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1. Christ’s Prediction among His Galilœan Disciples of His Death. Mar_9:30-32
(Parallels: Mat_17:22-23; Luk_9:43-45.)
Mar_9:30. And passed through Galilee.—The ðáñáðïñåýïìáé means a going aside or passing by. Meyer explains, “They were required to go rapidly through Galilee; that is, they so travelled as nowhere to tarry long.” In Deu_2:4 the passing through the territory of the Edomites was a passing through their borders (not touching their central places). In Mar_2:23 it means a passing through the cornfields, leaving the overhanging ears of corn. Hence Grotius (Annott. in Marc. p. Mark 638: compare Leben Jesu, ii. 924; Sepp. 2:418): they journeyed in by-ways and field-roads. But of a voyage by sea we read nothing. They travelled round the sea, through desert mountain-ways and woody paths; for Jesus desired uninterruptedly to prepare His disciples in Galilee for His approaching sufferings.
Mar_9:31. For He taught His disciples.—We must understand by these only His disciples dispersed through Galilee; that discipleship out of which He at a later period, before His last journey, selected the Seventy, and from among whom a nucleus of more than five hundred brethren outlived the trial of the cross: 1Co_15:6; Mat_28:16. For the Lord had previously led the twelve Apostles to Gaulonitis, over the sea, in order to make them acquainted with the same great mystery. See Mar_8:31.—Is delivered, ðáñáäßäïôáé .—The future vividly exhibited as present.
Mar_9:32. But they understood not that saying.—Compare especially the parallel passage in Luke. According to Matthew, they were exceedingly troubled. The saying concerning His violent death so contradicted their expectations, that they could not and would not think of it. Hence they would not ask for fuller explanation.
2. The whole passage is a psychological example that teaches us how difficult it is to enter into views which are opposed to our former views, and the tendency of our wills; how hard it is for the world, with its view of Christianity, and for Christians themselves, with their worldly views, to take a self-renouncing view of the mystery and doctrine of the cross. So every individual man of the world, and even the individual disciple of Christ, finds it ever.
3. Schleiermacher: “We see that the disciples had then as yet no conviction of the necessity of the death of Christ for the accomplishment of the work of redemption. They thought all was to be done without the intervention of the death of their Lord and Master, although not without many conflicts to befall both Him and them.” We see, however, that for that stage their faith satisfied the Lord; but we see also how often He had again to rebuke their unbelief, until, after His crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension, they came to a perfect faith through the anointing of the Holy Spirit.
Starke:—Hedinger:—Christ’s suffering was certain and prearranged, but to the natural reason incomprehensible: the flesh for ever hears of it with displacency.—Majus:—When the Church is in a prosperous condition, that is the time to remember what has been predicted in Holy Writ concerning the cross and sufferings of the faithful.
(Parallels: Mat_18:1-9; Luk_9:46-50.)
Mar_9:33. By the way.—The fleeting journey through Galilee cannot here be meant, but the last return of Jesus from Jerusalem, when the disciples had recovered their tone of mind and their hopes.
Mar_9:34. Who should be the greatest.—Obviously, only with reference to the Messiah’s kingdom,—their hopes of the speedy establishment of which being now rekindled.
Mar_9:35. If any man desire to be first.—Comp. Mat_23:12; Mat_20:27; Mat_18:4. Our clause seems in one formula to include two rules: whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; whosoever humbleth himself shall be exalted. Despotism makes man a slave; spiritual despotism makes him the lowest and most abject of all slaves, who must serve the most external and legal behests of a police for the internal kingdom of God. But voluntary service in the kingdom of love, and under the impulse of humility and self-denial, makes a man a spiritual power, and gives him an unconscious and blessed greatness in the kingdom of God, which does not complacently look at its own reflection. In this sense Christ came to minister unto all (symbol, the feet-washing), and has become Lord over all, Php_2:5-11. But the emphasis falls here obviously upon the second rule.
Mar_9:36. When He had taken him in His arms.—Peculiar to the vivid and pathetic style of Mark. Comp. Mar_10:16.
Mar_9:37. Whosoever shall receive one of such children.—The natural child in the arms of Jesus is not only a symbol, but also identical in its susceptibility with the spiritual child; and it signifies, not a Christian ripe in humility, but a beginner in faith. The child baptized or blessed is in the catechumen state, like the thirty years’ proselyte before baptism, or the beginner in faith. See on Matthew, p. 323.—Not Me, but Him that.—Meyer: “Not non tamquam, but with rhetorical emphasis the ἐìὲ äÝ÷åôáé is absolutely denied.” At the same time the rhetorical element must be strongly emphasized. It signifies a “much more,” or “infinitely more;” with the child we receive Christ, with Christ we receive God, if the receiving is of the right kind.
