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Scripture Reading: Mark 8:27-31; 9:30-31; 10:32-34; John 20:31; 2 Cor. 1:21-22; Gal. 2:20
The Gospel of Mark is a biography of a Person who lived according to God’s New Testament economy. In order to understand this biography, we need to realize that every event recorded in it is meaningful. We thank the Lord that the remainder of the New Testament, especially the Epistles of Paul, helps us to interpret the details of the Lord’s biography in Mark. The messages given in the Life-studies of Paul’s Epistles will also help us understand the significance of the Gospel of Mark as a biography of a life fully according to and for God’s New Testament economy.
In a previous message we pointed out that in chapter eight of Mark we have a revelation of Christ, His death, and His resurrection. The Epistles of Paul also emphasize Christ with His death and resurrection. In fact, one verse, Philippians 3:10, covers all three: “To know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.” Here we see Christ the Person and also His death and resurrection.
In recent messages we have covered the first four chapters of Mark’s Gospel. We have seen that when the Lord Jesus was baptized, the Spirit of God descended upon Him. From that time onward, as recorded in chapters one and two, the Lord Jesus lived a life of preaching the gospel, teaching the truth, casting out demons, healing the sick, and cleansing the lepers. He brought forgiveness to people, and He also brought them into the enjoyment of Himself as righteousness outwardly and life inwardly. In addition, He brought them into His satisfaction and into liberation. Furthermore, the Lord Jesus lived in a way to be one with God, to bind God’s enemy, and to deny the natural relationship and remain in the relationship of the spiritual life.
In chapter four the Lord reveals the significance of His living in the three foregoing chapters. The significance of the Lord’s living is that He is the Sower sowing Himself as a seed into people. The Lord sowed Himself into those who were touched by Him. By His sowing Himself as a seed into others, a kingdom was brought into existence. This kingdom will grow, develop, and ripen into a harvest.
In chapters one through three of the Gospel of Mark there are four cases of healing: the healing of Simon’s mother-in-law, who was sick with a fever (1:30-31); the cleansing of the leper (1:40-45); the healing of the paralytic who was carried to the Lord (2:1-12); and the healing of the man with a withered hand (3:1-6). These four cases describe our spiritual condition before we were saved. We were those who were sick of a fever, those whose “temperature” was abnormally high. Today every fallen human being is sick with a fever. Before we were saved, we also were lepers; we were unclean, defiled, and contaminated to the uttermost. Furthermore, as unsaved persons, we were paralytics. With respect to God, we were altogether paralyzed. Because we were absolutely paralyzed, we were not able to do anything for God. As paralyzed ones, we could not walk. We also were those with a withered hand. Therefore, we were sick with a fever, we were contaminated lepers, we were paralytics unable to walk, and we were those with a withered hand, unable to work. Although these are separate cases in the Gospel of Mark, spiritually speaking, they describe the condition of every human being. Thus, these cases portray the situation of a particular person.
Have you ever realized that in the Gospel of Mark there is one who is our representative? The one who represents us is Peter. According to the record in Mark, Peter was the first to be called by the Lord. After he was called, he was always taking the lead. He even took the lead to deny the Lord Jesus. We may even say that, in a sense, Peter was crucified before the Lord Jesus was. Then after the Lord’s resurrection Peter’s name was mentioned by the angel: “But go, tell His disciples and Peter that He is going before you into Galilee” (16:7).
Because in the Gospel of Mark Peter is our representative, all the cases described in this book may be taken as an aggregate and given the name of Peter. It is significant that the first case of healing in this Gospel was the healing of Peter’s mother-in-law. In a spiritual sense, all the cases in this book are related to Peter. This means that Peter was sick of a fever and that Peter was the blind Bartimaeus at the gate of Jericho. Peter needed to be healed of his fever and of his blindness.
The four cases of healing in chapters one through three are all in the same category, the category of general healings. After chapter four the Lord Jesus goes on to carry out further healings. But these healings are of particular organs: the hearing organ, the speaking organ, and the seeing organ. In order to contact others, we must have these organs. If we are deaf, dumb, and blind, what contact can we have with others? We could not have any contact at all since we would not be able to hear, speak, or see. As our representative, Peter was healed of his fever, leprosy, paralysis, and withered condition; however, still he could not hear, speak, or see.
After the four cases of general healing, we have in Mark four cases of the healing of specific organs. In 7:31-37 we have the healing of a deaf and dumb man; in 8:22-26, the healing of a blind man in Bethsaida; in 9:14-29, the healing of a boy who had a dumb spirit; and in 10:46-52, the healing of blind Bartimaeus. In these four cases three particular organs are healed: the hearing organ, the speaking organ, and the seeing organ.
Let us consider briefly the two cases of the healing of blindness. When they came to Bethsaida, a blind man was brought to the Lord Jesus. “Taking hold of the hand of the blind man, He led him forth outside the village; and having spit in his eyes and laid His hands on him, He asked him, Do you see anything?” (8:23). The man looked up and said, “I behold men; I see them as trees walking” (v. 24). Then the Lord laid His hands upon the man’s eyes again, and “he looked intently and was restored, and he saw all things clearly.” Is this not a picture of our spiritual condition? When we first saw the Lord, we did not see Him clearly. We did not see spiritual things exactly as they are. Then after further contact with the Lord, we began to see all things clearly.
