Mark 12:18-27 – God of the living

In this passage we see some Sadducees, being sent to question Jesus. This group of people hailed from the rich aristocrats of the society. They denied the existence of angels and spirits or life after death. Hence in their belief, there would be no judgment, so there would not be any rewards or penalties. And most of all, they did not believe in the resurrection, insisting that the Law of Moses did not teach this doctrine.  Thus, to them this was a false doctrine.

Deuteronomy 25:5-6 state that a man must marry his dead brother’s widow and raise a posterity to him, if he had died childless. So the Sadducees came to Jesus painting an impossible scenario and then asked Him a trick question. They said to the Lord in verses 21-23, ^“There were seven brothers; and the first took a wife, and died leaving no children. The second one married her, and died leaving behind no children; and the third likewise; and so all seven left no children. Last of all the woman died also. In the resurrection, when they rise again, which one’s wife will she be? For all seven had married her.” 

The question they asked was not only silly but also ridiculous. Any one of us would have told them to go check the food given to all the dead brothers to see if they were laced with poison. What’s remarkable is this, silly as the question might seem, yet the Lord would not brush them aside but entertained them. He essentially pointed to two theological flaws they had. They were ignorant about the Word of God and they were ignorant about the power of God.        

Then He answered their question by first telling them what it would be like in the resurrected state. In God, resurrected people would be like angels and would no longer experience death. And though they would still be different individuals, there would no longer be any marriage, and they would have no concern for such matters. He then referred them to Exodus 3:6. In the call of Moses, Jesus told them that God called Himself, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. It would be ridiculous for God to bring up these patriarchs if they no longer had any existence. In pointing the Sadducees to this, He was telling them that God is the God of the living and not of the dead. Can God be the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob if they had become dust? In verse 27, Jesus clearly asserted that God “is not the God of the dead, but of thee living; you are greatly mistaken." If these patriarchs are alive, then there is life after death, and there will be a resurrection. Hallelujah! What a thought!  

We all have a relationship with this eternal God. He is not the God of the dead, He is the God of the living. We must not be like the Sadducees who do not know the Word of God nor His power. Instead we need to be fully acquainted with God’s Word and His power. Let’s be enthralled by the richness of this thought: We were dead in trespasses but God made us alive in Christ! Let’s live for His glory, now and forever! 

Mark 12:13-17 – We are God’s

In this account in Mark 12:13-17, we see two opposing groups, with different outlooks in life, united by their common animosity toward the Lord.  As diverse and fragmented as their point of views might be, yet they seemed to work harmoniously to oppose the Lord.

The Pharisees were nationalistic Jews. The Herodians would align themselves with the Romans and were literally, their stooges. The Pharisees were the conservatives, whereas the Herodians were the ones with the liberal convictions. One group resisted the Romans while the other accommodated them. Here we see these two groups worked in cahoots with the Jewish authority. Verse 13 suggests that they were sent by the Sanhedrin with the motive to trap Jesus. They came to the Lord asking Him: “Teacher, we know you are truthful and defer to no one; for you are not partial to any, but teach the way of God in truth. Is it lawful to pay poll-tax to Caesar or not?”

Notice how they put it! It was sheer flattery. It was designed to put the Lord off guard and deceive Him into making a self-indicting statement against the Roman authority. While they were all awaiting a yes or no answer, the Lord surprised them. He saw through their hypocrisy and said to them, “Why are you trying to test me?” And then to their amazement, He asked for a denarius, the currency that they commonly used. And like any coin of any nation today, that denarius also carry the inscription of the head of the nation. The denarius bore the insignia of Caesar. So Jesus asked them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” He wanted them to tell Him whose insignia was on the coin. And when they answered Him saying “Caesar’s.” His wise response to them was “Render to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” With that, they stood dumbfounded. He still amazes us today by His extra-ordinary wisdom.     

