Sermon Transcript
Mark 9:30-50. They left that place and passed through Galilee. Jesus did not want anyone to know where they were because he was teaching his disciples. He said to them, the Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men. They will kill him, and after 3 days he will rise.
But they did not understand what he meant and were afraid to ask him about it. They came to Capernaum. When he was in the house, he asked them, what were you arguing about on the road? But they kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest. Sitting down, Jesus called the 12 and said, anyone who wants to be the first must be the very last and the servant of all.
He took a little child whom he placed among them. Taking the child in his arms, he said to them, Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me. Teacher, said John, we saw someone driving out demons in your name and we told him to stop because he was not one of us. Do not stop him, Jesus said, for no one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me, for whoever is not against us is for us. Truly I tell you, anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name because you belong to the Messiah will certainly not lose their reward.
If anyone causes one of these little ones, those who believe in me, to stumble, it would be better for them if a large millstone were hung around their neck and they were thrown into the sea. If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with 2 hands to go into hell, where the fire never goes out. And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than to have 2 feet and to be thrown into hell.
And if your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have 2 eyes and to be thrown into hell, where the worms that eat them do not die and the fire is not quenched. Everyone will be salted with fire. Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can you make it salty again? Have salt among yourselves and be at peace with each other.
Good morning, everybody. Thank you, Johanna. I’m so grateful to be a part of a church where we have our students and our young people who can help lead us in worship, like reading Scripture. Thank you, Johanna, for that, and thank you to all of our students Whether they’re helping up in the sound booth or playing in the orchestra or whatever, we’re— it’s so awesome to see our students deployed and helping lead us in worship. Johanna’s about to head off to UC Davis here in several weeks and super excited.
Anytime our students leave, we always hope that they come back, right? Because this is their home church and we love having them be a part of this. Before I get into the text, text, I just want to put a final plug in for next Sunday on the 9th. After this morning’s service on the 9th, we’re going to have a luncheon over in the Family Center. We’ve been posting about this for the last couple weeks.
Put a final plug in for this. It’s a luncheon that’s going to be led by my friends Dr. John and Kristy Grimes. They are 2 of our missionaries who serve with Wycliffe Bible Translators, and the purpose of this luncheon is for them to walk us through what a Bible translator does. It’s going to be super fascinating and practical, and they’re going to give us tools to show us what they do, and then they’re going to allow us to do it with them. I’m super excited about that.
We’re going to have lunch. If you RSVP, we’d love to know that you’re coming so we can order enough lunch. We still have some room there. We also can provide childcare if you need that. So, next Sunday is when that’s going to be, and you can tell me after the service, grab me, Call me, send me an email, or Kathy Spolar.
We’d love for you to be a part of that. I want you to meet John and Christy. They’re going to share in the service next week a little bit, but I also just want to make sure that that’s on your radar. If you haven’t seen that announcement or you just need that final reminder, next Sunday after church, please let us know so we can RSVP for lunch and RSVP for childcare if you need it, all right? Let’s talk about the text today.
Here’s a question for you. Who is the goat? Who’s the GOAT? I’m not talking— well, thank you, Michael Jordan. Yes, I would agree with you on that.
I’m not talking about the animal. I’m talking about the acronym. Okay, I’m talking about GOAT, which stands for greatest of all time. And you’ll often find that term used, especially in the sports world, as in who is the GOAT? But if you just do a random search on the internet like I have done in preparation for the sermon and you write who is the GOAT, and then you fill in the blank with any industry or field that you can imagine.
The world of plastics, the world of coding, the world of tow truck driving. And I’m not joking, there is an actual museum in Tennessee devoted to the greatest of all time tow truck drivers. They have a Hall of Fame, like you can look it up. Now it seems a little silly to us, but really what we’re trying to decide is— it’s very, very subjective, of course, But who is it who stands head and shoulders above everybody else whenever you ask, who is the GOAT? Now, it’s always a bit silly to me when somebody refers to themselves as the GOAT, as in, yes, I am the GOAT.