Mar_9:38. And John answered Him.— The ἀðïêñßíåóèáé here, as often, in the wider sense: on a special occasion to begin the conversation. John had a fact in his mind which he must bring into the light of this act of Jesus. Meyer, following Schleiermacher: “The disciples had, to one who uttered the name of Jesus, done the opposite of receive.” Or, rather, they had hindered one who in the name of Jesus was receiving the miserable, and doing works of mercy. John now hears that precisely to such an one the greatest promises are given.—In Thy name.—The ôῷ ὀíüìáôß óïõ says less than ἐí ôῷ , ê . ô . ë . Comp. Mat_7:22; Act_9:13. By means of uttering the name of Jesus. Meyer: “But our exorcist was not an impostor, he was a believer; yet not one belonging to the permanent company of Jesus.” Had he been a deceiver, he would not have been able to cast out demons by the name of Jesus; for the name of Jesus wrought no magical effects: see Act_19:13. But if he had been a decided believer, John would have known him as such; for the ἀêïëïõèåῖí must be understood of actual and real following, and not necessarily of merely external discipleship. The passage therefore means, that there was in him a measure of trust in the name of Jesus, a germ of true faith. But we must not forget that the words are, “he followeth not with us,” not, “he followeth not Thee:” this is certainly the utterance of an excited human party feeling. Gerlach and others suppose that the exorcist might have been a disciple of John the Baptist; but it is to be remembered that John himself did no miracle. All were indeed disciples of John, in the wider sense, who were hoping for the approaching kingdom, and had been baptized of John.—We forbade him, because.—We must regard John as the main agent in all this matter, though in perfect understanding and concert with the rest of the disciples. The “because he followeth not with us,” &c., signifies that they desired of the man a decided following with them, or an abandonment of all working in the name of Jesus. Thus they did not deny that even an unregenerate man might do something by means of the name of Jesus; but they regarded him as not justified in so doing. Their watchword was: first a full conversion, and then the right and ability to work. It is strictly, “We interdicted him from that,” or “hindered him.” Easily might the prohibition of the disciples disturb his miracle-working confidence.
Mar_9:39. Forbid him not, for.—Augustin: “Distinguit inter neutralitatem epicuream et neutralitatem ex infirmitate.” Such a man, the Lord tells them, would not immediately dishonor His name. His experience would prevent him from so soon turning round and going over to His enemies. And in this there was expressed, at the same time, the hope that he would earlier or later become an actual follower. Jesus, therefore, would impress it upon His disciples that they must honor and protect the isolated beginnings or germs of faith to be found in the world, without the circle of actual believers. We are not violently to constrain the men in whom such beginnings are seen, to adopt prematurely the party of faith: such a course might have a tendency to repel them, and drive them into the camp of the enemy. Moreover, it is contrary to the demands of a germ, and of gradual development; it is contrary to the rights of conscience, and the nature of the kingdom of God, whose kindled sparks of life fall far beyond the central hearth of the Church. But we must carefully distinguish here between forbidding and commanding. It is not permitted the disciples to forbid; they should pay all respect to the unrestrained influence of Christ, and its results, even beyond the fold of the disciples. But it does not follow from this, that the Lord commands, outside the circle of discipleship also, a premature activity of the beginners in faith. It is wholesome and natural that every energy of faith, in every young Christian, should act and move, according to the measure of its development, under the condition of truth, sincerity, and supreme regard for its own internal growth and well-being. Meyer: “We gather, moreover, from this passage, how mightily the words and influence of Christ had wrought outside the sphere of His permanent dependants, exciting in individuals a degree of spiritual energy that performed miracles on others.”
Mar_9:40. For he that is not against you.—The reading ὑìῶí is better supported than the reading ἡìῶí , which the Text. Rec., Fritzsche, and Tischendorf follow; and thus the clause constitutes a formal antithesis to the word in Matthew 11:42. (See the Critical Notes on that passage.) “And in order that they might not, in this sacred domain of tender beginnings, hurt any the least sapling, He converts His royal word, He who is not for Me is against Me, into a disciple-word for them to use, He who is not against us is on our part.” (Leben Jesu, ii. 10–12; comp. Stier on the passage.)
