Bible Commentaries

Chapter24.
The Visit to the Sepulchre

"And when the sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of Mark 16:1-4.

Love in Action.

The greatest thing in the Christian Religion, at any rate on its practical side, is love. Our Lord Himself summed up all the Commandments in the commandment to love God and love one's neighbour. The Apostle Paul declared that love was the fulfilling of the Law. Now there Mark 16:3-5.

The Stone at the Tomb.

Constraining Love.

In continuing the story of the holy women I feel almost constrained to do so in terms of love; for it is love that I still find illustrated in their conduct. When they set out in the darkness of that early morning for the tomb, all their thoughts were of their buried Lord, and the honour they meant to pay Him. But they had inadvertently left out of their calculations one most important factor. Apparently they had never heard that to make assurance doubly sure the priests had sealed the stone with the official seal, and had also set a guard to prevent any intruders from coming near. All they knew about was the great stone which they had seen Joseph and Nicodemus roll up to the entrance of the grave on the Friday. As they stole through the silent streets on their kindly and gracious errand, the remembrance of that struck a sort of chill to their souls. It seemed to doom their errand to failure; it seemed to make absolutely impossible the fulfilment of their loving purpose. For the stone was "very great," far beyond the power of a few weak women to roll away. The consternation the remembrance of this "very great" stone caused them is suggested by the form of the Greek verb. "They were saying among themselves," our R.V. translates, and that is an improvement upon the A.V. with its "they said," as it does suggest continuance. "They kept saying," would have brought out the idea which the Greek tense suggests. This one difficulty absorbed their thought. They "kept saying to one another, who shall roll us away the stone?" But though they remembered that a great stone lay across the mouth of the tomb, they never seem to have dreamed of turning back. Not one of them seems to have said, "It's of no use, we might just as well go home." They realised all about the seemingly insuperable difficulty that confronted them, they could not get that great stone out of their minds, they kept saying to one another, "Who shall roll us away the stone?" and yet, in spite of it all, they held on their way. And if you ask me why, I can only answer that love constrained them. I do not know what they expected when they got there. Possibly, as some rather prosaic commentators suggest, they thought they might find some labourers on their way to work, or Joseph's own gardener who would help them to open the tomb. Possibly, I say, but I do not know. What I do know Matthew 28:2). On their way to the tomb, they had kept saying to one another, Who shall roll us away the stone? And already God had sent one of those immortal spirits who ever do Him service to remove every difficulty out of their path, so that when they came to the grave, they found not a "great stone" but an "open door." And they were "amazed." They had never thought of the angel. They had never lifted up their eyes above the earth; they had never once thought that heaven might intervene for their help. And so when they saw this radiant being sitting there, they were "amazed."

Forgetting the Angels.

We are continually making the mistake these women made, leaving the angel out of account. We contemplate the "great stones" we have to remove, and then we reckon up our own scanty resources and we cry, "Who is sufficient for these things?" We forget that God is in the business. We forget that this world of ours is the scene of vast and incalculable spiritual ministries. We greatly err when we confine God and His holy angels to some far-off and inaccessible heaven. God is here: the angels are all about us. "The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear Him and delivereth them." "Behold," was God's promise to Israel, "I send an angel before thee, to keep thee by the way and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared." And still the angels go before us and fight for us. And that is why difficulties that seemed to us so insurmountable often clean vanish from our path when we advance boldly upon them. God has been beforehand with us and His angel has rolled away the stone. It will be a great day for us when we catch the vision of the angel: when we see the mountain of the Lord full of horses and chariots of fire. The day when we get that vision will be a day of amazement, but it will also be a day when pessimism and despair will for ever flee away; we shall shrink from no task, we shall tremble before no "great stone," for the task is not ours only but God's.

Life, not Death.

No wonder they were amazed. They came expecting to find a dead body, and they found a white-robed angel. They saw an "angel" in the tomb; triumphant life in the place of death; a representative of eternity in the place of mortality; immortal youth in the place of weakness and decay. And that is what believing men and women have seen in the grave ever since that first Easter morning; they have seen the angel. Before that Easter morning men and women saw in the grave little but corruption, decay, dissolution. Even in these days people who turn their backs on Christ see little else. But we who know that Jesus died and rose again are always able to see the sheen of the angel's robe and to hear the beating of the angel's wing when we gather round the grave. And to us, about our own dear ones he says, as did this angel about the Lord, "He is not here, He is risen." And the vision of the angel in the tomb enables us to rejoice even at the grave with "joy unspeakable and full of glory," for we know now that if the earthly house of this our tabernacle be dissolved, "we have a building of God, a house not made with hands eternal in the heavens."

Chapter26.
The Empty Grave

"And he saith unto them, Be not affrighted: Ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, Which was crucified: He is risen; He is not here: behold the place where they laid Him."— Mark 16:6.

The Fourfold Testimony.

We come now to the consideration of that stupendous event which created Christian faith, and which has been, ever since, the foundation stone of the Christian Church. Much has been made of the differences and inconsistencies of the various evangelists" accounts. And, for my own part, I am not in the least disposed to deny that it is very hard to fit the various details supplied to us by the four evangelists into a connected and consistent story. It was a day of confusion and excitement. And something of the excitement and subsequent confusion seems to have crept into the narrative. It is impossible, therefore, to be sure of every detail; it is impossible to be sure as to the exact order in which the events of the day occurred. But the difficulty of reconciling the various stories as to the happenings of the first Easter morning in no way affects the truth of the Resurrection. It rather helps to establish and confirm it. For the differences go to prove this, that we have in the four Gospels the stories of independent witnesses. It is not a fourfold reproduction of the same story. It is a case of four independent accounts. And while there are differences in detail (as there always are in accounts of one and the same event written from varying view-points) the significant thing about them is that they are in emphatic and complete agreement about the essential facts, that on the first Easter morning the grave was found empty, and that Jesus Himself appeared to certain of His disciples alive!

The Angel's Message.

"They entered into the tomb," the chamber quarried out of the rock, "and saw a young man sitting on the right side, arrayed in a white robe." And they were amazed. But their astonishment was soon changed to another feeling.

"Be not amazed," said the angel to the women, "ye seek Jesus the Nazarene, Who has been crucified." Notice how careful the angel is in his identification. "Jesus the Nazarene, Who has been crucified." It was to dispel any doubt that might lurk in the women's mind, as to whether they were thinking and he was speaking of one and the same person. "He is risen; He is not here: behold the place where they laid Him." He is risen! that was the tremendous announcement the angel had to make. They could see His body was not there. But the reason for its absence was not that anyone (whether friends or foe) had stolen it. He had "risen again." He had taken His body with Him. It was not a case of spiritual survival. It was a Resurrection. Christ in the totality of His personality—soul and body—had risen again. The women had come to anoint a corpse, and instead of that they were told of a living Christ. But when the angel uttered these three simple words, "He is risen," he set men in a larger universe, he altered the current of human history, he changed the face of the entire world. Let us consider for a moment or two some of the wealth of its significance. "He is risen." What did that imply?

