In Mark it is service and responsibility, and the order of the words points to the reward of faithfulness in service. Not only the more prominent, but each one, however humble, has a “candle” from the Lord, and is responsible not to hide it under a bushel. This is the service of all, and where is fidelity there is increase. “To him that hath shall be given.” If the first fruit-bearing be only thirty-fold, the faithful servant will be led on by the Spirit to bear a hundred-fold. In Luke it is neither dispensation nor responsibility in service, but sovereign grace, and in the parable of the Sower the natural result of grace is given. For when it is unhindered it always produces a hundred-fold. If all were constantly true to the grace of God, not one would fail of a full result. There is sufficiency of grace for it. The God of grace delights to look on the brightest side, and looks here at the full effect of what He has bestowed. No mention in Luke of failure, either in a greater or less degree; there is a hundred-fold. Not that responsibility is ignored; God's free giving does not set that aside. And therefore the symbol of a candle is added here. But in Mark it is the challenge to responsibility: “Is a candle brought to be hidden?” “Take heed what ye hear; with what measure ye mete it shall be measured to you.” In Luke it is the assertion in view of grace, that no man when he hath lighted a candle covereth it with a vessel. That is, the grace of God unhindered in its action upon the soul meets the saint in his responsibility, supplies all his need, and produces a hundred-fold. Grace makes him take heed “how” he hears; in Mark, “what” he hears; it is God's word, he must own its full authority. But “how” refers to the manner of hearing; in self-abasement recognizing God's grace, in the consciousness of absolute unworthiness, yet in faith.
But Mark speaks of the “mystery of the kingdom of God.” The mysteries of the kingdom of heaven show the various outward forms of evil which, taking occasion through a dispensation of grace, men manifest. The “mystery of the kingdom of God” is, if possible, a more solemn thing, as showing the moral condition of souls. It looks at the effects of God's truth upon the inner man; the truth believed as a doctrine but not received in the heart, holding the truth in unrighteousness, acknowledging after a sort its authority but not obedient to it, loving the world and the things of the world. The love of money (i.e., the world in a portable form) is a root of all evil. And this evil, which has its seat in the heart, is looked at in its unity, as is the good which is put as the Lord's work. It is the mystery—not mysteries—of the kingdom of God. The outward wickedness which the “mysteries” reveal is the result of that root, evil pointed to by the “mystery of the kingdom of God.”
For this reason, I cannot but judge, the tare-field is not given in Mark. The tare-field is history—the source, introduction, progress, and final doom of a special evil, though, as to extent, universal evil that could only be found where good seed had been sown. The tree is found in the three Gospels. In Matthew, it is simply the fact that such a thing exists, giving shelter to Satan's agents. In Mark, it is not the bare fact of existence, but that grace and truth have been so perverted, so practically denied, that not holiness but wickedness can be upheld by and find a home in it. Matthew says, “The birds of the air came:” he is stating a fact. Mark says, “The birds came and devoured:” he is describing the character (it became such in the hands of man). That the truth in the kingdom of God should, while retaining the name, become so changed through Satanic agency and human evil, is a “mystery.” But this is what the Gentile world did with the truth of the glory of God as displayed in creation— “changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things” (Rom. 1:2828And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; (Romans 1:28)). Is this a horrible thing? That which Christendom has done and is now doing is far more horrible.
Matt. 11:1212And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force. (Matthew 11:12) seems to be an exception to the statement that the kingdom of heaven is never presented as an object of attainment. But it is only apparent. So also Matt. 18:44Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 18:4). The former declares that the violent take it by force, the latter that none can enter unless he become like a child. Becoming like a little child is one of the marks of true conversion, and is seen, more or less, at all times. But it may have special reference to the time when the Lord Jesus was here and rejected, both verses referring to that time, “from the days of John the Baptist until now,” i.e., the time of the Lord's sojourn here. When He was here He was none the less King because the Jew refused Him. Nathaniel's faith owned Him such at once. Where He was, was the kingdom, and to follow Him was to enter the kingdom; though as a dispensation it did not begin till Christ ascended, and even then not in its final form, but for a period during which the power and the glory are in abeyance, and a heavenly people formed. When that purpose is fulfilled, the kingdom in power is near.
There are three distinct phases of the kingdom of heaven. First, while the Lord Jesus, the King, was here; second, from the time of His ascension on to His revelation or appearing for judgment; third, the Millennium, which is the future dispensation of glory.
Daring the first, two things would characterize those who entered the kingdom. They would be as strong men and also like little children: two most opposite qualities, yet here perfectly harmonious, necessary and complementary to each other. As strong men, using force, they would break away from old associations, from all they had hitherto held sacred and dear, but which in presence of the rejected King lost all their value. This was a wrench so great that the Lord calls them violent; it was by force they took the kingdom. On the other hand, they were to exhibit the traits of a little child.
