True Servanthood

INTRO

To be a follower of Christ, you have to deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Him. While you might consider this a wheel of death, it is actually a wheel of life. When you exemplify these characteristics, you are a true disciple of Christ. Mark 10:45 is the key verse of the entire Gospel of Mark, and we’ll end with it today. Mark 10 begins with a discussion about divorce (vv. 1-12), and then moves to blessing the children (vv. 13-16). Mark then presents the encounter with Jesus and the rich young ruler (vv. 17-22), which we’ve already covered in Matthew. Mark also covers possessions in the kingdom of God (vv. 23-31).

TEACHING

Mark 10:32-34: This is the third prediction Jesus gave of His coming death in the Gospel of Mark. Jesus and His disciples were on the road going to Jerusalem. Verse 32 says that “those who followed Him were afraid.” Jesus took His 12 disciples aside and began to tell them about His coming death. In verse 33, Jesus described what would happen in Jerusalem: “The Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn Him to death.” Then, He gives details; “they will mock Him, spit on Him, flog Him, and kill Him, and He will rise after three days” (v. 34). This is the third time Jesus gave them this message. Mark 10:33 uses the same language as the first two.

The first prediction was in Mark 8:31: “Then He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, be killed, and rise after three days.”

The second prediction was in Mark 9:31: “For He was teaching His disciples and telling them, ‘The Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of men. They will kill Him, and after He is killed, He will rise three days later.’”

Mark 15:17-20 is the confirmation of the mocking mentioned in Mark 10:34: “They dressed Him in a purple robe, twisted together a crown of thorns, and put it on Him. And they began to salute Him, ‘Hail, King of the Jews!’ They kept hitting Him on the head with a reed and spitting on Him. Getting down on their knees, they were paying Him homage. When they had mocked Him, they stripped Him of the purple robe, put His clothes on Him and led Him out to crucify Him.” This was also foretold in the Old Testament (Psalm 22:6-8; Isaiah 50:6).

Mark 10:35-37: Mark provides an odd transition here. In Matthew 20:20, the mother of James and John approached Jesus to ask Him for something special. In Mark’s account, James and John went to Jesus and said, “We want You to do something for us if we ask You” (v. 35). Jesus responded with, “What do you want Me to do for you?” (v. 36). After Jesus had just explained all He would endure in Jerusalem, they asked to sit at His right and left hands to get some of that “glory” (v. 37).

MacArthur wrote, “This incident reveals yet again the disciples’ failure to grasp Jesus’ teaching on humility. Ignoring the Lord’s repeated instruction that He was going to Jerusalem to die, the disciples still thought that the physical manifestation of the kingdom was about to appear, and they were busy maneuvering for the places of prominence in this kingdom.”¹

However, the disciples knew more than we give them credit for knowing. In Matthew 19:28 Jesus said to them, “I assure you: In the Messianic Age, when the Son of Man sits on His glorious throne, you who have followed Me will also sit on 12 thrones, judging the 12 tribes of Israel.” In Matthew 20:20-22, the disciples were asking where their assigned seats were. John 14:13 says, “Whatever you ask in My name, I will do it so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.” The disciples may have been asking what the kingdom in the end times would look like and what their role in it would be.

Mark 10:38-39: Jesus explained that they didn’t know what they were asking. Were they able to drink the cup of God’s wrath that carries the sin of mankind? Were they ready to immerse themselves in the full suffering that He faced? Both brothers answered, “We are able” (v. 39). Jesus answered that they were . . . they would drink the cup and be baptized with the same baptism Jesus faced. In Acts 12:2, King Herod killed James with the sword. James drank the cup, for the sake of the gospel, and was immersed in the suffering component of the baptism. John was sent into exile on the island of Patmos because of the gospel (Revelation 1:9). Their response to Jesus was correct.

Mark 10:40-41: Jesus responded that the positions at the table were not His to give. MacArthur says, “Honors in the kingdom are bestowed not on the basis of selfish ambition, but because of divine sovereign will.”²How God has orchestrated it is up to God (v. 40). The other disciples became indignant (jealousy, maybe) with James and John asking for priority seating (v. 41).

Mark 10:42-45: explained that the world had rulers who had power over their subjects, and men want power over others, but the kingdom of God was based on the opposite position: humility and servanthood. Christians don’t ask for these positions (v. 42). Think of all the people in America with high influence who are being called out for sexual sin and for being abusive to women and people under their authority. That is the way of the world, not the way of the kingdom of God.

It’s important in Christian ministry to be careful, to not draw upon your own power, but to allow the Holy Spirit to be the one in charge. Jesus said, “On the contrary, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must be a slave to all” (vv. 43-44). One commentator said there is no place in the body of Christ for domineering leaders. Gould wrote, “Here is the paradox of the Kingdom of God. Instead of being lords, its great ones become servants, and its chiefs the bond-servants of all.”3 Mark 9:35 affirms, “Sitting down, He called the Twelve and said to them, ‘If anyone wants to be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.’” (1 Peter 5:3-6 talks about not lording power over those who have been entrusted to you.)

In 3 John 1:9-10, John described a situation in which a member of the church was striving for his own glory within the church: “I wrote something to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to have first place among them, does not receive us. This is why, if I come, I will remind him of the works he is doing, slandering us with malicious words. And he is not satisfied with that! He not only refuses to welcome the brothers himself, but he even stops those who want to do so and expels them from the church.” When we become refined by Jesus, we begin to embrace and become His Word. We begin to live out what it means to be a servant. Jesus said, “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life––a ransom for many” (v. 45).

“Ransom refers to the price paid to free a slave or prisoner; for means ‘in place of.’ Christ’s substitutionary death on behalf of those who would put their faith in Him is the most glorious, blessed truth in all of Scripture.”⁴All of this means Christ gave His life as a ransom in place of and for us. Romans 4:25 says, “He was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.” Romans 5:6-8 summarizes it this way: “For while we were still helpless, at the appointed moment, Christ died for the ungodly. For rarely will someone die for a just person—though for a good person perhaps someone might even dare to die. But God proves His own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us!”

CLOSING

The only way for Christ to get to this point, of being our ransom, was for Him to be willing to give up His life as Servant (Romans 6:3; 1 Corinthians 15:3; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Galatians 1:4; 1 John 2:6). When you’re willing to serve without any personal satisfaction but because God asked you to, you’re beginning to understand Mark 10:45.

3 Ezra P. A. Gould, “A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Gospel According to St. Mark,” International Critical Commentary series. (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1896), p. 202; quoted in Thomas L. Constable, Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable: Mark, p. 230; available online at https:// planobiblechapel.org/tcon/notes/pdf/mark.pdf.