Seats or Sight?
Notes
Transcript
Mark 10:35-52
Mark 10:35-52
Good morning, It's so good to be with you this morning after taking some time away.
It was a real blessing to step out of my normal responsibilities for a season, to spend extra time with my family, and even to learn from visiting Christ’s church elsewhere.
Time away is always good for me, it gives me space to reflect on the year behind us, and to look ahead to the year in front of us, and over the next few weeks I want to share some things God convicted me of.
But before any of that, I want to take a moment to share the first thing that was impressed upon my heart this week. As I began preparing to step back into things a few days ago, I did what I always do first: I got updates. I got reports.
And what I heard was so good.
I heard about families who were cared for in the middle of real hardship.
I heard about physical needs that were met — both inside this church, and for people in our community who came to us with need.
I heard about new babies, and read messages between the Pastors and Deacons as they prayed together for all of the above.
And, as is ALWAYS the case when I step away, some of the prayer requests were for those who have been part of the church this last month, whom I have never even met.
Every single time, stepping away reaffirms in my head what my heart knows full well: God builds His church, and He carries her, through Christ, who is her head.
While I was gone, I spoke with leaders from another church that's been in the middle of a long pastoral search. They told me, plainly, that they're just ready to "get back to normal" — find the guy, get him hired, and get back to being the church.
When I heard that, it made me sad. It also made me deeply thankful, because Rooted would know nothing of that kind of season. The work of ministry here does not depend on me. The shepherding of this body does not depend on me. The preaching of the Word and the administration of the sacraments do not depend on me. The building up of the believers in this room does not depend on me.
The church we read of in the bible, knows nothing of being organized around a single personality, instead it’s built around the true Senior Pastor/Shepherd of the church — the One who died for her.
And the lesser shepherds who serve her, serve only by His will, and never alone.
So this morning, I am thankful for Christ's provision over this body.
I am thankful for you, the members of the church, and the hands and feet of Christ, for your sacrifices and service.
I am thankful for the Deacons, and every ministry leader who serve the needs of the body and pray in all seasons.
And I am thankful for Brian, Alex, and Austin, my Pastors, and the Shepherds of Rooted Church.
And that's not a bad place to land as we open God's Word today, because the encounter with Christ we are going to look at this morning is about what real shepherding, real greatness, and real service look like in the kingdom of God.
So let's turn to Mark 10, and consider the vanity of:
Chasing Seats
Chasing Seats
To feel the weight of the passage that____ read to you this morning, you have to know where Jesus is walking and what He had just said prior to this exchange.
Mark 10 opens with Jesus "on the way, going up to Jerusalem," and three times in this chapter alone He has told His disciples plainly what waits for Him there:
He will be betrayed, condemned, mocked, spit on, flogged, and killed — and after three days He will rise.
Mark tells us the disciples were amazed, and those who followed were afraid. This is not a triumphant march. It is a resolute walk toward suffering, and everyone around Jesus is wrestling with this revelation.
And it's in the shadow of that third and most detailed prediction of the cross that two of His own disciples pull Him aside with a request.
The timing of this is important. Whatever else is happening in this chapter, it's happening on the road to a cross, and Mark wants us watching to see who understands that, and who doesn't.
For it’s in the midst of suffering that one discovers the truth about their heart, and thus James and John come to Jesus saying:
“Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.”
Notice how the brothers open the conversation. They don't lead with a humble request, they want a blank check.
"We want you to do for us whatever we ask of you."
Before Jesus has even heard the request, they want His agreement in advance. This is the posture of people who have stopped asking Jesus what He wants and started asking Him to rubber-stamp what they want.
And for many people, this is what suffering reveals in them.
Many people set out fully intent on following Jesus, and the closer they follow Him, the more they begin to realize what Jesus meant when He said:
“If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
And as we begin to grow weary, and fearful, our hearts begin to make demands.
Walking away from Jesus doesn’t typically begin with outright rebellion, it begins with entitlement.
The gospel reveals that we are owed nothing, and that every moment of grace is a gift from God; but the world tells us, that we deserve what our neighbor has that our heart desires.
And so our heart become negotiators: “I am willing to sacrifice XYZ, but, I deserve _____.”