The answer that Jesus gave, settles the long standing dispute whether God or state should have our allegiance. In His answer, the Lord validated the rights of human government. But more importantly, He calls for our total allegiance. Remember we are essentially a permanent citizen of God’s eternal Kingdom, holding a temporary PR status here on earth. We have to abide by the ruling of the nation we reside in but we must never forget that we are made in the image of God. Our first obligation is to live out that image which we bear. We belong to Christ and through the work of the Holy Spirit we are being transformed to bear a sharper image of Christ. Let’s not be afraid to tell the Lord, “All that I am and potentially can become are yours, Lord. I bear Your image and I belong to You, I am Yours forever!”

Mark 12:1-12 – Co-laboring with God

When Jesus told this parable, He probably had Isaiah 5:1-7 in mind. In this story the Lord was addressing the chief priests, scribes and elders. The Lord did not mince His words, He gave it to them straight between the eyes. They could immediately identify that this story was about them and the vineyard was referring to Israel.

This parable was in answer to the question that they asked earlier about His authority. The Lord pointed out to who they were explicitly and then pointedly told them that He was the rightful owner of the vineyard. In essence, Jesus said to them, “I am the Son, the rightful owner of this vineyard, whom My Father had sent.” He told them forthrightly that they had killed the prophets and had beaten up and even stoned those whom God had sent earlier. Now finally God had sent His only Son, and here was Jesus. Instead of accepting the offer of goodwill and then change, they had the Son beaten, killed and cast out of the vineyard. But despite what He would soon undergo, God still has the final answer. So He asked them the question, “What will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the vine-growers and will give the vineyard to another.”

Here in this account, Mark shows that it was the Lord who answered His own question. In Matthew 21:41, we are told that the religious authority themselves answered the Lord. The Lord here said to them:

“The stone which the builders rejected,
This became the chief corner stone;
This came about from the Lord,
And it is marvelous in our eyes?”   

This account reveals to us the interplay between Divine sovereignty and human responsibility. While God is perfectly in control of the affairs of men, He would not violate the human will. He would rather that we collaborate with Him in the outworking of His scheme to make right humanity. Remember we are all invited to play a role in God’s scheme, to make right the world that Adam had made wrong. We must not let pride prevent us from working with God, first to make right our lives, then to help to make right the world for His glory. 

Mark 11:27-32 – To know the truth

In the second cleansing of the temple recorded in Mark 11:15-17, we saw a dramatic display of divine displeasure. The Jewish leadership had violated the purpose of the temple and turned it into a commercial enterprise. When we left that scene, the Sanhedrin was fuming. This council comprising the high priest, chief priests, scribes and elders of the aristocrats had begun to plot His death. So now in verse 27 as Jesus returned to the temple, they approached Him and confronted Him about His credentials.

In the cleansing of the temple, the Lord had done a very daring thing. He had challenged the authority of the Sanhedrin. This council felt as if they were at the highest level of authority, they were representing God. To them what Christ had done was audacious. So here they arrogantly asked Him, “By what authority are You doing these things, or who gave You this authority to do these things?” It was not that they genuinely wanted to know, they were questioning His rights to do what He did. The questions were about the nature and source of the Lord’s authority.  They wanted to prove that his actions were neither prophetic nor messianic. They also wanted to debunk His claim to divine authority.  

The Lord responded to them with a counter question. He asked them, “Was the baptism of John from heaven or from men?” The right answer would lead them to the source of His authority. By the Lord’s question, they were thrown into a dilemma. Either way they would be caught. To say it’s from heaven, they anticipated the Lord would ask then “Why didn’t you believe him?” To say it’s from men, they were afraid to offend the people, for they all considered John to be a prophet of God. So their answer was, “We don’t know.” We get to know what was at the subconscious level of their minds. They were more interested to be popular than to get the truth. They wanted to keep the people on their side at the expense of truth.  Don’t we sometimes?   