The Messiahship of Jesus.

First of all, the Messiahship of Jesus. If my account of the condition of the disciples is correct, the Cross, while it had been powerless to kill their love for Jesus, had shattered their hopes. "We hoped," said the two disciples, speaking in the past tense which as good as implies that the hope was dead and gone, "we hoped that it was He Who should redeem Israel." The Cross laid any such faith in ruins, and out of the wreck only personal affection still remained. They could not help loving Jesus, in spite of the disappointment of their expectation, but the shameful death of the Cross finally disposed of all claims to Messiahship. Friday and Saturday these people were bewailing a lost leader and a discredited cause. But this simple announcement, "He is risen," changed the entire outlook, totally altered their point of view. It was not Jesus only Who rose again from the grave. Faith, faith which had been buried in the same grave, rose again, buoyant, confident, exultant. The Jewish rulers by nailing Christ to the cursed Cross, had tried to brand Him as a slave, but by the Resurrection God proclaimed Him as His glorious Son. "He was declared to be the Son of God with power," says St Paul, "by the Resurrection from the dead." I fancy those great and splendid words of the second Psalm must have come back to the minds of the disciples when it really came home to them that Christ was alive. "The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against His anointed... He that sitteth in the heaven shall laugh, the Lord shall have them in derision." On the Friday Pilate and Herod and the priests had conspired against the Lord's anointed. Conspired, as it seemed, with success when Jesus hung dead upon the tree. But on the morning of the first day of the week the disciples knew they had conspired in vain. "Yet," said God, by the Resurrection of His Mark 16:7-9.

The Women and the Angel's Message.

It may be that, if we wanted to reproduce with exactitude the happenings at the graveside on that first Easter morning, we should have to insert asterisks at various points in the evangelic narrative. Asterisks in a narrative imply the lapse of time, and I am quite sure that such lapses took place on Easter morning. And I am doubly sure of this when I come to Mark's account, for of all the evangelists Mark is the most concise and compressed. I do not think, for example, that the angelic speech to the women went on without pause or break as Mary records it here. I believe that between Mark 16:6 and Mark 16:7 you ought to put the asterisks. "He is risen, He is not here, behold the place where they laid Him," the angel said. And then he paused. He gave the women time to take that in. He gave them time to try to realise the tremendous fact that their dead Master was alive again. It needed time, for Resurrection was not in all their thoughts. I picture these women in the moments that followed that tremendous angelic word. I picture to myself the feelings that expressed themselves on their faces. For one mood followed another as sunshine and shadow chase one another on an April day. First there was mere and sheer fright at the sight of the empty grave and the vision of the angel. And then there was wonder, incredulous wonder almost. And then as the meaning of it all began really to come home to their souls, the wonder gave place to an expression of ecstasy and rapture. And then once again the sunshine gave way to shadow, and the rapture was replaced by something like doubt and fear.

A Dawning Fear.

The fear was caused by this—the women began to wonder whether the risen Jesus would be like the Jesus Who had companied with them in Galilee. Differences in rank and station have before today proved almost fatal to friendship. Here are two lads bosom friends at school. They go forth into life. One remains all his days poor and obscure. The other, blessed with more shining gifts, wins for himself name and fame and wealth. And it has happened before today that the man who has so advanced in wealth and position has forgotten his friendship for the poor man who was the school mate of his boyhood. Now the Resurrection, the women must have felt instinctively, must have made a difference to Christ. It revealed Him as a greater person than they had taken Him for. He was declared to be the Son of God with power by the Resurrection from the dead. He had lived humbly enough in the days of His flesh. Fishermen and humble women might dare to be on terms of friendship with One Who was Himself by trade a village carpenter—though even during those days of His lowliness they had been surprised now and again by flashes of glory. But by the Resurrection God had highly exalted Him and given Him a name which was above every name. It was one thing being on terms of friendship with Him Who was so poor that He had not where to lay His head; it was quite another thing being on terms of friendship with One Whom God had exalted to be a Prince and a Saviour. Perhaps a cold and chilling doubt crept into the souls of these women and brought a shadow into their faces, doubt as to whether this exalted Lord would still count them His friends and show them the old affection and love.

—A Fear Removed.

And it was to meet that doubt, and chase it clean away out of these women's hearts that the angel spoke as he did. I do not think he spoke it in the same breath as the previous verse. You must put asterisks between the sixth verse and this one. He made the great announcement of Christ's Resurrection to chase away the fear caused by the sight of the empty grave. He added this further word to chase away the fear that the Resurrection might have made a difference in Christ's affection and love. For this is the effect of this further word which the angel spoke, it reveals Jesus as the same Jesus. The Resurrection had revealed as by a flash His divine glory, but the Resurrection had made not a whit of difference in His feelings towards the men and women who had companied with Him, and loved Him and served Him in the days of His flesh. The Resurrection has changed His form, it had not changed His heart.

Vision and Duty.

Now, let us look at this verse which shows us that Jesus was the same Jesus. "Go your way," said the angel, "tell His disciples and Peter." A place where angels are to be seen, is the kind of place that tempts one to linger. The disciples did not want to leave the Holy Mount where they saw their Lord in His glory. "Let us make three tabernacles," they said, "one for Thee and one for Moses and one for Elijah." They would fain have lived in the enjoyment of that beatific vision. And possibly these women showed signs of remaining rooted to the spot, rapt in contemplation of the empty tomb and the living angel. Small blame to them if they did! I can understand and sympathise with them. To be able to converse with an angel, to hear the angel bear his testimony to their Master was a rare and wondrous privilege. But just exactly as our Lord brought the season on the Holy Mount to a close, and led His disciples back again to the business waiting for them in the plain below, so now it is the angel that brings the moment of vision and rapture to a close. "Go your way, tell His disciples," he said. Vision was to end in duty. Rapture was to be interrupted because there was business to be done. Away in Jerusalem, in the Upper Room, there was a little company of men plunged in a gulf of deep despair because they thought that Jesus was dead; whose hopes were all shattered, whose hearts were wellnigh broken, and whose future was all dark, because they believed that Jesus was dead. And Jesus was alive. The women were not to remain at the grave in solitary enjoyment of the gladness. They were to remember those people in the Upper Room for whom the announcement that Jesus was alive would change winter into spring. "Go your way," said the angel, "tell His disciples." Rapture was to give way to duty. Their good news was to be shared!

Good News to be Shared.

