Category: Expository Thoughts on Mark by J.C. Ryle

Let us notice in these verses, how little our Lord’s enemies understood the nature of His kingdom. We read that Judas came to take Him “with a great multitude, with swords and clubs.” It was evidently expected that our Lord would be vigorously defended by His disciples, and that He would not be taken prisoner without fighting. The chief priests and scribes clung obstinately to the idea, that our Lord’s kingdom was a worldly kingdom, and therefore supposed that it would be upheld by worldly means. They had yet to learn the solemn lesson contained in our Lord’s words to Pilate, “My kingdom is not of this world:–now is my kingdom not from hence.” (John 18:36)

The history of our Lord’s agony in the garden of Gethsemane is a deep and mysterious passage of Scripture. It contains things which the wisest divines cannot fully explain. Yet it has upon its surface plain truths of most momentous importance.

We see in these verses, how well our Lord foreknew the weakness and infirmity of His disciples. He tells them plainly what they were going to do. “All ye shall be offended because of me this night.” He tells Peter in particular of the astounding sin which he was about to commit: “This night, before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice.”

These verses contain Mark’s account of the institution of the Lord’s Supper. The simplicity of the description deserves special observation. Well would it have been for the Church, if men had not departed from the simple statements of Scripture about this blessed sacrament! It is a mournful fact that it has been corrupted by false explanations and superstitious additions, until its real meaning, in many parts of Christendom, is utterly unknown. Let us however, at present, dismiss from our minds all matters of controversy, and study the words of Mark with a view to our own personal edification.

In these verses, Mark tells us how our Lord was delivered into the hands of His enemies. It came to pass through the treachery of one of His own twelve disciples. The false apostle, Judas Iscariot, betrayed Him.

This chapter begins that part of Mark’s Gospel, which describes our Lord’s sufferings and death. Hitherto we have chiefly seen our Saviour as our prophet and teacher. We have now to see Him as our High Priest. Hitherto we have had to consider His miracles and sayings. We have now to consider His vicarious sacrifice on the cross.

These verses conclude Mark’s report of our Lord’s prophecy on the Mount of Olives. They ought to form a personal application of the whole discourse to our consciences.

We learn from these verses, that the exact time of our Lord Jesus Christ’s second advent is purposely withheld from His church. The event is certain. The precise day and hour are not revealed. “Of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven.”

This part of our Lord’s prophecy on the Mount of Olives is entirely unfulfilled. The events described in it are all yet to take place. They may possibly take place in our own day. The passage therefore is one which we ought always to read with peculiar interest.

We are taught in these verses the lawfulness of using means to provide for our own personal safety. The language of our Lord Jesus Christ on the subject is clear and unmistakable: “Let them that be in Judea flee to the mountains:–let him that is on the house-top not go down into the house:–let him that is in the field not turn back again:–pray ye that your flight be not in the winter.” Not a word is said to make us suppose that flight from danger, in certain circumstances, is unworthy of a Christian. As to the time prophesied of in the passage before us, men may differ widely. But as to the lawfulness of taking measures to avoid peril, the teaching of the passage is plain.

In reading the prophecies of the Bible concerning Christ’s Church, we shall generally find judgment and mercy blended together. They are seldom all bitter without any sweet,–seldom all darkness without any light. The Lord knows our weakness, and readiness to faint, and has taken care to mingle consolations with threatenings,–kind words with hard words, like warp and woof in a garment. We may mark this throughout the book of Revelation. We may see it all through the prophecy we are now considering. We may note it in the few verses which we have just read.