SERIES: WALKING WITH JESUS
“THE SERVAN’TS KINGDOM”
MARK 10:1-52
OPEN
Anybody here a comic-book fan? I used to be. One of the comic book characters I used to love was Superman. One of the characters who would appear every so often in the Superman series was a fellow known as Bizarro. Bizarro was from a place referred to as Bizarro World.
Everything in Bizarro World was completely backwards from earth. The real name of the planet was Htae (earth spelled backwards). Everything in Bizarro world was the complete opposite to anything on earth. Instead of being round, Bizarro World was a cube. The Bizarro Code says, “Us do opposite of all Earthly things! Us hate beauty! Us love ugliness! Is big crime to make anything perfect on Bizarro World!” We would say, “That’s upside-down!”
That’s how people viewed the kingdom that Jesus taught about. The theme of Mark’s Gospel is the work resume of the Servant. Servants do not rule over kingdoms but Jesus was the Servant King. It was upside-down to even consider a servant as a king. Yet, we spent a about 3 months last year going through Jesus’ guide for kingdom living. It’s called in popular terminology The Sermon on the Mount.
God’s ways generally seem upside-down to us. The apostle Paul said in 1 Cor. 1:27 that God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, that he chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 2 Cor. 8:9 says about Jesus “that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.” 2 Cor. 12:10 says, “For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
Let’s look at some of the principles of the upside-down kingdom. As we do so, let us together ask God to show us His way more fully and to give us strength to live life upside-down.
TWO BECOMES ONE
Mk. 10:1-12 – “Jesus then left that place and went into the region of Judea and across the Jordan. Again
crowds of people came to him, and as was his custom, he taught them. Some Pharisees came and tested him by asking, ‘Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?’ ‘What did Moses command you?’ he replied. They said, ‘Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce and send her away.’ ‘It was because your hearts were
hard that Moses wrote you this law,’ Jesus replied. ‘But at the beginning of creation God made them male and female. For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will
become one flesh. So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate.’ When they were in the house again, the disciples asked Jesus about this. He answered, ‘Anyone
who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her. And if she divorces her
husband and marries another man, she commits adultery.’”
Remember that Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem. The time has come. The cross awaits. Jesus had been with his disciples in the region of Caesarea Philipi. They then go to Capernaum – Jesus’ home base in Galilee. When Jesus leaves “that place” (Capernaum), He never returns. Instead, He comes down into the southern region into Judea and then crosses the Jordan to a region known as Perea.
Perea was a region of Palestine under the control of Herod Antipas. Remember, he was married to Herodias and it was under his rule that John the Baptist was beheaded. The reason for John’s beheading had to do with John’s stand against Herod Antipas and Herodias divorcing their spouses and then marrying each other. It was in this context that the Pharisees confront Jesus with the question of divorce.
Jesus asked the Pharisees, “What did Moses command you?” Notice the Pharisees answered with what was “permitted” and not with what was “commanded”.
In the 1st century, divorce was quite common. The Pharisees had two basic schools of thought. One said that divorce was only permissible because of moral uncleanness. The other said divorce was permissible for any reason.
The primary scripture passage that was used in the debate came from Deut. 24:1-5. The passage is about more than just getting a divorce. But the debate for the Pharisees had to do with the wording in vs. 1 – “If a man marries a woman who becomes displeasing to him because he finds something indecent about her…” The debate for Pharisees had to do with the words “something indecent.”
To the first group, that phrase referred to moral indecency. To the other group, it referred to anything – including burning dinner.
Jesus said to them, “You’ve got it upside down!” Jesus said the discussion isn’t about Deut. 24. It goes back further than that. It goes all the way back to creation when God made man and woman. The command is found in Gen. Chapts. 1 & 2. God created marriage and He has the right to establish the rules of marriage.
The only ground Jesus gives for marriage is found in Matthew’s account of this same event. Jesus says that infidelity in marriage is really the only acceptable reason for divorce. The Old Testament law didn’t mention adultery as a reason for divorce. Adulterers were supposed to be stoned to death. You didn’t become divorced over infidelity in marriage. You simply became a widow or widower.
Marriage was intended to be a permanent relationship – a relationship in which two people, a man and a woman, become united as one flesh. The problem was that the concept of marriage was taken too lightly and divorce was made too easy. Divorce many times causes more problems that it solves. To God, marriage is very serious business. A divorce may be legal according to our laws but not be right in the eyes of God.