The good news about Christ is always to be shared. Here is the reason for all missionary and evangelistic work; the joy of salvation was never meant to be a selfish and solitary possession; it was meant to be diffused, spread abroad, shared. The news of God's love in Christ makes a difference. Wherever it goes, it makes a difference. It changes gloom to gladness, and fear to confidence and joy. And so long as there is in the wide world a solitary person sitting in doubt and fear, to whom the news about Christ would bring comfort and freedom and joy, we are bound to tell it to him. "Go thy way, tell!" that is the command still laid upon us. Life is not all rapture, it is service, ministry. It is not selfish enjoyment, it is a blessed sharing. The vision ends always in a duty. "We cannot at the shrine remain." When we have heard the good news about Christ, we must straightway, go our way and tell.

The Considerateness of the Lord.


—As at Cana.

But it is not for the light it throws upon the duty of the Christian disciple, but for the light it throws upon the risen Lord that I chiefly value this verse. The angel dispersed the fears that were beginning to arise in the hearts of the women when he gave them this message for it showed this, that despite the glory of His risen state, He was still the same Jesus. Notice, to begin with, the considerateness of Christ as illustrated in this message. That was one of His great characteristics when He was alive. He was so considerate, considerate I mean of the comfort and happiness of others. Take the marriage at Cana for illustration. Possibly, as some of the commentators suggest, it was the unexpected arrival of Jesus and His disciples that brought about the shortage of wine which threatened to bring the rejoicings to a premature conclusion. After all the addition of half-a-dozen unexpected guests is enough to upset the calculations of any housekeeper. But whether that be so or not, I am sure that when Jesus heard His mother whisper to Him, "They have no wine," He felt for the predicament in which the host and hostess found themselves. He knew the humiliation that would come upon them if their hospitality failed. And so without a word to any one as to what He was doing, He replenished the exhausted store with that water which His grace had converted into the wine of the finest vintage. None but the servants knew what had happened. The master of the feast did not know, the bride and bridegroom did not know, the assembled guests did not know. Our Lord had the fine instinct of the perfect gentleman. He spared the hosts the shame of a public announcement. He spared them even the anxiety of knowing that the supply ran short! It was all beautifully and exquisitely considerate!

—And with His Own.

Or think of His treatment of the disciples themselves when they came back after their first preaching tour. They were tired from their labours, they were excited with their success. "Come ye apart by yourselves and rest awhile," He said to them. He was beautifully considerate always of their needs and welfare. Or think of His behaviour on the Holy Mount. Peter wanted to stay. Jesus Himself led the way down. The fact was, His own glory and happiness always came second to the needs and wants of others. Up on the holy hill, I think He could in His soul hear the shrieks of the demented lad, and the vain appeals of the heartbroken father; and in pure and beautiful considerateness for human need He left the scene of His glory and hurried to their help. And this verse makes it plain that that trait in the Lord's character had no whit changed. His first thought on rising again was of His troubled disciples; His first message on rising was a message which was meant to dispel their sorrow. In a sense, you may say that the whole of the post-Resurrection appearances illustrate the considerateness of Jesus. When He rose again from the dead, Heaven was open to Him. But for forty days He lingered about the familiar scenes of His earthly ministry. The fact is there were humble friends of His who needed comfort and assurance. And not until He had clean dispelled their sorrow, and filled them with triumphant hope and gladness, did Jesus finally leave them to take possession of His glory. It was ever "others first" with Jesus. He was always delicately, beautifully considerate of the needs and wants of others. And the Resurrection had not changed Him in this respect. His first thought was of the sorrow and grief of His disciples. "Go your way," was His first command after His rising, "tell His disciples and Peter, He goeth before you into Galilee."

The Forgiving Love of the Lord.

Not only was He the same in His considerateness, but this message shows this too, that He was exactly the same in His love. In a sense this is implied in what I have already said, for considerateness is one of the beautiful fruits of love. It is only the loving soul that is a really considerate soul. It was because Jesus loved His disciples so well that He was eager at the first possible moment to relieve them of their sorrow and grief. But it is not love in the general sense of a kindly and affectionate feeling that I am thinking of just now, but love in the particular sense of love that stoops, and lavishes itself on the unworthy, and forgives unto seventy times seven. Now that was a great, if not the outstanding, characteristic of Jesus in the days of His flesh. It differentiated Him from every other teacher of His time. He had a love which reached out to those who had gone farthest astray, and stooped to those who had fallen into the deepest depths. Enemies made it indeed the foundation of a slander. They called Him "the friend of publicans and sinners." They said that He found His proper company amongst the outcasts and moral derelicts of Palestine. But the slander has long since lost its sting and been converted into a glory. That is Christ's crowning grace, He was the mighty Lover of Souls. He loved not only kind and lovable people like Martha and Mary and Lazarus, but He loved a cheating publican like Zacchaeus, He loved the woman who was a sinner, He loved the dying thief. It was a love from whose blessings not even the vilest and the worst was outcast. And that was what drew the hearts of the sinful and the fallen with such passionate devotion to Christ. "The publicans and sinners drew near unto Him for to hear Him." The people of whom every one else despaired turned with eager and thankful hope to Jesus. He had a Gospel for them. He loved them out of their sin and despair into newness of life.

—A Continuous Love.

But it was one thing for the Nazarene to be the "friend of publicans and sinners," it was quite another for the exalted and glorified Son of God. Did the chilling doubt invade the souls of these women as to whether His love had survived the mighty change? Did Mary Magdalene wonder whether the Mighty Prince and Saviour would give her a place in His heart? In the days of His flesh, He had stooped to her help when she was a poor demented, derelict, unclean woman; He had cast seven devils out of her; but would the risen Lord give a thought to such a poor and humble creature? Well, again, if such fears did arise, they were dispelled by the angel's message. "Go, tell His disciples and Peter." It was the special mention of Peter that removed all doubt. It was the special singling out of Peter that made them sure there was no difference in the love. It was as if Jesus said, "I want them all to come, but specially I want Peter to come." And I look back in my Gospel, and the last notice of Peter which I come across is this. "But he began to curse and to swear, I know not this man of whom ye speak." I put the two verses side by side. "But he began to curse and to swear, I know not the man." "Go, tell His disciples and Peter, He goeth before you into Galilee," and one thing becomes abundantly plain to me, and that is this, death has made no difference to the lavish, stooping love of Christ. After the Resurrection as before, it was a love that forgave until seventy times seven.

The Restoration of Peter.

It is a significant fact that it is only Mark who records the special invitation to the fallen Apostle. Now Mark was, as we know, Peter's "interpreter." He got his account of the Gospel story mainly from the Apostle's own lips. When the Gospels came to be written, Matthew had forgotten about this special mention of Peter, Luke's informants had forgotten it, indeed the Christian people as a whole had forgotten it; but Peter himself had never forgotten it. It was the turning point in his life. But for that special word "and Peter" he might have made his bed in hell. For I will believe, that the wide world contained no more unhappy man than Simon Peter during the two days that intervened between his shameful denial in the judgment hall, and the receipt of this special invitation, unless indeed it might be Judas Iscariot who had betrayed innocent blood, and who found his misery so intolerable that he went out and hanged himself. But the special invitation was like the bursting of the sun into Peter's tempest-darkened sky; it scattered his despair. It was his Lord's assurance to him that he still had a place in His heart, that his great and terrible sin had made no difference to the strength and tenderness of his Lord's love. I say this special invitation was the beginning of Peter's restoration. But its permanent significance, and its gracious assurance to you and me is this, that Resurrection has made no difference to the love of Christ. The love of the Lord is a love that survives in spite of sin. "Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it," says the old Book. And we may adapt that and say, "Many sins cannot quench love, neither can our iniquities drown it." The love of the Lord is a love that persists and endures and holds on. The love that gave an invitation to the blasphemer, invites and welcomes the world. There is not one outcast from it. He can save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him.