You may remember the baseball player Rickey Henderson from the— from his days playing with the Oakland A’s. I love Rickey Henderson, greatest leadoff hitter of all time in baseball. When he stole 3rd base in a game in 1991, he broke the record record for the most career stolen bases. And Rickey— well, I think they planned to stop the game. It wasn’t that Rickey stopped the game.
They planned to stop the game, and Rickey pulls 3rd base up, which he had just stolen, and they bring a microphone over. He holds the base over his head. He thanked a few people, and then he said Lou Brock, who was the former stolen base leader— Lou Brock was the symbol of great base stealing, but today, Rickey Henderson said, I am the greatest of all time. Now, several years later, according to baseball writer Tim Kirkjian, Lou Brock had told Tim Kirkjian that he and Rickey had grown close during this pursuit of this record. And together, Lou Brock and Rickey Henderson had written a short speech that Rickey was supposed to read after he broke the record.
But instead, Rickey decided to ad-lib in the moment, and he came up with, I am the greatest of all time. When Lou asked Rickey about it afterwards, going, said, Rickey, what about the speech you and I came up with? Rickey said, sorry, I guess I forgot. That’s a true story. And we can joke about it, of course, but I want us to think about greatness today.
I’m not saying any of that to denigrate Rickey Henderson. He is the greatest base stealer of all time. And yes, I agree, Michael Jordan— not LeBron James— in basketball is the greatest of all time. Steph Curry, the greatest shooter of all time. Like, but again, pick any field.
Who’s the GOAT? Let’s talk about greatness though today. Did you know God actually made you and me for greatness in the sense that he wants our lives to be significant, right? He wants us to be able to get to the end of our lives and to be able to say, okay, I, I feel like I spent my life doing things that actually mattered. I spent my life in great ways.
The problem though, and I think you know this intuitively, is that sin so corrupts our understanding of greatness and our own desire for greatness in ways that lead to, on the one hand, self-exaltation, where we raise ourselves above other people, but then also at other times to self-degradation, where we lower ourselves below others, neither of which are healthy. And so even if we don’t ever admit it, there is just something about us that at times has at least a warped view of greatness. It’s distorted. We’re going to see that in the Scripture passage today. I want to pull out 3 aspects of this passage that I think can be helpful for us as we think about God’s perspective on greatness.
This text teaches us 3 things. The first thing it teaches us is a redefinition of greatness, a redefinition of greatness. And then the next thing it teaches us is who our true enemy is. It’s not who we think it is, who our true enemy is. And then the third question is the question that the disciples and we are sometimes afraid to ask.
So the first thing, redefining greatness. Jesus and the disciples, Mark tells us, are on this first leg of a journey to Jerusalem where Jesus is going to be arrested, He’s going to be killed. And on this journey, Jesus is explaining to them all that lies ahead for Him and for and all the serious implications that are going to apply to them. Meanwhile, what are the 12 disciples talking about? It seems that they’re having their own separate discussion, are they not?
It’s not so much of a discussion as it is an argument. It’s a dispute, as the disciples are arguing which of them is the GOAT. And so, when they finally arrive at Capernaum, Jesus asks them, what are you arguing about on the road? And we’re like, well, isn’t Jesus all-knowing? Doesn’t He already know?
What they’re arguing about? Of course. Jesus is asking them not for his own benefit and because he needs the information. Jesus asks questions because he uses it as an opportunity to teach. And so in response to Jesus’ question, the disciples did the exact same thing that I used to do all the time when I did something wrong, or I did something stupid, or I did something wrong and stupid.
They kept quiet. Why? Well, the text doesn’t tell us, but I think we can imagine they’re feeling a bit sheepish and pretty embarrassed. Jesus had just told them He’s going to suffer and He’s going to die in Jerusalem, and they’re arguing about which of them is the greatest. And we’re like, come on, read the room, guys.
