thou canst
not but be comforted, and cheerfully triumph over that last enemy.
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229. This transfiguration of our Lord is one of the most surprising occurrences that
ever befel him: the four following may be reckoned up as the principal wonders
of his life; his incarnation, temptation, transfiguration, and agony.—The first,
worthy of all admiration, that God should become also man; the second, that the
God-man should be tempted, and transported by Satan; the third, that man
should be glorified upon earth; the last, that he who was man and God, should
sweat blood, under the sense of God's wrath for man: and all these either had the
angels for witnesses, or the immediate voice of God; that it may be no wonder
that the earth marvels at those things whereat the angels of heaven stand
amazed.
O Saviour! if thou wert such in Tabor, what art thou in heaven? If this were the
glory of thy humanity, what is the presence of thy Godhead? But how glorious
the reflection! he shall change our vile bodies, that they may be like his glorified
body: Behold thy pattern, faithful soul, and rejoice. These very bodies, that are
now like the earth, shall, if we be faithful, be bright as the sun; and we, who now
see clay in one another's faces, shall then see nothing but heaven in each other's
countenances. We who now adorn our perishing bodies with clothes, shall then
be clothed upon with immortality, out of the wardrobe of heaven. Let us
therefore look upon this flesh, not so much with contempt of what it was and is,
as with a joyful hope of what it shall be; and when our courage is assaulted with
a change of these bodies, from healthful to weak, from living to dead, let us
comfort ourselves with the assurance of this change from dull to incorruption for
every persevering believer. The faithful are not so sure of death, as of
transfiguration.
Well might St. Peter say, It is good for us to be here! well might he be contented
to resign his entertainments and his hopes elsewhere, that they might prolong
these delightful moments, feasting their eyes with these divine visions, and their
minds with these more than human discourses. But if a glimpse of this heavenly
glory did so ravish this great disciple, how shall the faithful be affected with the
contemplation, yea, fruition of the divine presence! here was but Tabor, there is
heaven; here were but two saints, there many millions of saints and angels; here
was Christ transfigured, there he sits at the right hand of Majesty; here was a
representation, there a gift and possession of blessedness. Oh that we could now
forget the world, and, fixing our eyes upon this better Tabor, say, It is good to be
here! Alas, how has our corruption bewitched us, to be affected with the
shipwrecks of this world, to doat upon the misery of this fading life, rather than
fly up to that blessed contemplation, wherein we shall see God in himself; God in
us; ourselves in Him. There shall be no sorrow, no pain, no complaint, no fear,
no death. There will be no malice to rise against us, no misery to afflict us. There,
O there, one day is better than a thousand: there is rest from our labours, peace
from our enemies, freedom from the possibility of sinning. How many clouds of
discontent, in regard to too many of us, darken the sunshine of our joy, while we
are here below: complaint of evils past, sense of present, fear of future, have too
much shared our lives among them. There the saints shall be always joyful,
always satisfied with the vision of that God, in whose presence there is fullness of
joy. Shall we see that heathen Cleombrotus abandoning his life, and casting
himself down from the rock, upon an uncertain notion of immortality?—And
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230. shall not we, Christians, abandon the tempting superfluities of life and the
pleasures of sin, for that life which we are most assured the righteous shall
obtain? At what do we hesitate?—Is there a heaven, or is there none?—Have we
a Saviour there, or have we none?—We know that there is a heaven, as sure as
that there is an earth below us; we know we have a Saviour there, as sure as
there are men whom we converse with upon earth. Miserable then will be our
folly and infidelity, if we do not despise the best offers of the world, and, lifting
up our eyes and hearts to heaven, say, It is good to be there.
We may easily conceive with what astonishment the three disciples stood
compassed in the bright cloud, expecting some miraculous event from so
heavenly a vision; (Mark 9:7.) when suddenly they heard a voice sounding out of
that cloud, This is my beloved Son: hear him. They need not be told whose that
voice was; the place, the matter evinced it; no angel in heaven could or durst
have said so. How gladly does St. Peter, many years after, and but a little before
his death, speak of it! 2 Peter 1:16-18. Twice had God spoken these words to his
Son from heaven, once in his baptism, and now again in his transfiguration.
Other sons are beloved as of favour; this is the beloved, as in the unity of his
essence. O incomprehensible and extensive love of God the Father to the Son,
that for his sake he is pleased with all that believe! O happy complaisance! out of
Christ, there is nothing but enmity betwixt God and the soul; in him there can be
nothing but peace: when the beams are met in one centre, they do not only heat
but burn. Our weak love is diffused to many; God hath some of it; the world
perhaps some, and generally too much; and therein wives, children, and friends;
but this infinite love of God has all the beams united in one infinite object, the
Son of his love; neither does he love any thing but in the participation of his love,
or in the derivation from him. O God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, let
me be found in thy beloved Son, and how canst thou but be pleased with me?