From the response of the Sanhedrin, we can see the result of their obstinacy. They were really not interested to know the origin of Christ. As a result, they became blind to divine revelation. Here’s an example not to follow. They came to the Lord with a mind that was prepared not to listen. Don’t we at times have a presupposition and then sought to approach the issue with a mindset to prove the truth wrong?  We need to come to the Lord with an open mind, a pliable heart, and genuinely seek to know Him. In so doing we shall know the truth, and the truth will set us free.   

Mark 11:23-26 – Faith, forgiveness and answered prayers

A curse-free life is living a life of faith in God. It calls for a consistent and constant abiding in Christ and His word. We need to live in vital relationship with Christ. This kind of living allows the life of Christ to flow through us to bless others. Remember that the Lord and His disciples were still on the road and probably could see the hilly areas surrounding Jerusalem. Just imagine Him pointing and gesticulating at the mountainous area and said, “Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is going to happen, it will be granted him. Therefore I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they will be granted you. Whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father who is in heaven will also forgive you your transgressions. [But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father who is in heaven forgive your transgressions.”]

We know that the mountain was a representation of a very difficult situation. It could be circumstances that would impede our progress and prevent us from sinking our roots and deepening our trust in the Lord. They are often big and formidable and could create doubt and generate fear in us. The Lord here assures us that in moment like this, we need to come to our seeming gigantic mountain with faith in God. This verse teaches us not to be satisfied with unanswered prayers but does not tell us to presume on God. We need to ask in faith and in line with His word and when we do so, we have the confidence that God would hear us. Effective fervent prayer requires that we ask trustingly, anchoring our prayers in the theology that God is good and He is able to meet the request we make. A doubting heart will render our prayer ineffective.

Unbelief is not the only obstacle to answered prayer. The Lord said that an unforgiving spirit could also render prayer ineffective. This is a call to examine our hearts when we come to prayer. When we come praying, the Lord suggests that we come not harboring resentment against someone. It’s amazing that in life we are all in favor of forgiving others until it comes to us, needing to forgive others. So the Lord says to us, when we come praying, remember to forgive, else, this unforgiving spirit will render our prayer ineffective. Don’t expect God to forgive us if we won’t forgive others.

More than about effective prayer, the Lord’s ultimate call from this passage is for us believers to focus on our redemptive task. Every member of His family must see to the building of a trusting and unobstructed relationship with God, and as we are doing that individually, we must also seek to build an open and reconciled relationship with one another. 

Mark 11:19-22 – Have faith in God

During this period we know that Jesus and His disciples shuttered between Bethany and Jerusalem. Verse 19 says that when the evening came, they would go out of the city, meaning they were returning to Bethany. When morning came they were going to Jerusalem again. As they were passing by the fig tree that Jesus had cursed, they noticed that it had withered to its roots. Peter remembering what Jesus had done, exclaimed, “Rabbi, look, the fig tree which you cursed had withered.” Notice how Jesus responded to Peter’s exclamation. He said, “Have faith in God.” 

From this statement, we can deduce that Jesus is giving us the key to live a curse-free life. We must see this in connection with all the events that had taken place. The fig tree that withered represents the nation of Israel. It was cursed because she had lost faith in God. The worship they brought to God was empty and devoid of meaning. They were merely going through the motions. Everything was a big charade of meaningless outward rituals. They were hypocritical and emptied of inward reality. As a nation they had lost faith in God. Much like the withered fig tree, the very life of God that once flowed through them had withered. 

Have faith in God is a call not only to Israel but also to us who believe in God. This is the only key to a meaningful and fruitful life. It’s a call to trust and obey God at His word. It’s a call to open our life to Him and be enriched. And as we are doing that, we will experience His life flowing through us to make us truly a fruitful person. Without faith in God, a person would dry up and everything would become merely mundane, meaningless routines.

Just imagine a luxuriant, full foliage tree, yet dead and devoid of life. What an image! and the disciples probably never forgot that lesson. What’s in this account for us? The question that we should all ask individually is: what kind of tree am I? Am I a genuine tree or am I merely a Christmas tree? When people look at me do they see the fruit or do they see the decorations? Can my faith in God be seen? Can they detect the internal workings of the Holy Spirit from looking at my outward life?