Let’s not forget, though, as I pointed out a few weeks ago in my last sermon, the disciples, they’re just like us. The disciples do the exact same thing as we do. How so? Well, in at least 2 ways, okay? At least 2 ways.
We have a corrupted view and understanding of greatness in at least 2 ways. First, we’re constantly— and I’m guilty of this— constantly comparing ourselves with one another, are we not? We constantly compare ourselves with others. Notice that the emphasis of the disciples’ argument here is not on who among them was great, but who among them was the greatest.
That’s a word that requires comparison. C.S. Lewis calls this, quote, the great sin, in his book Mere Christianity, which some of you have read. C.S. Lewis says, the one vice of which no person in the world is free, which everyone in the world loathes when you see it in someone else, and which we are most unconscious of in ourselves.
What is this vice? Well, it’s pride. Pride is essentially competitive By its very nature. He writes— C.S. Lewis writes, quote, pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only having more of it than the next person.
We say that people are proud of being rich or clever or good-looking, but they’re not. They’re really proud of being richer or cleverer or better-looking than others. If everyone else became equally rich or clever or good-looking, there’s nothing to be proud about. It’s the comparison that makes us proud, the pleasure of being above others, being above the rest. And of course, in the opposite direction, pride also reveals itself in the despair that we feel when we see ourselves as being below the rest whenever we compare ourselves to others.
Like when you realize, I’m not as good as them. How easy is it for us to compare ourselves? And again, I do this all the time. Whether in person or maybe on social media, and to think they have what I want. I wish I was as fill-in-the-blank as they are.
They’re a better person than I am. They’re a better parent. They’re a better student. They’re a better athlete. They’re smarter.
They’re better looking. They’re more talented. They’re more put together. And on and on and on it goes, this constant comparison of ourselves with others. And that’s one way that sin corrupts our own understanding of greatness, is how we compare ourselves constantly with others.
A second way that sin corrupts our own quest for greatness is that we’re constantly craving approval from others. We compare ourselves, and we’re constantly craving approval. Again, I do this all the time. I want to be careful here. This is not all bad.
It’s good, for example, for a child to crave their parents’ approval, to want to please their parents, or a student to want to please their teacher, or an employee to desire affirmation from their boss. Notice what is happening here in Mark 9, though. They’re arguing with one another about who is the greatest. They’re not sitting back and thinking, okay, well, I know that I’m the greatest. I’m just not even going to talk about it to these guys.
That would be prideful, of course, absolutely. But they’re taking it to a whole other level. They want others to acknowledge that they are the greatest.
And Jesus warns against this over and over again. Jesus is constantly warning about, for instance, us doing certain acts of righteousness, like when we give to the poor or when we sing here in worship or when we pray or when we fast or whatever it is, that we do things very often not in order to please God but in order to be seen by others. Jesus talked about this in the Sermon on the Mount. Notice the subtle distinction here. It’s not enough for us to want to be great, but we want to be known for being great.
Jesus says giving, praying, you know, fasting— great, all commendable. Let’s do those things, but let’s resist the temptation within us to want other people to know just how great you are at doing those things. That’s the point. So how does Jesus address this? He redefines greatness.
He takes our warped understanding of greatness, and He redefines it. How so? He says, quote, anyone wants to be first— you want to be great, you want to be significant, you want to be noble, you want to be excellent— you must be the very last of all. You must be the servant of all. This isn’t some isolated teaching from Jesus.
He talked about this over and over again in the Gospels, like in John 13 when Jesus is redefining greatness with a towel and a basin of water as he washes his disciples’ feet. And what Jesus is saying here in this passage is to be great is to be selfless in serving others. He’s saying don’t put yourself above anyone else. Put everyone else’s needs before your own. That’s what it means to be last of all.
And you should know that the word for servant there, the greatest is the one who serves or is the servant, Verse 35 means to wait on tables. It means to take the low position, to do the menial tasks of a servant. For whom? For all. That’s what true greatness is, Jesus says.