This one voice proclaims Christ at once the Son of God, the Reconciler of the
world, the teacher and lawgiver of his church: as the Son of God, he is essentially
interested in his love; as the Reconciler of the world, in whom God is well
pleased, he most justly demands our love and adherence; as the teacher and
lawgiver, he justly claims our attention, our obedience: even so, Lord, teach us,
to hear and obey thee as our teacher, to love and believe in thee as our Redeemer,
and to adore thee as the eternal Son of the Father!
Suddenly, when they had looked round about, they saw no man, save Jesus only,
Mark 9:8 and that doubtless in his usual form; all was now gone; Moses, Elias,
the cloud, the voice, the glory. Tabor itself cannot be long blessed with that
divine light, and those shining guests. Heaven will not allow earth any long
continuance of glory: only above is constant glory to be looked for and enjoyed,
where the faithful shall ever see their Saviour in his unchangeable brightness,
where the light shall never be either clouded or varied. Moses and Elias are
gone; only Christ is left. The glory of the law and the prophets was but
temporary, that only Christ may remain unto us entire and conspicuous. They
came but to give testimony to Christ; when that is done, they are vanished.
Neither could these disciples find any loss of Moses and Elias, when they had
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231. Christ still with them. Had Jesus been gone, and left either Moses or Elias, or
both, that pretence, though glorious, could not have comforted them. Now that
they are gone, and he is left, they ought not to be discomforted. O Saviour, it
matters not who is away, while thou art with us. Thou art God all-sufficient;
what can we want, when we want not thee? Thy presence shall make Tabor itself
a heaven; yea, no place of deepest distress can make us miserable, if
accompanied with the fruition of thee.
REFLECTIONS.—1st, The first verse of this chapter should properly, as in St.
Matthew, have closed the preceding; as it is the conclusion of that discourse, and
an argument to engage the fidelity of Christ's disciples, from the view of the
nearness of his coming with power and glory, to punish the persecutors of his
people by the destruction of the Jewish state and nation; and, by the mighty
effusion of his spirit, to erect his church in the world, and bless the labours of his
faithful ministers with the most astonishing success: and these events some of
those then present should live to see.
Six days after the former discourse, we have an account,
1. Of his transfiguration on the Mount, in the presence of three of his disciples,
(see Matthew 17:1-2.) This glimpse of his glory would serve to prevent the
offence of the cross, and enable them, when they reflected on what they how saw
and heard, to stand fast, unmoved under all the discouragements which their
faith might afterwards encounter.
2. Of the discourse which passed between Christ and his disciples as they came
down from the mountain. However desirous Peter was of dwelling there, the
glorious scene was transient. Our Lord, as they returned from the mount,
particularly charged them to take no notice of what they had seen and heard; at
least, not till after his resurrection from the dead, when this vision would gain
the more ready credence, and serve to prove his divine glory even in the midst of
his humiliations. What this resurrection from the dead should mean, they were
at a loss to conceive; whether it was to be taken literally, or to be applied
metaphorically to his exaltation from his present state of poverty and indigence,
to the throne of that glorious temporal kingdom which their prejudices still
expected. And as they had been taught by their scribes, that Elias was to prepare
the way for the Messiah's coming and kingdom, they inquired of him whether
there was any real ground for such an expectation, especially as Elias had made
so short a stay with them on the mount, and had not appeared at all in public.
Christ clears up their doubts: the person spoken of by the prophet Malachi, was
not to be Elias personally, according to the traditions taught by the scribes, but
one in his spirit and power; and he had already appeared, and been rejected;
plainly pointing them to John the Baptist, in whom the prophesy was fulfilled.
And the same inspired writings that foretold the coming of John, predicted also
the sufferings and indignities which the Messiah should suffer; these therefore
also they may assuredly expect to see accomplished in their season.
2nd, At the return of Jesus with his three disciples from the mount, he found
their companions in no small perplexity:
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232. 1. The cause of it was, their being unable to heal a youth possessed of a devil,
who was brought to them for cure, during their Master's absence; whereupon
the scribes triumphed over them, and probably were now disputing against them
concerning their Master's doctrine and miracles, and the authority which they
pretended to derive from him. In this juncture Jesus himself appeared; and,
struck with surprise at his critical arrival, the people with eagerness ran to him,
congratulating him on his return, and giving him a hearty welcome. Note; (1.)
