Mark 10:32-52 (November 20 2022)

Mark 10:32-52 and the Road to Jerusalem

If you have your Bible, you can turn to Mark chapter 10. Mark chapter 10 will be in verses 32 through the end of the chapter, verse 52. This morning, and by way of reminder, after today, we're going to pause our series in Mark, and we'll pick back up with Mark 11 in the new year after Advent and Christmas.

But next week is the first Sunday of Advent, and so we're going to move into a sermon series in the weeks leading up to Christmas on the themes of expectation, anticipation, waiting, hope, longing. And so we will pause our Mark series for just a little bit.

But today we're in Mark 10, verses 32 through 52. Let's read the words of the living God. 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, 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.

And they will mock Him and spit on Him and flog Him and kill Him. And after three days, He will rise. 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.

And He said to them, What do you want Me to do for you? And they said to Him, Grant us to sit, one at Your right hand and one at Your left, in Your glory. And 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? 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.

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. And when the ten heard it, they began to be indignant at James and John. And Jesus called to them 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.

But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.

And they came to Jericho. And as He was leaving Jericho with His disciples in a great crowd, Bartimaeus, a blind beggar, the son of Timaeus, was sitting by the roadside. And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!

And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he cried out all the more, Son of David, have mercy on me! And Jesus stopped and said, Call him. And they called the blind man, saying to him, Take heart, get up, he's calling you.

And throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus. And Jesus said to him, What do you want me to do for you? And the blind man said to him, Rabbi, let me recover my sight. And Jesus said to him, Go your way, your faith has made you well.

And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him on the way. This is the word of God to us this morning. Now, you may feel like you've heard this story before. Jesus foretelling His death, disciples jockeying for position in the kingdom, and Jesus welcoming one who was weak and dependent over and against the rebukes that tried to keep that person away.

We just read about this, the exact same thing happening back in chapter 9. In chapter 9, after Jesus foretold His death, coming down from the Mount of Transfiguration, we saw the disciples, and they were arguing over who was the greatest.

And then here in chapter 10, it's James and John trying to get the seats of highest honor. Back in chapter 9, in the beginning of chapter 10, Jesus welcomed children, who we notice over the last couple of weeks are weak and dependent.

And He welcomed the children even when the disciples tried to keep those children away. And here Jesus calls a blind man also weak and dependent. He calls him to Him to heal him, even when the crowd rebuked the man and tried to keep him away.

So this is just a recapitulation of what had just previously been written. And so what Mark is doing, he's repeating themes so that we won't miss them. And so we might remember that in this section of Mark's gospel, we see Jesus giving kingly wisdom for life and rule in the kingdom of God.

He's giving kingly wisdom for life and rule in the kingdom of God. And what we see highlighted for us here that we should not miss, we see highlighted the importance of suffering, and sacrifice, and service, and humility.

So let's work our way through this passage and see these themes. They're on the road again, going to Jerusalem. Now this is important because it shows the purpose of Jesus. This is going to be spelled out over the next little bit of this passage, but it shows the purpose of Jesus.

Jesus didn't end up in Jerusalem by accident, where He would be crucified by accident. No, He went there on purpose and He went there to die. Fate did not overtake Jesus, neither the Romans nor the Jews surprised Him.

He knew what would happen. He knew what would happen so much that we see in verses 33 and 34, that He said what was going to happen, naming the participants, naming what actions they would do, and what the results would be.

He says, He's going to be handed over to the chief priest and the scribes. They're going to condemn Him, deliver Him over to the Gentiles. They're going to mock Him, spit on Him, flog Him, kill Him. And the result is, three days later He will rise from the dead.

He says all of this ahead of time. He's going there on purpose for this very reason, to die. But the disciples still don't get it. They still don't understand how God is going to work all this out, how Jesus is going to establish the kingdom.

So they're still jockeying for position in this coming temporal kingdom of Christ. And so James and John, they're brothers, they're the sons of Zebedee, and they go to Jesus privately to try to inch their way into a high position.