A former pastor in Seattle, WA wrote a great statement concerning marriage. If we all lived by it, we wouldn’t have so many problems with divorce:
I am standing for the healing of my marriage!
I won’t give up, give in, give out, or give over till that healing takes place.
I made a vow; I said the words; I gave the pledge; I gave a ring; I took a ring; I gave myself; I trusted
God; and said the words and meant the words…in sickness and in health, in sorrow and in joy, for better or
for worse, for richer or for poorer, in good times and in bad; so I’m standing now, and won’t sit down, let
down, slow down, calm down, fall down, look down, or be down till the breakdown is torn down!
I refuse to put my eyes on outward circumstances; or listen to prophets of doom, or buy into what’s
trendy, worldly, popular, convenient, easy, quick, thrifty, or advantageous.
Nor will I settle for a cheap imitation of God’s real thing.
Nor will I seek to lower God’s standard, twist God’s will, rewrite God’s Word, violate God’s covenant, or
accept what god hates, namely divorce.
In a world of filth, I will stay pure.
Surrounded by lies, I will speak the truth.
Where hopelessness abounds, I will hope in God.
Where revenge is easier, I will bless instead of curse, and when the odds are stacked against me, I’ll trust
in God’s faithfulness.
I’m a stander, and I won’t acquiesce, compromise, quarrel, or quit.
I have made the choice, set my face, entered the race, believed the Word, and trusted God for all the
outcome.
I will allow neither the reaction of my spouse, nor the urging of my friends, nor the advice of my loved
ones, nor the economic hardship, nor the prompting of the devil to make me let up, slow up, blow up, or give
up till my marriage is healed up. AMEN!”
I also want to say that divorce is not the unpardonable sin. There is healing and there is help in Jesus Christ for the pain and hurt that comes from divorce.
ADULTS BECOME CHILDREN
Mk. 10:13-16 – “People were bringing little children to Jesus to have him touch them, but the disciples
rebuked them. When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, ‘Let the little children come to me, and
do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I tell you the truth, anyone who will not
receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.’ And he took the children in his arms, put his
hands on them and blessed them.”
It was a common thing for people to bring their young children to rabbis to have them blessed. The people saw Jesus as a great teacher and brought their children to him. The disciples saw this as a distraction to Jesus. Surely the Master had better things to do than play with children!
In the first century, children were seen as unimportant. Adults were important. Their needs came first. Around adults, children were to be seen and not heard. What children needed or desired came after the needs and desires of adults.
Jesus said, “You’ve got it upside-down! Children are extremely important. In fact, adults need to become more like children to receive the kingdom of God.”
What does Jesus mean? J.R. Edwards explains it this way in commentary, The Gospel of Mark: “In this story children are not blessed for their virtues but for what they lack: they come only as they are – small, powerless, without sophistication, as the overlooked and dispossessed of society. To receive the kingdom of God as a child is to receive it as one who has no credits, no clout, no claims. A little child has nothing to bring, and whatever a child receives, he or she receives by grace on the basis of sheer neediness rather than by any merit inherent in him – or herself. Little children are paradigmatic disciples, for only empty hands can be filled.”
Jesus was so upset with his disciples he was indignant with them. He told them that the children were better kingdom examples than the adults. We tell children to behave like adults, but Jesus tells adults to model themselves after children.
LAST BECOMES FIRST
Mk. 10:17-22 – “As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. ‘Good teacher,’ he asked, ‘what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ ‘Why do you call me good?’ Jesus answered. ‘No
one is good—except God alone. You know the commandments: Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, do not defraud, honor your father and mother.’ ‘Teacher,’ he declared, ‘all these I have kept since I was a boy.’ Jesus looked at him and loved him. ‘One thing you lack,’ he said. ‘Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.’ At this the man's face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.”
Haddon Robinson says: “For every verse in the Bible that tells us the benefits of wealth, there are ten that
tell us the danger of wealth, for money has a way of binding us to what is physical and temporal, and blinding us to what is spiritual and eternal. It’s a bit like the fly and the flypaper. The fly lands on the flypaper and says, ‘My flypaper.’ When the flypaper says, ‘My fly,’ the fly is dead. It is one thing to have money, another for
money to have you. When it does, it will kill you.”
