Mark 10:35-45 In Search of Greatness

In our last section, we saw how Jesus was focusing specifically on the cross. The disciples couldn’t fathom it; they refused to hear it. And this section proves it.

I have never thought of James and John, brothers who were formerly fishermen, to be notably ambitious. But they show some ambition here. “Jesus, grant that we may sit, one on Your right hand and one on your left, in Your glory.” 

They desire to bypass the cross, and go straight to the glory. And that’s what we all want, isn’t it. We want Jesus to bless our life now, as it stands, and then even better later. But the disciples at this point, as followers of Jesus, were tasked with following Jesus. That is, they were supposed to follow Him to Jerusalem, and they were to follow Him to the trial, and they were follow Him to the cross. They did not. They abandoned Him. 

It is difficult for us to catch what this means today. As followers of Jesus, we are not to seek greatness, but to be servants (the word “slaves” is probably more accurate). We are not to seek our own, because we are not our own. We are bound by another, and our calling is to serve. We are not to make a name for ourselves, but we are to make the name of Christ known. We are not to seek to be first in line, but rather to continually give our place to others.

The other disciples were disgusted with James and John because they asked first. It was not because they were committed to the cruciform life, and were disappointed that James and John were not. No, they were all dreaming of being in the King’s court, and were frustrated that they did not have Jesus’ ear at this moment in place of James and John.

Jesus is not commending one group of disciples over the other. He is seeking to teach them all, that the Christian life is not to be lived in search of greatness. And so He does not use any particular disciple as the good example. He can only use Himself.

“For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:45 NAS95)

Here is the King, granted, a very different kind of King. He will not be served, because He is here to serve. His service will take on a particular character. It is not merely doing nice things for people and making them feel better about themselves. Rather, this service has more to do with getting to the heart of the matter; with dealing with their deepest problem and need. And so He says that He came “to give His life a ransom for many.” “To give His life” means just that, to give up His life. He is willing to die for people like us, and in fact He did.

Thinking in 3’s: Psalm 145:3 An Adjective; an Adverb; and a Noun

Thinking in 3’s: Psalm 145:3 - An Adjective; an Adverb; and a Noun

Psa. 145:3 Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised,

and his greatness is unsearchable.

It is good for us to think about the greatness of God. One of the benefits is to resist our natural (sinful?) tendency to whittle God down to our size. We like to imagine that He is a lot like us. But no, He is great.

The other benefit is that it reminds us of our smallness. As this psalm goes on to demonstrate the greatness of God, it does so by showing His thoughtfulness and tenderness to those who are small, to “all who are falling,” and “all who are bowed down” (v.14).

But back to verse 3! First, God is described, with an adjective. God is great, or, as it reads in our text, “Great is the Lord.” All that is packed into that word, “great,” would take a lifetime to draw out. But what is not allowed by this word is to ascribe anything to God that is un-great. That would be a contradiction of terms. God is great.

So how then should this great God be praised? Well, with an adverb. He is “greatly to be praised.” The problem, then, for us, is that we are too small, too small-minded to praise God greatly. We are more apt to praise Him small-ly, pitifully. And so, when God established in very material ways the order of His worship for His people, the Israelites, He was careful to give great detail so that they would worship Him properly and well. And yet, even then, they did not always worship Him “greatly.” Oftentimes, they were very selfish (“what’s in it for me?”).

Thankfully, God is His grace has given us help from above in order to praise Him greatly. His Holy Spirit is our companion and enablement, provided through faith in Jesus, to help us worship greatly. We couldn’t do it without Him.

Finally, we have a noun. Greatness. It’s a thing, or better, an idea. It’s real, though it’s rare. In fact, in the sense used in this verse, this kind of greatness can only be found in one place: in God. And therefore, if anyone does not know God, he cannot know greatness. Oh, I know that there are different standards of greatness, for instance, soccer players who achieve greatness. But that falls so far short of what we are talking about, a different word should really be used. Greatness is found in God, in God alone, and our lives are very poor if we do not find that greatness in Him.

Mark 10:32-34 Hearing what We Want to Hear

Mark 10:32   They were on the road going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking on ahead of them; and they were amazed, and those who followed were fearful. And again He took the twelve aside and began to tell them what was going to happen to Him, ³³ saying, “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered to the chief priests and the scribes; and they will condemn Him to death and will hand Him over to the Gentiles. ³⁴ “They will mock Him and spit on Him, and scourge Him and kill Him, and three days later He will rise again.”