"This Same Jesus."


—And the Meeting-place.

"He goeth before you into Galilee," said the angel, "there shall ye see Him, as He said unto you." And this again only gives further evidence that He was still the same Jesus. For why was Galilee appointed the meeting-place? Surely to make the disciples feel that between them and their Lord there could be the old feelings of happy friendship and fellowship. I do not think that it was in our Lord's plan to appear in Jerusalem at all. If the disciples had really believed His words, and had a simple faith in Him, immediately the Crucifixion was over they would have hurried Northwards and waited there for the reappearing of their Lord. It was fear and faithlessness that chained them to Jerusalem and constrained our Lord to show Himself first to them there. But Jerusalem was a place of bitter memories and painful associations. There was everything in Jerusalem to fill the disciples with shame and humiliation. It was in Jerusalem Peter had denied Him, it was in Jerusalem they had all forsaken Him and fled. The memories of Jerusalem would impose restraints and constraints upon their fellowship. But no bitter memories attached to Galilee. That was the place of their first enthusiasm, of the rapture of their early devotion. That was the place where their companionship with Jesus had been free and happy, and altogether beautiful. And it was there Jesus would meet with them. It was like telling them that He had no place in His memory for treachery and wrong and desertion. It was inviting them to resume the old and happy relationship of their first love.

"Unwearied in forgiveness still,

His heart could only love."

The same Jesus! And what a Jesus! The hope of the world lies here, that Jesus has not changed. He is the same seeking and compassionate Lord! There is a length and breadth and height and depth in His mighty love which passeth knowledge.

Chapter28.
Love and Vision

"Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week, He appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom He had cast seven devils. And she went and told them that had been with Him, as they mourned and wept. And they, when they had heard that He was alive, and had been seen of her, believed not."— Mark 16:9-11.

The Last Twelve Verses.

In a commentary of this character it is not necessary for one to go into the critical questions connected with the last twelve verses of the Gospel according to St Mark. The R.V, as you know, makes a break, and interposes a space between Mark 16:8 and Mark 16:9. It explains in the following note the reason why it detaches this concluding paragraph from the main body of the Gospel:—"The two oldest Greek manuscripts and some other authorities omit from Mark 16:9 to the end. Some other authorities have a different ending to the Gospel." For our present purpose it will suffice to say that, by whomsoever they were written, these verses were attached to the Gospel from its very earliest days. In the second century they were already recognised as part of the Gospel; and even if they are not Mark's own workmanship they do not on that account lose their authority and force. We may confidently accept the passage as an "exceedingly ancient and authentic record of the words and deeds narrated in it." The paragraph itself gives a kind of synopsis of Christ's post-Resurrection appearances. It would have been a truncated and woefully imperfect Gospel if it had ended simply with the vision of the empty grave, and the angelic announcement that Jesus was alive. To complete the story it was necessary to add, not simply that some of the women had seen angels, but that this one and the other, now singly and now in companies, had seen the risen Lord Himself, and that ultimately the victory of the Resurrection had been crowned by the triumph of His ascension into glory. And that is exactly what we get in these concluding verses.

The First Appearance of the Risen Lord.

First of all, notice that though our paragraph does not follow naturally and easily upon what has gone before, it does mark an advance in the story. The first eight verses of the chapter tell us of the empty tomb and the announcement of the Resurrection; these verses tell us of the actual appearances of Christ to His disciples. The first of His disciples to whom He appeared was Mary Magdalene. But once again, we are compelled to confess that it is not easy to form a clear and definite judgment as to the sequence of events on the Resurrection morning. Apparently it was something like this. Very early in the morning, while it was yet dark, the holy women came with their spices to the tomb, found the grave empty and heard the angelic announcement. Then, as is stated in Mark 16:8, they fled from the tomb, ran back to where the other disciples were gathered, and stammered out their startling news. Whereupon Peter and John ran to the tomb and found for themselves that the women's report about the grave at any rate was quite true. Peter and John had been followed by Mary Magdalene. And when they went away again, she lingered near the tomb, rooted to the spot by love and sorrow. And it was to this weeping, loving woman that Christ first revealed Himself. "He appeared first to Mary Magdalene out of whom He had cast seven devils."

—Not as Man would have chosen.

Now this is not the kind of first appearance that we might have expected. The appropriate thing we might have thought would have been such an appearance as would have confounded all His foes and put them to an open shame. If we had had the arranging of Christ's Resurrection appearances, we should, as Dr Glover says, have waked all Jerusalem with a blast of the angelic trumpet, and have bidden the people, who had shouted "Crucify Him," come and look at His empty grave. Or we should have confronted Pilate and the priests and elders who had sentenced Him to death with a vision of the glorious, majestic Lord. An appearance that would have been striking, dramatic, and that should overwhelm His foes with confusion—that is the kind of first appearance we should have arranged for Him. Instead of that He appeared first to Mary Magdalene from whom He had cast out seven devils. It was to this humble (and as far as the great world outside was concerned, unknown) woman that Christ first showed Himself alive after His passion.

—But after our Lord's Manner.

All this is quite typical of our Lord's actions. He consistently set aside the temptation to startle men into some sort of faith in Him by spectacular displays of power. That is the real meaning of Christ's rejection of the devil's suggestion that He should cast Himself down from the pinnacle of the Temple, and by such a display of power practically compel the people to accept Him as divine. That is why He flatly declined to give the people a sign from heaven though they repeatedly asked for it. It was faith that Christ wanted. And a compulsory belief is not faith. There is a moral element in faith. A man has to choose; he has to give his vote. But if Christ had overwhelmed men's minds with tremendous displays of power there would be no room for choice. Men would simply be constrained to believe; in which case, again, belief would be absolutely no test of character. If there is to be a real faith, it seems as if there must be room left for doubt. Men must have an option; they must be able to believe or disbelieve. So the Lord was quiet, and unostentatious, in His working. The kingdom of God, as personified in His risen self, did not come with observation.

Why Mary was chosen.

