GRABBING GREATNESS Mark 10:32-45 March 19, Dr. Howard Batson First Baptist Church Amarillo, Texas

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1 GRABBING GREATNESS Mark 10:32-45 March 19, 2017 Dr. Howard Batson First Baptist Church Amarillo, Texas A great heading to describe Mark 10:32-45 is: Jesus Predicts His Passion, While the Disciples Grab for Greatness. Robert Fulghum, who wrote All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, says that he placed a picture of a woman alongside the mirror in his bathroom. Every morning as he stood shaving, he looked at her picture. She was a small, elderly, humpedover woman wearing sandals and a blue eastern robe and headdress. She was surrounded in the picture by important-looking people in tuxedos, evening gowns, and the regalia of royalty. The picture? Mother Teresa, servant to the poor, receiving the Nobel Peace Prize. Fulghum says he keeps that picture on his mirror to remind him that more than any pope, more than any CEO of a major corporation, that woman had earned authority because she was a servant. (Robert Fulghum, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, p. 189) Jesus turns the typical organizational chart upside down when he declares, Whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant (10:43). He makes it clear that even he, the Son of Man, did not come to be served, but to serve. This service, moreover, finds its ultimate expression in his death, his ransom for many (10:45). In some ways, Mark s story is coming to a climax as Jesus makes the third prediction concerning his pending passion. On this third occasion, however, he sets forth what is going to happen (10:32) with more detail and clarity than ever before. Amazement and fear (10:32) are fostered within his disciples as Jesus unveils the details of his death and resurrection. I. The Journey to Jerusalem (10:32-34) On two previous occasions (8:31; 9:31), Jesus has already predicted his passion. This third prediction, in contrast to the other two, supplies both the disciples and the reader of Mark with a step-by-step roadmap to the events surrounding the passion of Jesus. The following chart unfolds both Jesus predictions here and their actual fulfillment in the forthcoming chapters of Mark. Prediction 1 The Son of Man will be delivered (10:33) Fulfillment Mark 14:41-44 Prediction 2 To the chief priests and the scribes (10:33) Fulfillment Mark 11:18, 27; 14:1, 2, 10, 43, 55 Prediction 3 They will condemn him to death (10:33) Fulfillment Mark 14:64

2 Prediction 4 They will deliver him to the Gentiles (10:33) Fulfillment Mark 15:1, 10, 15 Prediction 5 They will mock him (10:34) Fulfillment Mark 15:20 Prediction 6 They will spit upon him (10:34) Fulfillment Mark 14:65 Prediction 7 They will scourge him and kill him (10:34) Fulfillment Mark 15:15, 24 Prediction 8 Three days later he will rise again (10:34) Fulfillment Mark 16:6 Mark begins this third passion prediction by telling us, They were on the road, going up to Jerusalem (10:32). Though Jerusalem is not actually the highest point in Israel, one is most often said to be going up as he journeys there. In verse 32, for the first time, Mark makes it explicit that the destination of Jesus journey is the holy city itself. While, at first glance, the scene seems to depict a victory procession liken to the one in Isaiah 35:10, the reader is very quickly confronted by the irony of this particular Jerusalem journey. Jesus is not going to Jerusalem as a conquering warrior. He is, rather, going up to Jerusalem to die. As Jesus and his followers journey to the holy city, Jesus is walking on ahead of them (10:32). One should not miss the sadness of the vivid scene. As Jesus walks before his fearful disciples, he is determined to do the will of God. Using similar language after the resurrection, Jesus promises his troubled disciples, I will go before you to Galilee (14:28). Additionally, the young man at the empty tomb instructs the women to Tell his disciples and Peter he is going before you in Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you (16:7). In the present passage (10:33), Jesus symbolic position ahead of his disciples communicates that, in the midst of danger, Jesus will be the first to face whatever comes their way. New Testament scholar Craig Evans notes both the directness and the accuracy of Jesus predictions concerning his passion. Jesus does not inform his disciples concerning what he thinks might happen. He, rather, tells them, in fact, what will happen (10:32). Portions of the imagery employed in Jesus prediction, moreover, echo both the prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 53) and the Psalter (22:7). From both the boldness and the specificity of Jesus predictions concerning his arrest, trial, crucifixion, and resurrection, the reader of Mark becomes immediately aware that the evil that awaits Jesus in Jerusalem will in no way take him by surprise. II. The Granting of Glory (10:35-41)