They ask Jesus to seat them in the highest places of honor. Verse 37, and they said to Him, Grant us to sit, one at Your right hand and one at Your left hand, in Your glory. You see, they want honor, they want glory, they want status, they want positional authority.

But they don't really know what they're asking. Jesus says this much in verse 38. He says, You don't know what you're asking for. They're asking for honor and glory without realizing that the path to honor and glory runs through suffering and sacrifice.

They're asking to sit at the right hand and the left hand of Jesus' throne without realizing that first they would need to be like the thieves, lifted up to the right hand and the left hand of Jesus' cross.

They don't realize that the ones who occupy the seats with the most authority and the most honor are also the ones who have the most sacrifice required of them. He asks in verse 38, Are you able to drink the cup that I drink or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?

Now what does this mean? What does this mean? The cup is the cup of suffering. It's the cup of judgment. Psalm 75 verse 8 uses this language of God's judgment when the psalmist says, For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup with foaming wine well mixed, and He pours out from it, and all the wicked of the earth shall drain it down to the dregs.

Jesus drank this cup. He drank the cup of God's judgment. He drank the cup of God's wrath down to the dregs. And He drank it in our place so we wouldn't have to. The baptism that he refers to here is the baptism into death.

We see the connection between baptism and death in Romans chapter 6 when Paul says that those who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into death. So Jesus asked James and John if they're able to drink this cup, the cup of God's wrath, the cup of God's judgment, if they're able to be baptized into this death.

That is, are they able to be killed for the sake of the gospel? And James and John respond in the ways that lots of young men, eager for glory, often respond with overconfidence. They say, we are able.

Jesus then promises them the suffering. He says, the cup that I drink, you will drink. And with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized. He's promising. He's foretelling their own suffering.

But He does not promise to them in this moment the glory. That, we sit at the right hand or the left, is for the Father to decide. Then the other disciples hear what's going on. Mark tells us that they were indignant.

Now they weren't indignant because, you know, James and John got kingdom ethics wrong. They weren't indignant because James and John don't know what true greatness is. They're indignant because James and John go behind their backs to try to weasel into a high position that they themselves want to occupy.

They're trying to get to the seats of honor that they themselves want to occupy. And so now it's a competition. It's jockeying for position. So Jesus calls them all together. This reminds you of back in Mark 9 as well.

He gets them all together after they're arguing over who's the greatest and He sits them down. So Jesus does that again here. And He's going to give them more kingly wisdom about the way of the Lord. Kingly wisdom for life in the kingdom of God.

And He begins with a reference to worldly rulers. Verse 42. He says, You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them. And their great ones exercise authority over them.

So you see the disciples, they had learned about power from the Gentiles. They hated Caesar. They hated Herod. But that's where they had learned about leadership and authority from. They had seen their example.

They had imbibed all of their leadership or rulership assumptions. Now worldly rulers are all about power. Power is the baseline fundamental element of worldly rule. And they willed it for their own ends and often ruthlessly.

They lord their authority over others. So maybe you've experienced that type of leadership before. Maybe from our own government or from a parent or a teacher or a coach or a boss at work. I remember going to ball games as a kid and it would be a lot of high traffic when you're leaving and they'd have somebody out there directing the traffic and inevitably one of those traffic directors would get kind of bossy about it.

And I remember my dad, he would often say, you know, you give somebody a flashlight and an orange vest and they just think they rule the world. You see, it doesn't take much to tempt the human heart towards harsh rule.

Just a little bit of authority will do that. But Jesus says, it shall not be so among you. You see, rulership in the kingdom is different. Greatness in the kingdom is different. It's not characterized by the ability to use sheer power, but by service and sacrifice and suffering.

The one who would be great must be your servant and whoever would be first must be slave of all. Verse 45 says, for even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.

And so the good and wise king acts for the good of his people. He gives of himself to secure the good of those in his care. I'm reminded of a children's book, The Horse and His Boy, one of the Chronicles of Narnia by C .S. Lewis.

