48. Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched--See on [Mt 5:30]; The "unquenchablesness" of this fire has already been brought before us (see on [Mt 3:12]); and the awfully vivid idea of an undying worm, everlastingly consuming an unconsumable body, is taken from the closing words of the evangelical prophet ([Is 66:24]), which seem to have furnished the later Jewish Church with its current phraseology on the subject of future punishment (see Lightfoot).
49. For every one shall be salted with fire, and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt--A difficult verse, on which much has been written--some of it to little purpose. "Every one" probably means "Every follower of mine"; and the "fire" with which he "must be salted" probably means "a fiery trial" to season him. (Compare Mal 3:2, &c.). The reference to salting the sacrifice is of course to that maxim of the Levitical law, that every acceptable sacrifice must be sprinkled with salt, to express symbolically its soundness, sweetness, wholesomeness, acceptability. But as it had to be roasted first, we have here the further idea of a salting with fire. In this case, "every sacrifice," in the next clause, will mean, "Every one who would be found an acceptable offering to God"; and thus the whole verse may perhaps be paraphrased as follows: "Every disciple of Mine shall have a fiery trial to undergo, and everyone who would be found an odor of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable and well-pleasing to God, must have such a salting, like the Levitical sacrifices." Another, but, as it seems to us, farfetched as well as harsh, interpretation--suggested first, we believe, by Michaelis, and adopted by Alexander--takes the "every sacrifice which must be salted with fire" to mean those who are "cast into hell," and the preservative effect of this salting to refer to the preservation of the lost not only in but by means of the fire of hell. Their reason for this is that the other interpretation changes the meaning of the "fire," and the characters too, from the lost to the saved, in these verses. But as our Lord confessedly ends His discourse with the case of His own true disciples, the transition to them in [Mr 9:48] is perfectly natural; whereas to apply the preservative salt of the sacrifice to the preserving quality of hell-fire, is equally contrary to the symbolical sense of salt and the Scripture representations of future torment. Our Lord has still in His eye the unseemly jarrings which had arisen among the Twelve, the peril to themselves of allowing any indulgence to such passions, and the severe self-sacrifice which salvation would cost them.
50. Salt is good; but if the salt have lost his saltness--its power to season what it is brought into contact with.
wherewith will ye season it?--How is this property to be restored? See on [Mt 5:13].
Have salt in yourselves--See to it that ye retain in yourselves those precious qualities that will make you a blessing to one another, and to all around you.
and--with respect to the miserable strife out of which all this discourse has sprung, in one concluding word.
have peace one with another--This is repeated in [1Th 5:13].
Chapter 10
Mr 10:1-12. Final Departure from Galilee--Divorce. ( = Mt 19:1-12; Lu 9:51)
See on [Mt 19:1-12].
Mr 10:13-16. Little Children Brought to Christ. ( = Mt 19:13-15; Lu 18:15-17)
See on [Lu 18:15-17].
Mr 10:17-31. The Rich Young Ruler. ( = Mt 19:16-30; Lu 18:18-30)
See on [Lu 18:18-30].
Mr 10:32-45. Third Explicit and Still Fuller Announcement of His Approaching Sufferings, Death, and Resurrection--The Ambitious Request of James and John, and the Reply. ( = Mt 20:17-28; Lu 18:31-34)
Third Announcement of His approaching Sufferings, Death, and Resurrection ([Mr 10:32-34]).
32. And they were in the way--on the road.
going up to Jerusalem--in Perea, and probably somewhere between Ephraim and Jericho, on the farther side of the Jordan, and to the northeast of Jerusalem.
and Jesus went before them--as Grotius says, in the style of an intrepid Leader.
and they were amazed--or "struck with astonishment" at His courage in advancing to certain death.
and as they followed, they were afraid--for their own safety. These artless, lifelike touches--not only from an eye-witness, but one whom the noble carriage of the Master struck with wonder and awe--are peculiar to Mark, and give the second Gospel a charm all its own; making us feel as if we ourselves were in the midst of the scenes it describes. Well might the poet exclaim:
"The Saviour, what a noble flame
Was kindled in His breast,
When, hasting to Jerusalem,
He march'd before the rest!"
Cowper
And he took again the twelve--referring to His previous announcements on this sad subject.
and began to tell them what things should happen unto him--"were going to befall Him." The word expresses something already begun but not brought to a head, rather than something wholly future.
33. Saying, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem--for the last time, and--"all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of man shall be accomplished" ([Lu 18:31]).
the Son of man shall be delivered unto the chief priests and unto the scribes; and they shall condemn him to death, and shall deliver him to the Gentiles--This is the first express statement that the Gentiles would combine with the Jews in His death; the two grand divisions of the human race for whom He died thus taking part in crucifying the Lord of Glory, as Webster and Wilkinson observe.
34. And they shall mock him, and shall scourge him, and shall spit upon him, and shall kill him: and the third day he shall rise again--Singularly explicit as this announcement was, Luke ([Lu 18:34]) says "they understood none of these things; and this saying was hid from them, neither knew they the things which were spoken." The meaning of the words they could be at no loss to understand, but their import in relation to His Messianic kingdom they could not penetrate; the whole prediction being right in the teeth of their preconceived notions. That they should have clung so tenaciously to the popular notion of an "unsuffering" Messiah, may surprise us; but it gives inexpressible weight to their after-testimony to a suffering and dying Saviour.
Ambitious Request of James and John--The Reply ([Mr 10:35-45]).