Coming to Him was not to be with intellectual reasoning like Nicodemus, “How can these things be?” not proposing questions, “What good thing shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?” not with a lawyer's evasive skill, “Who is my neighbor?” not even with the sincerity of the rich young man; but with the confiding simplicity of a little child, receiving unquestioningly all His teaching, and sharing His reproach. This was specially exemplified in Peter and Andrew, James and John. The Lord said “Follow me;” and at once they left all and followed Him. No reasoning about their nets, nor even about their father. The same word called Matthew, and he left custom and office to follow the Lord Jesus. This is child-like. How foolish! says the world; but wisdom is justified of her children, and they were the children of the kingdom. But inasmuch as the King Himself is rejected, the children, though free as to title, must share the reproach of the Master; and this was seen in the Lord submitting to pay the tribute for Himself and for Peter. Another fact that marks off this period from the succeeding one is that the dispensation of law, as well as the claim of the Temple, was not yet formally set aside; the veil was not yet rent. Such an aspect of the kingdom could only be while the Lord was here, and rejected by the people.
The second phase is the dispensation of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven—this present time hastening to its close. There is no question now of entering the kingdom by force; what we see now is, life from the dead. There is something analogous when anyone—already converted—gives up position, friends, or even relatives for the Lord's sake; but as a dispensation men are born in the kingdom, which comprehends at least every place where His name is proclaimed. Conversion is not the single idea either in taking the kingdom by force, or in becoming a child to enter it. The dead hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live. The dead cannot use force. The position of being in the kingdom as sons is now merged in the higher place of being brought into the church of God, which now gives a likeness of the kingdom of heaven; but when the third period comes, the church, which is now the hid treasure, will shine as the sun in the kingdom of the Father.
Mark does not give the parable of the leaven, which is never employed as the symbol of a good thing. The tree is so used; the first mention of a tree is in connection with creation good. There was a tree of life in Eden; there will be another in the new earth. And when the tree is need as a figure of blessedness (Psa. 1 Jer. 17) or for the power of Messiah (Dan. 2:4444And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever. (Daniel 2:44)), all is absolute perfection. But when applied to man, or to anything committed to him, then comes failure and decay. Such a display of God's power in goodness as when Christ came, such a manifestation as had never been known before, was worthy to be called the kingdom of God. It is the revelation of Himself. “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them.” Not His authority and power in judgment, but His character in grace. The kingdom of heaven now is specially the rule of Christ while He is at the right hand of God; the kingdom of God is specially His gracious power made known in wondrous ways to a lost world.
The tree is connected with man's responsibility, and is given in Mark, and the same illustration which in Matthew gives the dispensational character, in Mark points to the moral and spiritual blindness, the degradation of man, his insensibility to God's grace. A tree may fail in fruit-bearing, may wither, or its fruit become bad. Leaven never becomes bad; it cannot be corrupted, because it is itself corruption and corrupting; and, I apprehend, for this reason it is not suited to Mark's Gospel. Both the tree and the leaven are given in Luke 13 but in connection with the hypocritical ruler, who in false zeal for the sanctity of the Sabbath dared to rebuke the Lord for healing the infirm woman on that day. Hypocrisy is the pervading and prominent evil which falsifies, and is specially opposed to, guilelessness and the grace revealed in the kingdom of God and in the person of Christ, the theme of Luke's Gospel. It is found in high places, among the ecclesiastical rulers of a world-church, as set forth in the tree; its pernicious and insinuating character is in the leaven.
One who seemed to catch the import of the Lord's words, said, “Lord, are those that be saved few?” The Lord Jesus points to the strait gate as the only way to escape the prevailing evil. Hypocrites would make a wide gate, but not into the kingdom of God. Their gate would not lead to the enjoyment of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost, which constitute the kingdom of God now. Flesh and blood cannot inherit that kingdom. That God now bears with the assumption of hypocrites is part of the “mystery of the kingdom of God.”
The hid treasure and the pearl only appear in Matthew. Both tell of the place God in His love gives to His saints. Not responsibility in service, nor the grace which seeks and saves the lost, but the estimation which God puts upon those who are saved, the love of Him who within the sphere of the kingdom of heaven hid a treasure and found a pearl.
The net, too, has a place only in Matthew. It is the latest public act characteristic of the kingdom of heaven, save judgment, but this is equally introductory to the Millennium. The “good” are in question here, and for them it, is the winding up of the present age. It has its right plane, surely, where the Lord put it in His parabolic history of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven.
Each Gospel has its distinctive character, and parables peculiar to each. Not one shows this more than Mark 4:26-2926And he said, So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground; 27And should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how. 28For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear. 29But when the fruit is brought forth, immediately he putteth in the sickle, because the harvest is come. (Mark 4:26‑29). “So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground; and should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how. For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear. But when the fruit is brought forth, immediately he putteth in the sickle, because the harvest is come.” The not knowing how the seed grew is simply the appearance of the world which knows nothing of the secret sustaining power of God. It is the contrast with what had been when Jehovah interfered openly for His people; it might be by judgment, or by deliverance from their enemies, but it was manifest. This was now about to be changed; and the absence of God's interposition on behalf of His saints would be to the world as if He knew not how the seed grew. Just as the earth brought forth fruit of herself, the blade, the ear, the ripe fruit, so God's saints would appear to the world as if all their strength was derived from human sources. The harvest would undeceive them, but not till then would they know. It is then that He who sowed the seed appears. To appear before that time would interfere with, and curtail, the action of faith. Faith had not such opportunity before, nor will there be in the coming dispensation. Manifested glory and power is not the place where the, victories and endurance of faith is best seen. There is a necessity, in the Wisdom of God, that faith should apparently be left to itself; so that it might increase and strengthen—that He should seem to act towards His people as a man who sleeps and rises night and day, and knows not how the seed germinates and produces the ripened fruit. But God has given to faith the power of increasing by opposition; and so growing from the first blade to the full corn in the ear is a divine reality, and is as natural to true faith as that coin seed should grow out of the earth. Faith bears most fruit when appearances are most against. If scoffers say, “Where is the promise of his coming?” faith boldly answers, “He is not slack concerning His promise;” but He is long-suffering.
