Servant Leadership (The World’s On Fire) - Mark 10:41-45 Series

Mark 10:41 When the ten heard about this, they became indignant with James and John. 42 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. 43 Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, 44 and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. 45 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.”

Introduction: Who Wants to Be Great?

The World on Fire

It sure does seem like the world is on fire, doesn’t it—literally in the case of our major cities. We’re not even half way through the year and already our President has been impeached, our economy was shut down and 40 million people lost their jobs, massive, widespread corruption at the highest levels of our government are being exposed, and most of that has been forgotten because of the current crisis—riots, beatings, and murders all across the country. Normally, 6 months away from a Presidential election, 99% of the headlines are about the campaigns. But with all this, you have to dig pretty deep in the news to find anything about the election. What’s going on? Do all these things have something in common? Yes, they do. They are all springing from the same root problem. It’s all coming from a God-given desire that has become twisted into an evil desire by our sin. And Jesus is going to address both the good desire and the twisted version in today’s passage.

Greatness

In Mark 10:43 Jesus holds out a carrot that he expects us to get excited about and run after. It’s a prize that we have to pay a huge price to get, but Jesus expects us to desire this prize so much that we’ll happily pay any price. Here’s what Jesus says—this is the carrot: “Whoever among you wants to become great …” At that point we should all jump up and down and wave our hand and say, “oooh—me, me, me, me!” God designed us with a drive to desire greatness—and not the lame, cheesy earthly greatness in the eyes of men, but true greatness, where God himself lays his hand on you and says, “Well done!”

The Anger of the 12

James and John wanted to be great, but they weren’t looking for the divine, “Well done.” They just wanted to beat out the rest of the 12 and get the top two spots. They wanted to drag the earthly concept of greatness into heaven.

Mark 10:37 “Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory.” 38 “You don’t know what you are asking,” Jesus said. “Can you drink the cup I drink You don’t realize you just asked for a big, fat helping of suffering, and your wish is going to be granted.

40 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.

I don’t know about you, but I would love to have heard more about that. And for all we know Jesus might have expounded on that some more, given how often the idea of God preparing a place for us is mentioned in the Apostles’ writings. But Mark doesn’t say anything more about it here because that’s not the point he’s making. The point Jesus wants his disciples to get, and that Mark wants us to get, is about the relationship between three things.

When I study a passage, I’m always looking for the main point of that section of Scripture, so when I preach it, all the points I make revolve around and support that main point. As I studied this one, I was trying to figure out, what’s the main point? Is this passage mainly about Jesus’ death as a ransom? It begins and ends with that. Then I study a little more and say, “No, it’s mainly about humility and servanthood.” Then I get further in my study and say, “No, this is a passage that’s all about suffering with Christ.” Finally I realized, the main point of this passage isn’t any of those; it’s how those three fit together—the relationship between greatness, suffering, and servanthood. And to teach us that, Mark skips ahead to the moment when the other ten disciples found out, somehow, about what James and John tried to pull. I don’t know if Jesus told them about it, or if James and John brought it up to the group, or if a bystander overheard, or what, but somehow they get wind of it, and they are not amused. In fact, they’re downright angry.