The way people will ever know whether we are genuine trees, would be when we are demonstrating the love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. And Paul said in Galatians 5:22 that against such there is no law. This kind of life comes only through faith in God and a deep abiding in Christ and His Word!     

Mark 11:15-18 – A right attitude to worship

When Jesus entered the temple it was buzzing with activities. Bear in mind that at this point there was a huge crowd. This was Passover time and the huge crowd could well be around two to three millions. Then there were those who were buying and selling in the temple, making it a place for their commercial activities.

In Exodus 30:13-16 the nation was instructed that any male above twenty years old had to pay half a shekel of temple tax at Passover. And now for this tax and all other offerings, only prescribed coins could be used. Why? That’s because foreign currency would bear idolatrous images and could not be used. The people would then have to change their offering or temple tax into the prescribed coins. We can imagine that there were tables set up for this purpose. To change into the prescribed coins, the people had to pay for the service. All this increased the coffers of the scribes and priests. The people who came to worship were exploited.

Just imagine the great din and ruckus that were generated by the heap of commercial activities. The whole compound of the temple was grossly desecrated. This was holy ground. This was the very place that the prophet Isaiah caught a glimpse of the Holy and awesome Lord, high and lifted up. The place where the angels incessantly crying out, “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty!” Now this holy place was treated with such flippancy and careless attitudes.

It must have brought great agony to the Lord to see all the sacrileges taking place in His house. So we are told that the Lord bee-lined for the people who were busy trading in the temple and drove them out. He also overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those selling doves. He was probably more concerned for the poor who could only afford to offer doves and yet were being exploited. Forbidding the people from carrying their merchandise through the temple, He then began to teach them. He referred them to prophets who foresaw this and had written that they would turn the house of prayer into a “circus.” Both in Isaiah 56:7 and Jeremiah 7:11, the prophets had made allusion to the temple as a House of prayer but they made it into a den of thieves.

What the establishment committed was a massive sin against the Holy God and the people. There was probably a sense of foreboding among them. So Mark said they were then seeking to destroy Him. But were afraid to do so for the huge crowd was astonished by His teaching.

This account underscores for us the importance of proper corporate worship. Each time we come to church, we must come with a worshipful attitude to honor the Lord. We must come not only to listen but also to absorb His instruction. All our attendance must be accompanied by a willing offering of ourselves for His service. We want our minds fed, our conscience sharpened, and the truth lived out willingly. It’s easy to come to church with the “I-have-been-here-and-done-that” attitude. Hence, we must prepare ourselves and bring our very best attitude to Him. May the worship we bring to Him be a reflection of a heart that truly loves Him!

Mark 11:12-14 – When there’s no fruit look at the root

These three verses had generated much debate. There are people who would object to this account of Jesus speaking negatively over the fig tree. To them it is inconceivable that the Lord would ever curse a fig tree just because he could not find fig on it. What makes it more difficult to accept was the fact that we are told that it was not even the season for figs.

We need to remember that Jesus Christ is never an irrational or frivolous person. He is our purposeful Lord. Hence He had a reason for doing what He did. He used this visual parable to send a message concerning Israel. The fig tree was a symbol of Israel. Many Old Testament passages such as Jeremiah 29:17; Hosea 9:10, 16; and Joel 1:7 support this fact. Israel was commissioned by the Lord to be a blessing but was obviously far from fulfilling it. So Jesus saw their fruitlessness and prophesied her outcome as a nation.

The account tells us that while He was leaving Bethany, probably after a time of prayer, he was hungry. Seeing a fig tree that was leafy and luxuriant He approached it to look for fig, even though it was not the season for the fig to grow on the tree. He approached the tree because He saw it as a perfect illustration of Israel which He was about to prophesy. The Lord knew what He was about to do would arouse the curiosity of the disciples, especially when it was not the season for figs. He wanted to use that incident to point to a deeper significance concerning Israel. So He said to the tree in the hearing of His disciples, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again!”        