1 Tim. 6:10-11 – “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness.”
Jesus points out to this man described in Matthew and Luke as being rich and young that he had his priorities upside down. Money and the things it could buy were more important to this fellow than relationship with Jesus Christ.
Mk. 10:23-31 – “Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, ‘How hard it is for the rich to enter the
kingdom of God!’ The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, ‘Children, how hard it is to
enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter
the kingdom of God.’ The disciples were even more amazed, and said to each other, ‘Who then can be saved?’
Jesus looked at them and said, ‘With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with
God.’ Peter said to him, ‘We have left everything to follow you!’ ‘I tell you the truth,’ Jesus replied, ‘no one
who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail
to receive a hundred times as much in this present age (homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—and with them, persecutions) and in the age to come, eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the
last first.’”
The point that Jesus is making here is that it is difficult for anyone to make it into the kingdom of God. In fact, no one can make. It’s impossible. The only way into the kingdom is when God makes a way for you to get in. Only through God’s way is it possible.
Again, Jesus is saying, “You’ve got it upside down. The ones you think should make it may not make it at all. The ones you think could never make, they might be the first ones in.” The common perception in that day was that rich people had received God’s special favor. Because of that, they would be first in line to receive any further blessing.
We get confused. We think that entrance into the kingdom is earned. We do enough, pay enough, work enough, strive enough and we make it in. But Paul reminds us in Eph. 2:8-9 – “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.”
LEADERS BECOME SERVANTS
Mk. 10:32-34 – “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. ‘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, who will mock him and spit on him, flog him and kill him. Three days later he will rise.’
This is the third time that Jesus has told his disciples about what would happen in Jerusalem. Betrayal, suffering, death, and torture await. But Jesus will come back from the grave.
Jesus reminds them again that their thinking about the Messiah is upside-down. There will be no physical kingdom. There will be no earthly glory. Only death and resurrection. But the disciples still have it upside down. We see that for a second time, there is argument over who is the greatest in the kingdom.
The news has been full of stories about the death of Alexander Haig – former Secretary of State under Ronald Reagan. Haig served with distinction in the military eventually retiring as a four star general and also in politics. While still in the military, he served as a military advisor to the Nixon White House and eventually as chief of staff for President Nixon. It was in this role that Haig lost sight of what was important for a time.
The Nixon administration was falling apart because of the Watergate scandal. Nixon planned a trip to Russia and Italy at this time and his two closest aides came along – Alexander Haig and Ron Ziegler.
Even though Nixon’s presidency was in deep trouble, these two men became very short-sighted. They were caught up in the game of “who was most important to the president.” Their rivalry became so intense that during the trip, each man had a team that actually measure down to the inch the distance from their beds to President Nixon’s bed. They figured the closer they were to Nixon’s bed, the more important they were.
Mk. 10:35-45 – “Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him. ‘Teacher,’ they said, ‘we want
you to do for us whatever we ask.’ ‘What do you want me to do for you?’ he asked. They replied, ‘Let one of
us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory.’ ‘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?’ ‘We can,’ they answered. Jesus said to them, ‘You will drink the cup I drink and be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with, but to
sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared.’ When the ten heard about this, they became indignant with James and John. Jesus called them together and
said, ‘You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be
your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be
served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.’”
We probably agree with Plato a lot more than Jesus. Plato said, “How can anyone be happy when he is the slave of anyone else at all?” We’re a lot more comfortable with being on top than being servants.
Jesus said, “Let me show you just how upside-down you are. I’m the greatest of all but I didn’t come to be served. I came to serve and to give up my life as a ransom for many.”
James McGregor Burns divides leaders into two types: “transactional” leaders and “transformational” leaders. A transactional leader is one who searches for the goals of the group and negotiates a program to achieve them. A transformational leader is one who has an all-consuming vision to which he calls his followers and has a charismatic personality by which he leads them.
According to Burns, neither leadership style is right for all situations. In periods of calm, people want a transactional type of leader. However, in crisis circumstances, they want someone who is a transformational leader. As such a leader, Jesus sets His face steadfast toward Jerusalem. He shares with His disciples that He is not going there to be a king like the Herods or an emperor like the Caesars; He is going there to be a Suffering Servant. He is going to Jerusalem to die and, in the process, this would demand something of His true followers that would extend beyond what is wanted from other leaders.
