They were afraid: A Meditation on Mark 10, for the 5th Sunday in Lent

For all the soft minded, incoherent sentimentality of our age, the Scriptures remind us that an encounter with God is an unsettling event.  People of every age and place are masters at crafting their own understanding of what the world is, and how it should work.  Sometimes the constructs of our imaginations are more lucid, and sometimes they are just a jumble of prejudices and desires.  Our own human reason, as demonstrated by the history of philosophers both great and small, is a slave to our broken nature, and as such tends to reflect the sinful and broken predilections within us.  When we encounter God (or perhaps better, when God condescends to encounter us,) our own incoherence and sophistry melt in the radiance of His eternal Truth.  Such is the case with the disciples, in Mark chapter 10.

In verses two through twelve, Jesus is confronted by Pharisees who tempt Him with a question of divorce.  Jesus shattered their ridiculous legalizing, teaching them about the sacred created nature of marriage, and the simple yet awful reality of adultery.  In versus 13 through 16, the disciples rebuked children from approaching Jesus, because they thought adults were more worthy.  Jesus destroyed their presumptions about their own worthiness, and taught them that the faith of children is what they themselves will need for salvation.  In verses 17 through 27, the rich young ruler came to seek salvific wisdom from Jesus, and Jesus told him to sell all he had, take up his cross, and follow Him.  To the shock and fear of his disciples, Jesus told them that those who love riches will be unable of their own power to be saved, but that with God alone all things are possible.  In verses 28 through 31, the disciples approached Jesus with their sacrifices, thinking they would be applauded, but Jesus told them that many who are fist will be last, and the last will be first in the Kingdom of God.  To cap off all these unsettling teachings, Jesus led His disciples toward Jerusalem in versus 32 through 34, explaining to them that He will suffer and die at the hands of both Jews and Gentiles, rising again the third day.  Nearly all of the disciples’ preconceptions about God had been dismantled… but there was another yet to be destroyed.

In verses 35 through 44, we have the peculiar story of James and John, asking to sit at the right hand of Jesus when He comes into His glory.  The text does not give us the motivation for this request, but Jesus’ answer seems to indicate that the disciples were angling among themselves for primacy.  While James and John at least had faith that Jesus was indeed the King of Glory, they appear to have had a very wrong-headed understanding of what that Kingdom entailed.  They asked to sit at Jesus’ right and left hands, in essence, asking to have the honor of being Jesus’ next in command.  The rest of the disciples grumble, either out of anger for the brothers’ audacity, or their own frustration for not having asked first.  But Jesus takes their bickering over honor, prestige, and place, and turns it into yet another disquieting and unsettling teaching moment.  After James and John respond that they feel themselves tough enough to endure whatever suffering and death Jesus was about to suffer (the cup of suffering and the baptism of death Jesus would suffer at Calvary for the sins of the whole world,) Jesus tells them they will indeed have suffering and death to endure, but places of honor in the Kingdom of God are for those to whom God has ordained it.

Not only does Jesus shatter the presumptuous expectations of the disciples who think they can angle their way into places of honor by their own works, collusion, and merit with a brief but piercing reminder about the election or predestination of Almighty God, but Jesus goes on to teach what true elevation in the Kingdom of God is based on.  He gathers them together, so as to teach them:

Ye know that they

which are accounted to rule over the Gentiles exercise

lordship over them; and their great ones exercise authority

upon them. But so shall it not be among you: but

whosoever will be great among you, shall be your minister:

 And whosoever of you will be the chiefest, shall be

servant of all.  For even the Son of man came not to

be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a

ransom for many.

Far different from any sinful inclination of man, who seeks power for his own glory and benefit, the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven is the one who is the selfless servant of all.  Jesus, to whom is given all power and authority, in heaven and on earth; to whom is given the Name which is above every name; who shall come again in glory to judge both the living and the dead; whose Kingdom will have no end:  this same Jesus is the one who gave His life as a ransom for the whole world.  Jesus, the Almighty and Everlasting King of the Universe came not be served but to serve.  As the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, Jesus teaches His disciples that their sinful and selfish understandings of power have no place in His Kingdom.  The marks of His great saints will be selfless service, humility, sacrifice, love, compassion, mercy—all the things which powerful men despise.

Encounters like these with Jesus can be terrifying, because they reveal us for the twisted wretches we are, all the way down to our core.  They strip us of our philosophical propositions and any measure of self justification.  In His presence, every knee bows, and every tongue confesses.  But in this encounter with Truth, the Law having stripped us bare of any hope in our own personal merit, Jesus’ holy and everlasting Gospel speaks resurrection life into all who will hear and believe Him.  It is for us, broken and lost sinners, that Jesus has come in love and mercy, shedding His own blood to save us.  It is for us, deluded and self righteous, that Jesus ascends to the mount of Calvary to suffer and to die.  It is for us, willfully ignorant and confused, that Jesus bears His Cross to redeem us.  It is for us that Jesus rises again, and sends His Gospel of salvation by His Holy Word.

An encounter with Jesus is sure to be unsettling, but it is such an encounter that truly saves us.  Jesus will take from you everything you thought was of value, so that you might receive His true riches.  He will take from you your pride, your avarice, your lust, your covetousness, and nail them to His Cross, so that He might give to you forgiveness, life, and salvation.  For there is nothing that is lost by the Christian in this world that is not returned purified and greater, both in this world with persecutions, and with eternal perfection in the world to come.  Hear the Lord of Life as He comes to encounter you through His Holy Word.  Let your fear be washed away in His grace and mercy forever.  Let go of the sinful things which have no enduring value, that you may receive freely by grace though faith the wonders of His true and abiding riches, through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.