35. And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, come unto him, saying--Matthew ([Mt 20:20]) says their "mother came to Him with her sons, worshipping Him and desiring," &c. (Compare [Mt 27:56], with [Mr 15:40]). Salome was her name ([Mr 16:1]). We cannot be sure with which of the parties the movement originated; but as our Lord, even in Matthew's account, addresses Himself to James and John, taking no account of the mother, it is likely the mother was merely set on by them. The thought was doubtless suggested to her sons by the recent promise to the Twelve of "thrones to sit on, when the Son of man should sit on the throne of His glory" ([Mt 19:28]); but after the reproof so lately given them ([Mr 9:33], &c.) they get their mother to speak for them.
Master, we would that thou shouldest do for us whatsoever we shall desire--thus cautiously approaching the subject.
36. And he said unto them, What would ye that I should do for you?--Though well aware what was in their mind and their mother's, our Lord will have the unseemly petition uttered before all.
37. Grant unto us that we may sit, one on thy right hand, and the other on thy left hand, in thy glory--that is, Assign to us the two places of highest honor in the coming kingdom. The semblance of a plea for so presumptuous a request might possibly have been drawn from the fact that one of the two usually leaned on the breast of Jesus, or sat next Him at meals, while the other was one of the favored three.
38. But Jesus said unto them, Ye know not what ye ask--How gentle the reply to such a request, preferred at such a time, after the sad announcement just made!
can ye drink of the cup that I drink of?--To "drink of a cup" is in Scripture a figure for getting one's fill either of good ([Psa 16:5]; ; ; [Jr 16:7]) or of ill ([Psa 75:8]; [Joh 18:11]; [Re 14:10]). Here it is the cup of suffering.
and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?--(Compare for the language, [Psa 42:7]). The object of this question seems to have been to try how far those two men were capable of the dignity to which they aspired and this on the principle that he who is able to suffer most for His sake will be the nearest to Him in His kingdom.
39. And they said unto him, We can--Here we see them owning their mother's petition for them as their own; and doubtless they were perfectly sincere in professing their willingness to follow their Master to any suffering He might have to endure. As for James, he was the first of the apostles who was honored, and showed himself able to be baptized with his Master's baptism of blood ([Ac 12:1], ); while John, after going through all the persecutions to which the infant Church was exposed from the Jews, and sharing in the struggles and sufferings occasioned by the first triumphs of the Gospel among the Gentiles, lived to be the victim, after all the rest had got to glory, of a bitter persecution in the evening of his days, for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ. Yes, they were dear believers and blessed men, in spite of this unworthy ambition, and their Lord knew it; and perhaps the foresight of what they would have to pass through, and the courageous testimony He would yet receive from them, was the cause of that gentleness which we cannot but wonder at in His reproof.
And Jesus said unto them, Ye shall indeed drink of the cup that I drink of; and with the baptism that I am baptized withal shall ye be baptized--No doubt this prediction, when their sufferings at length came upon them, cheered them with the assurance, not that they would sit on His right and left hand--for of that thought they would be heartily ashamed--but that "if they suffered with Him, they should be also glorified together."
40. But to sit on my right hand and on my left hand in not mine to give; but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared--"of My Father" ([Mt 20:23]). The supplement which our translators have inserted is approved by some good interpreters, and the proper sense of the word rendered "but" is certainly in favor of it. But besides that it makes the statement too elliptical--leaving too many words to be supplied--it seems to make our Lord repudiate the right to assign to each of His people his place in the kingdom of glory; a thing which He nowhere else does, but rather the contrary. It is true that He says their place is "prepared for them by His Father." But that is true of their admission to heaven at all; and yet from His great white throne Jesus will Himself adjudicate the kingdom, and authoritatively invite into it those on His right hand, calling them the "blessed of His Father"; so little inconsistency is there between the eternal choice of them by His Father, and that public adjudication of them, not only to heaven in general, but each to his own position in it, which all Scripture assigns to Christ. The true rendering, then, of this clause, we take it, is this: "But to sit on My right hand and on My left hand is not Mine to give, save to them for whom it is prepared." When therefore He says, "It is not Mine to give," the meaning is, "I cannot give it as a favor to whomsoever I please, or on a principle of favoritism; it belongs exclusively to those for whom it is prepared," &c. And if this be His meaning, it will be seen how far our Lord is from disclaiming the right to assign to each his proper place in His Kingdom; that on the contrary, He expressly asserts it, merely announcing that the principle of distribution is quite different from what these petitioners supposed. Our Lord, it will be observed, does not deny the petition of James and John, or say they shall not occupy the place in His kingdom which they now improperly sought:--for aught we know, that may be their true place. All we are sure of is, that their asking it was displeasing to Him "to whom all judgment is committed," and so was not fitted to gain their object, but just the reverse. (See what is taught in [Lu 14:8-11]). One at least of these brethren, as Alford strikingly remarks, saw on the right and on the left hand of their Lord, as He hung upon the tree, the crucified thieves; and bitter indeed must have been the remembrance of this ambitious prayer at that moment.
41. And when the ten heard it, they began to be much displeased with James and John--or "were moved with indignation," as the same word is rendered in [Mt 20:24]. The expression "began to be," which is of frequent occurrence in the Gospels, means that more passed than is expressed, and that we have but the result. And can we blame the ten for the indignation which they felt? Yet there was probably a spice of the old spirit of rivalry in it, which in spite of our Lord's recent lengthened, diversified, and most solemn warnings against it, had not ceased to stir in their breasts.
42. But Jesus called them to him, and saith unto them, Ye know that they which are accounted to rule--are recognized or acknowledged as rulers.
over the Gentiles exercise lordship over them: and their great ones exercise authority upon them--as superiors exercising an acknowledged authority over inferiors.