Three times, in three consecutive chapters of Mark’s Gospel, Jesus foretells His disciples what the future holds for Him. We call these statements, “Passion Predictions,” because in each one He announces ahead of time the sufferings He will endure in
While this statement about His forthcoming suffering is more detailed than those before it, there are several similarities. You will notice that in all three He calls Himself, “Son of Man.” Also in all three He is very specific about the fact that He will be killed and He will rise again. Another similarity is that in all three cases, the disciples respond to these statements about His impending suffering and death by sticking their feet in their mouths. After the first Passion prediction in Mark 8:31, Peter had the gumption to rebuke the Lord. After the second Passion prediction in Chapter 9, we read that the disciples erupted into an argument amongst themselves about which of them was the greatest. And here in Chapter 10, following the third Passion prediction, James and John demonstrate the same cerebral density yet again.
They come to Jesus and make a very deceptive request: “We want You to do for us whatever we ask of You.” Kind of like that friend who says, “Will you do me a favor?” You say, “Sure!” And then they tell you what the favor is, and you think, “Man, why did I say ‘Sure’?” Take a tip from Jesus – always find out what the favor is first. Jesus didn’t say, “OK” to their request for a blank check of divine favor. Rather, He asked them to specify what they wanted. And what they wanted was this: "Grant that we may sit, one on Your right and one on Your left, in Your glory." In the teaching that follows this request, Jesus gives the disciples a lesson on greatness. We see Jesus contrasting the way the world sees greatness and the way greatness is evaluated in the Kingdom. One is a way of self-sacrificing, the other a way of self-serving. Jesus demonstrates the former, and James and John the latter.
I. The Self-Sacrificing Son of Man
As they walked toward
A. Jesus Declared His Self-Sacrifice (33-34)
As in all the Passion Predictions, Jesus refers to Himself as “Son of Man.” You may recall that we have discussed this title on several occasions previously and noted that this title is used by Jesus to refer to Himself some 80 times in the Gospels. In Mark, He uses the title 14 times. No one else ever refers to Him as the Son of Man. It is used only by Him, and only in reference to Himself. It is a specific reference to the prophecy found in the seventh chapter of Daniel, beginning at verse 13, where Daniel writes of seeing one“like a Son of Man … coming, And He came up to the Ancient of Days And was presented before Him. And to Him was given dominion, Glory and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations and men of every language might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away; And His kingdom is one which will not be destroyed.” By using this phrase “Son of Man,” Jesus points to a specific definition of who He is. He is the One prophesied in Scripture with divine characteristics who has come forth from the Father, the Ancient of Days, with authority and dominion, and glory, to establish a Kingdom that will consist of people from every tribe and nation and tongue who serve Him. And His Kingdom will be established forever. But, though these glorious things could be said of Him, He knew that He would not be recognized or treated as such in
With a series of seven verbs, Jesus foretells the tragic events that will come His way, beginning with being delivered to the chief priests and scribes. This of course is a veiled reference to His betrayal at the hands of Judas Iscariot and His subsequent arrest in the
Jesus knew the suffering that was coming His way in
B. Jesus Demonstrated His Self-Sacrifice (45)
It was for this reason that Christ had been born. Self-Sacrifice was not something that He would taste only in death. His entire earthly life and ministry was one of self-sacrifice. We might say that it was His divinely-ordained mission.
1. The Self-Sacrifice of His Life
“The Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve.” Jesus’ life is not one of continual receiving from others, but of endless giving for the sake of others. Because of His divine nature, He was worthy to receive worship and praise and service from all humanity, but Jesus never occupied an earthly throne during the 33 years of His life on earth. His was not a posture of authority, but of humility. As Paul put it in Philippians 2:6-7, although He “existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant.” He left the comforts and confines of heavenly glory to come into this world where He was born in poverty and lived in servitude. Everything He taught, every miracle He wrought, was filled with conviction and compassion for humanity’s sake. He said in John 10:10, “I have come that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” Jesus did not gauge His earthly success by the number of His servants. After all, He only had twelve disciples who stuck it out with Him, and one of them was a bad apple, and all of them forsook Him at His time of greatest need. If we judged His greatness by the number of His servants, we would have to consider Jesus the epitome of failure. But Jesus gauged His mission by His own service to others. It is no understatement to say that serving others is what He lived for. He said it Himself: “The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve.” Self-sacrifice was His way of life. But it was also His way of death.
