Category: Devotions

We all know how painful it is to have our conduct misunderstood and misrepresented, when we are doing right. It is a trial which our Lord Jesus Christ had to endure continually, all through His earthly ministry. We have an instance in the passage before us. The “Scribes which came down from Jerusalem” saw the miracles which He worked. They could not deny their reality. What then did they do? They accused our blessed Savior of being in league and union with the devil. They said, “He hath Beelzebub, and by the prince of the devils casteth he out devils.”

The beginning of this passage describes the appointment of the twelve apostles. It is an event in our Lord’s earthly ministry, which should always be read with deep interest. What a vast amount of benefit these few men have conferred on the world! The names of a few Jewish fishermen are known and loved by millions all over the globe, while the names of many kings and rich men are lost and forgotten. It is they who do good to souls who are had “in everlasting remembrance.” (Psalm 112:6)

These verses show us our Lord again working a miracle. He heals a man in the synagogue, “which had a withered hand.” Always about His Father’s business,–always doing good,–doing it in the sight of enemies as well as of friends,–such was the daily tenor of our Lord’s earthly ministry. And He “left us an example that we should follow His steps.” (1 Peter 2:21) Blessed indeed are those Christians who strive, however feebly, to imitate their Master!

These verses set before us a remarkable scene in our Lord Jesus Christ’s earthly ministry. We see our blessed Master and His disciples going “through the corn fields on the Sabbath day.” We are told that His disciples, “as they went, began to pluck heads of grain.” At once we hear the Pharisees accusing them to our Lord, as if they had committed some great moral offence. “Why do they on the sabbath day that which is not lawful? ” They received an answer full of deep wisdom, which all should study well, who desire to understand the subject of Sabbath observance.

The person who is called Levi, at the beginning of this passage, is the same person who is called Matthew in the first of the four Gospels. Let us not forget this. It is no less than an apostle and an evangelist, whose early history is now before our eyes.

This passage shows our Lord once more at Capernaum. Once more we find Him doing His accustomed work, preaching the word, and healing those that were sick.

We read in these verses how our Lord Jesus Christ healed a leper. Of all our Lord’s miracles of healing none were probably more marvellous than those performed on leprous people. Two cases only have been fully described in the Gospel history. Of these two, the case before us is one.

Every fact in our Lord’s life on earth, and every word which fell from His lips, ought to be deeply interesting to a true Christian. We see a fact and a saying in the passage we have just read, which deserve close attention.

These verses begin the long list of miracles which Mark’s Gospel contains. They tell us how our Lord cast out devils in Capernaum, and healed Peter’s wife’s mother of a fever.

This passage is singularly full of matter. It is a striking instance of that brevity of style, which is the peculiar characteristic of Mark’s Gospel. The baptism of our Lord, His temptation in the wilderness, the commencement of his preaching, and the calling of His first disciples, are related here in eleven verses.