But, while Mary was not the person we should have chosen to be the happy recipient of the first revelation of the risen Lord, yet when we think a little more deeply, and look at things a little more closely, we shall see that of all people she was the most fitted to receive the first revelation. For there is always a question of fitness in this matter of seeing Christ. It is not to every one He reveals Himself. "Thus saith the Lord, to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and that trembleth at My word" ( Isaiah 66:2). There must be a certain moral preparedness if the Lord is to show Himself. The pure in heart shall see God, but the evil-hearted would not recognise God even if they saw Him.

—A Woman now of Faith and Love.

I notice two things about Mary, which are suggested even by the bare narrative of my text. She was a woman of persevering faith; and she was a woman of a loving heart. First of all, she was a woman of persevering faith. She had run with the other women to bring the disciples word of the empty grave and the vision of angels. But she did then what the other women apparently did not do, she returned in the wake of Peter and John to the grave. And when Peter and John had finished examining the grave, and had gone back again home, Mary still lingered in the Garden. Now why did she linger there? Possibly, as some commentators suggest, because, after her own experience of the Lord's redeeming power, she had a mightier faith in His divinity than the rest of His disciples. "She was more capable of a belief in Christ's Resurrection than even John was," says Dr Glover. That may be so. But without dogmatising on that point, one thing I know, that after Peter and John had gone home because they felt there was nothing more to be heard or seen, Mary lingered on. Perhaps it was only gratitude and love that rooted her to the spot; but anyhow she lingered on. And to this woman who lingered on, there was given first a vision of angels, and then the sight of the risen Lord Himself. All of which suggests that it is the people who hold on and persevere and endure who get the blessing. Peter and John gave up too soon. They concluded too soon there was nothing to be gained by remaining at the grave. But the woman who lingered on saw the Lord. Do you not think we often give up too soon? In the matter of prayer, for example? Are we not all too ready to say, "The heavens are as brass, there is nothing"? It is the lingerers, the people who hold on, the people who endure, who get the blessing. That is what we want in these days, "Courage to wait and watch and weep, though mercy long delay." Persevering faith is in the long run always rewarded faith. If we hold on, and do not grow faint or weary, our eyes too will be gladdened with the vision of the Lord. The first appearance to Mary implies the reward of persevering faith.

Love and Vision.


The Insight of Love.

And in the second place, it was the reward of a devoted and whole-hearted love. That little touch "from whom He had cast out seven devils" explains much. It explains why Mary was foremost in the work of preparing spices; it explains why she was very early at the grave; it explains why, when the other women remained in the Upper Room, she returned to the Garden; it explains why, when Peter and John went back again home, she still lingered near the grave. The other women and Peter and John and the rest of the disciples, loved the Lord. But perhaps none loved Him as Mary did. For none had received such unspeakable blessings at His hand as she had done. She had been lifted up out of the pit of degradation and shame and despair. "To whom much is forgiven," said Jesus, "the same loveth much," and we can vary it and say, "to whom mighty blessings are given, the same loveth much." And Mary had received mighty blessings at the hand of Christ, and so she loved him best. Those are the people who see Christ still—the people who love Him best and long for Him most. People say that love is blind. They never made a greater mistake. Love is vision, love is sight. There are no eyes so keen as a mother's eyes. How is it that mothers are able to detect things about their children—signs of illness or mental distress, for example—which had passed quite unnoticed by ordinary folk? It is simply because of the insight of love. "While he was yet a long way off, his father saw him." No one else saw him; the elder brother with his narrow and jealous spirit did not see him. But his father saw him. Love caught sight of him. And it is love that sees the Lord; not intellect, not cleverness, but love. That is Christ's own promise. "If any man love Me, I will come unto him and will manifest Myself to him." And perhaps that is our greatest need today. More even than faith we need love; more even than the illumined mind, we need the devoted heart. We are living in dull days; there is no open vision. "Return, O Lord, how long?" we cry. But the fault is not in Him, but in ourselves. Our love is so cold and poor. We have no sense of the debt we owe to Him. If only our hearts got warmed, this sentence would have to be written of us, "Then were the disciples glad because they saw the Lord."

Chapter30.
The Disciples" Unbelief

"And they, when they had heard that He was alive, and had been seen of her, believed not. And they went and told it unto the residue: neither believed they them. Afterward He appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat, and upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not them which had seen Him after He was risen."— Mark 16:11, Mark 16:13, Mark 16:14.

The Great News—

—Discredited and Denied.

—Doubted.

There were only two things at which Christ in the days of His flesh expressed astonishment—the faith of the Roman centurion and the unbelief of the Nazarenes. But of His own people after the Resurrection we read in Mark 16:14 that "He upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart." And I am sure it filled the heart of the writer of this paragraph with wonder too. Notice how he recurs to it again and again. He cannot get it out of his mind. Next to the wonder of the Resurrection itself, the most wonderful thing was the stubborn and persistent refusal of the disciples to believe it had really occurred. Follow the story as he summarises it. The first to bring the disciples the good news was Mary Magdalene. She came upon them as they mourned and wept with the gladdening announcement that she had not only seen the Lord, but had spoken with Him, and was the bearer of a message from Him to them. And instead of receiving the news with joy, the disciples chilled Mary to the marrow by the blank incredulity with which they listened to her. Notice what the evangelist says. "They, when they heard that He was alive, and had been seen of her, disbelieved." They disbelieved. It was not simply that they could not persuade themselves that what Mary said was true, they scornfully and contemptuously rejected her story. It was a case of positive and summary repudiation. They said that Mary's story was an idle tale. There was something almost aggressive in their attitude. It was not doubt; it was denial. Then later in the day, came the incident of the two disciples who had set out to Emmaus, but who had immediately returned to Jerusalem when they had discovered Who their wonderful Companion was. And once again instead of breaking into Thanksgivings and Hallelujahs, the disciples received the news in chilling silence. "They went away and told it unto the rest: neither believed they them." "Neither believed they them." The expression, you will notice, is not so emphatic as that which is used in Mary's case. Here it Romans 1:4). They ought to have known that death and corruption could never be the portion of One Who was without spot or stain of sin. And they would have known, had it not been that their hearts were hardened.

—And of His Works.

In addition to the wonder of our Lord's person, there were the wonders of His deeds. These very disciples had seen the most amazing evidences of His power. They had seen His power over disease. He had given sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, cleansing to the leper, power to the paralysed. He had even shown Himself to be Lord over death, itself. He had summoned back the breath of the little daughter of Jairus the Ruler of the Synagogue. He had stopped a funeral procession outside the gates of Nain and restored the young Mark 16:12, Mark 16:13.

In the previous chapter I said that this concluding paragraph gives a kind of synopsis of our Lord's post-Resurrection appearances.

The Appearance to the Two Disciples.