2. The Self-Sacrifice of His Death
The Son of Man came, Jesus said, “To give His life a ransom for many.” In this statement Jesus makes it clear that His life was not taken from Him by others, but given by Him for others. In John 10, Jesus said, “No one has taken [My life] away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative.” He gave His life. But it was not the senseless death of a suicide or the tragic death of a martyr that Jesus suffered. Rather, He gave away His life in death for a purpose: to ransom many. The word ransom originally had to do with the price paid for the release of a prisoner or slave. Since the fall of humanity in the Garden of Eden, every person has been in the bondage of sin. It is written in Psalm 49:7 that no man can by any means redeem his brother or give to God a ransom for him. Each of us has our own sins to deal with, we cannot therefore ransom another from sin’s grasp. But Christ, the sinless Savior, is able to lay His life down as a ransom for humanity. Seven hundred years earlier, the prophet Isaiah had spoken of the severity of the Messiah’s sufferings, saying that He would be pierced, crushed, chastened, and scourged. But the prophet was clear that we were the benefactors of His self-sacrificing death: He was pierced for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities, chastened for our well-being, and scourged for our healing. The prophet said that the Lord caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him, and that He would render His life as a guilt-offering. In letter-perfect fulfillment of those prophecies, Jesus lived to serve others, and died to ransom them.
His life was given to ransom “many.” There has been much ink spilled over the difference here between “many” and “all.” Suffice to say, that His death was a sufficient payment to ransom all of humanity, but each individual must make a personal decision to receive the benefits of the ransom. Therefore, not all will be saved. But neither can it be said that only a few will be. There will be “many” ransomed by the self-sacrifice of the Son of Man.
Seeing the great self-sacrifice that the Son of Man will endure for the sake of the many, one can’t help seeing the stark contrast with …
II. The Self-Serving Sons of Thunder
James and John were brothers, sons of a fisherman named Zebedee. In Mark 3, we read that Jesus gave them the name Boanerges, which means “Sons of Thunder.” They are often seen as impetuous and fiery of temper. In Matthew 20, there is a parallel account of this event in which the mother of James and John are with them and it is she who is doing all the talking. The two accounts are not in contradiction with one another. It is apparent from both of them that the mother and her sons took this untimely opportunity to seek personal advancement from Jesus. But before we start criticizing all that is going on here, and there is plenty to criticize, let’s look at …
A. What they did right
First, we can see from their words that the Sons of Zebedee that they rightly understood something about Jesus. Though they may have misunderstood all that He had spoken about the suffering He was to endure, they did understand that He would eventually be glorified. Their faith in Christ as the Conquering King and Lord of Lords did not waver, in spite of His passion predictions. Also, we recognize that they understood Jesus was sovereign over the lives of His disciples. They sought greatness, and they understood that Jesus had something to do and say about it. Finally, they should be commended for their courage to undergo suffering with Him, as they say that they are able to endure the things are coming His way as well. Perhaps they overestimate their ability and their own commitment, but they do not let the promise of coming hardships dissuade them from their allegiance to the Lord. So they aren’t total scoundrels here. There are at least a few things commendable in their conversation with the Lord. But, our discussion of what they did right ends here, and we move on to consider …
B. What they did wrong
We can begin by noticing that …
1. They had the wrong desire (37)
Their desire was to their own glory and honor. It was common in the ancient world for the most important person to be at the center when seated or standing or walking, and then for the next in importance to be on the right side, and the third in importance to be on the left. It doesn’t seem to matter much to James or John which of them is second and which is third, so long as they are second and third. It seems that they have not yet put the argument to rest as to which of the disciples is the greatest, and so they come to Jesus asking Him to appoint them to positions of honor. Of course, they seek these glorious positions because of the authority that would be afforded them. If Jesus is to be the King of a new Kingdom, He will need chief princes to administrate for Him, and they want to be those men. In the positions of 2 and 3 in the Kingdom, everyone else will have to bow before them and do their bidding. Like Joseph in
2. They had the wrong method (35)
In order to have their desires granted, they pull Jesus aside for a little power-play. They understand His sovereignty over the placement of His servants, so they try to pull a few strings to make things go their way. They are trying to trap Jesus into a promotion of entitlement by asking Him to “do for us whatever we ask.” If they can get Him to agree to this unnamed favor, then they know they have a blank check to cash in for whatever self-serving agenda they choose. After all, in the business world, it is as much who you know as what you know that gets you the promotions, so they think it must be so in the
3. They had the wrong sense of self-confidence (38-40)
Jesus responds to their request by saying, “You do not know what you are asking.” In order for Jesus to receive the crown of glory, He must first endure the crown of thorns. There will be suffering before there is glory. The Sons of Thunder want the glory without the pain. Jesus says, “Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?”