Jesus speaks in this paragraph with amazing clarity and specificity. He speaks, not to a huge crowd, but gathers around Him just the Twelve. He is speaking to a small group. They can all hear him. They can ask questions (but, no questions are recorded). 

He tells them exactly what is happening, and what is going to happen. Where are we going? To Jerusalem. What is going to happen? The Son of Man is going to be handed over (delivered, used often in judicial settings) to the chief priests, and then to the Romans, or Gentiles. The Jewish leaders will condemn Him.  The Gentiles will mock, spit, scourge, and kill. Then, this Son of Man would rise again. When would that happen? Three days later. 

The next paragraph, that we will treat separately, proves that the disciples did not hear what Jesus was saying. The only confusing question that I can imagine for why this did not penetrate the thinking of the disciples is the identity of the Son of Man. To whom is this going to happen? Does this Son of Man refer to Jesus, or to someone else? Could they have been confused about this?

The answer, I believe, is “no.” The first reference to Son of Man in this Gospel is 

Mark 2:10 “But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins” — He *said to the paralytic, … “Get up.”

Jesus is teaching in a house, and friends lower this “paralytic” on a bed, down through the roof, since all other access to Jesus is blocked. Jesus says to the man, “Your sins are forgiven you,” and, of course, the religious leaders object, because only God can forgive sins. And Jesus says for the man to get up, and he does. 

Jesus’ explanation for his words are for a purpose, “so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” Now, the disciples were there, and it seems that there could be no mistaking that it was He, Jesus, who made the statement about forgiving sins, and who healed the man, and who, then, made the reference to the Son of Man doing the very action that He Himself had just enacted. No I don’t think the disciples were confused.

I think the problem is that we hear what we want to hear. Or, perhaps more importantly, we don’t hear what we don’t want to hear. There is a huge subjective element to our hearing. There is nothing wrong with the speaker. There is nothing wrong with our eardrums. It is our brains, our minds and hearts, that filter out what doesn’t set will with our desires.

It seems that the appropriate prayer is that God would help us (cause us) to heed even that which we don’t want to hear.

Mark 10:17-31 With Whom are we Most Disappointed?

The story of “the rich, young ruler” is one of the most familiar in the Bible. It seems not to be a parable, but a real story with a real character who comes to Jesus with a most important question: “what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” 

The question sounds good on its face. Not so much when we really think about it. We inherit from our parents. What shall I do to inherit? Well, being born into the family is not so much your doing as theirs (though they surely didn’t know what they were going to get when they got you). And, the actual act of inheritance, as opposed to the right of inheritance, depends on the death of your parents. And so what do you do? Well, you can wait it out - the usual, moral approach. Or, you can do the immoral if you really want to speed things up.

It’s really not a question of “doing” at all, which Jesus exposes by his reference to the commandments. He then to mentions several of the 10 commandments explicitly, #’s 6, 7, 8, 9; then the command “do not defraud,” which is not formally part of the 10 commandments; and then Jesus jumps back to #5. The young man says, “all these I have kept from my youth up.”

Really? In Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, he addresses the more far-reaching implications of several of these commandments. Have you ever hated someone, and been hateful toward them? Then you are guilty of murder. Have you ever looked at another person with lust, so that you desired to use them for your own purposes? You are guilty of adultery. Have you ever stolen, whether something material, or immaterial - as in stealing credit that belongs to someone else, or stealing glory that belongs to God? Then you are guilty. (This last case, concerning stealing, is not part of the Sermon. But I think my interpretation of the far-reaching implications accords with what Jesus did with “murder” and “adultery”.)

The young man says, “All these things I have kept,” meaning he has carefully guarded each of these things. But has he? Has anyone really kept all these things. Psalm 143:2 admits “for no one living is righteous before you.” It seems that in this instance, the young man has broken the 9th command concerning bearing false witness, with reference to himself!

So then Jesus challenges him to divest himself of his possessions and follow Him. This invitation calls into question the young man’s commitment to obey the 10th command, which so far has not been mentioned: “Thou shall not covet.” And the young man leaves, saddened, disheartened, disappointed, “for he was one who owned much property.”

