Mark 9

Mark 9:34

Quarrels They had disputed one with another.—Mark 9:34.The disciples were journeying through Galilee, and as they walked they were having a discussion; they were disputing one with another.And what is a dispute? Well, if it isn’t a quarrel it is next door to one; it is the entrance hall of the house of quarrelling. In this case the disciples were probably hot and tired, for they had walked a long way, and very likely the discussion did end in a quarrel.And what do you think they were disputing about? They were arguing about who should be the greatest. That seems like an odd thing to argue about. Does it?

I wonder! Have you never disputed about who should get the best place in a game, or who was to have the first turn of something nice?You see the disciples had a wrong idea about what Jesus had come to the world to do.

They thought He was going to set up an earthly kingdom and they wondered what place each of them was to have in it. I expect Judas wanted to be Chancellor of the Exchequer and some of the others were putting forward their claim to be Prime Minister, PerhapsPeter said he thought he ought to have that place because he could speak so well. And then his brother Andrew retorted that Jesus had found him first, and if it hadn’t been for him Peter would never have come to Jesus, and as he, Andrew, had been the first comer he had a first claim. Then perhaps John struck in and said he thought he should be Prime Minister because he was young and strong and Jesus had made a special friend of him. And his brother James said, “Pooh! a baby like you! You’re far too young for such responsibility.

I’ve been with Him just as much as you and I should be much more suitable for the post.” And so on it went until, when they came to Capernaum, they were all feeling very hot and cross and annoyed with each other.But when they had reached the house in which they were going to stay, and had all had a good wash and a meal and a rest, Jesus asked them what they had been reasoning about on the road. He didn’t use the word “disputing,” because He knew they were still feeling rather tired and somewhat sore about the argument; and when He asked the question in that way, so gently and kindly, they began to feel rather ashamed of themselves.

And then He went on to explain that the greatest person was the one who served others, the one who did not think about himself at all because he was so busy thinking about others.Now people are very much the same today as they were when Peter and James and John and the rest lived. People still quarrel, and yet quarrelling causes a very great deal of unnecessary unhappiness in the world. It spoils the peace of homes, it breaks hearts, sometimes it costs men their lives. Even boys and girls can make a home very uncomfortable and miserable by their squabbles.Then why do people quarrel at all?1. Well, sometimes they quarrel because they are touchy. I once stayed in a house where there were four touchy children.

It was like living on the top of a volcano! You never knew when there was going to be an eruption.

The smallest thing caused an explosion.Now of course if you are going to flare up at the smallest thing you may expect people to torment you. You just lay yourself out for it. The best way to prevent their tormenting is to pretend you don’t mind. And then, later, you will come really not to mind.2. Another reason why people quarrel is that they are too fond of their own opinion and they won’t give other people room for theirs. Now it is a good thing to have an opinion of your own, but it is a wise thing to remember at the same time that the other boy’s opinion may be just as good as yours, and that, at any rate, it seems better to him.Did you ever hear the story of the two knights who met at a wayside fountain?

They sat facing each other, and between them, suspended from a piece of statuary, hung a shield. As they were resting by the fountain they began to talk, and at first they got along in quite a friendly way.

But unfortunately one of them, in the course of conversation, mentioned the shield and called it a bronze shield. “Begging your pardon,” said the other, “this shield is iron, not bronze.” “Not at all,” replied the first man; “I will stake my life on it that it is bronze.” And so they continued until they came to blows; and it was only when they were well-nigh exhausted with fighting that they discovered that the shield was bronze on one side and iron on the other! So they were both right and both wrong.There is probably something right and something wrong in your opinion and in the other boy’s too. Don’t be pig-headed. Try to see things with other people’s eyes as well as with your own. It is the onesided view that has been the cause of most of the terrible persecutions in churches and nations·3. But the chief cause of quarrels is selfishness.

Two people want the same thing and neither is willing to give in.Once there were two boys who were great chums. One day one of them said to the other, “Come on and let us quarrel.

It will be great fun. Ill say this stick is mine and you’ll say it’s yours and then we’ll have a good old squabble.” “Right-o!” said the second boy, “you begin.” So the first boy started. “This stick is mine.” “Oh, all right,” said boy number two, “you’re welcome to it!” So the quarrel fell through because neither of them really wanted the stick, and it takes two to make a quarrel.If you want something that somebody else wants it is a great deal better to lose it than to lose your temper. That seems a hard thing to say, but your temper is sure to be the more valuable thing of the two. We can’t always have our own way in this life, and it is very good for us to have to give in sometimes.Now, some of us have quarrelsome natures, and it is more difficult for us than it is for others to “keep a calm sough,” as they say in Scotland. What are we to do? Well, if we feel that our tempers are getting out of control, it is not a bad plan just to walk out of the room till we calm down a bit.