So, to illustrate this, Jesus takes a child. It’s worth mentioning that in Aramaic, which is probably the language Jesus is using here, the word for servant is the same word used for child.
Children were seen as pretty insignificant. Back in that day. And Jesus, though, is taking a very seemingly unimportant, insignificant person, a child, into his arms. And by doing so, Jesus is saying that this child is included in the all that he’s talking about us serving and placing above ourselves in verse 35. To highlight greatness in the kingdom of God is to be last, even behind this child, putting this child’s interests above your own.
Greatness is serving and waiting on this child. And so at least part of Jesus’ point here is that his followers are to serve those who cannot pay you back, to serve even when it’s inconvenient for you to do so, to serve when it doesn’t boost your own ego. Jesus knows we have no problem serving people when it helps us, or people who are significant and important in our eyes and can do something for us. If we were to meet a hero of yours or whatever, of course, somebody you deem to be really, really important, you’re probably going to go out of your way to serve them. What an honor, right?
But Jesus says, are you just as delighted to do that for someone who is seemingly unimportant in the eyes of the world? That’s greatness.
Jesus says— you see how Jesus is turning this definition of greatness upside down? He’s saying to treat everyone as superior to you, even those you consider to be insignificant, who may not make a big deal about what you’re doing. They may not even acknowledge it. They can’t pay you back. Now, why would we want to do that?
Why would we be motivated to do that? Because Jesus is calling us to do this, quote, in his name. Verse 37, you’re not doing this in your own name. That’s the difference. Our warped view of greatness, we do things in our own name, but he’s saying do this in Jesus’ name.
So Jesus says to welcome, to serve a child is to not just receive not just a child, but you’re actually receiving Jesus and you’re receiving the one who sent Jesus. But this is so— it’s just not the way we think, right? We would expect Jesus to say to maybe to serve children for their own sake. He’s obviously not saying to do it for your own sake, but he’s also not saying to do it for their sake. He doesn’t say to serve children or insignificant people in the eyes of the world for the sake of that person, for the sake of mankind, for the sake of the future of our country.
Now, Jesus says to receive and welcome these because you want to receive and welcome him, and not just him, but the one who sent him. That’s greatness, to be selfless in serving others and to be satisfied in having God. Serve others not for their sake. Serve others because you want to receive more of him, the one who is— wait for it— the greatest of all time.
There’s a second lesson we learn from this text, and that is who is our true enemy? Our true enemy. We already know that the disciples have a spirit of rivalry within them, right? Just like we do. Well, it says in verse 38 that the disciples— I mean, it specifically says John, but maybe he was just speaking up for the rest of the group— John becomes alarmed about this random person they see driving out demons in Jesus’ name.
They don’t seem to know this guy’s name. They don’t know what his background or his training is or even where he’s from. All they know is that he is going viral and he’s building a ministry following and apparently is claiming Jesus’ authority to cast out demons. And that’s something that a lot of people did back then, like magicians and sorcerers. The difference in this case, though, is that this man is not just talking about or having power or claiming to have this kind of power.
He’s actually demonstrating it. And he’s invoking the name of Jesus to do so. Now, let’s be clear. I want to make sure that we’re clear here on this.
Jesus’ name or says they do something in Jesus’ name does not necessarily mean that Jesus actually cosigns their ministry. Jesus says in Matthew 7, look, there’s going to be lots of people back then and today who do very impressive Christian things and have impressive Christian resumes and platforms, but are actually living very hypocritical lives. And Jesus will say to them, you hypocrites. To them at the time of judgment, depart from me, I don’t know you, you didn’t do these things in my name for my sake. So simply using Jesus’ name doesn’t necessarily mean that you belong to him.
So it seems like the disciples have a legitimate concern here, does it not? But Jesus says something surprising. He says, no, don’t stop this guy. This man has my permission to do this. There’s genuine evidence that the Spirit of God is working through him.
