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Funu... 260721-0809 Mark 10:32-45

Weeks delayed. No excuses.

In the tenth chapter of Mark’s account of the life and ministry of Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus begins telling his disciples that unpleasant things would happen to him, that he would be tortured and killed, then rise from the dead after three days; and not only that, but his followers would suffer great persecutions and losses, but would be given eternal life in the world to come.

Now, other significant thought leaders have prepared themselves and their followers, with significant differences. Gautama Buddha, as I understand it, taught that this world is a great illusion, and that we can achieve our highest state by recognizing that nothingness is supreme, but we can achieve higher states in our next lives by doing good here; and he died or perhaps was taken to Nirvana. Kong-zi (Confucius) taught that the present world gives us enough to worry about that whether a god exists or whether or not we will live after we die are beyond worrying about, and he died. Mohammad gave at best a confusing plan for his followers for after he died, then died unexpectedly, some say of poison, and his body was entombed near several of his wives. I’m sure that many will dispute my treatment of these other leaders, and I will be glad to entertain and discuss corrections to my portrayals. If you are interested in religions and how they got started, libraries and online resources have plenty of resources available, and in the free countries of the world you may find scholars and believers who can help you understand them.

But the main focus of this series is on Jesus, how he interacted with the people around him, and how his actions and interactions define who he is and argue in favor of believing in and following him. In Mark 10:29-31, Mark records Jesus’ words as he details—predicts—the rough lives his followers would live after his own real death, burial, and resurrection, real events that occurred in actual space and time, that is, in a real place at a real time in genuine history.

The next verse (Mark 10:32) transitions Jesus and his disciples from the East side of the Jordan River to the approach to Jerusalem. Mark records that they are “going up to Jerusalem,” which fits the geography because where the Jordan is closest to Jerusalem it is several hundred meters below sea level (say, the Mediterranean Sea), and Jerusalem is 300 or so meters above it, and the horizontal distance between them is maybe 10 miles or 15 kilometers.

Jesus’ disciples are amazed and afraid. Jesus predicts that he will die, and his followers both persecuted and rewarded, and –Jesus pulls the twelve closest disciples aside and explains more fully what will happen to him. “Look, we’re going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of man [referring to himself as the God from Daniel’s vision] will be delivered up to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death and turn him over to the Gentiles [Roman colonial rulers]; they in turn will mock him, and scourge him, and spit on him, then kill him, and on the third day he will rise again.”

Could Jesus be much clearer? He might point out that “rise again” clearly means rise to life again after he’s dead; and he could give a detailed timeline with dates, but this seems a pretty good outline of an upcoming sequence of events. His disciples might have been confused or in denial before, but surely this straightens everything out for them. I want to stick with talking about Jesus Christ of Nazareth, and his unique actions and interactions, but stop and think: What other person, let alone someone who is associated with a present or past religious movement, has predicted his (or her) own death and events leading up to it? And as we will see, Jesus’ predictions came true, almost entirely beyond what he could have controlled. But let’s get back to Mark’s account.

Can you say “self-deprecatory”? As someone who needed street cred as a follower of Jesus after he was killed (and of course, rose from the dead), you would think that Mark would want to build up Jesus’ disciples, who are now (I’m talking about the time Mark wrote his account) leaders in the movement. He’s writing this within a few years of having lost the man who had been teaching his disciples for something like three years. In today’s military, or in the corporate world, competent followers would respond to his dire warnings with a cheery, “Aye, aye,” and get on with the next step in the program, or at least ask what it is. But James and John, two of Jesus’ three closest disciples, appear next to clueless:

“Rabbi, we want you to do something for us,” they ask Jesus, coming up close. He asks what they want him to do. “Let us sit beside you when you sit on your glorious throne in Heaven.”

I can see Jesus’ face dropping in disappointment. “You guys don’t know what you’re asking. Can you drink from the cup of pain and agony that I drink from? And be baptized with the baptism (of death) that awaits me?”

Sure, Jesus. No problem, is the gist of their bold reply.

Yeah, right, Jesus returns. “Yes, you will drink the cup I drink of, and you will be baptized with the baptism I’m baptized with. But sitting on my right hand and left hand just is not mine to give. Those places will be given to those for whom they are prepared.”

The other ten disciples are listening, and they are not happy with James and John. But Jesus calls them all together and says, “You guys know that other rulers—like leaders of the Gentiles—exercise controlling authority over their minions. But for you who follow me, that’s not to be; whoever among you wants to be great is to be your servant, and whoever wants to be at the top must be servant—slave, even—to 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.”

So much is packed into these last paragraphs. First, Jesus refers to himself as the Son of man, from the Old Testament book of Daniel, chapter 7; so Jesus claims to be God. (In Daniel’s vision in Daniel 7:13-14, “one like the Son of Man came with the clouds of Heaven, and came to the Ancient of Days... and there was given to him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom... an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and... shall not be destroyed.” There is clearly a distinction between the Son of man and Almighty God, the Ancient of Days, but the concept of God existing in three Persons was not clear in Daniel’s time, and even Jesus’ disciples didn’t grasp it, although looking back from our day, the concept of one God, eternally existing in three Persons while still remaining one God, appears over and over beginning in Genesis 1, where “the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters,” and “God said, ‘Let us make man in our image.’ ” It’s hard for me to keep strictly to Mark’s account, when such significant background must be understood. For the sake of argument, though, I am trying to limit these posts to what Mark reported as Jesus’ words and actions, and his interactions with living people at that time, so let’s get back to that.)

Second, James and John expect Jesus to sit on a powerful throne in glory (Mark 10:37). Jesus neither denies this nor tries to correct their image of him as, likely, the judge in Psalm 1:5-6, but by stating that their placement is not his decision, he illustrates that he is not the Almighty Father.

Third, Jesus establishes principles for how his disciples are to conduct themselves, and how those who follow in the disciples’ footsteps are to lead, not by seeking power but by humbly serving.

Fourth, Jesus tried to get it through to his followers (in verse 45) that his mission in Israel was not then to be adulated and served, but to serve “and to give his life a ransom for many.” Again, unlike any other spiritual leader throughout history, Jesus accurately predicted his own death, and he stated the underlying theology, that his death was not meant to evoke sympathy, nor to establish him as a martyr to rally revolutionary zeal, but that if served as a ransom, payment for, it turns out, the sins of many—fulfilling the Old Testament, illustrative sacrifice of lambs to satisfy God’s just requirement that people’s sins be paid for.

At this point, I could write pages trying to describe and justify the Jewish sacrificial system, and how it pointed toward Jesus as the ultimate sacrifice. But others have done that well, and I lack the credentials; instead I will encourage you to research and understand this area on your own, while I focus on the actual events and interactions involving Jesus that Mark recorded, just shy of 2,000 years ago.

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