The drink a cup is often a biblical symbol of receiving something allotted to you by God. Sometimes, the reference is to joy and prosperity, such as in Psalm 23:5, “My cup runneth over.” More frequently, however, the cup represents judgment and wrath. For instance, in Isaiah 51:17, the prophet looks ahead to the generation of captives in
Here, the Sons of Thunder are mistaken in their self-confidence, for they say, “We can.” While their commitment is commendable, we must realize that they know not what they say. For Christ will not merely suffer and die. He will suffer and die as a ransom for many. This, James and John are incapable of doing. But their eager affirmation is intended to impress Jesus with their credentials for greatness, kind of like fudging on a résumé. Jesus knows better. He knows that when He is betrayed unto death, every one of His disciples will abandon Him. And He knows that James and John will indeed suffer. “The cup that I drink you shall drink; and you shall be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized.” They will suffer for His sake. James will become a martyr at the hands of Herod, as recorded in Acts 12. John will suffer imprisonment and exile for many years. But alas, this will not earn them the places of highest honor in the Kingdom, for Jesus says, “to sit on My right or on My left, this is not Mine to give; but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.” The Father has already determined who will sit at those places, and though they are not named, we understand from this statement that we cannot impress God with our merits and accolades to such an extent that we will earn or deserve from Him any bestowal of divine favor. Whatever we receive from Him, whatever our place in the Kingdom will be owing to the mercy and grace of God and not our own efforts. James and John express great self-confidence, but ultimately it is a mask for their self-seeking efforts to secure glory for themselves. And we should point out that the rest of the disciples are probably no better than they are. They became indignant with James and John, and though the reason is not given, it is probably because they begrudge the fact that these brothers beat them to the punch of seeking their own glory with Jesus.
4. They had the wrong role-models (42-44)
The desires and methods of James and John were based more on what goes on in the corridors of secular power and politics than on the ways of Christ. Jesus unmasks this as He describes the power-brokers of the world around them. “You know that those who are recognized as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them; and their great men exercise authority over them.” Those who are powerful in the eyes of the world seize power and exercise it with authoritarian tyranny. They seek to demonstrate their greatness by iron-fisted dictatorship. They use fear as a tactic to reinforce their power over those under their control. In spite of all that Jesus has taught and modeled for them, this kind of self-seeking authority is deeply rooted in the hearts of man, even in the hearts of Christ’s men. They are following the wrong role-models, and their desire for glory and power is self-seeking, just like those of the world around them. To this, Jesus offers a corrective: “But it is not this way among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant; and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be slave of all.” With these words Jesus points to Himself as the ultimate role-model for greatness, He who, though worthy of all worship, adoration, and service, came not to be served, but to serve and give His life a ransom for many. Greatness in Christ’s Kingdom will not be evaluated based on the quantity of servants one can press into submission, but on the quality of servanthood they give to others. If they will make serving Christ by serving others the aim of their life, they will be seen as great in the eyes of God, and will find that first place of honor that eludes the self-seekers. But God is not easily duped. He is aware that there are many who will perform works of service for others with self-seeking motives underlying. God will regard the purity of heart and motive as much as the service itself, and the one who doesn’t seek his own glory, but seeks to glorify God by pouring out his or her life in the service of others will find that God will reward them with glory and honor that they never pursued.
By whose standard will we measure greatness in our own lives? Will we use the world’s standard which gauges success by the number of servants and the measure of power one can
He came not to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many. Every one of us comes to that place when we find that we are enslaved to sin and Satan, hopeless to deliver ourselves from bondage. But the ransom price for our sins has been paid by the blood of Christ on the cross. Peter says in 1 Peter 1:18-19, “you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.” He paid this price for you, to purchase you for Himself. Are you one of the many who has accepted this gift of His grace? The price has been paid to release you from sin’s shackles. Your only response is to turn from sin and look to Christ by faith to save you. He came to serve you. He came to meet the greatest need of your life – the need to be saved from sin and reconciled to the God who made you in His image. He died for you, to pay the ransom for your liberty. If you will turn to Him by faith today and call upon Him as Lord and Savior, He will save you and set you free that you may serve Him and serve on another in His name.
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