Not So With You

Children? You know what it’s like to explain something over and over and they still don’t get it! It can be exhausting! Sometimes I read the stories of Jesus interacting with disciples and feel like he is a dad and the disciples are his kids. Especially Peter!

Today’s passage is one of those times. Mark 10. Jesus has been doing his earthly ministry. Healing and teaching. And the disciples were following. He is headed into Jerusalem. He knows why, disciples still aren’t sure. As walking, makes his 3rd and most detailed prediction of what is about to come.

And it’s in response to this prediction that we find our passage for the day: Mark 10:35-45

Just a handful of verses before this, Jesus told them to become like little children.. and they complied! Their manipulative way of making the request was childish, and like a child, they just weren’t getting it!

Childish tactic – do whatever we want you to do for us!

Jesus – what’s that?

Be on your left and your right. To be in power with him. To give them status, position, authority. Greatness.

Jesus answers with a question. Can you drink the cup that I will drink and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?

Surprisingly they say yes and Jesus agrees.

Partially. Agrees that they can, indeed, join in that. But then dashes their dreams with the reply that the positions they are seeking are not for Jesus to give.

You can’t help but sense the exasperation and frustration in Jesus. After all this time together they still weren’t getting it!

What they wanted wasn’t absurd. It was based on the common understanding of the messiah – the understanding was that the promised messiah would be the one to restore Israel to greatness.

James and John, the sons of Zebedee, wanted in on this action. Wanted to make sure that they were taken care of.

But they weren’t the only ones. The disciples were mad! Not because they thought James and John weren’t getting it, but because they hadn’t made the request first!

There is just so much irony in this story! Take a look back at the last few chapters:

Mark 8:34 – take up your cross. Lay down your life. Lose your life to save your life.

Mark 9:35 – to be first, must be last. Welcoming the child

Mark 10:13 – become like a child

Mark 10:17 – rich young ruler

Plus 3 predictions of what is going to happen to him

And this is the request? To make sure our positions of greatness are secure! Make us great. Glorify us. Let us in on the power. Make sure we get what’s coming to us. We deserve that! We’ve had your back the last 3 years, that’s the least you can do! Sit at your left and right. (Who was at right and left? Criminals)

Jesus, no doubt in a moment of “are we really doing this again?” Vs 42-45

You want greatness? Glory? Power? I’ve been trying to tell you. Greatness is found in the suffering servant. In fact, he sums up his mission in verse 45 – did not come to be served but to serve, to give his life for the sake of other people.

That is the greatness of the kingdom of heaven. That is the way of Christ. This is the messiah. Not a warrior king, but a suffering servant.

But he doesn’t stop with simply clarifying who he was and what he was up to. Imbedded in this interaction is an invitation for his disciples. It’s an invitation to join in to the way of Christ.

Verse 43 – not so with you

An invitation for his disciples in the text, but also an invitation for you and for me.

Because if we are honest, we probably find ourselves misunderstanding the way of Christ more than we like. In the same place as the disciples where we’re just not getting it. A handful of ways I see this misunderstanding playing out:

Obvious:

-Using status as a Christian for our own benefit or advantage

-We fall into this same extreme need or desire to be great, or to be in power, like the disciples. Our beliefs or ideologies need to be the supreme authority over all people. We need to do whatever it takes to get people who represent our worldview in positions of power, whether political candidate, party, SC justice… Need them in power. At the root of it is so that we make sure that “I” am taken care of. That my status of power/authority is maintained. It’s the same desire as the disciples.

More Subtle:

-Sometimes we are willing to accept the invitation of the suffering servant. But we simply see it as the inevitable outcome, or result of following Jesus.

Like – as I follow Jesus or stand up for my convictions and speak out for what I believe in, of course I’m going to face suffering, or even persecution. We’ve accepted that such suffering will come as an unavoidable result of following Jesus.

But in reality, I think the invitation of Jesus is so much more. It’s an invitation to participate in the redemptive work of Christ. To actively join in the way of life that requires us to lay down our lives for the sake of others. The invitation is to truly join with the suffering servant, not just see suffering as a necessary outcome.

-Sometimes I wonder if our striving or desire for greatness/position actually comes in the form of the reward of heaven.

I can suffer here because of the hope of heaven. Or in heaven I will finally have my greatness, or my status, position, all my glory.

That’s not at all the invitation that Jesus extends in this passage. In fact, that’s the very thing that Jesus says is not his to decide or to hand out. He can’t offer that greatness that they want, but what he can offer (and agrees that they can do) is to drink the same cup and be baptized with the same baptism. And what is that cup and baptism? Suffering. The way of the cross.

The first person to get it in Mark? The soldier… he saw the way he died, “surely this was the son of God.” Not resurrection, not ascension into heaven, death. Suffering. This is the son of God revealed. The question is, what will we do with that invitation?

Communion is a way to participate in the way of Christ.