Upside Down Leadership

A Continuing Story: The funnel is tightening

The gospel of Mark has been like a funnel. In fact you can even envision Israel like a funnel.

Jesus has been swirling around at the top for most of the book.

Did you ever see one of those coin funnels at the mall back in the day?

As the coin gets closer and closer to the bottom, it begins moving faster and faster.

This is what is going on in this story.

Jesus is picking up speed.

He is moving with intention towards Jerusalem.

And as He is doing so He is saying things to those following him that show the seriousness of what He is doing.

Jesus is an invading King in the world.

Usually when an invading King makes an advance towards the capitol city, he’s headed to kill.

But Jesus is not going to Jerusalem to kill, but to be killed.

That’s why he pulls the disciples aside to make sure they knew where they were going.

Mark 10:32–33 HCSB

32 They were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them. They were astonished, but those who followed Him were afraid. Taking the Twelve aside again, He began to tell them the things that would happen to Him. 33 “Listen! We are going up to Jerusalem. The Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn Him to death. Then they will hand Him over to the Gentiles,

This tells us something about God and His character.

Jesus never once leads his people on a blind journey.

He doesn’t tell us everything and every detail, but He tells us what we need to know.

Because he’s a good Shepherd.

And because God is a good Father.

A good Father doesn’t have to disclose every single detail of His plan to His children, but a good Father should tell His children enough to trust Him.

In this case, Jesus is preparing them with two critical pieces of information.

I will be killed

I will rise after 3 days

But here’s another critical truth,

even when God has disclosed truth to us, we need the gift of faith to understand and receive it.

At this point the disciples seem to be utterly addled.

They aren’t processing what He is saying.

In fact, in the entirety of the gospels, the only person who seems to actually HEAR and understand Jesus foretelling of His own death is Peter, who promptly tries to rebuke Jesus for this.

Making it obvious that these disciples so were so thoroughly shaped by a cultural expectation of Jesus, that they couldn’t understand Him when He is even standing in front of them.

New Testament II: Mark (Revised) The Mistaken Premise of Their Request

CHRYSOSTOM: They were expecting him to enter into [the kingdom], but not to go to the cross and death. Even though they had heard it ten thousand times, they could not clearly understand. Since they had not gotten a clear and certain knowledge of his teachings, they thought that he was going to this visible kingdom and would rule in Jerusalem. So the sons of Zebedee caught up with him on the road. They thought they had found the opportune moment. They put their request to him. They had broken away from the throng of the disciples and, just as if the whole situation had turned out exactly as they wanted, they asked about the privilege of the first seats and about being first among the others. They asked for this because they assumed that everything was finished and the whole business was over and done with. They made their request because they thought that now was the time for crowns and rewards.

It would be as if your whole life, every person in authority had always told you,

2+2=5

and then Jesus comes along and says, actually 2+2=4

and your response is to spiritualize it.

This is the danger we are up against in our day as well.

There is a temptation to take the words of Jesus, to take the instruction of God’s word,

and to soften it.

To make claims like, “well, when the Bible says this or that, it’s just talking about spiritual matters, not physical realities.”

Or to say “well the cultural context at the time changes how we should understand this text.”

These are variations of the original lie.

“Did. God. Really. Say.?”

When Jesus speaks plainly in 2+2=4 language, we must listen and obey.

A Vision for the future: Baptism into Christ

Mark 10:35–37 LEB

35 And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came up to him and said to him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask you.” 36 And he said to them, “What do you want that I do for you?” 37 So they said to him, “Grant to us that we may sit one at your right hand and one at your left in your glory.”

Now, these brothers weren’t being entirely presumptuous with their question.

They were part of the 3.

Jesus inner, inner circle of friendship and disclosure.

They were probably related to the High Priest.

They had connections.

They had stuff they could offer Jesus.

If Jesus was about to go set up a new shop in town,

they could really help him.

They could be the generals...

Jesus gives them some rope,

Mark 10:38 LEB

38 But 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 the baptism that I am baptized with?”

And because they are still blind to the reality of what is about to happen,

they answer,

“We are able.”

But are they?

What cup will Jesus drink?

The cup of wrath.

What baptism will Jesus receive?

Death.

How could Jesus death be a baptism?

Water, in the Bible, is always used either to save or to judge.

The best example of this is at the Red Sea.

The water of the Red Sea saves God’s people,

and destroys God’s enemies.

All at the same time.

And Jesus very death does this.

Because the death of Jesus washes away our sins,

when we are baptized we are identified with Jesus.

His death becomes our death,

His life becomes our life.

Romans 6:3–4 LEB

3 Or do you not know that as many as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 Therefore we have been buried with him through baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so also we may live a new way of life.

So when Jesus responds to them,

Mark 10:39–40 (LEB)

39 And they said to him, “We are able.” So Jesus said to them, “You will drink the cup that I drink, and you will be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with

I think there’s a dual meaning here.

First, these brothers would indeed suffer for the sake of the name.

James’ death is actually recorded in the Bible

Acts 12:1–2 HCSB

1 About that time King Herod cruelly attacked some who belonged to the church, 2 and he killed James, John’s brother, with the sword.

