Mark 10:32-45
Mark 10:32-45 Notes and Discussion Questions (underlined)
Jesus: Amazing, Terrifying and Humble.
Thought:
Following Jesus is amazing, terrifying, and humbling because Jesus himself is amazing, terrifying, and humble.
Do you agree?
Why then, is following Jesus worth it?
John 6:68–69 (ESV): 68 …“Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, 69 and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”
Mark 10:32–34 (ESV):
32 And they were on the road,
The word “and” at the beginning of each paragraph gives the strong sense that we as the readers are being pulled along with Jesus in quick succession. How is that emblematic of the Christian life?
going up to Jerusalem,
The disciples have been on many adventures with Jesus up to this point, but this next big adventure in Jerusalem will definitely be the most amazing, the most terrifying, and the most humbling.
Notice it says they were going UP to Jerusalem.
No matter what direction you were coming from, Jerusalem was always up.
It was up geographically, because it was on a hill surrounded by valley (about 3500 foot climb in elevation from where the disciples were)…
It was also ‘up’ figuratively because it was the great city of David.
It was also “up” in a symbolic sense, because it was up in Jerusalem that Jesus would suffer and die and the disciples would face the greatest ardors of discipleship.
In other words, it was ‘all up hill’ from here, in more ways than one.
What is it about following Jesus that can be likened to going “up hill”?
and Jesus was walking ahead of them.
It was customary in those days for rabbis to lead their disciples. But it was not customary for them to lead the way in suffering and death.
Jesus, when it comes to humility and suffering, does not simply bring his followers along… He leads the way Himself.
What this means for us is there is no hardship or suffering Jesus will ever lead us into that He Himself is not already well acquainted with.
Hebrews tells us that Jesus can sympathize with all of our weaknesses.
This statement “Jesus was walking ahead of them” also gives us a sense of Jesus’ resolve to accomplish the primary reason He came to earth.
In Isaiah 50:7 it says of Messiah that He would ‘set his face like a flint’. He would be so determined to accomplish what He came to do.
Jesus came to do the will of the Father, which was to go to the cross and die as a sacrifice for sins. His whole life and ministry was leading up to that. The last words we hear Him say before His death are, “it is finished”. He came and finished the job that God the Father sent Him to do.
Think about it: If it were us going to Jerusalem toward our certain death, we’d probably be lagging behind, dreading every step that took us closer to our doom. Not Jesus. He is pressing ahead, fearlessly.
Hebrews says, “for the joy set before Him He endured the cross”. In a certain way, Jesus was excited to accomplish His mission because He came to “seek and save the lost”, and that mission would be accomplished through His death.
What area(s) of your life do you need to trust that Jesus has already walked ahead of you?
And they were amazed, and those who followed were afraid.
In this moment, following Jesus proved to be both amazing and terrifying.
They’re amazed at who they’re following! Jesus is amazing, isn’t He?
Here was a guy walking in front of them who was God incarnate. Everything about Him was astounding.
They’d watched Him command wind and waves, heal, raise people from the dead, cast out demons, feed multitudes…
And now they’re watching as He voluntarily marches towards Jerusalem like a lamb to the slaughter… willfully taking on His own death.
But they’re also terrified, because they’re going with Him!
Have you ever considered: What is it about following Jesus that you find amazing? What is it about following Jesus that you find absolutely terrifying?
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,
As a follower, you go where Jesus goes. And sometimes He takes you to some pretty intimidating places.
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.”
The crucifixion was not a divine accident. It’s not as though God’s original plan to bring salvation was corrupted by sinful people who decided to put His son to death.
This was God’s plan from the beginning.
Jesus knew exactly what He was doing.
John 10:17–18 “…I lay down my life that I may take it up again. 18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”
And so Jesus is telling his disciples blatantly: I am going to Jerusalem. I’m going to die. I’m going to rise from the dead. And you’re coming with me!
This would have shattered ALL of the disciple’s preconceived notions about what the Messiah would come to do… the sort of victory He would come to bring… the sort of dominance He would exert… the sort of enemy He came to defeat…
Or, at least, this SHOULD have shattered all of those preconceived notions…
But instead, look how James and John respond.
These are two of Jesus’ three closest friends. Together with Peter, they made up Jesus’ inner circle. If anyone should have understood the playbook by now, it was these guys.
Yet, look what they say IMMEDIATELY after Jesus third and final prediction of His death:
What two character qualities (or flaws) become apparent as we listen to James and John talk?
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.”
Do we ever come to Jesus like that? Treating Him like our magic genie? Demanding that He do what we want?
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.”
See, even in spite of Jesus’ blatant statement about what would happen in Jerusalem, they were still holding onto this narrative that He would march into Jerusalem and become their political leader.
And now they’re shamelessly asking to have the two seats of prominence: the seat on the right was the seat of highest honor. The seat on the left was the second highest.
Not only does this reveal their complete lack of understanding about what will happen in Jerusalem (ignorance), it also reveals their unwillingness to embrace the sort of humble attitude Jesus has been trying to impress upon them repeatedly (pride).
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?”
His cup would be the cup of God’s wrath, poured out on Jesus for the sins of humanity.
His baptism would be his suffering and death on the cross.
39 And they said to him, “We are able.”
Do you think they understood what they were saying?
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,
That’s exactly what happened.
James was the first apostle to be martyred.
John would survive an attempted martyrdom in a vat of burning oil, then be exiled.
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.
Yes, they knew. They had seen Roman rule in action. They had seen the iron fist of dictatorship. And they wanted it… on their team! They wanted to turn the tables and be on the giving end instead of the receiving end!
Imagine their disappointment and confusion at Jesus next words:
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.
Do you think we still struggle to embrace Jesus’ paradigm of the Kingdom, or are we past that?
Why does Jesus call us into servitude and humility as the code of His kingdom?
45 For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve,
If the King of the Kingdom Himself is a servant, how silly for His subjects to go on a power trip!
They say culture is created from the top down. Great companies always have great CEO’s. Great teams always have great coaches.
If we want to be a great church with Kingdom culture, we need to take cues from our great Leader, Jesus Christ.
A couple weeks ago, Devin preached on Philippians 2, which looks back on the cross as our motivation to be humble and servantlike.
Philippians 2:3–11 (ESV): 3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 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.
Could you imagine what it would have been like if James and John came to Jesus and said, ‘you know, we’ve been talking, and we were thinking Peter and Andrew would make great right and left hand guys in Your kingdom…’? John and I, we just want to support them and help out behind the scenes…
Could you imagine what kind of culture we’d create around here if we all treated one another that way? They’d probably know we are His disciples just by the way we love one another!
But there’s one last point we can’t miss.
Jesus didn’t just come to serve… it says at the end of verse 45 that He came
[and] to give his life as a ransom for many.”
Lately I’ve been noticing this dual purpose of Christ more and more: that He is both our standard and our substitute. He is our example, yet He is also our atonement as we continually fail to live up to His example.
The good news for today is that Christ is calling us to a life of humble servitude, but He is also reassuring us that He has lived it out for us.
He drank the cup of God’s wrath so that you and I don’t have to.
He is our humble King, and He is also our self-sacrificing Savior.
He is worthy of all worship. He is worthy of all attention. He is all at once amazing and terrifying and humble. He is the Lion and the Lamb.