By stark
contrast, being a sports star, pop star or actor/actress are the top
aspirations of our teenagers today. The more
astute among will notice we have gone from a culture of stable career choice,
where helping others was the focus, to a culture where our young people want
the lime light, the centre of attention. In a ‘dog-eat-dog’ sentimentality, they
want the large pay check. They will get there no matter what.
Don’t get me
wrong, there are still those young people who are aiming for Medicine, Science,
Law, and Veterinary Science but they are few and far between. The vast majority
want the fame and fortune, they aspire to be on the tele and remembered as
great. They want to be someone.
In tonight’s
passage, we see the very same sentimentality in the Twelve after Jesus predicts
his death a second and third time. We hear Christ’s warning to them and how he
corrects their attitude. He reminds the Twelve of what IS important and what
the priorities SHOULD be in order to enter the Kingdom of God.
It all
begins after Jesus has declared he will be killed but will rise again, this for
the second time.
V33-34
This is the
beginning of a large section Mark has written to emphasise what Jesus wants us
to understand. First comes the question, ‘who is the greatest?’. Although we
are not privy to the argument on the road, we know it is about who the greatest
disciple is. Now, I don’t think this is an argument about which disciple was
the best disciple out of the twelve chosen by Christ, but rather, who was more
important to Christ. So that, when he came into his kingdom, who would have a
position of authority over others. It might be pertinent to add here, the
disciples still did not fully understand what Jesus had just told them about
his death and resurrection.
It’s a human
characteristic. We all sometime in our life compare ourselves to others and ask
‘who is the most important?’, or perhaps, you were like me as a child and
thought ‘I was the most important’. We put ourselves on a pedestal and believe
nothing can touch us. We aim to be the centre of attention, nothing else is
acceptable.
This is
exactly what the disciples were arguing about. They considered themselves as
the elite, the chosen ones, but like all groups in society and indeed the
animal kingdom, only one can be on top. Who would it be?
And so Jesus
sits down to teach:
V35-37
Jesus turns
the whole human condition upside down. In society, being on top means being
first, but in God’s kingdom, being first means you must be the lowest, the
servant, the one who serves the others.
To visualise
his statement, he takes a child and places him among the twelve, thus
symbolising one of them. He then takes the child into his arms, an act of
welcoming him before explaining ‘if anyone welcomes this child, that is you,
they welcome me, but not just me, but God.’
In so doing,
Christ is telling the twelve they must become childlike in their attitudes, in
the way they live and think. They must be humble and trust in God as a young
child trusts his father.
To emphasise
this, Mark has used Jesus interacting with a child as bookends to three very
important characteristics. The stories in between 9:36 and 10:16 describe the
cost of entering the Kingdom of God. What characteristics we must have in order
to enter God’s kingdom.
Starting
with humility.
V38-41
The
disciples have taken offence at someone else who is not part of the twelve
casting out demons. ‘Why should they be allowed to do such a heroic act, we’re
the ones who Jesus has chosen, we and we alone should be the ones to do this!”
See they
have put themselves on a pedestal. They are more important, they greater than
anyone else because they have been chosen by Christ.
Christ
teaches them to be humble by humiliating them, that is cutting through their
pride and self-importance by “Do not stop him!”. Christ is saying that anyone
who accepts him is, by definition, with him. He uses the example of someone
helping one of the twelve because they know they are chosen by Christ, he says
even they will be rewarded. It’s not the act that gets the reward, it’s knowing
Christ.
The
characteristic of humility runs throughout Mark’s Gospel. If I only point you
towards the examples leading up to tonight’s passage, you will see the
commonality of those Jesus interacts with to epitomise the importance of being
humble.