Mar_9:41. Whosoever shall give you a cup of water (see Mat_10:42.) The third ãÜñ , for: a threefold significant establishment of the rule laid down by our Lord, not to hinder beginnings. First reason: Such a man will not soon become mine enemy. Second reason: If any one were against you, he would give assurance of the fact; if he is not against you, it is to be assumed at the outset that he is for you. Third reason: The respect and love which is even outwardly shown you in the very slightest degree by men in the world, for Christ’s sake, or in His name, proves that they stand in a certain spiritual connection with Him, which under His blessing may increase and become more strict. The smallest token of friendship you receive as disciples of Christ, is a token of friendship to your Master, which is rewarded by Him with the blessing of greater friendship. Thus: 1. The beginning of friendly feeling excludes the thought of a speedy enmity; 2. so much so, that the cessation of enmity, in any instance, is to be regarded as friendship; 3. because the slightest token of friendliness, which is understood by that cessation of enmity, is blessed and furthered until it has become decided love and friendship. From the external friendship which is manifested in external proofs of love, men go on to internal friendship: from the disciples of Christ, whom they acknowledge as such, they come to Christ Himself. Thus we must esteem holy all the loots, relations, and tendencies of good which Christianity finds in the world,—yet that Christianity which does not deny itself and the Lord ( ἐí ôῷ ὀíüìáôß ìïõ ). We assume that the three fors all directly refer to the “forbid him not,” without disparaging the connection in which they stand to each other.
Mar_9:42. And whosoever shall offend one of these little ones.—What follows is, down to the close, a strong utterance of our Lord against that fanatical ecclesiastical zealotry which is so much disposed to throw stumbling-blocks in the way of beginners in the faith, by imposing traditional dogmatic articles of faith. Saunier, De Wette, and others have lost the connection here. But it is evident enough when we bear in mind that the words of Christ, Mar_9:43-47, have here a reference altogether different from that which the related words of Mat_5:29-30 have. (Comp. Leben Jesu, ii. 2.)—Our passage forms a parallel with Mat_18:6 seq. Matthew, however, did not adhere strictly to the place where the words were spoken; Mark places the locality and circumstances very clearly before us. The sons of thunder had a series of their own particular crises to pass through, just as Peter had; a series of crises for their fanatical and enthusiastic party zeal. The first is found here; the second soon follows, on their departure from Galilee (Luk_9:54); the third falls into a later period, before the final going up to Jerusalem, Mar_10:35.
Mar_9:43. And if thy hand offend thee.—For the meaning of these words in this connection, see the notes on the parallel in Matthew. Offences of the hand, of the eye, and of the foot; or, stumbling-blocks of fanatical hierarchism, of heretical Gnosticism, and of political proselytism. In the formal shape which the word of our Lord assumes in Mark, “it may be regarded as an ideal formulary, which is designed to suggest to His Church the pious gentleness of the hand, the sacred spiritual clearness of the eye, and the peaceful and amiable apostolical movement of the feet.” (Leben Jesu, ii. 2, 1016.)
Mar_9:44. Where their worm.—Three times solemnly repeated. The reference to Isa_66:24 is manifest. It is a concrete expression for suffering in the fire of hell, Gehenna.
Mar_9:45. It is better for thee.—Comp. on Matthew.
