The Road to Glory through Suffering & Service

Introduction

Good morning church! My name is Alex and I serve as one of the pastors here. This last week I was at a preaching workshop where we spent time sharpening our tools that we use when it comes to studying and understanding passages while thinking through how to craft sermons.

The workshop isn’t lecture heavy at all though. There are a couple lectures throughout it, but the way it works is that during the week we pick one book that we are going to study together and each person is assigned two passages and you come to the workshop prepared to present all of your study and arrangement of your sermon. I love the workshop because the heart behind all the men is just a desire to make progress in our study and preaching with one another, but at the same time, you are opening yourself up to constructive criticism.

As I spent time working on preparing my passages at first glance I gave a good effort with the time I had and moved on. But what happened after the first day of the workshop I found myself going back to my worksheet that evening because one of the keynote preachers who is teaching the workshop is my small group leader and this internal wrestle with not just wanting to get better at my preaching, but this desire to be known as the guy who gets it right crept in. So that night I go back home and after the kids go to bed I pull out my laptop and start reworking what I have on my worksheet and all I’m thinking about is how impressed everyone is going to be.

I’m sitting there thinking “oh yeah this is sooooo good” and I find myself thinking “I hope they think it’s so good that they ask me next year to be a small group leader” The funny thing is - I don’t even actually want to do that.

All I wanted was to be praised for being great and wanting status among the other guys in the small group. I stopped thinking about how I could help serve these other preachers and started focusing on my own personal desire for greatness and status. I stopped caring about what questions I could ask to help other men think through their work and the whole time I was caught up in how to present my work.

I was more concerned with being great for my own glory that I missed the opportunity to serve others well.

In Mark 10 this morning we come across the same misunderstanding that the disciples have about greatness, but Jesus takes this as an opportunity to remind them again about what greatness in his kingdom is like.

Our big idea for the morning is - the greatest position is a position of servanthood.

My heart was craving a throne, not a towel. That’s exactly where the disciples find themselves in today’s passage. We’ll see that through our passage in three sections. First we’ll see the Road to Glory, then we’ll see the disciples' ambition, and finally true kingdom greatness.

Open up your bibles with me again as we see our first observation - the Road to glory.

Point 1: The Road to Glory (v. 32-34)

The disciples continue along with Jesus on this road to Jerusalem. Right after this illustration and lesson that Jesus has given to the disciples about entrance into the kingdom of God he’s just reoriented everything for them. Children, who are viewed so low in their community, and how they approach Jesus is a great example of a rich young ruler approaching Jesus. As he explains why, Jesus sums up the lesson by telling them in verse 31 “many who are first will be last, and the last first.”

So as they continue this path, the disciples are astonished, afraid as they make their way to Jerusalem. Jesus is walking ahead of them. He’s taking the position of leader, the greek verb can be used in contexts of someone leading the way, just like the point man in a military unit. Jesus is physically demonstrating to them what he just taught. He is first among them as they travel to the holy city, but they’re also somewhat seeing a glimpse of this meaning that he’ll also be last.

Jesus again for the third time gives them the prediction of his death telling them what would happen to him. He makes it clear now - the direction they have been headed is exactly their destination as Jesus tells them they’re headed to Jerusalem. They know they’ve had poor interactions with the religious elite and how they could cause division.

Jesus once again calls himself his favorite title as the Son of Man to be handed over to the religious leaders. But this time, Jesus is more descriptive than any of the previous two times he’s instructed them on his death. Here he gives them details. He’ll be handed over to the Jewish leaders, they will condemn him to death. He will be handed over to the gentiles. They will mock him, spit on him, flog him and kill him. But that’s not where the story ends because he will rise after three days. The prediction of the passion as he’s brutally taken to the cross and raised on that Sunday morning. Imagine knowing the exact address where you will be tortured and executed and continuing to walk toward it willingly.

The disciples may have a picture in their mind of what it means that they’re headed to Jerusalem. But Jesus himself knows what it’s actually going to be. His destination is Jerusalem and he’s courageously and confidently leading the way to the city where this prediction will come true.

Jesus isn’t shying away from this. His road to glory as Messiah is not one that you would expect. He’s been demonstrating through lessons over and over again that the Kingdom of God that he is bringing continues to be completely upside down from what would be expected. They would assume that the Messiah would come and come upon Jerusalem to execute his justice to the oppression of the people by the religious leaders and the Romans, but it’s not how they would expect. The true Son of Man knows his fate. The road to glory will not be through a military battle as they storm Jerusalem, but it will be a road of suffering.