We have an illustration of what I meant in these two verses. The appearance to the two disciples as they walked on their way into the country is no doubt the appearance to the two disciples on the way to Emmaus. As Luke tells it for us it is one of the most exquisite of the Resurrection stories. How Cleopas and his unknown friend set out on that eight mile walk to Emmaus; how a stranger joined them and entered into conversation with them; how He gave them the most moving and delightful Bible lesson they had ever received in their lives, proving to them that far from making Messiahship impossible, suffering and sacrifice were its very badge and sign: how in the interest of the conversation Emmaus was reached before they were aware; how the stranger whose talk had so fascinated and warmed their hearts made as though He would go further; how the two disciples, eager to hear more of His wonderful speech, pressed Him to stay with them; how He had sat down with them at their simple meal; and how at length He was known to them in the breaking of bread, and they recognised that the marvellous stranger was none other than their beloved Lord Himself, come to life again. How all this happened Luke tells us in one of those passages to which we continually turn, finding in it a spring of inexhaustible instruction and delight. But here the story is compressed into two verses, giving us the bare fact, that Christ did so appear unto two disciples as they walked into the country. And yet even in this brief statement there are one or two arresting things, that open up great avenues for thought and speculation.

"Another Form," but the same Lord.

His Compassion.

I have been struck and arrested by that phrase "in another form," "in a different form," "altered in appearance." For the phrase calls attention to one characteristic of our risen Lord. His Resurrection had made a difference to Him; He was altered in "appearance." But He had not altered a bit in spirit. His love had not altered. His exaltation did not make Him distant with His friends. This is obvious from what we are told of what He said and did after His Passion. He never could look upon distressed and sorrowing people in His days of His flesh without wishing to help them. 1 Corinthians 15:42-44).

Christ Revealing Himself to Many.

But the phrase "in another form," suggests what appears to me to be an abiding feature in the ministry of Christ. Is He not continually appearing to men in "another form"? The old Greeks had a legend about an old man of the sea called Proteus, that he had the power of appearing in many shapes and disguises. People used to wish to consult him because he was supposed to have the power of prophecy. But now Proteus would appear as a fish, and now as a horse, and so on. Those who did not know his secret were apt to miss him; but those who held on to him, no matter the guise he assumed, were always rewarded, for to them Proteus would reveal himself in his true shape, and tell them what they wanted to know. That is simply legend; but, in what the Greeks used to say of the fabled Proteus, there is a suggestion of what really occurs in the case of our Lord. He comes to men in different forms. Ho does not walk the earth today in visible presence. But nevertheless He has not left it. He is with us always to the end of the world.

—In Many Ways.

He comes to us today in the person of His Spirit. The Spirit pleads with men today, by the voice of conscience, by the influence of holy parents, by the words of this old Book, by the appeals of the Christian preacher. And when conscience is thus stirred, and the heart is thus touched, Christ has come to our house as surely as He went to Zaccheus" long ago; He is calling us just as clearly as He called Matthew from his toll-booth. Looked at from another point of view, He comes to us in the varied experiences of life. He comes to us sometimes in the shape of a great joy. And He comes to us, sometimes, perhaps oftener, in the shape of a great sorrow. He comes to us, again, in the persons of His people. "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me"? Saul had been haling humble men and women and casting them into prison. And all unthinking he had been doing over again what the priests and the soldiers had done to Jesus. He had been persecuting Him, scourging Him, crucifying Him afresh. "I am Jesus Whom thou persecutest," said the voice to him. Jesus was on the earth, still in the person of His persecuted and suffering people. He comes in the shape of that lonely person who needs friendship, or that bereaved person who needs comfort; He comes in the shape of the sick who need healing, and the weak who need help, and the hungry who cry for bread. That is the "different form" in which Christ presents Himself to men and women today. Let us beware of missing Him.

—Not in the same Form to All.

Does not the phrase also suggest this, that different ages and different people may view Christ rather differently? There is no one definite, stereotyped, unalterable conception of Christ. You cannot find it even in the New Testament. You know how varied and different are the faces of Christ which the artists put on their canvases. There are no two pictures of Christ the same. The fact is each artist depicts his own Christ, the Christ of his own imagination and affection, the Christ as He appears to him. And He appears to no two in exactly the same form. The difference in the artistic representation of Christ is but symbolic of the difference in men's thoughts about Him. There are differences, as I have already said, even in the New Testament pictures of Him. Peter's Christ, and John's Christ, and Paul's Christ, they are all at bottom the same Christ, the Christ Who loved men's souls, and died for their sins, and rose again in triumph on the third day. But in each Apostolic picture there is a difference in the point of view. He appears to James perhaps mainly as the Lord of Conduct, and to John as the Illumination of the Soul, and to Paul as the mighty Saviour from Sin. I do not think we ought to expect all men to construe the person of Christ in exactly the same way. Augustine after a life of sensuality and sin will think of Christ in one way; the great Greek father Origen will think of Him in another; a man who has been rescued from lowest depths of vice will emphasise Christ's redeeming love; a man like Emerson who kept through life an almost stainless soul, will think of Him mainly as the revelation of God's love and life. But it is the "same Jesus." Just because He is so rich and full, He appears to the infinite varieties of men in different forms, according to their several needs, and is able to satisfy the wants of all.

And as it has been with individuals, so is it with the ages. Every age needs a new Christ, and finds a new Christ. As the years pass, men grow in knowledge. And as they grow in knowledge, old intellectual statements become obsolete and impossible. And so we must expect views of Christ to alter. They have altered, but we need have no fear that Christ is going to be superseded or discarded. There is such infinite fulness in Him that every age finds its satisfaction in Him. He appears to every new age, as it is born, "in another form."

But still the same Jesus.

And yet the same Jesus. Amid the almost infinite changes, essentially the same. We have advanced far since Augustine's or Luther's or John Wesley's days. But still to us, as to them, He is the Revelation of God, our Redeemer from Sin. The divine sacrificial love of Christ, that is the central and essential thing. And that abides. It is not "another form" of Jesus we get if the Cross is neglected. It is another Jesus Who is not another. "And He showed them His hands and His side," that is how the disciples knew Jesus. "Show me the nail-print," said an old saint in the cell to a being who pretended to be the Christ. It is the infallible sign. There may be changes in men's views of Christ, changes that sometimes perplex us, but if it is the Christ with the nail-prints in His hands we see, we can be content. "It is the Lord."

Chapter31.
The Great Commission

"And He said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature."— Mark 16:15.

The Commission: When Given.

I do not think that Christ uttered these words and laid this commission upon His disciples on the occasion of His first visit to them on the evening of Resurrection Day. It is true the verse follows immediately upon the verse which tells us of that particular appearance. But then these nine verses do not profess to be detailed history. As much as that can be inferred from the bare fact that the nine verses are made to cover ground that occupies whole chapters in the other evangels. The writer has compressed and welded a good many things together without strict regard to chronological order. He has picked out of the happenings of the forty days just enough to make it plain that Jesus had really risen, and that the missionary activity of the Church in the days in which he was writing was the result of the specific direction and plain command of the Lord Himself. So we must not conclude that, because the writer seems to attach the "Great Commission" to the first appearance, therefore it was given on that occasion. I do not think it was. I should argue for my view in the first place on general grounds.