Mar_9:49. For every one shall be salted with fire.—On this clause, which has no parallel (and which De Wette, Baur, and others, have so much doubted about), see Meyer, and the treatises referred to by him. Meyer, however, is wrong in interpreting this of the fire of hell mentioned previously. He explains: “ ðᾶò cannot mean every one generally; but must, in harmony with the context, be restricted to those who in Mar_9:48 are described by áὐôῶí ; since afterwards another class is distinguished by ðᾶóá èõóßá from that which is meant by ðᾶò , and its predicate is opposed to the predicate of the latter: ðõñß and ἁëß are antitheses.” They are indeed distinct points, but yet related to each other; for otherwise we should not read “Every one must be salted with fire.” We therefore thus understand the passage: Every (sinful) man must, according to the typical meaning of the burnt-offering, enter into the suffering of fire: either into the fire of Gehenna, which then in his case represents the salt which was wanting to him; or as the burnt-offering of God into the fiery suffering of tribulation, those renunciations, namely and especially, which had just been mentioned—the sacrifice of the eye, the hand, and the foot—after he had been previously consecrated with the salt of the Spirit. This rule holds irreversibly good: those offending members which were not, as God’s sacrifices, previously salted with salt, pass immediately into the fiery sufferings of punishment, which then represent and take the place of the salting. The êáß in the clause, “and every sacrifice,” does not therefore mean ὡò , êáèþò ; but it marks the specific case in which the being salted precedes the suffering of fire, and in which it may perhaps (as in John’s own later history) more or less supply the place of, and involve the fiery suffering of, external tribulations (1Co_3:13). Meyer’s separation of the salt and fire, and his antithesis between them, with his exclusive reference of the fire to the punishment of the ungodly, are found in Grotius, Lightfoot, and others. On the other hand, both are referred to the good by Euthym. Zigabenus (“the fire of faith in God, the salt of love to man”), by Luther (the Gospel is a fire and a salt: the old man is crucified, renewed, salted), Calovius, Kuinoel, Schott.—Olshausen thus agrees with our interpretation: “On account of the universal sinfulness of the race, every one must be salted with fire; whether by his voluntarily entering upon a course of self-denial and earnest renunciation of his sins, or by his being involuntarily cast into the place of punishment.” Similarly Ewald. The ãÜñ gives the reason of the exhortation which preceded. Sacrifice the hand, the foot, &c., in the self-renunciation of godliness, rather than fall with your whole being into the fire of judgment as a sacrifice of death. For this is a fundamental law for sinful humanity: all must enter the fire. But if the fire becomes to man a sacrificial fire, his sacrifice must be voluntarily prepared and seasoned with salt (made savory, like food); otherwise, the fire of Gehenna supplies the place of the salt and the sacrifice.
Mar_9:50. Salt is good.—The êáëüí is not exhausted by the word good. Something preëminently good in its kind and effect is intended. The better any product of nature is in itself, the worse it is in its corruption. Therein the salt is an image of man. Saltless salt is not to be saved; and so with the spiritless disciple, or Christian, or minister (without chrisma: without salt). See on Mat_5:13.—Have salt in yourselves, and have peace.—The salt is figurative, not merely signifying wisdom, but the Spirit as the Spirit of discipline; and on that account it is the symbol of the covenant,—a blessing the preservation and assurance of which has peace for its result. The “have peace one with another” is therefore a consecutive exhortation. Have peace amongst yourselves, such peace as you must have if you have that salt. From this last application it follows that the Lord regarded the contention of the disciples, and their zeal against a beginner in faith not walking in their circle, under the same point of view. All undevout and unholy zealotry, whether towards those within or those without, He explains as resulting from one fundamental offence and fault,—the lack of salt and self-resignation, the want of the Spirit’s discipline and of consecration to God.—Here, again, it is Mark who has given most prominence to words of the Lord which most strongly corrected and admonished His disciples.
2. Between a hierarchy and the true catechumen’s nurture of the little ones in the Church, there is an essential repugnance. The latter seeks to train up the babes in faith to the full maturity of faith; the former would not only keep the babes in infancy, but would train up the adult to be dumb babes. The extreme adherents of hierarchy and the Baptist principle agree, in that the former ascribe no prerogative to baptism, but make the baptized laity a subordinate class of imperfect Christians; and the latter, with hierarchical exclusiveness, deal like a clerus with the little ones in faith.—The sign which Jesus gave to the Church by His repeated embracing (according to Mark) of the children, was directed the first time rather against the fanatical church-spirit of the hierarchy, and the last time (Mar_10:16) rather against the theological school-spirit of the Baptists. Whosoever of you: compare the history of the Papacy. Gregory the Great called himself the servus servorum, that he might be the first. The hierarchy has taken the ironical word of Christ’s Spirit with unthinking and unintelligent literality; like the word of our Lord, on another occasion, concerning the two swords, Luk_22:38 (see Leben Jesu, ii. 3, 1345), and other similar expressions.