Israel was liken to that barren fig tree. It was covered with leaves. Its temple was magnificent and full of ceremonies but they fail to fulfill the purpose it was called and made for. So when the Lord was pronouncing negatively on the fig tree, He was saying exactly what God said of Israel in Jeremiah 8:13:-

“I will surely snatch them away,” declares the Lord;

“There will be no grapes on the vine

And no figs on the fig tree,

And the leaf will wither;

And what I have given them will pass away.”

What can we take away from this account? Looking good and impressive on the outside does not mean a person is bearing fruit that’s pleasing to God. This is a call for us who seek to please the Lord to scrutinize and examine carefully what is truly inside of us. We need to ensure that we are properly connected to the Lord so that we can be bearing genuine fruit. Don’t just be like an impressive flourishing tree that looks good on the outside only. Seek to be one that’s fruitful and can be a blessing.

And according to Psalm 1, a believer whose delight in in the Word of the Lord and meditate upon it day and night, shall be like a tree, firmly planted by the stream of water. He shall be a tree that yields fruit in its season and its leaf will never wither and whatever he does, he prospers.   

Mark 11:11 – He sees everything

In this verse we see Jesus in Jerusalem and the first thing he did was to visit the temple. Why? The temple was central to the life of Israel. They are a people called into a relationship with God. The temple was the place that represents God’s dwelling. The kind of activities conducted in the temple and the attitude the people came with, would be indicative of the condition of their relationship with Him. So naturally it was the first place that the Lord visited. We can imagine He must have slowly and purposefully walked through the whole building, and scrutinized part by part till it was late. Then He and His disciples left for Bethany.  

What did the Lord see in the temple? We will be told later that what He saw displeased Him. The place of worship was desecrated, commercialized, and the worshippers exploited. The courtyard of the temple was more like a marketplace – full of dirt and filth. It was to be a place of prayer, a place where people built their lives and instructed how to stay connected with God. But unfortunately, all these did not happen. Even when the Lord of lords came to the place that was to make Him central, He was un-noticed. Nobody was concerned about His presence.

Today, the Lord still sees everything. He is not just interested in what’s going on in church but also what’s going on in our hearts. He looks at every aspect of our lives. The point is this: in the midst of all our activities in life, are we so engrossed with our activities and so fail to notice His presence? Let us not be unconcerned about His presence. Know that it’s true: the eyes of the Lord still run to and fro the whole earth to look for those whose hearts are for perfectly His.

We need to take heed of Psalm 14:2 that tells us:

“The Lord has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men

To see if there are any who understand, who seek after God.”

Mark 11:1-10 – The Lord’s triumphal entry

Having announced the impeding climatic event of His suffering, death, burial and resurrection, the Lord was now making His way to Jerusalem. What we are about to discuss is the Lord’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem. So we read in verses 1-6 that He had had now come to Bethphage and Bethany, these two villages nearby Jerusalem. He then sent two of His disciples to the opposite village (very likely to Bathphage) to get a colt.

The Lord’s knowledge of the exact detail of the colt suggests that He had most likely pre-arranged it. It should not come as a surprise to us that The Lord was acquainted with the Scriptures, especially Zachariah 9:9, that refers to His entry into Jerusalem on a colt. So Jesus had the colt arranged and now was sending His disciples to fetch it. The incident happened in the exact detail as He had told the disciples. Some may conclude that since the Lord had arranged for the donkey, the whole event could not be prophetic. It certainly was! How do we know it is a fulfillment of Zachariah 9:9? While He could have arranged for the donkey, He could not have arranged for the crowd. This part was not within His control. Hence, we can comfortably surmise that He came to fulfill this prophecy.

     

It is interesting to note that all the synoptic gospels - Matthew, Mark and Luke – mention that the young donkey was one that no one had rode on before. It’s hard to ride on a donkey that had not been trained to take someone on its back before. It would literally dump a person attempting to ride it. But we are told that this one was quiet, obedient and responsive and peacefully submitted to the prince of peace as He rode it into the city and on the streets of Jerusalem.