—Not Immediately.

The disciples on that first evening were not prepared to receive a command like this. They were not in a fit spiritual condition to think of missionary work. On that first evening the disciples needed to have their own faith quickened. "He upbraided them," I read above, "with their unbelief and hardness of heart." It would have been of no use giving a command like this to unbelieving or halfhearted men. Before these humble men would venture out to preach to all the world, they themselves would have to be possessed of a triumphant and enthusiastic faith. And it was to the quickening of faith in the disciples themselves that Christ devoted Himself on the first Easter evening. "He showed them His hands and His side." "Handle Me," He said, "and see that it is I Myself." And in addition he tried to bring home to them the realisation of their power. He breathed on them and said, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost." Further than that our Lord did not go on that first Easter evening. His whole concern that night was with the disciples themselves. His one desire was to quicken faith in His own Resurrection, and as a result to beget within them a sense of power.

—But to Men Prepared.

It was later, when doubt had clean gone, and an enthusiastic faith and the courage born of it had taken its place, that our Lord spoke the great words of my text. It was to men convinced that Jesus was the Son of God, because of the Resurrection from the dead, and ready therefore to dare anything for Him, that Christ said, "Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to the whole creation." When He said it, we are not told, but probably towards the end of His earthly sojourn. They would scarcely have been prepared to hear it sooner, for these disciples had much to learn before they were ready even to understand a command like this. There is a suggestive verse in the opening chapter of the Acts of the Apostles which is not without its bearing on this. Luke is summing up the events and conversations of the forty days, and says: "He shewed Himself alive after His passion by many proofs, appearing unto them by the space of forty days, and speaking the things concerning the Kingdom of God." It is that last phrase which is the important and significant one. The recurring theme of conversation between the risen Master and His disciples was the Kingdom of God, the topic upon which they most needed instruction and guidance. For while they were chosen as the men through whom the Kingdom was to be established, they were in the meantime themselves ignorant of the true nature of the Kingdom. Nothing is more striking than the disciples" perverse misunderstanding of the nature of the Kingdom which Christ had come to found. They were so entirely possessed by their Jewish prejudices that the true view of Christ's Kingdom never really got a lodging in their minds.

—In Understanding of His Kingdom.

For example, take these three points. First of all, their conception of a Kingdom was that of a temporal Kingdom. Messiah's Empire, as they thought of it, was a kind of counterpart of Caesar"s. In the second place, they thought this Kingdom was to be established by worldly weapons. They wanted to call down fire from heaven. They wanted to smite with the sword. Their idea was that nations were to be conquered by the sword, and so vast tracts were to be added to the Kingdom at a single stroke. And thirdly, their idea of the Kingdom was not universal but national. The Kingdom they thought of was a Jewish Kingdom. It represented the triumph of the Jew. And only the Jew and those who became Jews had part or lot in it. Now on each of these three points Christ's Kingdom was diametrically opposed to their thoughts of it. The Kingdom of God which He had come to establish was a spiritual Kingdom; it was no earthly empire, it was the reign of God in the souls of men; it was to be established not by force but by love, and all men were to find a place in it, Jew and Gentile on equal terms.

The Command and the Message.


—A Message of Glad Tidings.

Notice the nature of the messages to be given: "Go ye into all the world," He said, "and preach the Gospel to the whole creation." What was this Gospel which they were to preach? It was the news about Himself; the story of His life and death and Resurrection. It is implied that in some way His life and death and Resurrection affected the whole world of men. The tragedy and triumph both took place in Jerusalem. But though they took place in Jerusalem, it was not Jerusalem and Palestine only that were concerned. What happened in Jerusalem in those days, had what the theologians call "a cosmic significance." Distant lands were concerned, peoples and tribes that had never heard of Jesus were concerned; generations yet unborn were concerned. What happened to Him was of infinite moment to the universe. "Go," He said, "and preach this Gospel of My dying and rising again—go into all the Kosmos and preach it to the whole creation." Nor was it only that what happened to Him concerned the world, it is also implied that it would be good news to the world. It was an evangel they had to preach. The world's happiness and hope were bound up with the knowledge of what had happened to Him. In some wonderful way the story of His living, dying, and rising again would bring light and joy and comfort and peace to the manifold peoples of the earth.

The Witness of the Message.

Now if Christ said this, it demolishes the theory of those who tell us that all the emphasis laid on the person of Christ, and the mighty place assigned to Him, is the result of a process of idealisation and deification that set in after His death. For you cannot reduce the person of Christ to the dimensions of a simple, lowly Galilean teacher without tearing the Gospels to rags and tatters. The impoverished Christ of Mark 16:16-18.

The Place of Baptism.

Here, no doubt, is a resum of the last command and commission given by Christ to His disciples. Two subjects emerge: belief and baptism. In a work of this character, I avoid here all points of contention as to the rite of baptism, and deal only with some of its main aspects. For His Church the rite of baptism is a rite of our Lord's own institution. But it was not a rite He was the first to use. It had long been familiar to the Jews, and submission to baptism was one of the demands John made of all who repented of their sins. And now, in His great commission, Christ told His disciples to baptise all those who believed through their word. The rite of baptism was to be the outward badge and sign of their discipleship. It was beautifully fitted to be the symbol of the great change, for it typified that cleansing of the entire nature which only God could impart. It was the outward sign of an inward grace; the visible expression of the cleansing by the Spirit of God of the very springs of a man's being. And to this rite men who believed the Word were requested to submit as an open confession of their faith and new allegiance.

Saving Belief.

I now ask your attention to the great antithesis of this text, "He that believeth shall be saved; he that disbelieveth shall be condemned." This is one of the most tremendous statements in the Bible. And as salvation and condemnation are in the issue, it is vital we should know exactly what the statement means. Let me take the first limb of the antithesis to begin with. "He that believeth shall be saved." Now the first question that suggests itself is this, what exactly are we to understand by believing? And whom or what are we to believe? It is obvious that what we are to believe is the Gospel referred to in the previous verse. And that Gospel centres in the proclamation of Jesus living, dying, rising again. It is in that living, dying, risen Lord that we are to believe.

—Its Nature.

By believing is meant not a mere intellectual assent to facts. We believe that two and two make four. We believe that over a hundred years ago the battle of Waterloo was fought. We believe that in the year1832 a great Reform Bill was passed. We believe that there have been such men in existence as Simon de Montfort and Oliver Cromwell, and that they played a great part in our English life in their day. And so we may believe that nineteen hundred years ago there lived in Palestine a Mark 16:19.

A New Title.

