Who Serves Whom? (Mark 10:32-45)
Rev. James Barton
03/17/24

Let us pray. “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen” (Psalm 19:14).

Jesus and His disciples were headed for Jerusalem, and Jesus was leading the way. Our text says that the disciples were amazed and afraid, probably because they knew that there was opposition to Jesus, and the center of that opposition was in Jerusalem. Maybe they would have some trouble if He went there.

Jesus then took them aside and told them for the third time what would happen to Him, with even more detail. “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles (the Roman authorities). And they will mock him and spit on him and flog him and kill him. And after three days He will rise.”

Hearing this, you would think that the disciples would rally around Jesus and be thinking about how to help and support and encourage him. But it wasn’t that way, at all. Instead, the next thing we hear is that two prominent disciples, James and John, came to Jesus asking, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” Matthew’s gospel tells us that they even involved their mother in making this request (20:20-28).

Imagine that you came to God in prayer and asked, “Lord, give me what I want. Promise You’ll give it to me, even before I tell You what I want.” Children do that sometimes, and I suspect that we all do at times. We are sure we are right about what we want and can become demanding and pretty self-centered in what we want. We can certainly ask for what we wish, but we sometimes forget to pray, also, as Jesus taught and did in the Garden of Gethsemane, “Father … not what I will, but what you will” (Mark 14:36).

Jesus, in our text, simply said to James and John, “What do you want me to do for you?” And then it came out - in a very selfish request. They said, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.” They had no thought about Jesus and what He said was ahead for Him. Likely, they were still thinking the typical Jewish way - that sometime soon, the Messiah would not suffer and die, but would overthrow all of Israel’s enemies and set up a glorious earthly kingdom where He would reign and the Jews would have a great time, as in earlier days. And James and John wanted the best spots in that new kingdom of glory. Jesus could not, of course, grant such a request from them. 

Jesus told James and John that they did not even know what they were asking. Could they drink the cup and receive the baptism coming for Jesus himself? James and John said they were able, but did not realize that He was talking about His own true suffering and death coming very soon, and drinking the cup of suffering described in the Old Testament, as the punishment for the sins of the world. Jesus alone would drink that cup in payment on the cross for all sins. And He would have a baptism of blood as He suffered. That is what some early church fathers called His suffering and death. But, Jesus predicted, when James and John would later become faithful apostles, they would suffer much for sharing the faith of Jesus. (James was the first of the original 12 disciples to be killed just for being a Christian, and John was banished from the churches he later served and exiled to the Island of Patmos by the Romans, simply because of sharing “the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus.” You can read about this in Acts 12 and Revelation 1.

Anyway, when the other ten disciples of Jesus hear what James and John had asked for, they were angry and indignant at them. It may well be that they were jealous of James and John, and that these two had thought first of pushing for these positions of honor. They may have cheated the other disciples out of these positions of honor. Again, there is no mention of Jesus in all this, and any concern expressed for Him and what He was facing. This wasn’t a new problem for the disciples. If you look back to Mark 9:33-37, you’ll read that Jesus saw the disciples arguing and asked them what they were discussing. They kept silent because they were arguing about which of them was the greatest. Jesus had to set them down and say, “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.”

And in our text for today, Jesus had to set all 12 disciples down again and say, “You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles (the Romans and Greeks and others) lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them.” It’s all about power and control and keeping that control. The Scriptures do say that we need government to provide some order and authority. And Jesus taught in the temple on Tuesday of Holy Week those famous words, “Render (give) to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s” (including taxes). But, Jesus said, in our text, that it should not be that way of power and control, among you, as God’s people. “Whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all.”

The disciples were clearly not doing very well in their serving. They were thinking too much about themselves and what they wanted instead of God’s will and the needs of others, including Jesus. Jesus had to step in and serve them by showing them their sins and weaknesses and calling them to repentance. Even more important, He had to provide the forgiveness of their sins and set them free from the condemnation of their sins. The last verse of our gospel reading says, “For even the Son of Man (Jesus himself) came not to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.”

A ransom is the price paid to set someone free from some kind of bondage. The death of Christ on the cross, along with His perfect life in our place, is the ransom price paid by Jesus to set us free from the curse of sin and Satan and death and gives us a whole new and eternal life through Him and faith in Him. Psalm 49:7-8 says, “Truly, no man can ransom another, or give to God the price of his life, for the ransom of their life is costly and can never suffice” (be enough). That’s why God the Son had to humble Himself and become man, one of us, and serve us and pay the ransom price for us and for the whole world. As true God, as well as man, only He could do that for us. And He did!

We are used to saying, “We love because God first loved us.” But who serves whom? We can also say, “We serve because God first served us.” And our Lord continues to serve us; and we need that because we are sometimes just like the disciples in our text, even in our churches and schools. Many good things are happening; but we also have our struggles, at times, as sinful people, and we want things our way, and have trouble being humble and caring servants of others. But God is always there to help us and serve us. Think about what we are doing this morning. We call this a Divine Service. We come to praise and thank God and give gifts. But even more important, our Divine Lord is coming to us and serving us.

• He has already forgiven all our sins, at the beginning of the service.
• If a child or adult is baptized, as last week, God brings faith and new life to that person.
• When we hear our Scripture readings, we are gathered just like those disciples in our text, hearing the Law that shows us our sins and weaknesses, but also God’s great love and help, especially in Jesus.
• When we pray, God does hear our prayers and does respond in the way He knows best.
• And in the Lord’s Supper, our Lord Jesus actually comes to us - in, with, and under the bread and wine - to forgive us and strengthen our faith.

It is all Divine Service to us, for our own good and benefit, but also to help us love and serve our Lord and others, in a better way. One example: When the disciples were arguing with each other about who was the greatest, Jesus taught them; but He did one more thing I haven’t already mentioned. Jesus set a little child in the midst of them and said, “Whoever receives one such child in My name receives Me.” If we help and serve a little child, it is as if we are serving Christ himself. That’s what makes our school and all our programs for children so important, whether we are directly involved or give support in other ways. We are serving Christ as we lovingly serve children and help them know the love of Jesus.

The same thing is true for us at home. It is not much fun to change diapers or get up in the middle of the night to get a child a drink. It is a challenge to help in so many ways. But we are serving our Lord and His will as we once were served when we were children, years ago. And the Lord serves us and gives strength too, all along the way.

Let us pray. Now may the peace of God, which surpasses all human understanding, keep our hearts and minds safe, only where they are safe, in Christ Jesus our Lord, and His loving service to us. Amen (Philippians 4:7).