3. But John answered Him.—This history teaches us, in connection with Mar_10:35 and Luk_9:54, how Christ dealt with and purified the zeal, noble but not yet free from fanatical excitement, of the disciples, and especially what may be called the idealistic fanatical zeal of the sons of thunder, as it formed a contrast to the realistic fanatical zeal of Peter. With every development of true faith there is interwoven, especially in its first stages, a certain measure of that other quality which stains its purity, and requires to be eliminated. But when its heart is sound, the flame is soon cleared of its bedimming smoke; the life of faith becomes ever more christianly human, wise, and gentle (see Jam_3:17-18). But where the heart is evil, or becomes so through the influence of external things, the life of faith declines into fanaticism and perishes, as the history of Pharisaism and Judaism everywhere proves. Such a fanaticism lived indeed in the soul of Judas; he went on through enthusiasm and excitement to apostasy. The answer of John was a frank avowal, and revelation of himself or confession, before the Lord (see Leben Jesu, ii. 2).
4. The connection of the beginnings of faith:—pious work, Mar_9:38; its root in the devout mind, Mar_9:39; its nourishment in devout habits, humanity, Mar_9:41. Hence loving care for the disciples, leading to quiet recognition of their interests, and thence to active usefulness in the name of Jesus.
5. The bigoted conduct of the disciples towards these beginnings of faith.—In its issue and result an offence or injury to the little ones, and in a twofold sense: either as they are dishonored and wronged, or as they are offended and tempted to resistance and enmity. In its origin, it is an internal offence; offending self through the hand, or the foot, or the eye (see Crit. Notes, Mar_9:43, and on Matthew). In the Church, and for the Church, or in relation to the bride of Christ, that law of self-renunciation and self-sacrifice holds good which is the basis of the relations of marriage, Mat_5:27 seq. We must be subject to the church, if we would edify it, Rom_12:3 seq.
6. That a millstone were hanged.—See on Matthew.
7. Into hell, where the fire is not quenched.—Concerning the difference between hell and Gehenna, and the kingdom of the dead or Sheol, see on Matthew. The additional clause, “where their worm dieth not,” etc., points back, as it has been remarked, to the passage Isa_66:24, where the valley of Hinnom is expressly made a symbol of the punishment of the reprobate, and the Old Testament germ of the doctrine of future eternal punishment distinctly appears, as also it does in the earlier Cherem or death-sentence of the law, and in later passages, such as Eze_20:47; Dan_12:2, and others. According to the passage in Isaiah, the bodies of those who were apostate from Jehovah lay without before the holy city, an abomination to all flesh. The worm of corruption, which devoured them from within, died not; and the fire of judgment, which destroyed them from without, was not extinguished. And this manifestly presented a symbolical idea of eternal suffering; for, literally taken, the fire would be extinguished and consumed with the bodies and the worms. Eternal destruction within, eternal judgment without, and these in eternal reciprocal influence. On the doctrine of hell, compare dogmatic treatises.
8. For every one must be salted with fire, and every sacrifice.—Fire is the symbol of life in its renewing power, and especially of the judicial power and working of God, renewing by a divine energy: thus it is the presence and action of God in the full energy of His holy, penetrating nature: Gen_15:17; Exo_3:2; Mai. Mar_3:3; Mar_4:1. Hence it is for the sinful man generally a judicial visitation of God, the mercifully rebuking and correcting manifestation of His nature (Mal_3:3; Mal_4:1); for the penitent, believing man, it is the saving judgment of grace, the purifying fire, the fire of new quickening, transforming, glorification (Act_2:3); for the reprobate it is a fire of condemning judgment, Heb_10:27; Heb_12:29.
