Mark 10:35-45

Throughout this book, Jesus has been making some very bold claims about what is happening in and through his ministry. He has been talking a lot about this thing that he calls the “Kingdom of God.” He has been saying over and over again that through his words and actions - the mundane and the miraculous - the Kingdom of God is arriving before their eyes.

It’s important to remember that Jesus isn’t making this thing up. This isn’t his brainchild. The idea of the Kingdom of God was a powerful force in the cultural story of the Jewish people for centuries. Going all the way back hundreds of years to the Old Testament prophets like Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel - there was this flame of hope that one day the God who created all things would come and set the world aright. He would throw out all the evil doers who spread violence and oppression. God would change out the flags, and reclaim his land and bring about a new life for all people as he oriented the world in the way that it was always meant to be. And this new life and new world was called the Kingdom of God.

The claim that Jesus has been making is that God is reclaiming his land. God is becoming King, and it is happening through Jesus. The way that Jesus most often describes who he is was through the use of the title “the Son of Man.” He uses it in this text. “The Son of Man” is a reference to a vision in the prophecy of Daniel, chapter 7 - where the Son of Man figure takes the throne of God over all creation, and his kingdom is established forever. All the evil nations are once-for-all defeated and put to an end when the Son of Man takes the throne. And this is the figure that Jesus most often self-identifies as. He is the Son of Man - the one through whom God will establish his everlasting kingdom.

And we don’t talk about it much, but this bold claim did not make Jesus unique at all. There were many Messianic movements both before and after Jesus. There were many other men who claimed to be the Christ, the Son of God, and the Son of Man. And these men would operate and gain traction on the outskirts of Israel, and they would attract a following. They would call these disciples to serve the Messiah and lay down their lives for him, and they would go to Jerusalem to take back the city and the temple, kick out all the Romans and corrupt priests, and install God’s true king on the throne. This was a familiar occurrence. The Messiah would lead a group of people to Jerusalem and people would die. It always ended badly. For the disciples, for the Messiah guy, and for the city.

So here is Jesus in Mark 10. He has gained a following on the outskirts of Israel, and he is now leading those disciples to Jerusalem. We’ve seen this all before. Claiming to be the Messiah did not make Jesus unique. What made him unique, was some of the things he says today.

Jesus taught that greatness in God’s Kingdom does not belong to those who conquer, but to those who serve.

Look with me in in verse 32:

And they were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them. And they were amazed, and those who followed were afraid. And taking the twelve again, he began to tell them what was to happen to him, saying, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles. And they will mock him and spit on him, and flog him and kill him. And after three days he will rise.”

Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem, the text says he’s leading the way. And this group of disciples are with him. It’s not a small group. It’s a crowd of people. But Jesus doesn’t hype the crowd up with talk of conquering the Romans or expelling the priests. He doesn’t ask that they be willing to die for him and his cause. Instead he tells them, that he is going to Jerusalem to be delivered over to the Romans and killed. And after three days he will rise from the grave. Jesus says the mission is to go and give his life away. Previous Messiah’s never spoke like that.

And you can tell that even his closest disciples had no category for this kind of Messiah. Let’s continue, verse 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 of you.” And he said to them, “What do you want me to do for you?” And they said to him, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.”

Now this is a really, really strange thing to ask Jesus, given what he has just said. He has just said that when they arrive at their destination, he will be arrested and tortured and killed; and his closest followers come up to him and say, “Hey, we’ve got something that we want you to do for us, and we don’t want you to say no. We want to share your power and authority. When you take Jerusalem, we want to be there with you in your glory.”

Do you see the disconnect? Do you think that James and John really heard what Jesus said about his dying? Or were they distracted by something else? Did they really see the pain and concern in Christ’s eyes as he spoke about his impending death, or were they too concerned with their own self- interest that they were actually blind and deaf to his need?

This whole episode really emphasizes how alone Jesus was as he prepared to face the cross. Even those closest to him were too preoccupied with their own interests to be there for him in his time of need.

What James and John had eyes for was the throne. They had eyes on the authority and power they felt was their right. They were with the Messiah from the start. It’s like when you discover a band before they get big. They were with Jesus before anyone else. So now that he was heading to Jersualem to take the throne as the Son of Man and bring the Kingdom of God to earth, they wanted to sit at his right and left hand in positions of power and prestige. They had eyes on the throne.

But they don’t understand how power, prestige, and authority work in God’s Kingdom. They didn’t understand greatness in the Kingdom of God. But, one day, they would. Verse 38:

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 with which I am baptized?” 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, 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.”

James and John get so much right, but so much wrong at the same time. They rightly understand that Jesus is going to Jerusalem, and there he will be glorified. He will be raised up as the Christ. He will be glorified. He will sit on the throne of the world as it’s King. The Kingdom of God will finally be here on earth. They get that right; but they don’t understand that the path to glory, the path to the Kingdom, runs through the cross.

Before he is glorified, Jesus must drink from a cup. Throughout the Old Testament, the prophets used the image of a cup to describe suffering and punishment, usually at God’s hand. It was the cup of God’s wrath which he had prepared for his enemies, and Jesus says that he is going to Jerusalem to drink from that cup. The cup of God’s just anger for sin - Jesus, the Beloved Son of God, is going to drink it to the last drop.