And John certainly suffered much.

A pretty strong extra-biblical tradition has him being dipped in boiling oil to try and kill him and when that doesn’t work they cart him off to Patmos where we find him at the beginning of the book of Revelation.

So these men will definitely share with Christ in his sufferings,

but the second meaning Jesus has here is that by nature of their baptism into His name, they will share complete identification with His death.

But what about this business about right and left?

Mark 10:40 HCSB

40 But to sit at My right or left is not Mine to give; instead, it is for those it has been prepared for.”

We speak of the cross as Jesus’ enthronement.

One year from today we will *hopefully* watch an inauguration day as a new President begins their new administration.

The cross is the inauguration day of the administration of the Lord Christ.

Who sits at Jesus right and left on His throne on inauguration day?

Two criminals.

But the rest of the disciples still don’t get it.

They think James and John just tried to pull a fast one on them.

So they respond like this.

Mark 10:41 LEB

41 And when they heard this, the ten began to be indignant about James and John.

Revealing to Jesus that they’ve got a profound misunderstanding about leadership.

So He pulls them aside.

Which leads us to our last point.

A Leadership Principle: Upside-down Kingdom

I mentioned earlier that the disciples assumed that Jesus was going to go set up shop in town.

Here’s the thing,

Jesus WAS going to set up a new shop in town.

But He was going to do it God’s way, not man’s way.

He’s going to do it the love way, not the sin way.

Which in turn, becomes the manliest beginning of a kingdom there ever was.

Jesus kingdom is going to start completely different.

Mark 10:42–45 LEB

42 And Jesus called them to himself and said to them, “You know that those who are considered to rule over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their people in high positions exercise authority over them. 43 But it is not like this among you! But whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, 44 and whoever wants to be most prominent among you must be the slave of all. 45 For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

What Jesus is going to do on the cross is going to accomplish a lot of things.

But one of the biggest things that it does is that it ushers in a new age in history.

We call this the church age.

It’s what we are living in right now.

And loved ones, this is why church is so vital.

It is God’s will that in this age,

the church itself will be the instrument that the Spirit of God works through to bring about the benefits of resurrection life to men women and children around the world.

This is why you can’t be disassociated from the church if you want to be about what Jesus is about.

This is also why in church history,

we see the church either being really awesome, or really not awesome almost entirely in correlation to how well her leaders have listened to Jesus’ words in this passage.

Let’s read it again.

Mark 10:43–45 HCSB

43 But it must not be like that among you. On the contrary, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, 44 and whoever wants to be first among you must be a slave to all. 45 For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life —a ransom for many.”

Let’s read it backwards with a little bit of commentary added.

Jesus is the Head of the body, the church,

and his position was secured in an act of selfless love that atoned for the sins of the world.

Therefore, if you want to lead others, you better be willing to follow the train tracks Jesus laid down for you,

which is others first, every time.

This is why it is so damaging when a leader in the church acts selfishly.

Because it is upending the order that God gave to His church.

Oh and by the way,

this applies to every other sphere of your life.

If you want to lead your family well,

love sacrificially

If you want to lead at work,

love sacrificially,

if you want to be a better friend,

love sacrificially,

if you want to be a better spouse,

love sacrificially.

But here’s the massive hitch.

We all know that we are hopelessly selfish.

Who is fit for the task?

How does one live and lead like this?

Just how Christ told us we would.

By participating in his death by baptism.

Think about what is happening in baptism.

New Testament II: Mark (Revised) The Grace Offered in Baptism

CHRYSOSTOM: For when we immerse our heads in the water, the old humanity is buried as in a tomb below, and wholly sunk forever. Then as we raise them again, the new humanity rises in its place. As it is easy for us to dip and to lift our heads again, so it is easy for God to bury the old humanity, and to lift up and display the new. And this is done three times, that you may learn that the power of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost fulfills all this.

We tend to think of baptism as a one time affair.

And it is.

But we ought to be remembering and re appropriating our baptism every single day.

Luther’s Small Catechism

What does such baptizing with water indicate?

It indicates that the Old Adam in us should by daily contrition and repentance be drowned and die with all sins and evil desires, and that a new man should daily emerge and arise to live before God in righteousness and purity forever.

Being a Christian is a drowning business.

Drowning the old man,

raising to life as a new man,

day in and day out until we rest with Christ in death.

You cannot lead others if the old man is reigning as a tyrant in your life.

You will be a tyrant.

You can only lead others if the new man is ruled by Christ.

I want to end with an example.

You’ve probably heard of or seen the sign of the cross.

This isn’t a Roman Catholic thing.

It’s a Christian thing.

It’s not in the Bible, but it is a practice that believers have employed for thousands of years.

It’s not superstition,

it’s a way of remembering your baptism.

When you were baptized,

if it was a Christian baptism,

it was done in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

I want to give you freedom to use this practice however you see fit.

Traditional uses.

Entering church

Call to Worship

Beginning of your day.

Let us be a baptized people, that rests in Christ’s finished work on our behalf.