According to verses 7-10, the disciples brought the colt to Jesus, put their coats over the donkey and the Lord rode on it into Jerusalem. Many cut leafy branches and paved the road for the Lord to ride in smoothly. And the people who were both in front and behind the Lord were shouting parts of Psalm 118:

“Hosanna!
Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord;
Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David;
Hosanna in the highest!”

This account happened as Zachariah 9:9 had predicted, it reads:

Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!
Shout in triumph, O daughter of Jerusalem!
Behold, your king is coming to you;
He is just and endowed with salvation,
Humble, and mounted on a donkey,
Even on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

Which king in history did not display their triumphal entry on war-horses? Which king did not ride into their city with trails of the booty of wars comprising defeated princes and their captured prisoners? But this King of kings, as Zachariah tells us, rode into Jerusalem on an untrained colt, slowly, peacefully and purposefully to be the redeemer of humanity. He came with salvation to offer. He came to set us free to enjoy His joy, peace and righteousness.  So let’s freely enter in!

Mark 10:46-52 – Being true children of honor

God is a God of plan, purpose and objectivity. He uses everything we face in life and turn it into a teaching moment to instruct us. Positive or negative, good or bad, our Lord uses every one of them to mold Christlikeness in us. We will see this in the account of the healing of Bartimaeus. It is amazing that this account of his healing should abruptly follow the Lord’s discussion with His disciples on seeking honor. The timing of this event suggests that this was no coincidence. It was engineered for the Lord to instruct His disciples and us.

We are told that they went to Jericho. Mark then went on straight to tell us that as the Lord, His disciples and a great multitude were leaving Jericho, there was a blind beggar, named Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, sitting by the roadside. The name Bartimaeus literally means “Son of Timaeus.” So the repetition of the phrase “Son of Timaeus” would be redundant unless Jesus wanted to underscore something. Timaeus means honor. The meaning of the beggar’s name literally means the son of honor.

Recall what James and John asked of the Lord, just prior to this. Didn’t they ask to be in positions of honor? But here’s a literal son of honor sitting by the road side and without any honor. Interesting to note is that Jesus should ask Bartimaeus, “What do you want me to do for you?” This was the exact question He asked James and John in verse 36. From the question, we can see some similarity between Bartaemus and the disciples. They were both blind. The disciples were symbolically blind, whereas the beggar was literally blind. But what was not similar is this: the disciples heard about the Lord’s impending suffering, death and resurrection, yet could not connect to see the significance. But here was a blind man who physically could not see, yet could connect and see Jesus as the coming Messiah.

Although many told Bartaemus literally to shut up yet he kept on addressing the Messiah. His shouting shows us his intent and it caught the Lord’s attention. And the Lord’s question to him may seem silly but was needful. He did it to gauge his faith and desire. He wanted Bartimaeus to declare his faith and desire. When he had done so, immediately his sight was restored to him. The Lord told him, “Your faith had made you well.” Mark tells us that immediately following his healing, he began to follow Jesus on the way.

From this account we know that there’s a need to have spiritual perception. Don’t be physically well in our sight but spiritually blind in spirit. We need to ask Him to grant us spiritual sight so that we can recognize the divine moments in our life, and to be enabled to live a life of honor for His glory.   

Mark 10:41-45 – Leadership through serving

When the other ten disciples heard that James and John had approached the Lord and asked to be more prominent than them, they were outraged. Why were they upset? Could it be that they themselves were also eyeing the position? It is more likely that they felt they were beaten to it. They were angry because James and John thought of it before them. How do we know? From the way the Lord responded to their anger. He did not just address James and John, He addressed all of them.

