Power Play Series

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There’s a saying in business that I’ve heard a lot. "Lead, follow, or get out of the way!" It portrays the sentiment that you should step up and over everyone - meekly fall in line with the "leaders" - blindly following their every command - or just go away.

We value expertise and bravado - make people think you know what you’re doing or least intimidate them so much that they’ll be afraid to challenge you.

This is a lesson this man learned: Rick, fresh out of accounting school, went to a interview for a good paying job. The company boss asked various questions about him and his education, but then asked him, "What is three times seven?"

"22," Rick replied. After he left, he double-checked it on his calculator (he *knew* he should have taken it to the interview!) and realized he wouldn’t get the job.

About two weeks later, he got a letter that said he was hired for the job! He was not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, but was still very curious. The next day, he went in and asked why he got the job, even though he got such a simple question wrong.

The boss shrugged and said, "Well, you were the closest."

So what really matters in business, in life, in the Lord? We are surrounded by a model that has been in place for millennia. Those with money and position are the boss and we are just the followers or those that get stepped on as people climb their way to the top over us.

Jesus Christ came to earth to reveal the nature of the REAL boss - the Lord God Almighty. He is pretty intimidating, so you’d think He would have a personality to match - but He doesn’t. The boss of bosses does not follow the world’s leadership model - and Jesus is going to try to hone that in to His disciples as we look at the last half of Mark chapter 10.

32 They were on their way up to Jerusalem, with Jesus leading the way, and the disciples were astonished, while those who followed were afraid. Again he took the Twelve aside and told them what was going to happen to him. 33 "We are going up to Jerusalem," he said, "and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles, 34 who will mock him and spit on him, flog him and kill him. Three days later he will rise."

35 Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him. "Teacher," they said, "we want you to do for us whatever we ask."

36 "What do you want me to do for you?" he asked.

37 They replied, "Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory."

This is pretty amazing based on what has just happened. We know from the other gospels that these boy’s mom - Mrs. Zebedee, was also involved in this thing - and granted, mothers always want the best for their sons - but you think sometimes these guys just don’t listen.

Jesus has just gotten through telling them that "many who are first will be last" and yet here they are wanting power and position. The truth is that many times we hear what we want to hear. Our brains are wired in fact to interpret much of what we see and take in - to make conclusions based on past experience. Our minds will in fact fill in many blanks in order to make sense out of the environment around us. That’s one of the reasons that motion pictures work - your brain actually stories an image a little longer than it is really there - its called "persistence of vision." Show individual pictures at 24 frames per second and your brain says: "this is moving, fluid - not a series of still pictures."

Well often we hear the Lord tell us something in His Word or through a teaching - and we just hear what we expect to hear. James and John heard Jesus say "many who are first shall be last" and apparently thought that left room at the front of the line for them!

The point is to really focus on what the Lord is saying - even if that challenges the way you have always interpreted things.

Jesus helps the disciples understand what they are really asking for - not a positin of power but a life of suffering.

38 "You don’t know what you are asking," Jesus said. "Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?"