And this business about being baptized. Jesus is not referring to what we do at Redeemer, where we dunk you in water to celebrate God’s gift of grace. That is an altogether happy affair! What Jesus is talking about is being overwhelmed, weighed down, not unlike someone who is submerged into the water, cast into the depths. Jesus would later refer to his death on the cross as his baptism.

Jesus will be glorified in Jerusalem, but not by conquering it. He’s going to Jerusalem to drink the cup of God’s wrath, and to be baptized in the waters of suffering and death.

This is a very strange route to glory. It seems upside down, doesn’t it? It seems backwards. And that’s because it is. The Kingdom of God turns greatness on its head.

Verse 41:

And when the ten heard it, they began to be indignant at James and John. And Jesus called them to him and said to them, “You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Greatness in God’s Kingdom does not belong to those who conquer, but to those who serve. Jesus says that the great ones in God’s Kingdom - the ones held in high regard, the ones that are given authority and power - they are those who have oriented their lives around the needs of others.

Authority, power, rank, greatness - whatever you want to call it - in the Kingdom of God it is upside down. It’s not about being above others, it’s about coming underneath and lifting others up.

There was a time in Seminary when I thought I was supposed to become a Chick-Fila Operator. We were about a year into seminary classes, and we took a semester off to catch our breath a little and do some self-care. I started working full-time at the local Chick-Fila, where I met Andrew, our Operator. Andrew was like no one else I had ever met. He was a guy in his early thirties, and he was running two Chick-Fila’s , which in the Chick-Fila world, is a really big deal. They don’t let just anybody be an Operator for two locations, and the fact that he was so young was a testament to the quality of his leadership. But that’s not what impressed me about Andrew. What impressed me was his vision for the stores under his authority.

Chick-Fila has a look. It’s clean cut. It’s suburban. It’s got a look and a vibe. Well Andrew intentionally hired people outside of that look and vibe. He intentionally hired people who were rough around the edges - people who were likely passed over in numerous interviews, people who weren’t given many opportunities for one reason or another. Andrew filled his stores with these people as his team members. And he poured into them. His managers poured into them. And it was hard work, because his team was filled with messy people - and yet, so many of these people just flourished in that supportive environment.

Andrew could have easily used his position of authority to make the most money for the smallest cost, but instead he leveraged his power and position to meet the needs of others. To invest in and serve others. To pour out his time and money and energy for others.

For about two weeks, seeing what Andrew was doing to help change the trajectory of people’s lives, I wanted to be a Chick-Fila Operator - because I was so attracted to what Andrew was building. But the reality wasn’t that I wanted to be an Operator, the reality was that I wanted the Kingdom of God. I wanted to be participate in the work of leveraging my power and position for the sake of others.

Greatness in God’s Kingdom does not belong to those who conquer, but to those who serve. It’s not about being above others, it’s about coming underneath and lifting others up. This applies to our jobs, it applies to our relationships, it applies to our marriages, it applies to our parenting. In any and every place that we are given authority - Christ calls us to use that authority to address the needs of others.

And that is exactly what Christ does for us. “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Unlike all those claiming to be the Messiah before and after him, when Jesus looked to Jerusalem, he didn’t see a people to be conquered. He saw a people to be served - a people to be lifted up and loved. And that is why he chose to drink the cup himself.

Jesus does more than give us a worthy example to emulate in our lives. Christ’s death is more than just exemplary.

It does something to us. Christ gave his life as a ransom. In that day a ransom was a payment made to buy back a person’s freedom from prison or slavery. And that is what Christ’s death has done. He has freed us from living a life centered on ourselves, our interests, our comforts, our needs. He has freed us from the sins of selfishness and self-centeredness. By his death our hearts are renewed and changed.

And what I love most about this story is that we get to see James and John become changed by Christ’s death. We get to see that supernatural work at play, and Jesus predicts it. He asked if James and John were ready to attain glory through the way of the cross, and they said they were ready - which they weren’t. It’s like when my roommates in college who all ran cross country in high school asked if I was ready to go for a morning run with them. I said yes. But goodness, I wasn’t.

They weren’t ready yet, and they didn’t understand the Kingdom yet. But something happens to James and John after the death and resurrection of Jesus. As the story continues, they do come to understand greatness in God’s Kingdom. They do understand what it means to hold power and authority in the way of Christ. They serve and love and give their lives away. James would be the first apostle killed for his faith. John would be the last to die, but he’d be persecuted and forced into exile.

I don’t think the James and John of Mark 10 would have had the strength or resolve to walk that path. But their hearts were changed. And the promise of the gospel is that even the hardest of our hearts can change by the power of Christ. And maybe for you, today is the start of that. Maybe today is the beginning of a new way of thinking about greatness. Maybe today, you’ll begin to orient your life around someone other than yourself. And maybe it’s not. But the offer is always before us. Like a banquet, it is laid out in front us each and every day. Will we let Christ work on our hearts and change us from the inside out?