My question for application is this: With whom was he most disappointed? I am quite sure he should have been most disappointed in himself. I suspect he was rather more disappointed in Jesus. He confuses two very important thing. We often question whether or not God meets our expectations. Instead, we should ask if we meet His. And if not, and we certainly do not, then, then we ask, “How shall I inherit eternal life?” And the answer is not, “what shall I do?”, but rather, recognize what God has done in Christ to make this possible, and then, humbly ask how it is that you might begin to follow Him. (Hint: the apostles made it quite clear: repentance and faith.)

Thinking in 3's: Psalm 119:161-168

Thinking in 3's: Love, Love, and Love

This is another "3" that I found in Psalm 119, this in the next to last section of this long psalm. The psalmist affirms his love for God's Word three times.

Let me offer just a note about how I see "covenantal shift" happening in the Bible. As we read the Psalms, Jesus has not yet appeared on the scene. His coming has been predicted in a number of ways in many Old Testament passages, but these readers have not yet seen Jesus, the Living Word.

And so, for followers of Jesus, in at least some important ways, Jesus the Living Word is the the One whom we love. Yes, we continue to "love Your law," and the Old Testament text is not out-dated or discarded - but in a more full sense, we have a relationship, not with a book, but with a Person. It makes me want to sing along with the children: "Oh, how I love Jesus, because He first loved me."

Verse 163 says: "I hate and abhor falsehood, but I love your law." This world is full of lies and liars. Even people who intend to tell the truth do not have all the facts, and so their good intention-ed statements still end up being lies. Further, many in our world intentionally mislead for evil ends. But God is not like that. His Word is not like that. And we love Him, and His Word for it.

Verse 165 says: "Great peace have those who love your law; nothing can make them stumble." We find in this second reference to "love" the benefit of loving God's Word: peace and stability. We can infer from this that those who do not love God's Word, and thus live according to it, rob themselves of peace and stability in their lives. Many people wonder at their lack of peace when the reason for it is quite obvious. We tend to look for it in all the wrong places.

Verse 167 says: "My soul keeps your testimonies; I love them exceedingly." This kind of love does not come to us naturally. The Spirit of God is required if anyone is to love God exceedingly; to love Jesus exceedingly; to love His Word exceedingly. We cannot do it on our own. To really grab hold of God, and to be grabbed hold of by His Word, requires the Spirit's acting. And how does this happen? Only through faith in Christ. Apart from Christ, we cannot know God, and apart from Christ, we cannot receive the benefit of the Spirit. 

And so, finally, come to Christ; and love God's Word.

Thinking in 3's: Psalm 119:153-160

Thinking in 3's: "Give me life"

Three references occur in this 8-verse section of the Bible's longest chapter: "Give me life." These references may have a physical aspect to them, but the life that is most clearly in focus is spiritual life. We all face the prospect of physical death until Jesus comes again, but the promise of eternal life is directly tied to the possession of spiritual life that is freely given by God.

Each "give me life" is followed by "according to."

1. Psalm 119:154 "Give me life according to your promise." This is the only way that we receive this life: by faith in in the promise of God. This is so different than "life according to prediction." It is not "life according to actuarial table." Notice the phrase from Titus 1:2: "in the hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised long ages ago." 

2. Psalm 119:156 "Give me life according to your rules." When we receive the gift of eternal life from God, it is not merely a gift that stays in storage until it's needed at physical death. We experience the blessings of that life right now. Things like divine provision and protection; peace and contentment; joy and purpose. These are experienced, according to the promise of God, but also according to our walking in His ways: "according to your rules." We receive eternal life as a gift. We can forfeit immediate blessings by wandering away from God. "Give me life according to your rules."

3. Psalm 119:159 "Give me life according to your steadfast love." Ultimately and finally; at the beginning of each new day and at the end of one that's just been used up - this life, eternal life, depends, not upon me, but upon God who is rich in mercy and grace. My life is dependent, not upon my love, but God's; not upon my faithfulness, but God's; not upon my good intentions, but on God's unchangeable promise. 

Praise God for the gift of life, that blows open the definition of life as biological existence; that guarantees a forever-fellowship with Him and His kingdom; and that invades our present lives even today, even at this moment, and makes us glad.

Thinking in 3's: Psalm 119:145-147

Psa. 119:145 With my whole heart I cry; answer me, O LORD!

I will keep your statutes.

146  I call to you; save me,

that I may observe your testimonies.

