We do not hear that this John Mark ever tried to do any work in the way
of preaching the gospel. His business was a very much humbler one. He
had to attend to Paul's comfort. He had to be his factotum, man of all
work; looking after material things, the commissariat, the thousand and
one trifles that some one had to see to if the Apostle's great work was
to get done. And he did it all his life long. It was enough for him to
do thoroughly the entirely 'secular' work, as some people would think
it, which it was in his power to do. That needed some self-suppression.
It would have been so natural for Mark to have said, 'Paul sends Timothy
to be bishop in Crete; and Titus to look after other churches;
Epaphroditus is an official here; and Apollos is a great preacher there.
And here am I, grinding away at the secularities yet. I think I'll
"strike," and try and get more conspicuous work.' Or he might perhaps
deceive himself, and say, 'more directly religious work,' like a great
many of us that often mask a very carnal desire for prominence under a
very saintly guise of desire to do spiritual service. Let us take care
of that. This 'minister,' who was not a minister at all, in our sense of
the word, but only in the sense of being a servant, a private attendant
and valet of the Apostle, was glad to do that work all his days.
That was self-suppression. But it was something more. It was a plain
recognition of what we all ought to have very clearly before us, and
that is, that all sorts of work which contribute to one end are one sort
of work; and that at bottom the man who carried Paul's books and
parchments, and saw that he was not left without clothes, though he was
so negligent of cloaks and other necessaries, was just as much helping
on the cause of Christ as the Apostle when he preached.
I wonder if any of you remember the old story about an organist and his
blower. The blower was asked who it was that played that great sonata of
Beethoven's, or somebody's. And he answered, 'I do not know who played,
but I blew it.' There is a great truth there. If it had not been for the
unknown man at the bellows, the artist at the keys would not have done
much. So Mark helped Paul. And as Jesus Christ said, 'He that receiveth
a prophet in the name of a prophet, shall receive a prophet's reward.'
IV. Take as the last lesson the enlarged sphere that follows
faithfulness in small matters.
What a singular change! The man who began with being a servant of Paul
and of Barnabas ends by being the evangelist, and it is to him, under
Peter's direction, that we owe what is possibly the oldest, and, at all
events, in some aspects, an entirely unique, narrative of our Lord's
life. Do you think that Peter would ever have said to him: 'Mark! come
here and sit down and write what I tell you,' if there had not been
beforehand these long years of faithful service? So is it always, dear
friends, 'He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also
in much.' That is not only a declaration that faithfulness is one in
kind, whatever be the diameter of the circle in which it is exercised,
but it may also be taken as a promise, though that was not the original
intention of the saying.
For quite certainly, in God's providence, the tools do come to the hand
that can wield them, and the best reward that we can get for doing well
our little work is to have larger work to do. The little tapers are
tempted, if I may use so incongruous a figure, to wish themselves set up
on loftier stands. Shine your brightest in your corner, and you will be
'exalted' in due time. It is so, as a rule, in this world; sometimes too
much so, for, as they say is the case at the English bar, so it is
sometimes in God's Church, 'There is no medium between having nothing to
do and being killed with work.' Still the reward for work is more work.
And the law will be exemplified most blessedly when Christ shall say,
'Well done! good and faithful servant. Thou hast been faithful over a
few things, I will make thee ruler over many things.'
So this far-away figure of the minister-evangelist salutes us too, and
bids us be of good cheer, notwithstanding all faults and failures,
because it is possible for us, as he has proved, to recover ourselves
after them all. God will not be less generous in forgiveness than Paul
was; and even you and I may hear from Christ's lips, 'Thou art
profitable to Me for the ministry.'