James and John have had some startling observations on this road. Earlier in the chapter they encountered the Rich Young Ruler, who we’ll talk about next week. No doubt, any of them would have envied his status and wealth, this was the kind of man they admired and surely they were under the impression that following Jesus was going to lead them to being far richer and more powerful than he.
But Jesus calls the man to give up all that defines him, to give away his riches and his title and join them on the road to the cross…and the man is filled with sadness and turns away.
James, John and the disciples are astonished by this.
So when Jesus asks them, the most important question of their lives: What do you want me to do for you?
They respond with a demand for greatness:
And they said to him, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.”
James and John ain’t playing… (like, I have questions…were they sweating, who did the talking?)
They're not asking for a blessing.
They're asking for the two most powerful seats in the kingdom, they are asking to be second and third to the King!
They've heard Jesus talk about His coming glory, and they want in, but not as servants of that glory, they want to be co-rulers of it.
Now, to their credit, their faith in Jesus is real, they believe Jesus is going somewhere and that a kingdom really is coming. They know that glory really is on the horizon.
But their faith has been hijacked by their own hearts, their own wordly desire for security and gain has distorted their view of the coming kingdom.
They want the crown without the cross.
They want the glory Jesus described without the suffering Jesus had just described in the same breath.
How often do we come to Jesus believing He is good, believing He is powerful, believing He has something to offer, and then we quietly begin to angle for our own version of blessing.
We want to secure our lives. We want guarantees. We want comfort, stability, influence, and control.
We may not say it out loud, but underneath so many of our prayers is the same request:
“Jesus, position my life in a way that protects me and prospers me.”
We want to follow Jesus, as long as it leads to something we already value.
But Jesus has just told them where He is going: suffering, rejection, death. The path to His glory runs straight through sacrifice.
James and John hear that… and immediately ask for seats.
Why? Because like us, they instinctively resist anything that feels like loss.
We want to ensure that following Jesus will not cost us too much.
But the kingdom of God does not work that way.
You don’t secure your life by positioning yourself—you receive life by surrendering yourself.
You don’t arrive at glory by avoiding sacrifice—you arrive there by following Jesus through it.
This is what it looks like when real belief in Jesus gets bent inward, and we begin to conflate what we want with what we need.
Thus Jesus responds:
“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 with which I am baptized?”
Jesus' response isn't a rebuke so much as it is a correction.
They think they're asking for a promotion. Jesus knows they're asking to sit where, in the end, two criminals will hang, one on His right, one on His left, at the moment of His greatest glory revealed through His greatest suffering, the cross.
They want the glory. They have no idea the glory they're picturing and the glory Jesus is walking toward look nothing alike.
So Jesus asks them directly: "Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?"
In Scripture, the cup is regularly the picture of God's judgment and suffering poured out (Psalm 75, Isaiah 51, Jeremiah 25).
And baptism here isn't water, it's being immersed or submerged into man’s suffering and sin.
Jesus is asking, in effect: "Are you ready for the suffering that precedes the glory?”
And they said to him, “We are able.” And Jesus said to them, “The cup that I drink you will drink, and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized,
Their answer — "We are able" — is confident, but ignorant to an eternal degree.
But Jesus doesn’t dwell on that, He knows they don’t understand…and He knows the day is approaching when at last they will.
So instead, He simply says:
“The cup that I drink you will drink, and with 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.”
Jesus tells them something remarkable: they will, in fact, share in His suffering.
Church history and tradition tell us James was the first of the Twelve to be martyred (Acts 12) and John suffered exile on Patmos.
The cup they claimed they were able to drink, they could not drink as Christ would, for scripture tells us He drank it down to the dregs!
But, they would, in fact, drink from that cup. God took their sincere but misguided ambition and it did become, eventually, real suffering for the sake of the kingdom.
But as for their seating request?
Jesus says: “Not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared."
Even the Son, in His submission to the Father's plan, will not hand out positions of glory as personal favors. This ought to strike our hearts with humility.
I mean, just sit with the theological weight of that for a moment: if the incarnate Son — who has every right and every authority — will not overrule the Father's appointed plan to grant a request out of personal affection, how much less should we expect to secure standing in God's kingdom through our own ambition, our connections, or our performance?