So this man is your ally. He is not your enemy. He is your brother. This is not your true enemy here. He’s on our team.
So don’t stop him. In fact, let’s rejoice in what he’s doing. He may not be one of the 12, but he’s still being used as an agent of the kingdom of God. And then in verse 41, Jesus says, You all are so caught up in your definitions of greatness and in protecting your own reputation and ministry and platform, but you need to know that there are people who are doing the most minuscule work in the kingdom, like, say, giving a cup of water to somebody, and are doing it legitimately in my name, Jesus is saying. And so, he’s honored by that, and he will reward them.
Now, in terms of applications for our lives, consider verse 38. Notice that John doesn’t say, Hey, Jesus, we told this man to stop what he was doing because he was not following you. John doesn’t say that. What does he say? He says, we tried to stop him because he was not one of us.
And what this indicates is a larger pattern that we see over and over again, even today, even among Christians, and we can call this— some have labeled it a form of tribal Christianity. Christian tribalism. I mean, can you think of any examples in the world today in which this same thing happens? Can you think of any examples in which one group of Christians dismisses or looks down on another group of Christians and treats them as rivals? Does that ever happen?
Yes, sadly. We’re indeed tempted to dismiss or sometimes even disparage Christians with different convictions, than our own, different styles of worship than our own, to look down on those we perceive are pursuing a lesser version of Christianity than we are. They’re not reading the right authors. They’re not voting the right way. They’re not doing things the way that we think that they ought to do things.
And the whole thing just becomes so arrogant and warped and abhorrent and sinful when we do things becomes our litmus test and our standard for judging or disparaging other people for the way that they do things. These are our brothers and sisters in Christ. And meanwhile, here the disciples were not only focused on themselves and their own ministry, they’re not even rejoicing over the fact that God is using this man to minister to others and to set them free, which wasn’t that the whole point of the mission in the first place? And don’t forget that the disciples had failed to cast out demons themselves earlier in this chapter. So maybe they’re a bit jealous here.
They’re criticizing the guy who could do something that they could not do. And so Jesus goes on in this passage to reveal how sniping at other Christian brothers and sisters is just distracting us from our real enemy. This man is not our enemy. Other Christians are not our enemy. It’s distracting us from the real battle that is going on around us.
Jesus said, no, there is a war going on. And unless we realize that, we’re going to be in real danger. Unless we realize who our true enemy is, we’re going to be in real danger. We’re in a war. Well, what is this war?
Who is our true enemy? Our true enemy is what has been our enemy from the very, very beginning— sin. That’s God’s enemy, and therefore, that’s our true enemy as well, not this other person. And so Jesus exhorts us in this passage to focus more on doing 3 things This is verses 42 through 50. First, instead of focusing on what others are doing, number one, we’re to be super serious about keeping others from sin.
We’re to be super serious about keeping others from sin. And that warning that’s given here is quite graphic. Jesus’ point is we’re to each take our influence on other people so seriously. Do not, He says, even lead one person to sin, whether intentionally or unintentionally. If you’re married, don’t lead your spouse to sin.
Spouse to sin. If you’re a parent, be serious about keeping your children from sin. If you have influence on other Christians’ life in any way, be serious about keeping them from sin. So, Jesus says, if you cause just one follower of Jesus to stumble, it’s going to be better to be just given a pair of cement shoes and hurled into the ocean. That’s how serious our true enemy is, not this guy out here that God is using to do incredible things for the Kingdom.
Second, Jesus tells us that we’re to be super serious about keeping ourselves from sin. That’s verses 43 through 48. Serious about keeping others from sin and keeping ourselves from sin. Clearly, we don’t have literal language here from Jesus when He talks about cutting off hands or feet or poking out eyes. I think we know that.
We know that even if you only have one hand or one foot or one eye, you’re just as tempted as to sin. As if you had 2 feet, 2 arms, 2 eyes, whatever, right? Because sin resides in our heart. So this is symbolic language, but it is intended to shock us. He’s saying that whatever is precious and important to you, it’s nowhere near as precious and important as being able to enter life, to enter the kingdom of God, to have salvation and a relationship with God.