They who have ever tasted the sweetness of communion with Jesus, cannot but
mourn his absence, and welcome his return. (2.) Frequently when we are most at
a loss what to say or do, the Lord then appears peculiarly gracious in coming to
our help, and ordering our goings.
2. Addressing himself to the scribes on the cause of the dispute, they dared not
answer him; but the father of the youth represented the piteous case, and the
unsuccessfulness of his application to the disciples. His son was possessed of a
dumb spirit, under whose malicious influence he was often thrown into terrible
convulsions, foaming at the mouth, gnashing his teeth, and pining away under
the frequent and violent returns of these diabolical agitations. And he had
brought him to the disciples, who had in vain attempted to cure him.
3. With a sharp rebuke to the malicious scribes, and all others who had joined
them in their dispute with the disciples, (among whom probably the father of the
youth might be included, on being disappointed in his application) he brands
them as a faithless generation, wilfully blind to all the stupendous evidences of
his power which he had shewn, a people who wearied out his patience; but he
would give them, notwithstanding, a fresh evidence of that divine mission which
they disputed, and therefore bids the father bring his son to him. If they will not
believe, they shall, at least, be left without excuse.
4. No sooner was the lad brought within sight of Jesus, than the spirit, enraged at
being about to be dispossessed, threw him to the ground in the most violent
agonies, as if he would have torn him in pieces; and there he lay wallowing and
foaming. To make the cure appear more singular, Jesus hereupon asked, how
long he had been thus afflicted? The father answered, from his very infancy; and
representing the imminent dangers to which he was frequently exposed, of being
drowned or burnt, by this malicious spirit, who had often cast him into the fire,
and into the water, he importunately begs, if this be not a case beyond the power
of Jesus, that he would compassionate a parent as well as a child so distressed,
and help them out of their miseries. Note; (1.) The possession of inveterate
corruption is from the womb, and nothing but the Almighty grace of Jesus can
cure the deeply-rooted evil. (2.) Sometimes we doubt Christ's power, sometimes
his willingness to help us, and both shew the unbelief of our hearts: this is the
case, more or less, with all believers who do not live up to the glorious privileges
of their dispensation.
5. In answer to his suggestion, Christ replied, If thou canst believe, all things are
possible, &c. He had said, If thou canst do, as if he suspected Christ's want of
power; therefore our Lord retorts upon him:, and bids him suspect his want of
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233. faith; yet, to encourage his trust, assures him, that this and every other case is
possible, when the application is made in faith. With eagerness and tears,
between fear and hope, the afflicted father cried out, Lord, I believe thy all-
sufficiency, and, grieving over the hardness and infidelity of my heart, beg thee
to help mine unbelief, and enable me confidently to trust thee. Note; (1.) If ever
we come short of any of our requests for the good of our souls, we may assuredly
impute it to our unbelief. (2.) It is a sure sign of some faith, when a man is
convinced of, and realty cries to be delivered from, the unbelief of his heart. (3.)
The strongest in faith need every day to pray for an increase of this most
necessary grace.
6. Christ performs the wondrous cure. The people came running to see how the
affair would end, and whether Jesus or Satan would prevail; when with a voice
of authority our Lord bids the foul fiend, who had made the child dumb and
deaf, to depart, and never more return to him: nor dared the devil disobey,
though with the deepest reluctance and most violent struggles quitting his hold,
insomuch that the lad lay breathless and motionless, so that many verily thought
him dead. But Jesus, stretching out his hand, lifted him up; and immediately he
arose perfectly well.
7. When the disciples inquired privately why they had miscarried, our Lord lets
them know that it was through want of this kind of faith, and their having
neglected the instituted means for obtaining it—prayer and fasting. Note; If we
continue to neglect the means, our graces will necessarily decay, languish, and
die away.
3rdly, Being in haste to go towards Jerusalem, and designing to be alone with his
disciples, he travelled through Galilee with all secrecy, to prevent any
interruption from the people assembled around him. And by the way, we are
told,
1. The repeated notices which he gave to his disciples of his approaching
sufferings, death, and resurrection; but they understood not his meaning, clear
as the words were. Their prejudices concerning his temporal kingdom spread a
veil over their hearts, and they were ashamed and afraid to ask him, lest they
should meet with a rebuke for their dulness. Note; Many live and die in
ignorance, because they are ashamed to own it, and to inquire of those who
would instruct them.
2. He reproves them for their pride and affectation of superiority. He knew that
the subject of their disputes in the way had been, who should possess the first
honours in his kingdom; but he put a question, as if he wanted to be informed
concerning it; to which, ashamed of what had passed, they returned no answer.