And if we have quarreled with somebody, let us be the first to make it up. If we think we are in the right, all the more reason why we should make the advance.

Probably the other boy or girl is wanting to make it up and hasn’t the courage to do it.Boys and girls, life is much too short for quarrels, and there are quite enough hard things to bear in it without your adding to its difficulties. Make up your mind that you won’t do it, and if you find it a hard struggle remember that the surest cure for quarrelling is to get our hearts filled with the love of Jesus. Then for His sake we shall love other people, and love “is not easily provoked.”

Mark 9:36

The Heart Of A Child Jesus called a little child unto him.—Matthew 18:2 (AV).And when he had taken him in his arms, he said unto them.—Mark 9:36 (AV).Today’s sermon is about a little boy whose name we don’t know, but about whom we read twice in the Bible. We can make a guess at his name, however, for we rather think—although the Bible does not exactly tell us so—that his father’s name was Simon, and in all probability the little fellow was named after his father. He lived in a town called Capernaum. His father was a fisherman, so was his Uncle Andrew, who lived with them. He had a good mother too, and a kind Granny who knew just what small boys liked to eat and who often gave him goodies.But besides these nice relatives he had a special Friend, a perfectly splendid Friend, who often came to stay in the house. When He arrived He was sometimes very tired, because He had been so busy all day, but He was never so tired as not to be ready to speak to Simon.

He was a wonderful man, this Friend. Father said He preached better than any of the learned Jewish Rabbis, and He could cure sick people too.

When the doctors and everybody else had given up hope He could make a sick person well with a word. Simon himself had seen Him do it. It was only a little while ago that Granny was very ill. She had been tossing and moaning on her bed with fever, and mother had been terribly worried about her, and this marvelous Friend had merely touched her with His cool hand, and she had been quite well all in a minute. Why! she had risen and made an extra fine dinner for the whole household, just to prove how well she was, and how glad she was to be so.Then the Friend knew exactly what children liked to play at. He was always ready to share in a game. He could do extraordinary things with His fingers too. With a knife and a piece of wood and a hammer and some nails He could make you such splendid toys.

Granny said that was because He had been a carpenter. And after you were tired playing games with Him or watching Him make toys, He was always ready to take you on His knee and tell you stories. And what stories they were! You simply held your breath and listened hard. Father was a fine man, and Uncle Andrew was a good sort, but there was nobody—nobody in all the world—to compare with the Friend.When He came to the house little Simon hung around fascinated. He could not tear himself away.

He was a quiet little fellow, so he was often allowed to stay in the room while the Friend talked to the men whom He usually had with Him. (Mother called them His disciples. Father was one, so was Uncle Andrew.) Simon could not understand all the Friend said, but it sounded very beautiful, and it made Simon long to be old enough to become a disciple too.One day he remembered especially well.

They had all come in from a long walk looking rather overheated and cross—all except the Friend!—He never was cross! The Friend had turned to them and said, “What were you reasoning about on the way?” Simon thought that an extremely polite way of putting it, for the disciples looked as if they had been having a downright quarrel. When the Friend asked them this question, however, they had all looked rather caught and had got redder than before. Then the Friend had sat down, as all Rabbis did when they were going to teach their followers, and the disciples had gathered round in an ashamed bunch, for they knew that the Friend had guessed the secret of their quarrel. Then the Friend had turned round and smiled to little Simon, who was hanging about as usual in the background, and stretching out His hand towards him, had said, “Come, Simon.” And Simon had run forward gladly at the call and had climbed up (he was such a wee fellow, you know) on the Friend’s knee, and the Friend had put an arm round him and had turned and said to Father and Uncle Andrew and all those great tall men, “Friends, you were questioning as you came along which of you should have the first place in the Kingdom ofHeaven. I tell you that you have to enter that Kingdom before you can talk of being first or last.

And I tell you also that the only way to enter it is to become like little Simon here. You must love Me as he loves Me, you must trust Me as he trusts Me, ere you can enter My Kingdom.

The man who would be greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven must have the heart of a little child.”Of course, boys and girls, you have guessed long ago who little Simon was. He was the little son of Simon Peter. St. Matthew tells us about him and so does St. Mark. They tell us how Christ set him in the midst of these angry men and preached a sermon with his loving child’s heart as the text.And Christ is still preaching that sermon. He is still saying to older people, “Love Me with the heart of a child.”And what is He saying to the children? Is He not asking you to love Him as little Simon loved Him long ago?