The Lord Jesus! Here in St Mark is a new appellation for the Master. Its occurrence here does not mean that something had happened which had "ennobled" Christ; but that something had happened which enabled the disciples to see the glory that had been His all along. That something was the Resurrection. That had opened the eyes of the disciples to the real glory of their Master; the empty grave told them Who He really was; and recognition of the Master's dignity finds expression in the new title. There is a new note of reverence and worship in their reference to Him. He was "Jesus" simply before the Cross; He was "the Lord Jesus" after the empty grave. It was not a human Jesus the early Christians preached to the world, but an exalted Lord. There never would have been a Christian Church if there had been only a human Jesus to talk of. The early disciples went everywhere because they were absolutely sure of this, that the Jesus they had companied with was the exalted Lord. So when people say, Let us get back to the plain, simple, human Jesus of the early days, I say that is not getting back to Him at all, that is getting away from Him. The Jesus of the early days and the first disciples was not a plain, simple, human Jesus, He was "the Lord Jesus." We are true to the primitive faith, to the belief of the men who saw Christ and companied with Him, only when we acknowledge His unique and solitary majesty.

The Fact of the Ascension.

Now in these concluding verses the writer seems to be rounding off his Gospel; and Mark 16:20.

The Afterwards.

The Gospel story, so far as the evangelist is concerned, really ended with the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. But he adds these two sentences to let us know what happened to the Lord and to His disciples afterwards. What happened to the Lord was this, "He was received up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God." What happened to the disciples was this, "They went forth and preached everywhere." But while the two sentences thus tell us the "afterwards" of our Lord and His disciples, we must not conceive of them as independent statements. They are rather two limbs of our statement. The one stands over against and balances the other. If we are to bring out the full force of the original we should have to render it something like this:—"So then the Lord Jesus, on His part, was received up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God, and the disciples, on their part, went forth and preached everywhere." The one action balances the other, follows upon the other, is the consequence and result of the other. It is a case of action and reaction. It was because Jesus was received up into heaven that the disciples went everywhere. It was the exaltation of the Lord that kindled the missionary fervour of the disciples. As Dr Glover says, these two concluding verses tell the story of two ascensions, first the ascension of the Lord to glory, and then the ascension of the Church out of its gloom and sorrow and doubt and despair into courage and hope and triumphant zeal. And the one ascension was the consequence and result of the other. There would have been no Missionary Church, there would have been no Church at all, had it not been for this assurance in the hearts of Christian men and women, that "their Jesus had gone up on high."

The Exalted Christ and the Gospel.

Can we see why the one ascension should have issued in the other? Can we see why the fact that Jesus should have been received up into heaven inspired the disciples to go forth and preach everywhere? I think we can. I am going to suggest two reasons. First of all, it was the fact of the exaltation of Christ that gave them a Gospel to preach. I mean this, the Christ these men preached was the glorious and only Son of the Most High God. It was because He was the glorious and only Son of the Most High God, that they felt it worth their while to go everywhere and preach about Him. And it was the Resurrection and the Ascension (for the one was simply the completion of the other) which put Christ's glory and divinity beyond dispute. So that in a very deep and real sense it was the Resurrection and Ascension that gave them their Gospel to preach. We may be quite sure that, had our Lord's life ended in Joseph's rocky grave, the disciples would never have "gone forth everywhere and preached." They would have stolen away back to their Galilean homes and tried in absorption in work to forget the shattering of all their hopes in the Cross. But the Resurrection and Ascension made them quite sure their Master was the Son of God. It was in the light of the Resurrection and Ascension that they saw Jesus had a "cosmic significance." It was the exaltation of Jesus which gave them a Gospel which not only they could preach to the world, but which they felt they must preach to the world. It was the fact that Jesus was set down at the right hand of God that sent them forth everywhere.

The Apostolic Theme.

For does any one imagine that these men would have gone everywhere preaching, and suffering untold things in the process, if they had only a good and brave man to speak about? The Greeks had, from their own point of view, a great and good man in Socrates, but I never heard of the Greeks going everywhere to preach Socrates. Does any one imagine—if Jesus had been only a kind of Jewish Socrates—that these disciples would have gone everywhere? The mere asking of such questions demonstrates the absurdity of the assertion that if we could only get far back enough we should find just Jesus the good Man. It was not Jesus the good Man these Apostles travelled far and wide to preach, but Jesus the mighty Son of God. They travelled far and wide to preach Him because it was of vital importance everybody should know of Him, because men's redemption and eternal life depended on Him, because in Him God Himself had come down for the rescue of the world. That is why Paul travelled all the way from Antioch to Rome, because "there was no condemnation for men in Christ Jesus." That was why Peter toiled and dared and suffered because "there was no other name given under heaven amongst men wherein they must be saved." At the back of this missionary zeal of theirs was this mighty Gospel of theirs that Jesus was the only begotten Son of God, demonstrated as such by this fact, that He had been received up into heaven and had sat down at the right hand of God.

—The World's Hope To-day.

There is no Gospel for the world in any faith less than that. If Jesus was the divine Mark 16:17 and Mark 16:18. The world was not able to dismiss the Gospel the Christian preachers brought with a shrug of the shoulders, because of the signs that were wrought by their hands. Men felt that the mighty power of God was working through them, and that these mighty works were God's testimony that the words which they spoke were true. They were the divine seal to the message. The Lord confirmed the word by the signs that followed. But we need not, and indeed we ought not, to confine these signs to such wonders as the raising of Dorcas to life by Peter, or the healing of the lame man at Lystra by Paul, or the deliverance of the demented girl in Philippi by the same great Apostle. The conversion of evil men was a still more notable sign and that sign was continually following the word. Take what happened in Corinth as an example. Corinth was in some respects the most notorious city of the ancient world. Vice there was exalted not simply into a fashion but into a religion. These were the kind of people Paul found in Corinth, "drunkards, adulterers, fornicators, revilers, effeminate and such like." But the great miracle happened, "Ye were washed, ye were justified, ye were sanctified in the name of the Lord Jesus and in the Spirit of our God." And that was the mightiest sign that followed the word. That was what demonstrated its divinity and truth. That was what impressed the world to which it was preached. By it bad men were made good; foul men were made clean; drunken men were made sober, hard men were made kind. By it men entered into possession of the eternal life. And it was that that impressed the world. "The Lord confirmed the Word by the signs that followed."

—And still Follow.

And these signs still follow. We are still privileged to behold confirmation of the Word in the transformation of human lives. We see the miracle here at home; the missionaries are privileged to see it abroad. Wherever the Gospel is preached it produces the same amazing transfiguration of human life. There are a multitude around the throne of all tribes and nations and peoples and tongues who have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. They are the signs that confirm the Word. There may be many things about the doctrines of our faith that puzzles us, but this thing we know, the preaching of Christ and Him crucified, changes, converts, transforms, transfigures men. It accomplishes this miracle where everything else has failed. What further need have we of witness? The best evidence of the truth of Christianity is that it is a converting religion. There is in our Christ cleansing, healing, saving power. Let us go forth and preach Him everywhere! He will work with us and confirm the Word by the signs which follow.