And in that book, The Horse and His Boy, we find King Loon of Archenland, a king who typifies this type of rulership that Jesus is talking about. King Loon says this in that book, for this is what it means to be king, to be first in every desperate attack and last in every desperate retreat, and when there's hunger in the land to laugh louder over a scantier meal than any man in your land.

The good and wise king will be first in, last out, laughing loudest. The good and wise father, the good and wise employer, the good and wise teacher, the good and wise coach, the good and wise pastor, the good and wise whatever leader of any stripe you want to insert there.

The good and wise leader should follow King Loon's example and be first in, last out, laughing loudest. To have, as one writer put it, enough courage to be first to run into a burning building, enough fortitude to go down with the ship, and enough joy to laugh when all seems lost.

Now King Loon's instructions to us, they ring true. And why do they ring true? They ring true because it reminds us of Jesus. Because they point to Jesus who was first in battle against the devil. And when everyone else had fled, when everyone else had denied Him, He remained.

When everyone else went into hiding, He remained. Until He was nailed to the cross. First in, last out. And I don't have a verse to point to, but I'd be willing to bet that nobody laughed louder on Easter morning than Jesus.

Jesus did not come to be served. He did not come to be waited on hand and foot, to have an entourage around Him just to make His life easier. He came to serve. He came to serve. The word serve there, it means more than just kind of waiting tables.

Though it does have that connotation at times. But here it has the connotation of one who is carrying out a mission. One who is carrying out His charge. What He was sent to do. A mission for the good of others.

And what was that mission for Jesus? It was to give His life as a ransom for many. That is how He served. And it's His life in exchange for ours. It is His death in our place. I want to talk more about service in a minute, but I want to pause here for just a moment.

Because this is the Gospel. Jesus in your place. Giving His life as a ransom for yours. And so He lived a perfect life. He always obeyed. He always did what God the Father required of Him. And He never did what God the Father forbid Him.

He lived a perfect life in your place. So that righteousness could be accounted unto you. He died a perfect death in your place. The death that you deserved. Because sin always brings death with it. The wages of sin is death.

And He died that death in your place. And He gave His life as a ransom for many. As an act of service for His people. And like we read earlier of the service, He was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.

Raised to new life. So that all who would turn from their sin and turn to Him in faith, they would be raised up to new and everlasting life with Him. Do you believe this Gospel? Do you trust this Gospel?

If you're here today and the answer is no for you, I want to talk to you after the service. I want to pray with you. Don't leave here today in unbelief. Because Jesus the good and wise King sacrificed Himself for your sake.

And so take hold of that truth today. Jesus came to serve and all who follow Him should likewise serve. Now, there are two distortions of this truth that I want to address for just a few moments. Two distortions of this very true thing that we're reading here in Mark.

The first distortion is that all hierarchy in the world should be abandoned and torn down. It's a distortion because God has baked hierarchy into the world that He made. The greater light to rule the day.

The lesser light to rule the night. Man to rule over creation including the animals. But even there with animals, we don't treat all animals the same, do we? You might squish a cockroach. You probably shouldn't squish your dog.

Not all animals occupy the same station. There's hierarchy. We do not live in an egalitarian world. And so in this passage, Jesus in talking about Himself as being a servant and a slave to all, He is not abolishing hierarchy in the world.

Rather, He is rightly ordering it. And He is restraining sinful expressions of it. And He is directing it towards its good and right and true ends. The fact that Jesus serves does not negate the fact that Jesus is still King.

And that we are under Him. And we owe Him loyalty and praise. Rather, it means that He is a good and wise King. He is an exemplary King. But the hierarchy still exists. And so a Christian social order will still have people in positions of authority over others.

And some people will sit in seats of greater or lesser honor than others. This has nothing to do with anyone's inherent dignity or value as a person, which we all possess. But it does speak to differing obligations and duties.