He knows that if you learn to love Him truly when you are young you will love Him all your days. He knows that the people who don’t learn to love Him when they are children find it difficult to enter His Kingdom. They have to do what Christ said His disciples must do; they have to turn and become as little children before they can enter the door of the Kingdom. But the door of the Kingdom stands wide for the children, and though it is a lowly door it is high enough for each loving child.Are you going to wait till you grow up and you find the entrance difficult? Or are you going to do as Simon did? Are you going to make Christ your special Friend while you are still a child? If so, you will cross the threshold of the Kingdom almost without knowing it, and the Friend of little children will be your Friend for ever and ever, world without end.

Mark 9:50

A Pinch Of Salt Ye are the salt of the earth.—Matthew 5:13. Have salt in yourselves.—Mark 9:50. If someone were to tell you that you might have either sugar or salt but not both, which would you choose? Perhaps most of you, without stopping to consider, would reply that you would rather have no salt than no sugar. But would you really?No sugar would mean no sweets, no jam, and rather a tasteless pudding. Yes, but you could always have butter on your bread, and you might eat fruit with your pudding, and perhaps, if you didn’t have sweets for a very long time, you could manage to get along without them.But try to imagine how odd meat, or fish, or porridge, or potatoes would be without salt! An Irish boy was once asked what salt was, and he replied, “Salt is the thing that makes taters taste bad if you don’t put it on them.” Don’t you think that was a good answer? Salt is added to eatables to flavor them, and not only to flavor them, but to bring out the flavor.

For a pinch of salt is added even to sweet things like puddings and pastry to make them taste nicer.Not only is salt necessary to make our food palatable, it is also required to make it wholesome. In order to be healthy, animals and human beings alike require to eat a certain amount of salt every day.

Can you guess how much salt each human being in Great Britain consumes in one year? Sixty-two pounds! Some may eat a little more, some a little less, but that is the average. We need salt to keep our blood in a healthy condition and to help us to digest our food. In fact, we could not live without it. A traveler who crossed South America relates how his horses and cattle died because he had not sufficient salt to give them. They died—starved for want of salt even while they were nibbling the green grass.There is yet another common use of salt. It is employed for preserving things.

Meat or fish which is not wanted for use at once may be salted, and so kept good and wholesome. In the days of our grandfathers people had not sufficient feeding stuffs for their cattle during the winter, so they killed a great many animals in the autumn and salted the flesh, and they lived on salted meat all winter. Old people can tell you of the great salting time at the beginning of winter in preparation for the months when they had no other food.When Jesus was on earth He lived in a small unimportant corner of the world. All around was a great empire of heathen people—very powerful, and very wicked. He gathered round Him a few poor common people — fishermen, and tradesmen, and farmers—who believed in His words, and tried to do what He told them. To them He said one day that they were “the salt of the earth.” What did He mean?Before Jesus came, the rule of the world was—let every man live for himself, and let the weak go to the wall.

But Jesus brought into the world the spirit of love and self-sacrifice, the spirit which respects the rights of others, which has pity on the poor and helpless, which takes care of little children. That was the marvelous thing that Jesus did.

He lived and died in that spirit, and He taught it to His disciples. That was what was going to make them “the salt of the earth.” Like salt, they were to make the world a sweeter place to live in. Like salt, they were to make it more wholesome. Like salt, they were to preserve it from ruin and decay.It is because the disciples were faithful to the spirit and the teaching of Jesus that the world is a better place for you and me today.And, boys and girls, we too can be “the salt of the earth” if we “have salt” in ourselves, and that just means, if we ask Jesus to fill us with His spirit of love and self-sacrifice. For the world still needs this salt, and we can be the bearers of it.Once a little girl went into a chemist’s shop and asked “glory divine.” The chemist was puzzled, and inquired what her mother wanted it for. “To throw round the room and in the back yard,” said the little one. Then the chemist understood.

He said, “Oh, I expect it’s chloride of lime (a kind of disinfectant) you want.” And the child nodded her head.But, boys and girls, that little girl was nearer the truth than she knew. What is needed, not only “round the room and in the back yard,” but all over the world, is “glory divine”; and that is just another name for the glorious loving self-sacrificing spirit of Jesus.Will you ask Jesus to fill you with this spirit?

Will you help to spread it abroad?