9. This gives us the true meaning and significance of the sacrificial fire, of the fire of the altar. It forms a counterpart and contrast to the fire of hell. It is the fire of God, into which man voluntarily enters with his offering, in order that he may escape falling into the terror of the eternal fire. Thus, if we strictly judge ourselves, we shall not be judged. This absolute and inviolable law of the fire-alternative was symbolically exhibited by the Old Testament sacrifice: the Christian must have the reality of it accomplished in himself, whilst he makes himself, as it respects those members and their actions (hand, foot, eye) which might hurt his Christian life, a sacrifice upon the altar. This self-sacrifice is a burnt-offering, inasmuch as the Christian places himself daily at the Lord’s disposal in pure self-dedication (Romans 12); it is a. sin-offering, inasmuch as he actually renounces and rids himself of all those impulses and acts which are a hindrance. This applies, however, not only to sensual tendencies (Matthew 5), but also to those spiritual and ecclesiastical impulses of the self which are colored and disguised by religion (as it respects place and prerogative). Yet the sacrifice must not proceed from fear, but from loving obedience; it must not be an act of constrained dread, but voluntarily, an act of the spirit, of self-discipline. And that is signified by the salt (see the article Salz in Winer, Buchner, and the Stuttgart Bibelwörterbuch). The salt is the symbol of the Spirit, as the spirit of purifying and conserving discipline; even as oil is the symbol of the Spirit, as the Spirit of religious life and the living flame of devotion. Salt is the preserving, cleansing virtue of life: the Spirit who checks and kills sin germinating within. Fire is the transforming power of life: the Spirit who punishes the sin that is present, separating the sinner from sin as the judgment of grace, or destroying the sinner with his sin as the judgment of condemnation. Salt is discipline and conservation; fire is punishment, judgment, purification. Out of the fiery condemnation of Sodom a sea of salt flowed forth. The punishment of the doomed is a source of discipline and healing for those who still live. As fire and light are related to each other, and yet form a direct contrast, so it is with salt and light, Mat_5:13-14. Because the salt signified the spirit of discipline, it was needful (according to Eze_43:24, the testimony of this passage, and Jewish tradition) to every offering, and not only to the meat-offering (Lev_2:13); hence it was the proper symbol of the establishment and renewal of the covenant in the sacrifice. Hence, on the one hand, the salt is salt of the covenant (Lev_2:13), and, on the other, the covenant with Jehovah is a covenant of salt (Num_18:19; 2Ch_13:5); while, in the common life of the Orientals, it was a sign of sacred covenant engagements and obligations. (See Winer, and Bahr, Symbolik.) To eat salt together, meant to make peace, and enter into covenant with each other (Rosenmuller, Morgenland, ii. 150.) But as salt, or the spirit of discipline, was the fundamental condition of peace with God, so it was also the fundamental condition of peace in the Church, of the mutual peace of Christian people. Hence the word of our Lord: Have salt in yourselves, and peace one with another. The disciples were amongst themselves to have salt, but for the earth to be salt. In reference to the symbolism of the sacrifices, see the works on the subject by Bähr, Kurtz, and Hengstenberg.
10. In connection with the contrast, wide as heaven, between the salt and sacrificial fire on the one hand, and the unquenchable fire of Gehenna on the other, there must also be observed a certain relation, so far as, first, the salt is regarded as a symbol of the sacrificial fire; and, secondly, as the fire is regarded as a kind of salt: the Lord says that all must be salted with fire. The contrast between the two is this: the salt sustains and conserves; the fire, on the contrary, destroys and annihilates. But there is something more than a contrast; there is a strict relation. The salt preserves and sustains by an influence resembling that of fire: it is keen, biting, and pervasive; like a subtle flame, it penetrates all that is corruptible, separates that which is most corruptible and foul, whilst it fixes and quickens that which is sound. Thus it effects a kind of transformation or metamorphosis. So, on the other hand, the fire is a salt of higher potency: it destroys that which is perishable, and thereby establishes the imperishable in its purest perfection; it leads to new and more beautiful forms of being. Salt seems to petrify the object, fire seems to volatilize it; but the salt fixes it in its healthy normal condition, whilst the fire bears it upwards in its pure constituent elements to heaven. Thus the believer is first purified by the salt; but then by the fire of internal and external tribulation he is carried up to God. So it is with the whole world of mankind and the earth itself. First, it is purified and preserved by the salt of the apostolical Church (Mat_5:13); then by the final fire at the end of the world it will be delivered from its condition of curse, and glorified: 2Th_1:8; 2Pe_3:10.