In other words, your spiritual life, friends, Philippians, is worth the sacrifice of your physical life. So take drastic measures, Jesus is saying, to stay away from sin. It doesn’t matter how small or insignificant you think it is, because sin is deadly. It’s never benign. Sin is never neutral.
And it keeps us from eternal life. All sin does is lead us away from God and take us down a path that leads to destruction. That’s what Jesus is saying here. And third, Jesus exhorts us here to lay down our lives every day in light of what matters most in eternity. That’s verses 49 through 50.
To lay down our lives every day in light of what matters in eternity. And to understand these 2 verses, verses 49 through 50, where Jesus is talking about salt, it’s a little confusing. It’s helpful to think about the Old Testament, to think about how God describes His people’s offerings and their worship. For instance, look at Leviticus chapter 2, verses 13 through 16. It says in Leviticus 2:13 through 16, quote, you shall season all your grain offerings with, what?
With salt. You shall not let the salt of the covenant with your God be missing from your grain offerings. With all your offerings, offer salt, and the priest shall burn it as an offering to the Lord. This is the picture, friends, of an offering that is pleasing to God. Not simply because it’s salt, but there’s something symbolic happening here.
And so Jesus is taking that picture in Mark 9:49, and he’s saying everyone will be salted with fire. He’s calling us to lay down our own lives as a living sacrifice to him. That’s Romans 12:1 kind of language where it says in view of God’s mercy, we are to offer ourselves as a living sacrifice to God. And then in verse 50, Jesus refers to salt in the same way that He referred to it back in the Sermon on the Mount, where He says, you are the salt of the earth. And while there are, sure, lots of different applications of salt that we don’t have time to fully get into today, the overall picture is one of the helpfulness of salt, in the way that salt flavors, and in the way that it preserves, and the way that salt even fertilizes at times.
And that’s what Jesus is calling us to do. Flee sin. In your own life so that you will be like salt in other people’s lives.
That should be where your focus is. He’s calling us to be distinct from the world, to have a saltiness, a taste to us. Be the kind of people who have a profound spiritual influence on the people around you. And I just pray that God would make Bridges Community Church to be salty people. For his glory.
So, in this passage, Jesus is redefining greatness. He’s taking us away from our distractions about who our true enemy is and helping us to better understand our real enemy. There’s another aspect of this scripture, though, that we can’t overlook, and it’s third. Here’s a question in this text that the disciples were afraid to ask, and I think we, too, would have been afraid to have asked it and consider it. Let’s not forget that this particular section of the story is falling within a larger context the last couple chapters in Mark.
And the overarching theme that we’ve been studying here in our series in the Gospel of Mark, we’re seeing it again in this passage, is that Jesus calls upon his followers— he’s the suffering servant— he calls upon his followers to deny ourselves individually, to individually deny ourselves, to take up our cross daily, and to follow him. And we’ve already seen 2 of the ways that we can flesh that out. We deny ourselves and take up our cross and follow him, number one, when we demonstrate humble service to others and being the servant of all. We’ve already seen that. We also are walking out what this looks like, at 2, whenever we embrace a ministry of gracious cooperation with other brothers and sisters instead of looking at them as our enemy.
Both of these things run so contrary to our human nature, don’t they? That’s what makes this conversation that Jesus is having with the disciples in verses 30 through 32 stand out all the more, though. Look at it again. They left that place. They passed through Galilee.
Jesus didn’t want anyone to know where they were because he was teaching the disciples. He said to them, the Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men. They will kill him, and after 3 days he will rise. And it says they didn’t understand what he meant. And don’t miss this, they were afraid to ask him about it.
Let’s be clear, Jesus never left any doubt about what his mission was, what he came to earth to do. He came to die. And he told his disciples this repeatedly, that this was the case. His mission was to go to the cross, period, to pay the penalty for our sins, period. And notice that Jesus said that he would be, quote, delivered into the hands of men.
