Mark 10:35-45 What Lies Ahead
Good morning! We are back in the Gospel of Mark this morning, chapter 10, verses 35-45, page 846 in the pew Bibles.
I don’t know about you but I really don’t like it when passages of Scripture are written directly to me and about me. I’m not a fan.
Before we get into the Scripture I’d like to pray, that God would illumine our minds and enlighten our hearts with His Word.
Let’s pray.
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.”
Now, before we go off on James and John, I want to give a little bit of background on this event.
Matthew records in his Gospel, in Matthew 19:28-30,
28 Jesus said to them, “Truly, I say to you, in the new world, when the Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. 29 And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life. 30 But many who are first will be last, and the last first.
Some of those words will sound familiar to you if you were here two weeks ago, about leaving homes and families for Jesus’ Name’s sake, and the first being last and the last being first.
But what is more important to notice is Jesus’ promise to the twelve disciples that they would sit on twelve thrones judging the tribes of Israel when He Himself sits on His own glorious throne.
So when we read of James and John approaching Jesus about sitting on His right and His left, it is not a totally random request, they are simply reminding Him of His promise to them and trying to work out the seating arrangements.
Pretty simple, I guess we can close in prayer.
Ok, so maybe it’s a little more complicated than that.
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.” [This is a red flag!] 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.”
James and John are looking forward to what lies ahead, and what do they see? Thrones.
Those thrones represent power, they represent authority, and they wanted that. Sitting on Jesus’ right and His left represented preeminence, the highest honor, placing themselves before all the others who would sit on those ten other, less important thrones. And it would also give them proximity, sitting the closest to Jesus, who wouldn’t want that?
It was because of their proud ambition that they made this request of Jesus, Matthew records that they actually got their mom to ask for them, just a detail that Mark left out.
James and John understood how the kingdoms of the world operated and they just wanted to make sure that they would be taken care of when Jesus’ kingdom became official. The problem was, that Jesus’ kingdom is not set up like that.
Looking ahead, James and John saw thrones, but what did Jesus see? The cross.
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.”
Did James and John know what they were really asking? Of course not, but they certainly seemed to think that they did. They thought that Jesus was just rallying them to fight for Him but that wasn’t what He was asking them at all.
He wasn’t asking them to fight by His side, He asked them if they were able to drink the cup that He was to drink and be baptized with the baptism He was baptized with. What does that mean?
The cup represented the suffering and afflictions that were to come, the mocking, spitting, and flogging that He had predicted in our text last week.
The baptism was a baptism of blood, Jesus would be completely immersed in the baptism of death by crucifixion only to be raised to life three days later.
He didn’t explain to James and John what it would mean for them to drink that same cup and be baptized with that same baptism, but they said they could do it anyway, and they did.
James and John were both persecuted, afflicted, and martyred. In fact, James was the first of the Twelve to be martyred and John would be the last. James was killed by the sword in Acts 12 and John was imprisoned on the Island of Patmos where he wrote the book of Revelation and died of old age in exile.
Even so, it was not Christ’s office to assign seats in the kingdom. Whether or not those seats were already reserved for those two we don’t know, all we know is that they were already prepared for someone by the Father.
So, James and John saw thrones ahead of them, Jesus saw the cross ahead of Him, and what did the other ten disciples see ahead of them? James and John.
41 And when the ten heard it, they began to be indignant at James and John.
Given what we know about this band already, do you really think that they got mad because James and John had been so presumptuous to ask Jesus for the seats of highest honor? I don’t, I think they were mad because they didn’t think of it first!
The disciples preferred the Roman example of how to set up a kingdom, people were put in places of authority and power and they ruled over the other people. Simple right?
Like almost every account in Mark’s Gospel Jesus has to undo the humanistic thinking of the disciples, the thinking that says, “me first, I’m the most important thing there is. Power and influence are all about bettering myself and my cause.”
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.”
The disciples thought that ruling was the highest honor, that those thrones were what would make them important in the kingdom. But Jesus distinguishes the difference between the thinking of the world and the thinking that would, or should, prevail in His church, in His kingdom.
It is selfless service not selfish ambition that is the mark of Christ’s followers and His kingdom, it is service to others that is the highest honor and Jesus Himself gave us the supreme example of it.
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.
Paul wrote in Philippians chapter 2, verses 4-11:
4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Jesus veiled His glory, willingly came to earth as God’s servant to serve others and give His own life as a ransom for many. He willingly paid the price that would release us from God’s judgment for our sin.
His example shows the difference between wicked ambition and humble service, the difference between the world’s way and the way of Christ. We must choose Christ’s way.
May that be the way that lies ahead.
Amen.
