If you turn at your leisure to the remaining notices of John Mark in
Scripture, you will find, in two of Paul's Epistles of the captivity,
viz., those to the Colossians and Philemon, references to him; and
these references are of a very interesting and beautiful nature. Paul
says that in Rome Mark was one of the four born Jews who had been a
cordial and a comfort to him in his imprisonment. He commends him, in
the view of a probable journey, to the loving reception of the church
at Colosse, as if they knew something derogatory to his character, the
impression of which the Apostle desired to remove. He sends to Philemon
the greetings of the repentant renegade in strange juxtaposition with
the greetings of two other men, one who was an apostate at the end of
his career instead of at the beginning, and of whom we do not read that
he ever came back, and one who all his life long is the type of a
faithful friend and companion, 'Mark, Demas, Luke' are bracketed as
greeting Philemon; the first a runaway that came back, the second a
fugitive who, so far as we know, never returned, and the last the
faithful friend throughout.
And then in Paul's final Epistle, and in almost the last words of it,
we read his request to Timothy. 'Take Mark, and bring him with thee,
for he is profitable to me for the ministry.' The first notice of him
was: 'They had John to their minister'; the last word about him is: 'he
is profitable for the ministry.' The Greek words in the original are
not identical, but their meaning is substantially the same. So
notwithstanding the failure, notwithstanding the wise refusal of Paul
years before to have anything more to do with him, he is now reinstated
in his old office, and the aged Apostle, before he dies, would like to
have the comfort of his presence once more at his side. Is not the
lesson out of that, this eternal Gospel that even early failures,
recognised and repented of, may make a man better fitted for the tasks
from which once he fled? Just as they tell us--I do not know whether it
is true or not, it will do for an illustration--just as they tell us
that a broken bone renewed is stronger at the point of fracture than it
ever was before, so the very sin that we commit, when once we know it
for a sin, and have brought it to Christ for forgiveness, may minister
to our future efficiency and strength. The Israelites fought twice upon
one battlefield. On the first occasion they were shamefully defeated;
on the second, on the same ground, and against the same enemies, they
victoriously emerged from the conflict, and reared the stone which
said, 'Ebenezer!' 'Hitherto the Lord hath helped us.'
And so the temptations which have been sorest may be overcome, the sins
into which we most naturally fall we may put our foot upon; the past is
no specimen of what the future may be. The page that is yet to be
written need have none of the blots of the page that we have turned
over shining through it. Sin which we have learned to know for sin and
to hate, teaches us humility, dependence, shows us where our weak
places are. Sin which is forgiven knits us to Christ with deeper and
more fervid love, and results in a larger consecration. Think of the
two ends of this man's life--flying like a frightened hare from the
very first suspicion of danger or of difficulty, sulking in his
solitude, apart from all the joyful stir of consecration and of
service; and at last made an evangelist to proclaim to the whole world
the story of the Gospel of the Servant. God works with broken reeds,
and through them breathes His sweetest music.
So, dear brethren, 'Take with you words, and return unto the Lord; say
unto Him, Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously,' and the
answer will surely be:--'I will heal their backsliding; I will love
them freely; I will be as the dew unto Israel.'