October 21, 2018
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Context…third and most thorough passion prediction…their road has finally started taking them up to Jerusalem.
The New Revised Standard Version A Third Time Jesus Foretells His Death and Resurrection
32 They were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them; they were amazed, and those who followed were afraid. He took the twelve aside again and began to tell them what was to happen to him, 33 saying, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and 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; 34 they will mock him, and spit upon him, and flog him, and kill him; and after three days he will rise again.”
Also note how Matthew frames up the story abut James and John’s request — by putting it in their mother’s mouth.
Why Matthew does this…he tends to soften Mark’s presentation of the disciples as totally obtuse...
The function of the disciples in Mark’s gospel...
As symbols of the difficult nature of faith…how hard it is to get what Jesus is trying to teach us…or even the more fundamental challenge of understanding how life works, change happens and the cost of leadership…accepting how life works...
Another interesting point from today’s scripture = Jesus’ cup and baptism language.
Mark 10:38-
the disciples are by turns afraid of storms
But Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?” They replied, “We are able.” Then 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;
The image of the cup in the OT…symbolizes the human experience of accepting one’s lot...
The sweetness or bitterness of the cup’s content are from God…the only decision for a human to make is whether to drink this willingly…to accept their fate.
For Jesus, life is something God pours into a cup for you...
Take this cup from me...
The challenge is whether you will accept the cup, drink it...
The image of baptism…a characterization of life as the experience of being immersed in mighty waters, being submerged…of choosing to experience life this way...
As the mighty waters of the Red Sea when they are not being parted for you...
Take this up from me...
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea, so that the water may come back upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots and chariot drivers.” So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and at dawn the sea returned to its normal depth. As the Egyptians fled before it, the Lord tossed the Egyptians into the sea. The waters returned and covered the chariots and the chariot drivers, the entire army of Pharaoh that had followed them into the sea; not one of them remained.
The challenge is whether you will accept the cup, drink it...
take this up from me
Why Jesus handles their request two ways, first with a questions, then with a statement...
This is why this language of “are you able to do this” and “we are able” is somewhat jarring and gets quickly replaced with the “you will drink” and “you will be baptized” language.
The question points to the necessity for willingness...
The statement about what will happen to them either addresses the reality that their association with him will prove dangerous for them...
Or it reflects a tradition concerning James, that he was in fact one of the early martyrs of the church...
The language about what Jesus is able and unable to grant...
This language also picks up on the theme of God’s role in determining what will happen to people or be granted to people...
So Jesus called them and said to them, “You know that among the Gentiles those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. But it is not so among you; but whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all.
Christian leadership as the natural extension of this capacity for acceptance...
As it’s not about lording it over people, or controlling people, or being served by others, but serving and ministering to people...
Some ideas for application:
1) The idea that faith may be less a matter of leaping into some great unknown and more a matter of acceptance...
Accepting the fact that leadership is costly.
For example, that there is a cost to leadership and/or that change is a painful process
Accepting the fact that with change comes resistance.
[Accepting that not everything in life is under our control.
That God "has prepared” experiences of both joy and sorrow for us.]
2) Approaching the difficult times in life, the difficult experiences, as cups to drink or baptisms to be baptized with...
The power of active acceptance…taking the cup and drinking it, letting yourself down into the pool of swirling water.
The difference between letting things happen to you versus your grasping the experience, heading towards it, entering into it, imbibing it.
Using images to change mindset and behavior.
The power of imagining that cup…imagining that pool.
Using images to change mindset and behavior.
The difference between Jesus and the Egyptians…Jesus went to the Jordan to be baptized by John; God “shook off” the Egyptians into the Red Sea.
3) In situations in which you sense you are being called upon to lead, ask yourself — what a deacon do here?
(Note — not what a teaching elder would do.)