Starke:—Doubtless it is our duty to wrest from others their hurtful errors; but we are also bound to bear with them for a while, and give them time to come to a better apprehension.—Quesnel:—Pride reigns in almost all conditions. Few are content to be placed beneath others; most people are intent only upon getting above their fellows, and mount aloft.—Nova. Bibl. Tub.:—Alas, how many will stand before Him with shame and fear, when Christ shall demand an account of all the useless and sinful contentions which they have mutually indulged in!—Hedinger:—Pride, conceit, ambition, are all utterly out of harmony with the spirit of true Christianity.—Luther:—That man has a true nobility who is profoundly humble in heart.—True greatness consists in perfect lowliness.—Quesnel:—Blessed is it to rest in the arms of the love of Jesus.—It is an honor to receive the great into our house; greater still to receive those who are lacking in all things but the spirit of Christ.—It is a holy work to do good to children, especially to poor and orphan children.—Osiander:—The most pious, devoted, and faithful ministers in the Church have their failings.—Hedinger:—God has a marvellous method in the dispensation of His graces and gifts, and we must not be too ready to reject what is not as yet perfectly pure and flawless, Php_1:16.—Quesnel:—We too often blend our own selves, our prejudices and notions, with the things of God; and our pride uses the honor of His name as a mere cloak.—Osiander:—Instead of envying and grudging, we should praise God for the wonderful variety of gifts which He bestows for the common good.—Bibl. Wirt.:—God’s gifts are not bound to any particular person, or to any particular condition; but He distributes them Himself freely, if He will, to whom He will, and when He will.—Cramer:—To deal with little children is a delicate matter; we may soon plant either what is good or what is evil in them.—That young people have offences so often thrown in their way is one reason why there is so much wickedness among the adult.—Bibl. Wirt.:—To give offence is, in those who hold the office of correction, a threefold sin: 1. They sin themselves; 2. they make others sin; 3. they cannot use their office.—To enter into life halt or lame: his fleshly lusts are as dear to man as one of his members.—Cramer:—Who can doubt about hell, and the damnation of hell, when Christ has so often repeated and confirmed the truth?—Our foot offends us in two ways: 1. If it goes in evil ways; 2. if it stands still.—Quesnel:—To be salted with the fire of hell, as an offering to the divine righteousness.—Bibl. Wirt.:—If God’s word is falsified, or not with all solemnity add earnestness dealt with, there is no other salt for the sinful flesh: it breeds all kinds of corruption, and all kinds of sins have dominion.—Canstein:—Faithful teachers must give all diligence to maintain the integrity of the sound doctrine of the gospel; yet they must avoid all contention, and approve themselves not only true, but also full of love and peace.
Lisco:—In earthly empires power rules; in the kingdom of heaven rules the power of devoted, self-sacrificing, and self-humbling love (Mar_9:33).—Secret pride was the reason why the disciples so acted. But Jesus is displeased with their conduct; for He would have a love in them that should be ready to love heartily everything in others, wherever seen, that presented anything spiritually congenial.—Jesus rejects and condemns all casting off, shutting out, and repulsion, as unchildlike. The gnawing worm of the evil conscience, and the burning smart of divine wrath, are figures of the eternal destruction which will befall the seducers.—All things, that is, the whole of humanity, must be salted with fire.—Gerlach:—He who is not against you, is with you. Only in things merely external does Jesus include Himself with the disciples in the we: We go up to Jerusalem.—But, when internal relations are in question, He does not say we and us, any more than He says Our Father. And for this reason: 1. Because He distinguishes himself from them as sinners; 2. because He identifies himself with them as believers,—the branches united with the vine, Joh_15:1.—He who is not with Me, etc. Both words must always be united; so that Christ’s disciples must take equal care to instruct the ignorant and to bear with the weak, 1Th_5:14.—Braune:—They had indeed the feeling that this thought was not right in the sight of Christ. Therefore He asks them about it; He gives them opportunity to utter it aloud. And thus their Master makes them sensible how exceedingly improper that thought was.—Earthly, temporal relations, they carried over into their notions of the eternal kingdom of God.—There are indeed distinctions even in the kingdom of God (Peter, John, James); but that He termed Peter the Rock could not at that time have been misunderstood by the Apostles, as He was misunderstood by Catholic Christendom, especially by the whole of the Middle Ages.—At first they kept silence; and when they spoke, it was only through shame. And so it was right. It is not well to be put to shame at death; better is it to come forward and be exposed before God, and the Saviour and His people.—With the unpretending act of receiving a little child, He connects the greatest of all, the receiving God.—With perfect right the disciples of Jesus held their vocation high and precious. But that they supposed their vocation the only channel through which God could reveal His Son in men’s hearts, was a great error.—We should be willing to trace and follow out all the threads in others which lead to Christ.—There is such a thing as an internal, though it may be weak, inclination towards Christ, without any external and full fellowship.—The Redeemer undoubtedly had in view those offences which are connected with the teaching office in the Church, when contentions arise, and love, humility, and regard for the little ones are discountenanced. We do not always perceive, or at least sufficiently consider, what great offence and damage may ensue from the neglect of heartfelt humility of poverty of heart and lowliness of spirit.—All that gives offence, and all that takes offence, must alike in the end be abolished and vanish away.—Jesus took no offence, and gave no offence; for God was in Him.—Happy are we if His spirit dwelleth in us.