It’s easy for us to glance over the prediction for the third time just like the disciples. But consider the descriptions placed upon what will happen to Jesus. He will innocently stand at a trial where while fully knowing that he has done nothing wrong - he will be condemned to death as guilty. Imagine knowing your friend was with you the evening that a crime they were accused of was committed. But at the trial the testimony is not allowed and your innocent friend is condemned to the death penalty.

I’m not sure how many of us enjoy a little mocking, let alone hours of it by hundreds of people. I’ve been drooled on by an infant, but to be spat upon by another adult carries a heavier weight. Being brutally flogged, whipped, over and over again made to carry your own death bead to only be pierced by rusty nails hammered into your body hanging you to suffocation.

This is no easy road. Yet Jesus knows with confidence, he must lead the way to his own death sentence. The road to glory is not one that you’d look at with honor, but one you’d think was humiliating.

If the journey wasn’t heavy enough, what comes next must have felt like a relational gut punch.

Point 2: The Disciples Ambition (v. 35-40)

This seems like the most embarrassing thing to do at this point. Jesus just finished telling them that he was going to die and it’s as if they weren’t listening at all. James and John are clinging on to the first words Jesus said “we are going up to Jerusalem. The son of Man…” and they just stopped paying attention.

They know this trip to Jerusalem means something significant. Jesus has been calling himself the Son of Man out of Daniel 7. The prophecy gives them this picture of the Son of man coming to have dominion, glory, and a kingdom where the whole world will serve him. In their minds, Jerusalem would be the coronation ceremony.

This image they have drives them to take action. They’re time to act on what is going to happen is running out so they decide to make their request known to Jesus.

The way they ask the question is wild for me too. They don’t just mock the prediction of his death, but even as they see him as this Messiah, Son of Man, they decide to not ask him a question, but demand something of Jesus. They want him to do whatever they ask.

What is interesting is that Jesus here doesn’t respond in a way that we would assume. But I think Jesus is setting up his greater point by listening to them in their demands. They ask Jesus to sit at his right and left in his glory. Here the disciples are asking for their own glory, not the glory of God. All they want is their own righteous positions of power. They’re asking for the place of highest honor being at the right and left of the King.

Jesus goes on to tell them that they can’t handle what it would take to receive the glory that is his. He tells them they can’t handle the cup and baptism he’s about to receive. They hear “cup” and think celebration.” Jesus means “judgement.” They hear “baptism” and think “initiation.” Jesus means “immersion into suffering.”

But after they double down in their ambition Jesus he predicts their own future. James becomes the first of the 12 to become a martyr for his faith as we learn in Acts 12:1-2 of his death. John would go one to be exiled in life as he stands for his faith in Christ. Both receive lives that come with a cost as they follow Jesus as their King.

But here, they are driven by their greed, their ambition, their selfish desires to be considered great.

Personal Story

I personally love this passage. It means so much to me. Because just over 10 years ago, I read this very story in my bible for the first time and I totally understood what James and John were asking for. I could empathize and feel exactly what they wanted.

For my whole life, I had craved greatness. Being met with the message of not being great or enough in multiple areas in life being second best was what I always felt like. But it drove me to think life is about greatness. I’ll be taken seriously or given attention, or finally be valued if I can prove myself to be great, to demonstrate how much talent I have, to make sure I shook the right hand and had the perfect connection.

But it was this same passage that I still to this day think about - I've got it all wrong. James and John’s ambition drives them to miss the entire point that Jesus has been trying to make for the last two plus years as Jesus has walked with them. They wanted to get their title, status, and authority and beat their friends to it before Jesus brought in his kingdom. But he has one more kingdom lesson to tell them. The greatness you desire, isn’t greatness at all.

Jesus hears their ambition, exposes their misunderstanding, and now turns to redefine greatness itself.

Point 3: Kingdom Greatness (v. 41-45)

After James and John try to weasel their way to a position of status, Jesus brings the rest of them together. The other 10 are indignant at James and John. But here’s the thing, they’re not mad because they think they’re being selfish. They’re mad because they weren’t smart enough to ask for it first!