The wicked being allowed to persecute, without the power of God being presently exercised against the persecutors, led Paul to say by the Holy Ghost, “If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.” But does not God really watch over and protect His saints? Yea, truly, and the church's pathway through the world is both for the glory of God and for the brighter shining of His saints when the glory comes. Saints are conscious of God's care and love, and know that during this present dispensation it is not so much by delivering them from the sorrows and trials of life, as by maintaining their faith and bringing them triumphantly through all. “My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations [not temptations to sin], knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience” (see James 1:8, 48A double minded man is unstable in all his ways. (James 1:8)
4But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. (James 1:4) & 13, 14). This is not mere resting upon God during the trial, but joy because the trial is sent. This is one of faith's victories, whose eye is fixed not on present suffering but on God's glory in it. “That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:77That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ: (1 Peter 1:7)). Many instances of God's special interposition might be adduced, but the general and normal aspect of this dispensation is that the saints of God have to suffer, whatever a Christ-rejecting world may do. So it appears that the seed groweth up “he knoweth not how.” But faith goes beyond the appearance, trusting and confiding in God.
The world sees not God; and saints, to the men who have not faith, are but people with peculiar notions, and visionaries, that lack wisdom. But what is the wisdom of this world? What are the wise and prudent mostly striving for? They are searching into every possible thing, rising to the created heavens, diving into the bowels of the earth, “evolving” the whole animal creation, man himself not excepted, from one primordial, and almost inanimate lump of matter, running to and fro the earth seeking for proof (!) that God is not God. Congresses and lectures are over the land to spread infidelity. Nay (incredible audacity), they search God's own Book to deny His truth, to deny Christ the Sent of God. The world accepts this wisdom, makes legislators of its teachers, to guide the destinies of nations, and to banish the very idea of “God” from the earth. This is the wisdom, the boasted light of the nineteenth century! From the least touch of this horrible, hellish wisdom may God keep His saints. Yet, as if in evidence that the world does not quite believe its own teachings, why do not these wise ones let Christians alone? If they are foolish believers in cunningly devised fables, why not let them alone in their folly? Why speak and write against them and the Book God has given them? Why so much labor to prove that what must be a fable (as they say) is a fable? No one writes now to prove that the gods of the heathen are no gods, or that Mahomet was a deceiver.
Satan laughs at the wisdom of the world but as the Arch enemy of Christ uses it to the ruin of man. He knows that faith in God is a reality, and he has often been put to flight by it. Therefore he would drive it from the earth. He persecutes and kills the saints of God. This failing to accomplish his purpose—faith grows and spreads by it—he seeks to seduce the believer from the paths of faith. But he began with persecution and blood, killing Stephen and James, attempting to kill Peter at the same time; he made Saul of Tarsus breathe out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord; and when this persecutor became Paul the Apostle, he stirred up with increased rage the Jews to kill him. The enmity of the Jews was his choice means against the church, and when that people were broken and scattered by Gentile power, he used the Roman emperor to stamp out if possible the faith of Christ from among men.
But Satanic wisdom perceived that the more the, disciples were scattered, the more were believers brought to bow to the name of Christ. Satanic cunning then employed the world's seductive charms, and here he alas! succeeded with the mass of professors. A faithful few were kept by the power of God's grace, who resisted all the blandishments of the world. Being but a remnant the world deemed it easy to crash them, and the old means of persecution were again used, and not by Pagans but by evil men who called themselves the church of God. The professing church received gifts from the world, grasped its power, and then turned its sword against the faithful. These were in comparatively recent times shot down by hundreds, multitudes cast into rivers. Pagans had thrown Christians to the wild beasts in a Roman amphitheater; it was reserved for Christendom to witness a more terrible slaughter. Not the gratification of a cruel pleasure in which the Romans delighted, not the maddened rage of a heathen mob, but a mob with the cross as its banner, with ecclesiastics as its leaders, in pleasure still more cruel, a rage still more mad shed the blood of God's saints. Nor is this the limit of their hatred. Satan established an engine of persecution more terrorizing and soul-crushing than any previous to it—the power of the secret inquisition, whose emissaries, in the dead of night, would snap the ties of husband and wife, of parent and child; and the victims of its power, with but few exceptions, would never be seen again.
(To be continued)