Mark 14:9-11 Truly I say to you, Wherever this gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world… Judas and Mary are at the two poles of human possibility. Perhaps in their earlier years both seemed equally promising. But now how vast the interval! Little by little Mary has risen by following God's light, and little by little Judas has fallen by following Satan's temptation. 1. Many begin well who perish awfully. 2. Self is the destruction of safety and sanctity alike. 3. Greed leads to much inward backsliding, and to much open apostasy. 4. There is meanness and cowardice in all evil. Evil lays plots and practises deceit, ashamed and afraid to act in the open. 5. The goodness of good men makes bad men worse when it fails to wake repentance in them. 6. The world thinks as Judas thought, that the lack of money is the root of all evil; but God says what Judas forgot, that the love of money is so. 7. To get one-third of the sum Mary had spent on ointment, Judas sides with the foes of Jesus, and becomes a traitor to his Saviour. 8. They who plot against the Saviour plot against themselves. It was Judas, not Christ, who was destroyed. 9. Beware of half-conversion and the blending, of worldliness and discipleship, for such mixtures end badly. The thorns springing up, choke fatally the grace that seemed strong and healthy. (R. Glover.) Parallel Verses KJV: Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, this also that she hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her. |
    |