The second case of the healing of blindness is the healing of blind Bartimaeus. When the Lord Jesus asked Bartimaeus what he wanted Him to do for him, the blind man said, “Rabboni, that I may recover my sight!” (10:51). Then Jesus said to him, “Go, your faith has healed you” (v. 52), and immediately Bartimaeus recovered his sight and followed the Lord on the road (v. 52). This is the last case of healing recorded in the Gospel of Mark.
Spiritually speaking, our relationship with God depends upon the hearing organ, the speaking organ, and the seeing organ. If we cannot hear God’s word, if we cannot talk to God, and if we cannot see God’s vision, we cannot have any relationship with Him. If such were our situation, we would be like a dumb idol standing before God. Therefore, we need the healing of our hearing, speaking, and seeing organs.
The New Testament reveals that, spiritually speaking, we were dead, but the Lord Jesus has made us alive. When He came to us and sowed Himself into us, we were enlivened. We were then healed of our fever, leprosy, paralysis, and withered condition.
Praise the Lord that we have been made alive, that we have been regenerated! However, after being regenerated, we may still be deaf, dumb, and blind, in need of the Lord’s particular healing. Was this not your experience with the Lord? I can testify that it was my experience. I was regenerated in 1925, but it was not until 1932 that my ears began to hear God’s voice, my eyes began to see His vision, and my mouth was opened to speak for God. I praise Him that today, through His mercy, I can hear, speak, and see.
We need to have a clear understanding of the two categories of healing in Mark. The four cases in the first category are related to being enlivened. The four cases in the second category are related to the recovery of the crucial organs of hearing, speaking, and seeing, the spiritual organs necessary for contacting God.
In 5:21-43 we have the healing of a woman with a flow of blood and the raising up of a dead girl. The case of the woman with the flow of blood is a case of the leaking out of life. Since this woman’s case is merged with that of the girl and since the twelve years of the woman’s sickness equal the age of the girl and both are females, these cases may be considered the case of one person. In this view, the girl was born, so to speak, in the woman’s death-sickness and died of it. When the woman’s death-sickness was healed by the Savior, the girl rose up from death.
In 7:24-30 we have the case of casting a demon out of a Syrophoenician woman’s daughter. We are told in 7:26 that “the woman was a Greek, Syrophoenician by race.” She was Syrian by tongue, Phoenician by race (see Acts 21:2-3), and — the Phoenicians being descendants of the Canaanites — a Canaanite woman (Matt. 15:22). What made her a Greek — religion, marriage, or something else — is difficult to discover. Although this woman was threefold a Gentile, in the sight of God she was a “little dog” whom He loved (vv. 28-29).
If we put all these cases together, realizing that they make up a composite portrait of Peter, our representative, we shall see that these cases indicate that Peter was fully healed and recovered. In chapter two of Acts, Peter is not only alive; he is strong in life and in the ability to hear, speak, and see.
In 7:1-23 the Lord Jesus exposes the condition of man’s heart. In this section of Mark the Lord is a surgeon who opens our inner being and exposes its true condition. In 7:20 the Lord says, “That which goes out of a man, that defiles a man.” Then He lists a number of evil things that proceed “out of the heart of men” (vv. 21-22). After this, He concludes, “All these wicked things proceed from within, and they defile a man” (v. 23). We all need to see man’s inward condition. We all need to realize that there is nothing good in the heart of fallen man.
After the exposure of the heart, there are two cases of feeding: the feeding of the Gentiles as the “little dogs under the table” (7:27-30) and the feeding of four thousand (8:1-9). In 7:27 the Lord Jesus said to the Syrophoenician woman, “Let the children be satisfied first, for it is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs.” The woman answered, “Yes, Lord, but even the little dogs under the table eat of the little children’s crumbs” (7:28). The Jews were regarded as God’s children, and here the Gentiles are portrayed as “little dogs,” not as wild dogs, but as pet dogs, little dogs under the family table. As the children were eating at the table, the pet dogs were waiting under the table for any crumbs that might fall. Those crumbs became the portion of the pet dogs. Here we see that the Lord is not only the children’s bread on the table, but also the crumbs under the table. He is even the portion of the “little dogs,” the Gentiles.
In 8:1-9 we have the feeding of the four thousand. After the people ate and were satisfied, “they took up the broken pieces left over, seven baskets” (v. 8).
In 8:27—9:1 we have the unveiling of Christ with His death and resurrection. Before that time, the Lord Jesus had not been unveiled to His disciples. They followed Him blindly, without realizing who He is. Then at the end of chapter eight the Lord brought them away from the religious atmosphere of Jerusalem to the clear atmosphere of Caesarea Philippi. On the way “He questioned His disciples, saying to them, Who do men say that I am?” (8:27). They replied, “John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; but others, one of the prophets” (v. 28). Then the Lord questioned them, “But you, who do you say that I am?” (v. 29). Peter took the lead to declare, “You are the Christ!” He saw the vision that Jesus is the Christ. Immediately, the Lord went on to speak to them concerning His death and resurrection. Therefore, here we have the unveiling of the Person of Christ and also the unveiling of His death and resurrection. In these verses we have the crucial revelation of the Person of Christ with His death and resurrection.
