Sermon Tone Analysis

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.