3 In their book, Lead Like Jesus, Ken Blanchard and Phil Hodges identity the characteristics of self-important leaders. First, they fill the air with first person personal pronouns: I, my, and me. Secondly, they are highly sensitive to any criticism or any effort to take them out of the spotlight or away from the microphone. Thirdly, if there is any credit to be taken for success, they rush to be first in line to receive the accolades. Mistaking Jesus journey to Jerusalem as a military maneuver that would place their rabbi in command of a newly ordered kingdom, James and John request that Jesus grant whatever they might ask. After Jesus inquires as to the nature of their request, James and John are so bold as to inform Jesus that they want to sit in his glory, both on the right and left hand of his throne. Jewish tradition designated the right hand of the king as a place of greatest prominence, while the left hand was seen as second in prominence (1 Kings 2:19; Psalm 110:1). Ironically, their arrogant assertiveness comes on the very heels of Jesus casting himself in the role of the Suffering Servant. Apparently, an earlier grab for greatness among the disciples (9:34) had only been momentarily paused, but not extinguished. When the organizational chart is issued, James and John, the sons of Zebedee, want to make sure that their places are so prominent as to be just barely beneath their rabbi. Our family endured a daily argument when my children were small. Regardless of whether we were leaving Walmart or worship, inevitably, one of our children would make a mad dash toward our car, shouting, I call shotgun! I call shotgun! To this day, I ve yet to fully comprehend the glory associated with sitting in the shotgun seat, the front passenger seat beside the driver. To my children, sitting shotgun was a powerful source of prestige, as the one relegated to the rear seat pouted as if she were assigned a pauper s place. Much like my daughters making a dash for our Dodge Durango s front seat, James and John begin running for the kingdom, declaring their prominent places once all is established. Interestingly enough, each of Jesus passion predictions (8:31-9:1; 9:31-37), is followed by the necessity of a lesson on humility and service. Following Jesus passion prediction in 8:31, Jesus has to explain that a true disciple must deny himself and talk up his cross and follow Me (8:34). In similar fashion, after Jesus second prediction, the disciples were too busy debating about which of them was the greatest to actually understand Jesus calling to humility. He corrects them, If anyone wants to be first, he shall be servant of all (9:35). Perhaps the sons of Zebedee, James and John, were feeling pretty special because they, along with Peter, have already been singled out by Jesus as the inner trio. When the daughter of Jairus was raised from the dead, James and John and Peter were the only disciples close to the action (5:37). At the glorious Mount of Transfiguration, these three were together again, basking in the very glory of the Messiah (9:2). In forthcoming events, moreover, it is these three who will go deeper into the Garden of Gethsemane with their Lord (14:33). Upon hearing their bold request, Jesus asks James and John if they are really prepared to drink the cup that he will drink and to be baptized with the baptism with which he is going to be baptized (10:38). Both the cup and baptism are figurative expressions referring both to suffering and or death (For cup, see Psalm 11:6; 16:5; 116:13; Isaiah 5:13; 51:17, 22; Jeremiah 25:15; Ezekiel 23:31-34; and Psalm 75:8. For baptism, see Psalm 42:7, 69:1).