And practically, this is a word for anyone chasing platform or position amongst the church today.
Position was never Christ's to sell, and it was never ours to buy.
Whatever place is being prepared for you was settled by the Father before you ever thought to ask for it, and your part isn't to angle for it. It's simply to be found faithful in it.
And when the ten heard it, they began to be indignant at James and John.
The other ten disciples hear about James and John's request and they're indignant — and notice, Mark doesn't say they were grieved for their brothers' misunderstanding of the cross.
Indignant is the word for people who wanted those seats for themselves and are furious two others asked first.
This isn't really a story about two ambitious disciples. It's a story about twelve. James and John just said the quiet part out loud.
So Jesus gathers all twelve and redraws the whole map of greatness. The world's model is rulers who "lord it over" people, where greatness is measured by how many people serve you.
But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant,
Jesus grounds that posture in Himself, telling them He didn't come to be served but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.
James and John wanted to sit at His right and left in glory; at the cross, two criminals will hang there instead, for Jesus Jesus purchased freedom for sinners like them — ambitious, self-interested, slow to understand — like us.
In the kingdom Jesus is building, the direction runs exactly backward: whoever would be great must be a servant; the beggar is of higher status than the ruler.
And to demonstrated that clearly, this text we’ve read wasn’t meant to stand alone.
The disciples who were just found guilty of chasing seats, are led by their Savior to one:
Chasing Sight
Chasing Sight
And they came to Jericho. And as he was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a great crowd, Bartimaeus, a blind beggar, the son of Timaeus, 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!”
Mark moves our attention from the inner circle to the edge of the crowd:
James and John are disciples, insiders, established, walking in the procession with Jesus.
Bartimaeus is a blind beggar, an outsider, sitting by the roadside.
And yet, when he hears it is Jesus of Nazareth passing by, he does something James and John never did in their whole request: he acknowledges who Jesus is. "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!"
This BLIND MAN, with nothing…unable to see Jesus with his eyes, sees exactly who He is through his faith, He recognizes Jesus as the Promised Messiah.
Unlike Nicodemus, or the rich young ruler who ran to Jesus calling Him “Good Teacher” earlier in the chapter, Bartimaeus recognized the King…and cried out to Him saying “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!”
The posture of the disciples is now seen in the entitled crowd surrounding Jesus.
When we begin to see ourselves as worthy of more, we inevitably view others as worthy of less.
The crowd, and the disciples, see now value in this man. If Jesus would turn away the wealthy and powerful, surely he has no time for the blind and broken.
And so the beggar is told to “pipe down,” Jesus could not be bothered, there are more important people to attend to.
But he won’t pipe down, in fact, “He cried out all the more."
This is the posture of real faith, not politely waiting for a better moment, but pressing in precisely because he knows this may be his only moment.
Where James and John approached Jesus with confident entitlement, Bartimaeus approaches with desperate, unrelenting need, and it is the desperate cry, not the confident request, that Jesus stops for.
And Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.” And they called the blind man, saying to him, “Take heart. Get up; he is calling you.”
Jesus stops.
Of all the noise in that crowd — the disciples, the followers heading to Jerusalem for Passover — Jesus stops the entire procession for a beggar's cry.
And notice: Jesus doesn't go to him directly. He says, "Call him.”
Jesus could have easily went to the man directly, we’ve seen Him do that many times in scripture. But in this encounter, we learn something of the nature of evangelism.
Jesus, allows the disciples to call the man to Jesus, not only so that He’ll meet Him, but so they can be blessed by having a role in His saving work.
Jesus invites us to call others to Himself for the same reason, that we might experience His power and take part in His saving work.
And so they go to him and say: "Take heart. Get up; he is calling you."
And Bartimaeus's response is immediate:
And throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus.
That cloak was likely his most valuable possession. A beggar's cloak served as blanket, shelter, and collection tool for coins.
But in the presence of Christ, it is only weight that slows him down! So he throws it aside without a second thought.
Unlike the Rich Young Ruler, Bartimaeus, who has almost nothing, but releases the little he has instantly.
Make no mistake, having little to lose is seen by the world as a curse, but it may well be the blessing you need.
