F.E. Marsh :: 448. Three Looks

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MARK 10:17-27

WE have three looks in the verses before us-“Jesus beholding” (Mark 10:21), “Jesus looked” (Mark 10:23), “ Jesus looking” (Mark 10:27).

1. The look of love. “Jesus beholding him, loved him,” &c. (Mark 10:21). Love as embodied in Christ is seen in three attitudes.
   1. Love searches. “One thing thou lackest” is the verdict of Love, as He listens to what the young man says he has done. Christ ever turns on the search light of His penetrating gaze, for His eyes are as a flame of fire (Revelation 1:14), that the weakness in the character may be made known, or that the hidden evil may be brought out into the light. See the “I knows” of Christ in Revelation 2 and 3 There were many things commendable about this young man, but the one thing lacking, spoiled all. As it has been said, “What then, did this young man lack? Not right desires: he wished to innerit eternal life. Not a good moral character: all the moral law he had kept from his youth up; he had been an honouring son, an honoured citizen, a pure man. Not earnestness: he came running to Christ. Not reverence: he kneeled before Him. Not humility: he made willing and public confession of his desire and his faith, before the multitude in the open roadway. Not an orthodox belief: if words are creeds, no creed could be more orthodox than that which he compacted into the two words, ‘Good Master.’ Not a humane and tender spirit: for Christ looking on him, loved him. But he lacked absolute and unquestioning allegiance, entire and implicit consecration; the spirit of the soldier who only asks what the marching orders are; the spirit of the Master Himself, whose prayer was ever, ‘Thy will, not Mine, be done.’ And lacking this, he lacked everything, and ‘went away sorrowful.’”
   2. Love demands. “Sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor.” The principle of this demand comes to all. As Dr. Lyman Abbot says, “It came to Luther when Christ bade him forsake the church of his fathers and of his childhood; to Coligny, when Christ bade him abandon his wife, and home, and peace; to William of Orange; to the Puritans; to John Howard; to David Livingstone.” In one form or another it comes to every Christian; for to every would-be Christian the Master says, “Give up your property, your home, your life itself, and take them back as Mine, and use them for Me in using them for your fellow men. He who cannot-does not-do this, is no Christian.”
   3. Love commands. “Follow Me.”
2. The look of faithfulness (Mark 10:23). As Christ saw the rich young ruler leaving Him, He looked round on His disciples and said, “How hardly shall they that have riches enter the kingdom of God.” Christ points to the retreating figure of the sorrowful rich young man, and in faithfulness reminds His disciples of the evil of riches. Old Humphrey says: “I was walking through an orchard looking about me, when I saw a low tree laden more heavily with fruit than the rest. On a nearer examination, it appeared that the tree had been dragged to the very earth, and broken by the weight of its treasures. ‘Oh!’ said I, gazing on the tree, ‘here lies one who was ruined by his riches.’ In another part of my walk, I came up with a shepherd, who was lamenting the loss of a sheep that lay mangled and dead at his feet. On enquiry about the matter, he told me that a strange dog had attacked the flock; that the rest of the sheep had got away through a hole in the hedge, but that the ram now dead had more wool on his back than the rest, and the thorns of the hedge held him fast till the dog had worried him. ‘Here is another,’ said I, ‘ruined by his riches.’”
3. The look of encouragement (Mark 10:27). Impossibilities with men are possibilities with God. The disciples are dismayed and discouraged by the words of Christ, but He at once directs their gaze from themselves to God. From man’s standpoint it is impossible for man to span the great gulf which sin has made, but Christ has bridged over the impassable chasm by His death and resurrection, and now in His grace and love He says, “I am the Way,” and bids all to come to God by Himself (John 14:6).