Schleiermacher:—(With reference to Mat_20:28, and the ministering of Christ.)—He must in spirit descend into the unsaved depths of the human heart: it was needful that He should see how, and in what variety of ways, the most various tempers and spirits might be aided and saved—brought to sink into their own absolute nothingness, in order that they might attain to the new birth in Him.—That was His ministering; and in this sense He says that He—who is the first in the kingdom of heaven, who is all in all, He who is the One supreme over all and in all, He in whom all have all things—is at the same time the servant of all.—The greater the power of Christ in the disciple, and the more that power works through him for the well-being of others, the greater he is in the kingdom of heaven.—To receive God—what greater thing can be conceived!—(The transaction with John.) There is a condition under which the gradual influences of the Spirit best effect their work, and that is undisturbed self-concentration. The more men are excited in reference to external things, the more are their minds closed against higher influences; but when they are in perfect repose, the gentle inspirations of the Divine Spirit have their better effect.
Brieger:—Are we to understand the words to mean, that he who burns with desire to be the first should be the last, in order to compass that end? Would any such humility as that possess a value? The Lord could not possibly have intended to say that the being little was a means to becoming great. The “If any man will” is intended rather to show the way in which a man becomes great in the kingdom of God, without willing to be so.—This way is that of self-denial.—Because the Lord from heaven entered into the condition, or assumed the form, of a servant, His Church also must take the same form.—To receive is here indeed a high thing: to take up to Himself.—In reference to ourselves, we have to observe the word “He who is not with Me,” etc. In reference to others, we have to observe the word “He that is not against you,” etc., that we may judge them in the spirit of Jesus.
Gossner:—In the kingdom of humility there is no contention.—The more humble and simple we are, the nearer we are to the Saviour.—The holiest words, without anointing and salt, are good for nothing.—Bauer:—By their ruling we know the great ones of this world; by their serving we know the great ones of the kingdom of heaven.—Where love, the sacred regard for faith however little, is wounded, the retribution of the kingdom of heaven is severe.
Footnotes:
Mar_9:30.—Lachmann, ἐðïñåýïíôï , after B.*, D. Meyer: “The compound was given up as misunderstood.”
Mar_9:31 .—Lachmann and Tischendorf read, following B., C., D., L., Ä ., Versions, ìåôὰ ôñåῖò ἡìÝñáò , as in Mar_8:31. But it is quite natural that the more definite expression should occur here.
Mar_9:33.—Lachmann, Tischendorf, [after B., D., Vulgate]: ἦëèïí Ðñὸò ἑáõôïýò is wanting in [B., C., D., Versions, Lachmann, Tischendorf, Meyer.]
Mar_9:34.—The omission of ἐí ôῇ ὁäῶ in some Codd. [A., D.] is not important.
Mar_9:38.—Tischendorf [and Meyer] read ἔöç áὐôῷ , [with the omission of ëÝãùí ,] after B., L., Ä ., and Versions. Perhaps an explanation of the more difficult “John answered.”—A. and others omit ἐí ; B., D. retain it. The former seems more unusual and more correct.—See Meyer on the omissions of ὃò ïὐê and ὅôé ïὐê . [’̀ Ïò ïὐê ἀêïëïõèåῖ ἡìῖí is wanting in B., C., L., Ä ., while, on the contrary, this is found in D., X., Versions, Vulgate, Fritzsche, Tischendorf, but ὅôé ïὐê ἀêïë ἡìῖí is wanting. Meyer retains both.]
Mar_9:40.—A., D., E., F., Versions, read ὑìῶí .
Mar_9:41.— Ôῷ and ìïῦ are omitted in A., B., C.
Mar_9:42.— Ôïýôùí is added by Tischendorf and Lachmann, after A., B., C.**; Meyer derives it from Mat_18:6.—Lachmann: ìýëïò ὀíéêüò , after B., C., D. Meyer derives this also from Matthew.
Mar_9:43.—Lachmann, Tischendorf, [Meyer]: êáëüí ἐóôßí óå , after B., C., L.
Mar_9:45.—The omission of åἰò ôὸ ðῦñ ἄóâåóôïí [in B., C., L., Tischendorf, Meyer,] is to be explained by the fact of the repetition of the words concerning the worm; which only in Mar_9:48 is found in all the Codd. [In Mar_9:44; Mar_9:46 it is wanting in B., C., L., Ä ., and Tischendorf.]
Mar_9:47.— Ôïῦ ðõñüò is wanting in many Codd.