But Jesus, to shew them that he knew the secrets of all hearts, and to check these
most unbecoming desires of temporal grandeur, assured them, that this
ambitious affectation of pre-eminence would be punished with the lowest
degradation: while the surest way to rise, would be by entertaining the lowest
thoughts of themselves, and studying how to be most serviceable to the meanest
of his disciples. And to impress what he had spoken the more deeply, he took a
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234. little child into his arms, whose humility, teachableness, and unambitious
simplicity they ought to imitate; assuring them, that whoever shewed regard to
the lowest of his people, because of such a spirit in them, for the sake of their
resemblance and relation to him, he would regard it as done to himself; yea, God
the Father, who sent him, would requite it. Note; (1.) Christ observes, and is
displeased with the angry disputes of his disciples, and will call them to account
for them. (2.) Nothing is so contrary to the spirit of Christianity, as the
affectation of pre-eminence.
3. He checks the jealousy and rashness of the beloved disciple. John, in his
travels, when he was sent forth with his fellow-labourers to preach the Gospel,
had seen a man casting out devils in Christ's name, perhaps one of the Baptist's
disciples, who, though a believer in Jesus as the Messiah, had not constantly
attended him as they had done, nor been invested with any particular
commission from him. Jealous therefore for their Master's honour, or perhaps
rather for their own; unwilling that others should share these miraculous powers
with them, they had forbidden him, because he had not been a professed disciple,
or invested with any such commission as they had received. But Jesus said,
Forbid him not. One who had such faith in his name, would not easily be
brought to say or do any thing dishonourable to his cause. Such a one ought
rather to be countenanced than discouraged; and, as he took not part with the
enemy, but rather the contrary, he was to be regarded as a friend. Note; (1.)
Partial to our own opinions and party, we are apt to monopolize Christ, and to
think our cause is for much his, that all who follow not with us are to be
regarded as separated from him: but there may be a great diversity of opinion in
lesser matters among those who together hold the Head; and therefore we should
bear and forbear, think and let think, without rash and rigid censures of those
who differ from us. (2.) Wherever real good is done, where Christ is preached,
and souls rescued from the power of Satan, though we may count the methods
pursued irregular and unauthorised, we must leave every man to stand or fall to
his own Master, and beware how we oppose what is attended with a blessing
from God. (3.) Where nothing appears contradictory to the faith of the gospel,
Christian love ever bids us hope the best.
4thly, Christ will not suffer the least kindness done to his poorest disciples to be
unrewarded, nor the least offence given to them to go unpunished. The heaviest
of all judgments hangs over that guilty head which shall hinder, discourage, or
grieve the weak, or do ought to turn them back from Christ. And if any
corruption in our hearts, or allurement from the world, or darling idol, would se-
duce us from the path of duty, and lead us and others into sin, though they were
near and dear to us as a hand, a foot, or an eye, they must be cut off without pity.
Eternity is at stake; and as a life of everlasting glory will amply repay us for
every such sacrifice that we make, so will the endless torments in hell make us
rue the indulgence of our sins, when, for a momentary gratification, we should
be doomed to endure the gnashings of a guilty conscience, filled with the wrath
of God, and the intolerable agonies of burnings unquenchable and eternal. For
as, under the law, every burnt-offering was salted before it was laid on the altar,
where the fire never went out; so every apostate shall fall a sacrifice to divine
justice, and be cast into the fire of hell, preserved by the power of God from an
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235. extinction of their being, to suffer that wrath of God which is for ever wrath to
come. And, on the other hand, the soul which is seasoned with divine grace, and
offered daily and perseveringly as a living sacrifice to God, shall be preserved
incorruptible, separated from the taint of this world's pollutions, and kept by the
power of God through faith unto salvation. For, as salt is good to preserve meat
from putrefaction, and renders it savoury, so does the grace of God preserve the
soul from the corruption of sin, and renders those who possess this inestimable
gift blessings to others, by spreading the sweet savour of Christ in the world. But
if the salt have lost its saltness, and they, whose hearts, lips, and lives, should be
seasoned with this salt of grace, prove destitute of it, and apostatize from their
profession, their fall is usually irrecoverable, and their ruin inevitable.
Therefore, see that ye have salt in yourselves, the life of grace in your souls,
subduing the corruptions within, and shewing itself in a savoury conversation, in
every good word and work that may minister edification to others; and have
peace one with another, united in the closest bonds of love and friendship, laying
aside all disputes and envyings, and concurring to promote and propagate the
gospel through the world. Note; (1.) The terrors and eternity of the torments of
hell, if really believed, will be a powerful check to the raging passions of the soul.
(2.) They who have the salt of grace, must shew it in their lips and in their lives.
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