And the testimony of Scripture is that those in higher positions of authority and honor have a heavier requirement placed upon them. They are to serve, which often requires sacrifice and suffering on behalf of and for the good of others.

And one in a position of honor to be truly honorable must not shirk that responsibility, that duty. You must drink the cup. So that's one distortion. A second distortion of this passage is something that is often called servant leadership.

Now I want to make a qualification first here. If I could just take that phrase, servant leadership, at face value, just the plain meaning of the words, you would not hear me quibble with it one bit. It is true that a leader should be a servant.

And the reason that what I want to call a distortion and why it ever got any traction is because there is a real thing version of it. And so we see the real thing in Jesus' words in Mark about being the servant of all.

That's really true. I'm not calling that, I'm not calling what Jesus said a distortion at all. Rather, I'm saying that that, the true thing, the real thing, gets applied in some distorted ways. Most often in marriage.

And so when it goes wrong, it's because servant leadership is applied out of proportion and backwards. So let me explain. And here I'm drawing on the writing of a gentleman named Nontenant. And so done right, when someone is in a position of leadership, someone in a position of authority, so a husband, a father, a mother, a boss, a coach, a teacher, a governor, etc.

When somebody's in a position of leadership, the service is what he does and the leadership is how he does it. The service is what he does, the leadership is how he does it. That is, leadership is in itself service.

And so the acts of making decisions, setting the course, reordering the circumstances, assigning tasks, assuming responsibility for outcomes, that's leadership. And doing those things for the good of those in your charge is service.

And so in this model, the leader serves by leading, by clearing the path to get his people from point A to their desired point B. And we know from Scripture, and we know from experience, that this type of service will often mean suffering and sacrifice.

As one pastor put it, true authority bleeds. The modern servant-leader distortion gets this precisely backwards. In the distortion, when someone is in a position of leadership, position of authority, and so again, a husband, father, mother, boss, coach, teacher, governor, the leadership is what he does and the service is how he does it.

Now again, this doesn't have to be altogether bad. No leader should be above waiting tables or doing the dishes or whatever. And doing someone a kindness by helping with their normal duties is a good and fine thing to do.

I'm not quibbling with that. But in this model, the service is out of proportion. Because it is the only thing that is emphasized and it is the only thing, or at least the primary thing, that is recognized as being leadership.

So in this model, rather than leadership being service, service is the leadership. What happens is that the leader becomes subservient to those he is to lead. And so if we apply this to marriage, the husband becomes subservient to the wishes and whims of his wife and kids.

Now, I'm not saying a godly husband should not consider the wishes of his wife and kids. He should. But leaders becoming subservient to those they lead presents at least three dangers. One of which is that it leaves people without the leadership that they actually need.

And so God made the world in a certain way, right? And he structured human affairs in a certain way. One that has multiple layers of authority in church, state, and home. And so if we take away leadership and authority, we're at odds with God's design and we leave those who are in our church vulnerable.

Because people need to be led. God made us that way. But if our only category for what counts as leadership is doing whatever makes someone happy and makes life easy for them, then they're without the leadership that they need.

That God has made them to need. That's danger number one. Second danger is that the wrong people end up in leadership. They end up with authority. So when those God has authorized to lead and delegated authority to, when they abdicate, that authority, it doesn't just go away.

We don't live in a vacuum. Somebody's going to take that authority. Somebody's going to take that leadership whether they are qualified for it or authorized for it or not. And so in the modern servant-leader distortion, leaders are allowed to lead, as one pastor said it, so long as they're told exactly what to do.

So long as they do exactly what they're told to do. And so if we, again, apply this to marriage, because this is one of the real testing points in our culture, in this model, the husband would be allowed to lead so long as he does exactly what his wife tells him to do.

And so in that situation, who actually has authority? The wife does. But what does Ephesians 5 say of who has authority in the home? It says the husband. And so does it ever go well to go against God's design and decree?

Is that ever a good idea? It's not. Because God has designed us in such a way that we go with the grain of reality when we go according to His Word. And it will be better for both husband and wife. It will be good for both of them to live within that design.

