Becoming Great In God's Kingdom

Becoming Great in His Kingdom

Mark 10 :35-45

Online Sermon: http://www.mckeesfamily.com/?page_id=3567

“I once heard the story of a rice farmer who saved an entire village from destruction. From his hilltop farm he felt the earthquake and saw the distant ocean swiftly withdraw from the shoreline. He knew that a tidal wave was coming. In the valley below, he saw his neighbors working low fields that would soon be flooded. They must run quickly to his hilltop, or they would all die. His rice barns were dry as tinder. So, with a torch he set fire to his barns and soon the fire gong started ringing. His neighbors saw the smoke and rushed to help him. Then from their safe perch they saw the tidal wave wash over the fields they had just left. In a flash they knew not only who had saved them but what their salvation had cost their benefactor. They later erected a monument to his memory bearing the motto, “He gave us all he had, and gave gladly.” This poor farmer finished first in the eyes of his community, but it cost him everything he had.”

Though there be but one body, one Spirit, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all (Ephesians 4:4-5) this does not mean that in our human nature believers have ceased to be like this farmer free from “self-glory, self-reliance, self-sufficiency, and freed from the desire to pursue power, possessions, prestige and positions” of authority in the church. If you think for a moment that you are completely free from such self-glorifying passions then listen to the story in Mark 10:35-45 concerning two of Jesus’ most prominent disciples. For a third and final time Jesus predicts His death and resurrection (8:31-33; 9:30-32). Although the disciples were “astonished” at Jesus’ passion-predictions (10:32) they could not “reconcile the idea of a suffering Savior with that of a conquering King.” Jesus promised the “apostles in regeneration that they would sit upon thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel (Matthew 19:28). On the road to Capernaum this started a sharp dispute amongst the disciples who would be the greatest in the kingdom of God to which Jesus said, “anyone who wants to be first must be the very last and servant of all” (9:33-35). Believing in faith that the kingdom of God was near, James, John, and their “mom” Salome sought a private meeting with Jesus (10:45) to politic a superior position of power and authority in His kingdom. The goal of this sermon is not to demean those who in the power of the Holy Spirit went on to do great things but to invite you the Christian reader to see how easy it is in our sinful nature to act upon Satan’s cunning whisper, “The Lord takes care of those who take care of themselves.” Let’s get back to the story and hear about their “audacious but sinful request.”

The Enormous Request

Holding onto “momma’s arm” these two “Sons of Thunder” in essence asked Jesus “for a monarch’s gift,” a blank cheque in which they could ask and receive anything from their Lord! While their open request “seems utterly preposterous” in their minds they were just claiming the promise Jesus made earlier, “ask and it shall be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you” (Matthew 7:7). Despite their “ill conceived ambition” the Lord does not respond in indignation but grace and mercy and merely asks, “what do you want me to do for you?” They had brought “momma” with them in hopes that her being Mary’s sister and them being cousins to Jesus might curry favor in His eyes, as if genealogy had anything to do with either entrance or position in His kingdom. “Despite Jesus’ constant teaching on lowly service (8:33-10:16), they were not satisfied with merely ruling on one of the thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel they wanted more, “for one to sit at Jesus’ right and the other at Jesus’ left side in His glory” (10:37). In Jewish social settings “the honor belonged to the person sitting in the center of the company followed by those who seated to the right and left, respectively.” James and John’s request in essence was to have the highest honored seats next to Jesus at the Messianic banquet so that their presumed superior leadership might become eternal and superior to that of the other disciples and saints! Though they honored Jesus by addressing Him as “Teacher” and believing in great faith He was about to establish His kingdom, their insensitivity to the brutality of Jesus’ atoning sacrifice He was about to make only accentuated the truth that the yeast of the Pharisees for religious power and status had crept into their souls, not just theirs but all the apostles! “How easily worship and discipleship are blended with self-interest; or worse, self-interest is masked as worship and discipleship!