'I bear,' says Paul; and he uses, as many of you may know, a somewhat
remarkable word, which does not express mere bearing in the sense of
toleration and patient endurance, although that is much; nor mere
bearing in the sense of carrying, but implies bearing with a certain
triumph as men would do who, coming back victorious from conflict, and
being received into the city, were proud to show their scars, the
honourable signs of their courage and constancy. So, with a triumph that
is legitimate, the Apostle solemnly and proudly bears before men the
marks of the Lord Jesus. Just as he says in another place:--'Thanks be
unto God, which always leadeth us about in triumph in Jesus Christ,' He
was proud of being dragged at the conqueror's chariot wheels, chained to
them by the cords of love; and so he was proud of being the slave of
Christ.
It is a degradation to a man to yield abject submission, unconditional
service to another man. It is the highest honour of our natures so to
bow before that dear Lord. To prostrate ourselves to Him is to lift
ourselves high in the scale of being. The King's servant is every other
person's master. And he that feels that he is Christ's, may well be, not
proud but conscious, of the dignity of belonging to such a Lord. The
monarch's livery is a sign of honour. In our old Saxon kingdom the
king's menials were the first nobles. So it is with us. The aristocracy
of humanity are the slaves of Jesus Christ.
And let us be proud of the marks of the branding iron, whether they come
in the shape of sorrows and pains, or otherwise. It is well that we
should have to carry these. It is blessed, and a special mark of the
Master's favour that He should think it worth His while to mark us as
His own, by any sorrow or by any pain. Howsoever hot may be the iron,
and howsoever deeply it may be pressed by His firm, steady, gentle hand
upon the quivering flesh and the shrinking heart, let us be thankful if
He, even by it, impresses on us the manifest tokens of ownership. Oh,
brethren! if we could come to look upon sorrows and losses with this
clear recognition of their source, meaning and purpose, they change
their nature, the paradox is fulfilled that we do 'gather grapes of
thorns and figs of thistles.' 'I bear in my body,' with a solemn triumph
and patient hope, 'the marks of the Lord Jesus.'
IV. And now, lastly, the immunity from any disturbance which men can
bring, which these marks, and the servitude they express, secure.
'From henceforth let no man trouble me.' Paul claims that his apostolic
authority, having been established by the fact of his sufferings for
Christ, should give him a sacredness in their eyes; that henceforth
there should be no rebellion against his teaching and his word. We may
expand the thought to apply more to ourselves, and say that, in the
measure in which we belong to Christ, and hear the marks of His
possession of us, in that measure are we free from the disturbance of
earthly influences and of human voices; and from all the other sources
of care and trouble, of perturbation and annoyance, which harass and vex
other men's spirits. 'Ye are bought with a price,' says Paul elsewhere.
'Be not the servants of men.' Christ is your Master; do not let men
trouble you. Take your orders from Him; let men rave as they like. Be
content to be approved by Him; let men think of you as they please. The
Master's smile is life, the Master's frown is death to the slave; what
matters it what other people may say? 'He that judgeth me is the Lord.'
So keep yourselves above the cackle of 'public opinion'; do not let your
creed be crammed down your throats even by a consensus of however
venerable and grave human teachers. Take your directions from your
Master, and pay no heed to other voices if they would command. Live to
please Him, and do not care what other people think. You are Christ's
servant; 'let no man trouble' you.
And so it should be about all the distractions and petty annoyances that
disturb human life and harass our hearts. A very little breath of wind
will ruffle all the surface of a shallow pond, though it would sweep
across the deep sea and produce no effect. Deepen your natures by close
union with Christ, and absolute submission to Him, and there will be a
great calm in them, and cares and sorrows, and all the external sources
of anxiety, far away, down there beneath your feet, will 'show scarce
so gross as beetles,' whilst you stand upon the high cliff and look down
upon them all. 'From henceforth no man shall trouble me.' 'I bear in my
body the marks of the Lord Jesus.'
My brother! Whose marks do you bear? There are only two masters. If an
eye that could see things as they are, were to go through this
congregation, whose initials would it discern in your faces? There are
some of us, I have no doubt, who in a very horrid sense bear in our
bodies the marks of the idol that we worship. Men who have ruined their
health by dissipation and animal sensualism--are there any of them here
this morning? Are there none of us whose faces, whose trembling hands,
whose diseased frames, are the tokens that they belong to the flesh and
the world and the devil? Whose do _you_ bear?
Oh! when one looks at all the faces that pass one upon the street--this
all drawn with avarice and earthly-mindedness; that all bloated with
self-indulgence and loose living--when one sees the mean faces, the
passionate faces, the cruel faces, the vindictive faces, the lustful
faces, the worldly faces, one sees how many of us bear in our bodies the
marks of _another_ lord. They have no rest day nor night who worship the
beast; and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.
I pray you, yield yourselves to your true Lord, so on earth you may bear
the beginnings of the likeness that stamps you His, and hereafter, as
one of His happy slaves, shall do priestly service at His throne and see
His face, and His name shall be in your foreheads.