We should never try to be wiser than God. Those two dangers. Third danger is that the modern servant-leader distortion leads people to believe they are being faithful when they're not. So it's led many husbands to believe that they are actually leading when they're really abdicating.

And it's led many wives to believe they are obeying Ephesians 5 and submitting when their hearts are actually in rebellion against God, against His order. These are dangers. So to summarize, does a leader serve?

Absolutely. Does he consider the needs, desires, and happiness of those he leads? Of course, he better. Does he help with their tasks in order to make their lives easier? Maybe. Sometimes. Is making their lives easier the goal of his leadership?

Absolutely not. Their good within the mission in charge from God is his goal. And the primary way he secures their good within this mission in charge from God is by leading. It's by exercising authority in godly ways.

And this authority is not selfish. This authority bleeds. As he secures their good and fulfills his mission, he will likely suffer in sacrifice. And this... This is true and godly and biblical service.

This is not the type of service that can be offered half-heartedly. It's something that takes everything you've got. And with that phrase in our mind, everything you've got, I want us to turn our attention to blind Bartimaeus at the end of this chapter.

When we come across Bartimaeus, he's on the side of the road. He can't see. He's assumed his place there, begging. And he hears that Jesus of Nazareth is coming. And when he hears that Jesus is coming, he begins to cry aloud, Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me.

Many rebuke him. They tell him to be quiet. This may remind you of the disciples rebuking when the kids were coming to Jesus earlier in chapter 10. But Bartimaeus, he was persistent, and he kept crying out, Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me.

And Jesus, who had welcomed the children over and against the rebukes earlier, now, he calls Bartimaeus to him. And there's this interesting detail in verse 50 I want you to notice. It says, And throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus.

But notice, Mark never tells us that Bartimaeus went back and retrieved his cloak. We'll come back to that detail in just a moment. But he goes to Jesus, Jesus makes him well, He restores his sight, and He turns him loose.

And what I want you to notice here is that Bartimaeus is the opposite of the rich young ruler that we encountered last week. He is the opposite of the rich young ruler. Jesus called the rich young ruler to sell all his possessions and follow Him, but loving his possessions, he refused to do that and he went away sad.

Jesus also called Bartimaeus to follow Him or to call Him to Him. And Bartimaeus, he parted with the only possession that he had, his cloak. He threw it and went to Jesus. And he never went back to get it.

And Jesus gave him eyes and He set him free. Told him he could go on his way. But verse 52 says, he followed Him on the way. Bartimaeus was free to go anywhere. He followed Jesus. He left all that he had and followed Jesus.

And that's the call to you this morning to follow Jesus. Even if it costs you everything you have, follow Jesus. Even if your service to God and others means suffering and sacrifice for you, follow Jesus.

Even if following Jesus means submitting to those that God has put in authority over you, follow Jesus. Even if it means that life is more like being on the right hand of Jesus on the cross than the right hand of Jesus on the throne, follow Jesus.

For God, the only road to glory runs through suffering and sacrifice and service. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, I pray that you would work in our lives so that we would serve well all who are in our care.

Father, I pray that you would give us steel spines to do that, to serve, even when it requires suffering and sacrifice. Lord, I pray that you would give us endurance for those times, knowing that suffering produces endurance.

Endurance produces character. Character produces hope. And hope doesn't put us to shame because you have poured your love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit. Father, I pray that you would deliver us from our prideful scheming and jockeying for position, trying to weasel our way into positions of honor and trying to short-circuit the service that's required to get there.

Deliver us from selfish ambition and conceit. And let us set our face like flint on the mission that you have given us, a mission for the good of others and for the glory of your name. And Father, I pray that we would give all, that we would give our very lives to this work.

May we be, as Romans 12 says, may we be living sacrifices for this is our reasonable and spiritual service and worship to you. And Father, may you be pleased to bless our efforts and may you be pleased to be glorified through us.

And we ask all of this in the name of Jesus. Amen.