September, 1938
T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
285
The Meaning of Discipleship
By H ARO LD SPURGEON Illustration by Ransom D. Marvin
"And he, casting aw ay his garment, sprang up, and cam e to Jesus" (Mk. 10: 50, R .V .). I T W A S a spring day, but probably it was a spring day with a cold nip. in the air, for the blind beggar who sat by the roadside outside the city walls had wrapped around himself his cloak. There he sat, pursuing his accustomed calling, that of begging for alms from the passers- by. That old coat of his was probably much the worse for wear, and although it represented almost all that he possessed in the world, yet something happened that day in the life of that man that caused him to throw aside the only thing he had. W e read that “casting away his garment, [he] sprang up, and came to Jesus.” There is symbolism in that act, for if we would come to Christ we must cast away that which we possess. That is the message that I want to drive home. There can be no real coming to Christ that is not accompan ied by a casting away. There must be things in our lives left behind if we would follow Him. And Christ is calling us to follow Him. As God shall help me, my task is to try to help you hearken to that divine Voice. Humiliation before Christ Let me point out, first of all, that Chris tian discipleship implies humility. If we are to come to Christ, we must cast off the garments of our self-complacency; there must be a humbling of ourselves. W e must be brought down if we are to be lifted up. I cannot help thinking that even in the case of blind Bartimeus there was a certain de gree of self-complacency, and that a cer tain amount of humiliation had to be expe rienced by him. He had probably been blind for many years, and had become used to that condition; perhaps he was even complacent about it. Day by day he had sat by the wayside begging, and when Jesus passed that way, Bartimeus probably never imagined for a moment that any change in his circumstances was going to [T his sermon was preached in the Met ropolitan T abernacle, London, by the grandson o[ Charles H addon Spurgeon.]
take place. And how true all this is spiritually! There was a time when you were blind; in fact, you did not want to see. There was a time when you were poverty-strick en, and you had no use for the riches of Christ. That is the tragedy of the unsaved. It is at the mo
whether Bartimeus needed to learn this les son. He probably had his plans, but on this particular day they were all changed. He left his old cloak behind by the side of the road, and he went forth into a new life to follow Christ. That is a lesson we, too, must learn. When Christ comes into the life of a man or woman, He comes to take command; we have to learn to follow Him. The trouble is that we are so busy making our own plans that we have no time to stop and listen to His voice. But blind Bartimeus was ready to obey the Lord, and was willing to be taught by Him. There was only one memento of the great thing that had happened in the life of Bartimeus that day; it was the old ragged coat lying by the roadside, for the man who had own ed that coat had gone on his way rejoicing, following Jesus in the way. Used by Chrisf But there is still another quality in the life of discipleship; it is that of utility. W e must be useful in the Lord’s service. W e must be ready to cast away the garment of futile ineffectiveness. Christ lays hold of our lives that He may use them. You remember those well-known words in the Epistle to the Hebrews: “Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us” (1 2 :1 ), that is, the sin that so easily wraps us round. That gar ment that wraps us round so easily, and that trips up our feet, that must go; that garment of some cherished sin must be laid aside if we are to serve God worthily. If you go to God in sincerity, He will show you what it is that is coming between you add Him. It may be one thing; it may be many things. If God tells you that that thing must go, then let it go. And if you know that there is something in your life [Continued on p a g e 319]
ment that a man becomes discontented, when his conscience begins to trouble him, that there is hope for him. So in the life of blind Bartimeus there came one day this unexpected happening. He heard an unusual noise; there was a buzz of excitement that he had never been conscious of before. Perhaps in idle cur iosity he asked what it was all about, and he was told that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by. He must have known that name; and suddenly there dawned within him the realization of the great gulf that lay between what he was, and what, by the mercy of God, he might yet become; and his whole attitude toward life was changed in a moment. The presence of Christ had brought home to him his own appalling need and the wonderful possibility of re covery, and he cried out, "Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me.” How differently we look at life when we see ourselves as we really are in the sight of our Creator! Then all that we can do is to cast aside all our self-complacency and self-satisfaction, and to cry to God for mercy. It may be humbling, but it must be done if we are to escape from sin’s penalty at the last. W e come to Him and seek His pardon because we see ourselves as we really are in His sight; and we are con scious of that which awaits us unless we cast ourselves unreservedly and uncondi tionally upon His abundant mercy. Taught of Christ But humility is only the first step; there must come also docility. The true disciple is one who is willing to be taught. W e are often very loath to regard docility as a necessary qualification for discipleship. W e are not willing to take Christ’s yoke upon us, and to learn of Him. I do not know
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