Sometimes the person with the least is the most apt to follow Jesus wholeheartedly — and the person with the most struggles with all they have to let go of.
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.”
This is it. If you get one thing from this sermon get this.
Jesus asks Bartimaeus the same question He asked James and John:
What do you want me to do for you?
James and John….give us power and a throne.
Bartimaeus….give me mercy and sight!
They ask for position.
He asks for mercy.
James and John, who could physically see Jesus standing in front of them, were spiritually blind to what they were even asking.
Bartimaeus, who was physically blind, saw Jesus more clearly than anyone else in this whole passage.
Friends, obscurity and greatness are not opposites in the kingdom of God.
The world tells us significance comes from the seat you occupy, the platform you're given, the authority you hold over others.
And we buy this. We believe it not only about ourselves, but about the church.
We believe greatness is revealed through how many people are in the seats, and how many people know our name.
But Bartimaeus had none of that — no seat, no name recognition, no standing — and he is remembered by name, in Scripture, forever, because of the honesty of his need and the accuracy of his faith (it’s worth noting that the Rich Young Ruler who the world thought so much of…we don’t know his name).
And in response to his faith, Jesus simply says:
“Go your way; your faith has made you well.” And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him on the way.
And immediately Bartimaeus receives his sight. The disciples wanted to be partakers in glory, and Christ allows them that, just not in the way they thought they wanted.
They called a man to Jesus, and at His very word Jesus grants him mercy and sight!
And notice the last line of the story, easy to skim past: "and followed him on the way."
Jesus told him to go his way — and Bartimaeus's way became Jesus' way.
This is what genuine mercy received always produces: not a man who takes his healing and returns to his old life, but a man who now follows the One who healed him, on the road toward Jerusalem, toward the cross of Christ.
This is the picture of true discipleship the whole passage has been building toward.
Not James and John clamoring for seats beside a throne they don't understand, but a healed beggar walking behind a Savior he does.
Closing:
Closing:
As we close this morning, I want to leave you with a verse that been spoke to me over the entirety of my time away.
On my first week off, our DNA Group bible reading plan had me in Acts 9, where I was struck by on particular verse, that demonstrates the transition:
From Seats to Sight
From Seats to Sight
So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied.
I am gonna close with this verse for the next couple weeks, to share all that the Spirit has drawn out of this beautiful picture, for me.
But today, I simply want to place this picture right next to the request James and John brought to Jesus, that we might see the striking contrast.
James and John pictured a great church — a great kingdom — as one with two of its own seated in places of honor, ruling and recognized.
Luke, writing decades later, describes what a genuinely great, flourishing church actually looks like from the outside: not a body organized around who sits where:
but a body at peace,
being built up,
walking in the fear of the Lord,
walking in the comfort of the Holy Spirit
— and multiplying.
Notice what's absent from that description. No mention of position. No hierarchy of honor. No record of who was seated at whose right hand.
The engine of a multiplying church, according to Luke, isn't ambition for platform — it's a congregation full of people who have stopped asking "what seat can I have" and started living like Bartimaeus: people whose only claim on Jesus is mercy received, who threw off whatever they were clutching, and who now simply follow Him on the way.
A church like that doesn't need to fight over seats, because every seat that matters was already settled by the Father before anyone asked — and every person in it knows they're there by mercy alone.
That's the distance this whole passage has walked us: from two disciples chasing seats beside a throne they didn't understand, to a blind beggar chasing sight and following Jesus down the road toward the cross, to a church, generations later, quietly multiplying because it had learned to want mercy more than position.
So I leave you this morning with a question that Christ Himself asks you through His word today:
What do you want me to do for you?
What do you want me to do for you?
Let us Pray?
Communion:
Communion:
Here in a moment, I am going to invite you to come and partake in communion.
But before you come, I want to invite you to take a moment, to sit with Jesus, and consider the question He asks.
What do you want Him to do for you?
Are you asking Him to bless the seat you've already picked out for yourself, the place you've decided you deserve?
Or are you willing to come like Bartimaeus, with nothing to leverage, crying out simply for mercy, willing to throw off whatever you're clutching in order to run to Him?
Bread and Juice = His glory given to us