Paul puts it this way in Phil 2:5-11 – “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing,
taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
SIGHT TO THE BLIND
Mk. 10:46-52 – “Then they came to Jericho. As Jesus and his disciples, together with a large crowd, were leaving the city, a blind man, Bartimaeus (that is, the Son of Timaeus), was sitting by the roadside begging. When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout, ‘Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!’ Many rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, ‘Son of David, have mercy on me!’
Jesus stopped and said, ‘Call him.’ So they called to the blind man, ‘Cheer up! On your feet! He's calling
you.’ Throwing his cloak aside, he jumped to his feet and came to Jesus. ‘What do you want me to do for
you?’ Jesus asked him. The blind man said, ‘Rabbi, I want to see.’ ‘Go,’ said Jesus, ‘your faith has healed
you.’ Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road.”
Jesus has predicted His death in fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies of the Suffering Servant. Jesus has dealt with the petty jealousies that threatened to divide His band of disciples whom He has called to servant leadership. Now He is on the last leg of His journey, leaving the tropical town of Jericho, snuggled in the southern-most neck of the Jordan River where it dumps into the Dead Sea. Jesus is ready to begin the 15-mile climb to Jerusalem, from 1,300 feet below sea level to 3,000 feet above sea level.
It is near time for the Passover and the road to Jerusalem is packed with pilgrims on their way to the holy city. Along the roadside are those who have not left yet for Jerusalem because they live close by. Also there are those who for one reason or another cannot get to Jerusalem. They are people gathered to watch the parade of pilgrims go by.
In the parade are Jesus and his disciples. In the crowd is a blind man named Bartimaeus. This blind man showed more spiritual sight than someone with 20/20 physical vision. He knows who Jesus is and he calls on him for help.
This event is the last miracle of healing recorded in Mark’s Gospel. Jesus is on his way to suffer and die, yet he stops to heal a blind beggar. What a great Savior we have.
There are some important lessons we can learn from Bartimaeus. First, he was aware of his pitiful condition. He had been blind from birth. He knew what his problem was. Do we know and acknowledge our problems? Some of us have allowed a veneer of respectable religiosity to get in the way of our awareness.
Bartimaeus, in his blindness, with a brilliance of insight, cries out for “mercy.” That's the bottom line for each of us. You and I will never be whole until we become aware of the depth of our need, the pitifulness of our condition, and call out to Jesus for help.
Second, Bartimaeus displayed penetrating insight into the person of Jesus Christ. Although Matthew twice records that Jesus was called “Son of David” during his Galilean ministry, this is the time in Mark’s that He is called by that title. Who recognizes Jesus by this prophesized name? A man who is physically blind but could see spiritually. I would bet that Bartimaeus had never studied theology but he did understand who Jesus was and what he came to do.
Bartimaeus cried out to Jesus for help, and would not let anyone shut him up. Whatever your need is, cry out to Jesus. He is passing your way now. He is interested in you now. No need you now have is so great that He cannot touch it.
CLOSE
Earlier, we talked about Jesus’ transformational leadership. Let me ask you a very personal question. Have you allowed Jesus Christ to transform your life? Is He your Savior? Is He your Lord?
There are many who mouth the words, “Jesus is my Savior and Lord” but they’ve never allowed Jesus to transform them. Have you come to a point in life where you are willing to let him turn your life upside-down? Are you ready to be a servant in the upside-down kingdom?
A man was born in the year 1700. His family had great influence and wealth. The man’s name: Nicolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf (Count Zinzendorf, for short).
Count Zinzendorf was a German nobleman. He was expecting to live a life of privilege and have a career as a diplomat. He ended up spending most of his wealth doing good deeds and serving the needs of others.
What happened, you wonder? As a young man, he was sent to visit the major cities in Europe to complete his education. While in Dusseldorf, he visited the art gallery and saw a painting by Domeico Feti titled in Latin as Ecce Homo (“Behold the Man”). It is a portrait of Christ before Pilate with the crown of thorns pressed down on his head and blood running down his face. The artist wrote this inscription on the painting. He has Jesus speaking saying, “All this I did for thee; what doest thou for me?”
The painting and its inscription shook Zinzendorf to his core. Later, he commented on the encounter with the painting saying, “Then and there I asked Jesus Christ to draw me into the fellowship of his sufferings, and to open up a life of service for me.”
Christ did it for Zinzendorf and he desires to do it for you as well. Will you accept his call?
