Hello, friends. Thank you for joining me in our daily reading from God's Holy Word. Today we're reading Mark chapter 10 verses 32 to 52. And in this lesson, Jesus teaches us about greatness in His Kingdom.
Before we read, let's pray. Our Father in Heaven, teach us your Word in Jesus' name. Amen. Mark chapter 10 beginning of verse 32.
And they were on the road going up to Jerusalem and Jesus was walking ahead of them. And they were amazed. And those who followed were afraid. And taking the 12 again, he began to tell them what was to happen to him, saying, See, we are going up to Jerusalem and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes.
And they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles. And they will mock him and spit on him and flog him and kill him. And after three days, he will rise. And James and John, the sons of 70, came up to him and said to him, Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.
And he said to them, What do you want me to do for you? And they said to him, Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left in your glory. And Jesus said to them, You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink or to be baptized with a baptism with which I am baptized?
And they said to him, We are able. And Jesus said to them, The cup that I drink, You will drink and the baptism with which I am baptized. You will be baptized. But to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant.
But it is for those for whom it has been prepared. And when the 10 heard it, they began to be indignant at James and John. And Jesus called them to him and said to them, You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lorded over them. And they are great ones, exercise authority over them.
But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant. And whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.
And we came to Jericho. And as he was leaving Jericho with his disciples in a great crowd, Bartimaeus, a blind beggar, the son of Tumeus was sitting by the roadside. And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me. And many rebuked him telling him to be silent, but he cried out all the more.
Son of David, have mercy on me. And Jesus stopped to him and said, Call him. And they called the blind man saying to him, Take heart, get up. He is calling you.
And throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus. And Jesus said to him, What do you want me to do for you? And the blind man said to him, Rabbi, let me recover my sight. And Jesus said to him, Go your way.
Your faith has made you well. And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him on the way. Isn't it striking? Jesus tells his disciples again for the third time that he is going to be arrested, condemned, mocked, flogged and killed.
And then the two of them ask for the highest places in his kingdom. Jesus will suffer humiliation and they're thinking about their own exaltation. What is greatness in the kingdom of God? Well, what is it?
It's not like what James and John are doing. Asking that one might sit on his left, the other on his right, the places of honor, the places of influence, an authority higher than Peter and Matthew and Thomas and all the rest. You know, little people, it takes a lot of nerve to do that. A sense of self-importance, a desire to be noticed.
T-Huge mistakes they made. First, they thought the kingdom Jesus was talking about would immediately be a glorious kingdom. It doesn't seem to have reached their hearts that Jesus is going to Jerusalem to be killed. They don't seem sympathetic to what it will cost him and they have no idea what it will cost them to follow him.
They don't understand that the cross comes before the crown. Second, they mistook the nature of kingdom greatness. They thought that greatness was directly tied to their apostleship, the office that Jesus had given them, the position, the rank that they had within the apostles. So they thought of greatness in the same way Gentiles think of it.
They think having a position of importance is important. The higher you rank, the greater your importance, the higher your profile, the more power you wield, the greater you must be. They think having a title holding an office, wielding power, an authority makes them great and is the path to true greatness. And so they were asking for the inside track on those throws that the apostles were going to judge from in the kingdom of glory.
They're thinking like pagans. Pagans want to be lords over people. They want to rule the roost. They want to be known for it.
They want to be recognized and have a reputation that precedes them. So Jesus said to them, you have utterly misunderstood what greatness means. This passage then rebukes our selfish ambition, even in spiritual things. None of us are immune to the problem of pride, and none of us are immune from the desire to be respected.
We long to be first. We long to be noticed. We long to be appreciated. Look, if you ever find yourself doing or say dumb, outrageous, prideful, cowardly, or contrary to the gospel, things, when you say to yourself, what was I thinking?
Well, there's hope for you, as it was for James and John. So Jesus is saying, you don't understand my kingdom, because the kingdom I am going to bring in at first is going to be a kingdom of humiliation. Now, how hard will greatness be? You have no idea how hard this will be, says Jesus.
He calls it a cup and a baptism. The first is a reference to the prophets. Isaiah 51, for instance, speaks of you who have drunk from the hand of the Lord, the cup of his wrath, who have drunk to the the bull, the cup of staggering. That's the cup of which Jesus will say, Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me.
For the cup Jesus will drink on the cross. He drinks in the wrath of God. Baptism is a sign of judgment too. Now, we often think of it as a blessing, and it is, the symbol of the washing away of the filth of our sins, cleansing, but it's also cleansing by judgment.
The flood waters of Noah's day cleanse the earth by judgment. The Red Sea baptism of Israel into Moses involved judgment on Pharaoh's army. And Jesus says he'll be baptized with the judgment of God. Why?
To cleanse the world before God of sin, to give his life as a ransom for many, verse 45, to pay the debt for sin due to us and in our place, to free us from that bondage. Now, can you take up that cup? Yes, they say how flippant and foolish. They have no idea.
Jesus says you weren't hearing me. When I said the Son of Ben will be condemned to death and deliver to the Gentiles, they'll mock him and spit on him and flog him and kill him. What will it cost me to free you from sin and death and wrath? And how it's going to cost me everything, but I will take up the cross.
So what cup of baptism will his disciples face? Not dying for their own sins or anybody else's. Not the curse of God. He'll do that for them.
But still their own cup in baptism, the cup in baptism of suffering, not in the sense that they will offer a tumment like Jesus offers it. They can never do that. But they will follow in the footsteps of their master. James is killed by the time of Acts 12.
John was whipped to the banish to the island. That's the shape of Christian greatness. It will cost you. So then what is greatness?
Well, the other 10 here are indignant at James and John and they're competitors too. They want the highest place too. But Jesus says true greatness doesn't run to the front of the line. It runs to the back.
It's the only one who seeks the reputation and honor. It seeks the honor of he who came not to be served, but to serve. It seeks to love him by serving his people at the lowest places at the table. And you don't need a title or an office or a position to be great.
In the world's mind, the higher your office, the greater you are, not in Christ's kingdom. The lower your service on behalf of one another, the greater your concern for your brothers and sisters, the greater you are. Ministry calls us to die to ourselves, to carry our cross, to seek to be the lowest slave. Our attitude must be, I'm not here to tell you what to do.
I'm here to help. What can I do to serve you? So let me ask you, are you seeking after that kind of greatness? Whoever would be great among you must be your servant.
And whoever would be first among you must be slave of all, for even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. Let's pray. Father in Heaven, forgive our worldly ambitions and make us more like Jesus. Amen.
Well, thank you for listening in and I hope you join me next time.