Mark 10:35-45
Today we are going to spend one more week in Jesus’ difficult teachings on receiving the Kingdom of God. Last week we saw that to receive this Kingdom of love and blessings, we need to put God first, and love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind; and as in the case of the rich young man, our strength.
Today we look at what characterises this sort of discipleship.
Now it is easy to see the request of James and John as self-glorifying, but I’m not sure that is true. Jesus, who hasn’t been afraid to scold the disciples severely, doesn’t rebuke them here.
Here, Jesus’ response is gentle, and he uses this opportunity to teach them what is important in the Kingdom of God.
Now James and John, along with Peter, were on the mountain with Jesus when he was transfigured (Mark 8), physically glorified in his body. Moses and Elijah appeared and were seen by Peter, James, and John talking with Jesus.
This would have been a life changing experience for them, and they are privy to who Jesus is in a way that the other disciples are not. They have a fuller appreciation of his divine authority and power.
As far as they knew, Jesus would be heading to Jerusalem to set up the Kingdom of God by overthrowing Roman rule (in full blown Elijah style) and renewing the role of the Temple in traditional Judaism.
They were expecting political and spiritual conflict, and they were being loyal to Jesus, standing shoulder to shoulder with him in this new world order, with them as his generals. Here Jesus is telling them it’s not that sort of Kingdom.
So when we read Jesus’ words by way of response, I don’t think he is telling them off. He is reminding them of what sort of Kingdom it is. Being a disciple of Jesus’ and his Kingdom has two hallmarks. Two things by which a true disciple will be recognised.
And the first is to follow Jesus, to be a Christian, means to totally submit ourselves to the will of God. Just as we pray in the Lord’s prayer … Just as Jesus has subsumed his will as the Son of Man to the Father’s will.
In reply to their question he answers in v.38, “You do not know what you are asking”. And then he draws on two metaphors that James and John would have understood only too well later on, after Jesus was resurrected and ascended. Jesus says, “Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?”
Well, the cup that Jesus was about to drink was suffering and death: he prays later in this gospel, “Lord, take this cup away from me”.
The notion of baptism in the contemporary Greek language of James’ and John’s day referred to being overcome with calamity and disaster. E.g., in Luke 12:50 Jesus says, “I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed!”
When we are baptised, we sink beneath the waters of death and eternal calamity and becoming one with Christ we rise through these same waters into eternal life. (Which is why I am a fan of full immersion baptism).
So Jesus is saying to James and John, “I am about to be overcome by a huge calamity through which I will suffer and die. Can you go through that?”
And what is the response that James and John give in verse 39? “We are able”. Perhaps its courage of the first order from the two disciples we are witnessing. They have decided to stay with Jesus regardless of what he might suffer.
And I think Jesus knows that, hence his gentle reply. He says to them in v. 39: “The cup that I drink you will drink; and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized…”
And Jesus was right. James was the first of the disciples to be martyred: in Acts 12:2, we read that he was killed by Sword by King Herod. Later, John was sent into exile onto the Island of Patmos after having been tortured by Rome.
So both James and John did drink of the cup, and they were baptized into suffering and yet both of them had said, “We are able”. In the face of such suffering, it would have been easy for them to walk away, as many were and had and do to this day.
But they don’t do that. Instead, they humbly submit themselves to the will of God and they say that they are prepared to walk the way of Christ whatever the personal cost to themselves.
When we read the Gospel accounts, there were two people who were placed on the left hand and right hand of Jesus as he was glorified: the two thieves who were crucified with him on the cross.
And the second great hallmark of being a disciple is serving others. Those who hold power, often “overpower.” They rely on coercion and control to maintain their dominance, as seen in many nations today. But not only nations, but corporations do, some parts of the Church do, and individuals in families do also.
In absolute contrast, greatness among Jesus’ followers is measured by their ability to live as servants and slaves (same word in the Greek), even if that life means suffering oppression at the hands of those who wield power.
In v.43, Jesus says, “Whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all”.
Now this, of course, is as much a completely counter-cultural idea today, as it was 2,000 years ago in Jesus’ time. But in the Kingdom of God, it is impossible to ‘lord it over’ people; we ‘lord it under’ people.
What I mean is, Lordship and authority are shown through servanthood, not through claiming power over people. God doesn’t force us to do anything at all, but Jesus, God the Son, says in v. 45, “For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve…”
And Jesus is making his point really clearly here: he doesn’t refer to himself as ‘the Son of God’, which may have put him over human beings. Instead, he refers to ‘the Son of Man’, which is far more servant-like.
Jesus’ way is to ‘lord it under us’, not to ‘lord it over us’. And if we want to be faithful Christians, then we too must constantly seek ways to ‘lord it under’ others: to serve others and to put others above ourselves.
This is the way of Christ, and this is therefore the way of being his disciple.
To ‘lord it under’ others is the life to which we are all called and that is what is modelled to us in the life of Jesus himself who came to give his life as a ransom for many.
The word ransom indicates a release from something. A rescuing and a freeing; for a price though (never forget).
God, through Jesus’ death as the Son of Man and resurrection, will free all of us from being oppressed by this world and a captive of it. The ransom was paid in full at the cross.
So this passage from the Gospels is not really a story about selfish desires at all, but the nature of discipleship.
The nature of our Kingdom is that by being a true disciple and putting God and others before ourselves, everything else is added unto us. In this life.
By losing ourselves in Jesus, we find our true selves as created by God, and God becomes truly our Father and takes responsibility for us, Let me pray ...