147  I rise before dawn and cry for help;

I hope in your words.

As we seek to walk with the Lord, we must beware of those "besetting sins." And, true, they must be dealt with. But those sins are but an expression of a larger, unhealthy condition. Perhaps a part of that condition has to do with a neglect on our part to regularly "cry" or "call" to the Lord in prayer for specific help with our spiritual infirmities. Three times in these verses, the psalmist "cries" or "calls." He does so to the LORD, to Yahweh, our covenant God; he does so with a whole heart, not half-heartedly; he asks for salvation and help; it's the first thing he does in the morning. Let's do the same. Let's be those who cry out to the Lord.

Social Distancing

 “Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.” (1 Peter 2:16–17 ESV)

Christianity is, in large part, communal. Therefore, it has a social aspect to it. It is not primarily social, but it certainly is not primarily individualistic. The “love your brother/neighbor” commands help to establish this fact, as well as the many “one-another’s” of the New Testament. And so, in an environment where government officials are advising “social distancing,” we have to think about how to be good citizens while at the same time acting Christianly.

As we would expect, public statements advising “social distancing” have to do with the material and physical. There is a new virus afoot, and they are concerned to slow its spread (see the graphic above) so that the health care system can keep up with needs. As Christians, we also have concern for material and physical needs, but in addition, we place a priority on spiritual needs. 

Out of love for others, we do not want to spread COVID-19 to others. We limit social circulation, and we are especially wary of spreading to the elderly who may be susceptible to more severe cases if they contract the virus. This seems backwards. Normally, as we love others, we move out in order to engage. In this case, out of love, we stay home, we practice social distancing, - but, as Christians, we can still engage.

Christians can pray. We can pray for others. We can pray for the elderly. And it is not, “if you can’t do anything else, pray.” We should always pray, and pray first, often followed by action. Perhaps in this situation we might learn something about the priority of prayer in all cases, whether or not we are able to act.

And Christians can use their phones. Oh, I know, non-believers can use their phones as well. But what if, during this time, we took opportunity to visit via phone with people that we will not currently visit in person. Can I say that I am speaking now of a conversation, and texting is not a conversation? I’m talking about a real phone call, when you converse with someone, and listen, and think, and respond, with your voice. This is not only good pastoral care; it is also good Christian care.

And if you are healthy, check out who in your neighborhood needs supplies that you might be able to pick up. What single parent doesn’t have someone to look in on their kids home from school? And come to church. But only if you’re healthy.

To be Happy, Healthy, and Holy

This triad of “h”-words has no special importance, other than they are easy for me to remember and they have provided me some food for thought. They certainly don’t stack up with “faith, hope and love.”

I’m a little embarrassed about the first word: happy. Good and sour Christians aren’t supposed to think too much about being happy, or so I tend to think. I’ve always been a little bothered about that phrase in the old hymn’s chorus that says: “Trust and Obey, for there’s no other way - to be happy in Jesus - but to trust and obey. Is that really what we are supposed to obey, in order to be happy. It seems a little shallow and self-centered. 

But the math changes when we apply it our offspring. Even Calvinists want their kids and grandkids to be happy. But what do we really want when we want their happiness. The Bible word would be “Blessed.” I hope that’s what we mean. And since the opposite of “blessed” is “cursed,” it seems to be a good thing to want for our kids, and even for ourselves.

We also want health. We know there are strings attached. We know that we can’t eat garbage and also demand that God protect us from heart disease. But we also know that we can eat carefully, exercise diligently, and still be prone to breakdowns of health. What’s more, health is not limited to our bodies, but also our minds and emotions and relationships. So yes, we want to be healthy, and don’t forget about that desire to be happy.

But all is basically lost if one is not holy. Oh, you can be temporarily happy, or healthy, at least superficially so. You can live for today, so long as you don’t allow yourself to think about tomorrow. But it is this “holy” concern that forces us to think about tomorrow, about meeting the One Person who is absolutely holy, and who has placed a demand of holiness upon each of our lives. On that day of accounting, happiness and health will hinge completely on the presence, or absence, of holiness.

And here is the Good News: God gives holiness in His Son, Jesus, who has taken our sin and given us His righteousness. We accept this Great Exchange by faith in Him and in what He has done. What’s more, there is the promise of eternal happiness and health at that time when we see Jesus and are made like Him.