So who was it who was going to deliver Jesus into the hands of men? Well, someone said, well, of course Judas, right? And of course, yes, Judas will play a big part in all of this, but the Bible teaches consistently that ultimately God the Father is the one who delivers his Son over to death. Isaiah 53:6, the Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all. Isaiah 53:11, it was the will of the Lord to crush him.
Romans 3:24, God presented Jesus as a sacrifice of atonement. John 3:16, for God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son. This was God’s plan from the beginning, for Jesus to die as an atonement for our sin. God was sovereign and in control over the death of Jesus from the very, very beginning. He wasn’t caught off guard.
This wasn’t Plan B. This wasn’t an accident. It wasn’t an afterthought. God didn’t send Jesus to earth so that he could be a good teacher and do some miracles. Jesus’ mission was to die and to pay for our sins, and that was something that had been in the mind of God from eternity past.
God is the one who handed over his Son. And at the same time, verse 31, people are responsible. They will kill him, it says. Look at verse 32, though. But they, the disciples, did not understand what Jesus meant.
And were afraid to ask him about it. They just didn’t get it. It wasn’t that they couldn’t understand what it means to be betrayed and killed. They just didn’t understand how that could happen to the Son of God. How could that possibly be?
Any notion that they had of a Messiah had nothing at all to do with suffering. It certainly didn’t have anything to do with death. It seemed completely ridiculous, preposterous, to think of someone who was a Messiah Suffering betrayal and rejection and then death and making himself less than others? And so, the question that they’re afraid to ask is a simple question. And the question is this: What on earth does Jesus mean?
And their incomprehension— they did not understand— is matched by their fear. They were afraid to ask him about it. And this seems strange because the disciples are never short on questions, right? You read the Gospels and it’s like the disciples are always, What does this mean, Jesus? What do the parables mean?
What does that mean, Jesus? They’re very free normally in asking Jesus their questions, and Jesus, like a good teacher, loves when his students ask questions. On this occasion, no one wanted to ask the question. Why are they afraid to ask? Well, the text doesn’t specifically say, but I think it’s because we realize now what they were arguing about and where their focus was.
It was on themselves. It was on what other people were doing. They were not clicking with where God was trying to speak to them. And perhaps it’s also because Jesus had been already telling them that those who were his followers would be the ones who would took up their own cross to follow him. And so they’re now beginning to put the picture together, and they’re saying, wait a minute, if he’s going to go up and if this is what’s going to happen to him, what’s going to happen to me?
What’s going to happen to us? And so, they understand enough to know that they don’t want to understand anything else. They wanted to be blissfully ignorant. If they found out more, they would realize what awaited them, but they knew enough to know that the business of following Jesus is super serious. If he’s going to suffer and die, then we may have to suffer and die, too.
And that’s a question that they didn’t even want to consider, and most of us don’t ever want to consider. That’s the challenge, friends. As we reflect on this text, Jesus is revealing that by nature we are simply not as interested in serving as in being served, not as interested in giving as in receiving, not as interested in pursuing God’s way instead of getting our way and being the least as in being the greatest. And we, like the disciples, are certain that the way to life The way to greatness is not by obedience that leads to death.
It’s not by being last and being a servant of all, certainly, right? It’s not by pursuing a life of generous cooperation or of serious suffering, yet that is exactly, it’s exactly what Jesus says as he lays before us the real path to greatness, greatness as defined by God. Let’s pray. Heavenly Father, I thank you for your word, and I pray that we would be moved by it with conviction and humility and recognize our unworthiness before you. Thank you for Jesus going to the cross.
Thank you that you sent him. That was your plan from the very, very beginning.
We have hope in no one else, salvation in no one else. May you increase and may we decrease as we apply this message to our lives this week and follow you, denying ourselves, taking up our cross, and going wherever you lead us. Thank you for providing for us. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
