First Cross, Then Crown

Slave of All

(Mark 10:32-45, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, September 1, 2019)

[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, [33] 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. [34] And they will mock him and spit on him, and flog him and kill him. And after three days he will rise.”

[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.” [36] And he said to them, “What do you want me to do for you?” [37] And they said to him, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.” [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?” [39] 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, [40] 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.” [41] And when the ten heard it, they began to be indignant at James and John. [42] 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. [43] But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, [44] and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. [45] For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Going up to Jerusalem to Die and Rise Again

Jesus was leading his disciples on the road to Jerusalem, and they were both “amazed” and “afraid.” What Jesus was doing was not wise in their eyes. People had been seeking to kill Jesus in Jerusalem. Would it not be more prudent to stay away? Also, the danger was not just to Jesus, since his followers had some reason to think that association with him could be dangerous for them.

Just in case some of the disciples were assuming that Jesus would never lead them into danger, he again, for the third time, became very specific about his own future. In his first revelation of this awful truth (Mark 8:31), he taught them that he would 1. “suffer many things,” 2. “be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes,” 3. “be killed,” and 4. “after three days rise again.” When he returned to this important theme again (Mark 9:30-32), he added a fifth point: “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men,” vaguely alluding to the very important detail that an insider would hand Jesus over to his enemies.

In the passage this morning we get these additional details: 6. This will all take place in “Jerusalem,” 7. that there will be a Jewish judicial process, 8. where the religious rulers will actually “condemn him to death,” and 9. “deliver him over to the Gentiles,” and 10. that the Roman authorities will “mock him and spit on him, and flog him and kill him.”

This is an amazing amount of detail to get right. Jesus knew exactly what would happen to him, yet he went to Jerusalem anyway. But why would people of power be angry enough with Jesus to express their rage through an unjust murder covered in official process? While we can offer many possible answers to this question, we need to realize that this was not just about the bad personalities or wicked tendencies of a few dangerous people. Paul writes in Colossians 1:21 that all of us were once “alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds.” The problem here is part of the human condition.

Thankfully, the truth of our alienation, hostility, and evil deeds cannot change the greatest fact that Jesus foretold regarding the events that would soon take place in Jerusalem. We must not forget that Christ predicted that this story would end with a physical resurrection. And so it did.

We want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.

Meanwhile, two of his disciples had a plan for victory of their own. They wanted the best seats in what they must have assumed would be an immediate coronation of Jesus. James and John asked to sit at his right and left hand when he entered into his “glory.”

Jesus plainly revealed their ignorance of what was to come: “You do not know what you are asking.” He was about to have a baptism of suffering and death. They would eventually learn through life experience, that they would have a “baptism” fitting for those who following a king who came to his glory through a cross. James would be the first of the disciples to be martyred (Acts 12:2). John would have the suffering of a sacrificial life, would author five books in the New Testament, including one that describes him as an exiled captive. “I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.” (Revelation 1:9)

Slave of all

When the remaining disciples heard about the episode with James and John, they took offense. Jesus had to explain to them all that honor in his kingdom was not going to be like that of the kings and princes of this world. He, the king of glory, had come to serve as a lowly slave, dying for our sins on the cross. They too must serve.

In the midst of this discussion we have these clear words of Jesus regarding his death as a substitutionary atonement. This is what we mean when we think of Jesus as the Passover Lamb of God. By his blood shed for us, we have life. His was the holiness, ours the sin. He took the death, faced it, and conquered it. We are united to him in his death and resurrection. He was “slave of all.” For “the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Having won life for us, must we now still give our lives for him?

THE POINT: The mission of Jesus is for our salvation and also for our imitation. James and John did not yet understand. They had different expectations regarding how they would be right with God and how they would serve the Lord. So do we.

Applying these verses:

1. The cross and resurrection is not the way that people expect to be saved. Just magic.

2. The cross and resurrection is not the way that people expect to serve. How do we follow a cross and resurrection savior? What does this look like? See 3 John & Nazareths

Old Testament Reading—Psalm 119:41-48 – The steadfast love of Jesus

New Testament Reading—Romans 3:21-31 – Righteousness of God apart from the Law