4 Not only does the image of the cup find its foundation in the Old Testament, its greatest meaning lies in the future, during his Gethsemane prayer, when Jesus refers to the cup as symbolic of the cross. Baptism, moreover, finds its greatest fulfillment as the image of both the death and resurrection. In Romans 6, we read, Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life (6:3-4). Obviously missing the Messiah s point, James and John flippantly assure Jesus that he has no worries, for they are able to both drink the cup and bear the baptism (10:39). Indeed, Jesus responds, you will drink the drink; and you shall be baptized with the baptism, but you will not be seated at the right and left hand of my kingdom, for those seats have already been prepared by God for his chosen recipients (10:39-40). The request of the sons of Zebedee to sit at both the right and the left of the new, reigning king finds further irony when the reader discovers that Jesus actually reigns from Calvary s throne, the cross. Ironically, a pair of thieves find themselves positioned in the places sought by James and John one on his right and one on his left (15:27). Had James and John understood the selfsacrificing nature of his throne and the pending death of both the one on his right and left, one can be sure they would not have been jockeying for position so close to the crucified king. Much like today, greatness in Jesus culture was defined as possessing coercive power. The more power one possessed, the greater he was perceived. Jesus disciples, however, were not to mirror the power structures of the pagan world. The disciples will hear, You know that those who are recognized as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them; and their great men exercise authority over them. But it is not so among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant (Mark 10:42-43). Jesus is teaching his disciples that, in God s economy, one actually descends into greatness. James and John have totally misunderstood the power structure of the kingdom. Even as they request that Jesus grant them the equivalent of corner offices and on the penthouse floor, they have missed the very message of the Messiah. In his kingdom, the power structure will be turned upside down. Not surprisingly, the other disciples are appalled at the boldness of their brethren. Rather than seeing them as beyond the brawl for power, however, one should conclude that they are mostly upset because James and John beat them to the punch in grabbing the greatest seats in the kingdom. Perhaps, they too were calculating the right time to request the best seats at the kingdom table. III. The Ransom for Many (10:42-45) Setting forth service as true leadership in verses 42-44, Jesus, for the first and only time, explains why it is necessary that he might die as a ransom for many (10:45). One should not underestimate the theological significance of this section.

5 When Brennan Manning was waiting to catch a plane in the Atlanta airport, he sat down in one of the many places where men shine shoes. An elderly man began to shine Manning s shoes. Manning had this inner compulsion that, after his shoes were shined, he should pay the man, tip the man, and then reverse the roles. When the elderly gentleman finished shining his shoes, Brennan stood up, looked at the man, and said, Now, sir, I would like to shine your shoes. The man recoiled, stepped back, and said, You re going to do what? I d like to shine your shoes. Come on, you sit down here. How would you like them done? The man began to cry and said, No one has ever shined my shoes before. (Brennan Manning, The Relentless Tenderness of Jesus, p. 129) In his The Cherry Log Sermons, famed professor Fred Craddock notes the difference between self-sacrificing servants and selfish servants. The self-sacrificers live in the same world as others, have the same friends, and go to the same places. But there is truly something different about them. They love, care, go, do, and give. And if we were to recite all the good things they have done, they would be embarrassed and angry by the fact that we have called attention to their service. Craddock is convinced that the difference is that they have taken the time to attend to the spirit, the God-given Spirit, the godlike quality within them. They nourish it, feed it, pray with it, and let it breathe. And the Spirit of Christ in them eventually shapes them. (Fred Craddock, The Cherry Log Sermons, p. 23) Within this candid conversation between Jesus and his disciples, Jesus makes a noteworthy statement: The Son of Man came to serve by giving His life as a ransom for many (10:45). The idea of ransom was used primarily to describe the purchasing of freedom for a slave (Leviticus 25:51-52). In sources outside of scripture, it refers to the amount paid to free a slave or prisoner, redeem a pledge, or reclaim something pawned. Looming behind the message here is Isaiah s Suffering Servant (Isaiah 53) who bore the sins of many and interceded for the transgressors the very Lord who made his life a guilt offering (Leviticus 5:14-6:7; 7:1-7; Number 5:5-8). Setting forth the ultimate act of service, the Son of Man comes to give his life a ransom for many. In dying on the cross, Christ takes our place. Christ s upside down organizational chart was radical. He, the son of Man, was willing to yield his life in order to redeem humankind. Before we broker for power or choice seats at the banquet, we should be reminded of our Lord s shocking conclusion, Whoever wishes to be first among you shall be slave of all (10:44). Capturing the essence of Jesus lesson on servant leader, Gordon MacDonald says, You can tell whether you are becoming a servant by how you act when people treat you like one. (Quoted in Group, January-February 2001, p. 23) Jesus truly had a servant s heart, the Suffering Servant of Isaiah 53. James and John, however, had yet to learn their lesson.