As he gathers the 12 together, he begins to instruct them again. They’re headed directly to where those who have power are headed. He uses them as the illustration of his lesson as he reminds them of how they lord power over people, they heap heavy burdens on them. They’re tyrants. I can imagine the 12 sitting there listening to Jesus feeling like this is the locker room pre game speech with the Amen section going off ready to say “yeah those guys are terrible! It’s going to be us and we're going to be so much better once we get there.”

But then the curve ball comes. Jesus lands his point. That won’t be you. In fact, rather than glory, you’re only going to be great, if you will become a servant. Being a servant was low. Being a slave was lower. Jesus says “you want greatness? Go lower than low.”

I can imagine them looking at Jesus with great confusion once more not understanding how someone who is in a position of authority would also at the same time be someone who is the slave of the people who they oversee. How can glory be glued to servanthood? That makes no sense at all! The podcast on leadership styles and guru workshops on leading well didn’t exist. Kings were kings and wouldn’t dare serve the people underneath them.

But Jesus doesn’t just expect this of them. He goes on to demonstrate that He, the Son of man, did not come to be served, but to serve. He didn’t come to gain life from the power, glory, riches that he would receive. But the Son of Man is going to actually give his life, sacrifice it.

He’ll give it as a ransom, which is a payment, bail out purchase for a prisoner of war or slaves so that they would be set free and released from jail. You don’t pay a ransom for strong people. You pay a ransom for captives who are helpless to free themselves.

Jesus takes their understanding of the Son of Man who has dominion, honor, glory, and power but here he displays that he isn’t just the Son of Man, he is also the Suffering Servant from Isaiah 53. Isaiah shows a servant who is despised, rejected, crushed and whose suffering brings healing.

Gospel Push

Jesus here demonstrates to them the fulfillment of the prophecies and demonstrates to them that their view of greatness has been wrong the whole time. They want to be great in their own kingdom with power to lord it over others, but Jesus himself is the Lord of Lords and Kings of Kings who would come to actually use his power, lay it down to be handed over, innocently condemned to his death, mocked, spit on, flogged, and killed while serving his people by paying a ransom for them.

The people whom Jesus is giving his life as a ransom are prisoners of a spiritual war for their souls. Their slaves who are captive to the sin that has them chained and are in desperate need of a payment to set them free from the eternal imprisonment they’re in. And Jesus has come to make a way to set them free.

Jesus the Son of Man, demonstrated for his disciples what we need to see. He did not come because he wanted us to just have a life that’s easy. He did not come to set us free so we could never struggle. But Jesus came to set us free from sin and not just give us eternal life with him but to be the servants of the Kingdom of God. The payment of your ransom actually bonds you to a life of servanthood. Consider Paul, over and over again declares himself and introduces himself as a servant of Christ, a slave to Jesus.

And so the gift of salvation is given to all who would freely receive Jesus as the payment for their sin, but it comes with the gift of seeing and understanding that greatness in our eyes is not the way. But our lives are a gift not for status and power for our own glory, but an opportunity to be servants as we break in the kingdom of God.

Application

So here's the question for us today - When you walk into a room, do you ask “who will serve me?” or “whom can I serve?”

In your home, are you constantly thinking about how you’re always asked to do things, or are you looking for ways that you can serve others? Students, are you constantly annoyed at your parents because they’re asking you to take out the trash or are you thinking how you can serve them around the home?

As you come on Sunday mornings - are you thinking about what you can get out of church today, or are you asking how can I serve my church family today? There is a reason why we don’t call this a service, this is a family gathering who serves one another. I’d love to invite you to reflect on why? This isn’t just for the adults, this is for all of us, kids, students, young adults, married and multiple young kids, empty nesters, retirees. None of us are excluded from serving one another.

The beauty of the gospel reminds us that no one has reason to see themselves as greater, higher status than others who lord their authority and power over people. But as God’s people we see the example that Jesus gave us. One who could have, the one who does have all authority, who rightfully has taken his place in heaven, sits at the right hand of the Father, and yet humbly became man and offered his life so that we would be able to experience his kingdom and know his glory. We live out the gift of bringing the Kingdom of God to those around us as we don’t look for status, but we seek to serve as a savior. The greatest position we could ever have is the one of servanthood that Jesus lived.

We serve because the King served us first.