Mark 3:8

THE opposition of the great ones of the earth did not, after all, hinder the cause of Christ. The Pharisees, who were the leaders of religious thought, combined with the Herodians, who were the court party, to destroy Jesus, but at the very moment when their wrath had reached its highest pitch the crowd about the Savior's Person was greater than ever. Let us not, therefore, dear Friends, be at all dismayed if great men and learned men and nominally religious men, should oppose the simple Gospel of Christ!

These verses show us our Lord again working a miracle. He heals a man in the synagogue, "who 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! Let us observe in these verses, how our Lord Jesus Christ was watched by His enemies .

These verses show us our Lord again working a miracle. He heals a man in the synagogue, "who 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! Let us observe in these verses, how our Lord Jesus Christ was watched by His enemies . We read that "they watched Him, whether He would heal him on the Sabbath day, that they might accuse Him." What a melancholy proof we have here of the wickedness of human nature! It was the Sabbath day, when these things happened. It was in the synagogue, where men were assembled to hear the word and worship God. Yet even on the day of God, and at the time of worshiping God, these wretched formalists were plotting mischief against our Lord. The very men who pretended to such strictness and, sanctity in little things, were full of malicious and angry thoughts in the midst of the congregation. (Prov. 5:14.) Christ's people must not expect to fare better than their Master. They are always watched by an ill-natured and spiteful world. Their conduct is scanned with a keen and jealous eye. Their ways are noted and diligently observed. They are marked men. They can do nothing without the world's noticing it. Their dress, their expenditure, their employment of time, their conduct in all the relations of life, are all rigidly and closely marked. Their adversaries wait for their halting, and if at any time they fall into an error, the ungodly rejoice. It is good for all Christians to keep this before their minds. Wherever we go, and whatever we do, let us remember that, like our Master, we are "watched."

THE opposition of the great ones of the earth did not, after all, hinder the cause of Christ. The Pharisees, who were the leaders of religious thought, combined with the Herodians, who were the court party, to destroy Jesus, but at the very moment when their wrath had reached its highest pitch the crowd about the Savior's Person was greater than ever. Let us not, therefore, dear Friends, be at all dismayed if great men and learned men and nominally religious men, should oppose the simple Gospel of Christ! All the world is not bound up in a Pharisee's phylactery, nor held in chains by a philosopher's new fancy. If some will not have our Savior, others will—God's eternal purpose will stand and the kingdom of His Anointed shall come. If our Lord Jesus is rejected by the great, nevertheless the common people hear Him gladly. To the poor, the Gospel is preached and it is His joy and His delight that out of them He still gathers a company who, though poor in this world, are rich in faith and give glory to God. I would have you, Beloved, count upon opposition and regard it as a token of coming blessings. Dread not the black cloud, it does but prognosticate a shower. March may howl and bluster and April may dampen all things with its rains, but the May flowers and the autumn's harvest of varied fruits will come and come by this very means. Go on and serve your God in the serenity of holy confidence and you shall live to see that the hand of the Lord is not to be turned back, though the kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together. Those who came to Christ in such great multitudes did not all come from right motives and I shall not assume that they did. Some came from idle curiosity, no doubt. Others came to listen to what He had to say, but were not prepared to believe in Him.

Tyre - Sidon, etc. - See Mat 11:21. When they had heard what great things he did, came unto him - So, if Christ be persecuted and abandoned by the wicked, there are a multitude of pious souls who earnestly seek and follow him. He who labors for God will always find more than he loses, in the midst of all his contradictions and persecutions.