You don’t
have to turn to these now, but be sure to listen to this talk again online and
check these verses out for yourself:
1:23 – Jesus
exorcised a man possessed by an evil spirit;
1:32 – Jesus
heals many sick and demon-possessed people;
1:40 – Jesus
heals a man with leprosy, who would have been excommunicated from the town and
family for being unclean;
2:5 – Jesus
heals a paralytic man who had been carried desperately by four men;
5:2 – Jesus
exorcises Legion from a man dwelling in the tombs outside the Decapolis;
5:25 – The
woman who had been bleeding for twelve years and was therefore considered
unclean by society touches the cloak of Jesus and is healed;
7:35 – Jesus
heals the deaf and mute man in the region of Decapolis, the people begged him
to do so;
8:22 – Jesus
heals the blind man at Bethsaida, again the people begged him to do so; and
9:25 – Jesus
exorcises the deaf and mute evil spirit from a boy after his father begged him
to do so;
In each of
these cases, we see snippets of life that demonstrates the tragic consequences
of living in a world under the shadow of death. These people were powerless,
poor, considered the bottom of society, perhaps even to the point of being
shunned from society – they were least rather than the greatest. There was
nothing they or any human could do to save them from the grave. They came
humiliated. Yet, despite all that, Christ healed them.
Therefore,
we must have humility like a child.
The second
characteristic we need is purity.
V42-50
Jesus does
not mince his words. Hell is serious and we must take it seriously. It is not a
tool to frighten unbelievers into believing, but a warning to us the believers.
It is so
serious that Christ says it is better to enter Heaven maimed that to go to Hell
whole if your hand, foot or eye cause you to sin. And look at the warning given
to anyone who causes someone else to
sin in v42?
Jesus talks
of saltiness. We must be salted. Purified. In the sermon on the mount, Jesus
says Mt 5:8, ‘Blessed are the pure in
heart, for they will see God’ and therefore, we must be pure like a child.
The third
characteristic we need to enter the kingdom of God is faithfulness.
10:4-9
Jesus uses
the topic of marriage and divorce to teach about faithfulness. V9 states
clearly, ‘what God has joined together, let man not separate’, words I remember
hearing at the end of our wedding.
Jesus reminds
us that God’s intention was for a man and a woman to be joined as one,
‘forsaking all others, till death do us part’. Remaining faithful to each other
until death.
The same
level of faithfulness is demanded of us, Jesus says, in order to enter God’s kingdom.
We must wholeheartedly trust in God that what he says will be done,
irrespective of what happens in this life.
Therefore,
we must have faith in our father as a child has faith in theirs.
Christ
reiterates the importance of these characteristics in 10:15.
James and
John, however, seemed not to understand, or perhaps they had a bad case of
selective hearing.
V35-37
They asked a
question that the same disciples were arguing about in Chapter 9. ‘We want to
be the greatest! Sit us at your right and left in your glory. We want places of
power and prestige in the kingdom of God.
Did they not
hear anything Jesus had told them?
Come on,
he’s just told them all they need to be humble, pure in heart and faithful like
a child and they still ask this of him. It would seem even the story of the
rich man in v17-31 does not have an effect on them.
Here, Mark
tells the story of how a rich man with everything, wealth, status, power, good
health, prospects for his future, good connections and all the trappings that wealth
could bring comes to Jesus and asks about inheriting eternal life.
V19 – 22
Jesus wants
the disciples not just to know what they must be in order to enter the kingdom
of God, but what happens if they aren’t
like a child. This rich man was faithful in keeping all the commands, but was
not pure in heart because he could not sell his possessions and was not humble
enough to live like a pauper. He could not have eternal life.
James and
John saw the pleasures of authority through human eyes. They, like Peter before
them in 8:33, did not see things through the eyes of God. They saw glory,
honour, power and prestige. They wanted to be someone like many young people
today. They wanted fame and fortune above everyone else, in spite of everyone
else.
Their request
is not uncommon today. How many of us want something greater than our current
status? How many of us want to do something more important with our lives? How
many of us see someone do something and think we can do better? How many of
want to do things that make us the centre of attention? How many of us want to
get involved with the big things, but not the little things?
Jesus simply
reiterates the phrase he has said three times already. Found in 9:35, 10:15,
10:31 and now in 10:43.
We have a
lot of work to do with our young people. For too long society has told them it
is OK to dream for fame and fortune, make a name for yourself and you will be
secure in life. But Jesus is saying, “No, that is wrong. You must first serve
others in this life.”
But friends,
this must start with us, the adults. We must be willing to do the minute things
before jumping into the big things. We must live to serve others rather than be
in the lime light. Because Christ did not come to be served, but to serve to
the point of death, even death of a cross.
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