He called them and said to them, “You know that those who are recognized as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them; and their great men exercise authority over them. But it is not this way among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant; and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”

Jesus quickly dealt with their politicking mentality. He pointed out that people in the world would deploy such method to manoeuvre and outdo each other. This ought not to happen among God’s people. There must not be this pushy struggling for position of honor. If we truly understand ourselves and our God-given gifts, there will be no necessity to try and compete with each other. What we need is merely to function in whatever capacity we find ourselves in. When we start competing with others, there will be rivalry, dishonesty, deceit, back-biting, conniving and manipulation. In the world, a person gauges honor by counting the number of people under his or her power and control. Seldom would a person measure honor by how many people he or she is serving. This is the mentality of ownership and not stewardship.  

In saying “But this is not the way among you…,” Jesus was asking them to consider something very radical. He proceeded to ask them to put the needs of others always before them. The world is full of people in needs. The way to make impact in their lives is to meet their needs. This is the key to leadership. Unlike the world, where leadership is about seeking to be served, to Christ, leadership is about serving. To the Lord, true leadership is servant-hood.

Jesus did not merely say it in words. He led by example. “For the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” This is the ultimate example. Though He has every right to exert authority over everyone, but He chose to lay them down. He willingly laid His life down in order to meet all our needs. This is how leadership in the Kingdom must function.  

If we understand that, it will be easier to echo the words of this song:

Lord, make me a servant, humble and meek.

Lord, let me lift up those who are weak.

And may the prayer of my heart always be.

Make me a servant, make me a servant. 

Make me a servant today. 

Mark 10:35-40 – The cross must precede the crown

Human tendency makes one seek shortcuts to attain prominence. This is true of the situation we are about to see in Mark 10:32-40. Here the Lord was just telling His disciples about His impending suffering, death and resurrection. Yet they were so out of focus. They wanted to be in positions of glamor without having to pay the cost.

In verse 35, The Zebedee brothers, James and John, approached Jesus and demanded that the Lord should place them in prominent positions, one on His right and one on His left, in His glory. Notice how they approached the Lord. It was not a request. They did not give the Lord any option. They weren’t saying “Lord, will you please grant us the privilege of sitting at your right and left in Your glorious Kingdom?” but “Teacher, we want You to do for us whatever we ask.”  

Matthew 20:20-28, tell us that it was their mother who came asking this from the Lord on their behalf. So are these Scriptures contradictory? Of course not! And it’s easy to explain. The idea of the whole move came from the two sons but they got their mother to approach the Lord on their behalf, so that it wouldn’t look bad on them. But Mark went directly to the source of the whole move. It was the two who wanted the positions and Mark identified them straight away. To be sure what they had sought for was not unreasonable. Why? In Matthew 19:28, the Lord promised them that they would be sitting on 12 thrones to judge the 12 tribes of Israel.  What they were eyeing were legitimate.  

These brothers were in essence saying to the Lord they wanted prominence, proximity and power. The way the Lord responded to them tells us that He was not angry with them. Furthermore, there is nothing wrong with the desire to be near the Lord. The problem was in the way they went about it. They were trying to take a shortcut to it. They had not calculated the cost involved to get there. So the Lord did not actually rebuke them, He merely asked them some soul searching questions. He asked if they could bear the cup that He was going to drink and would they be baptized with the baptism that he was about to be baptized with. Of course, we know that the Lord was referring to the experience of His impending suffering and death. The pair of brothers, with their mistaken zeal, responded thoughtlessly and replied, “We are able.”

The Lord told them that they would certainly go through what He would soon be going through. This was borne out in their lives. James was martyred early. This is recorded in Acts 12:2. And John died old. He was exiled, imprisoned, suffered and then martyred. Jesus told them that to attain what they desired was not for Him to determine. It was for those who quest for that desire, to put in the effort to press toward that prize. The Lord was suggesting to them, and us as well, that anyone can be there. It would take desire, time, effort and discipline and a willingness to allow Him to work through us. There’s simply no shortcut. In other words, what counts is not just the desire, but the right actions that must accompany the desire, to collaborate with God.  

We all want to be close to the Lord and be effective in the ministry entrusted to us. There’s simply no shortcut to attain these desires. They must come through the willingness to exercise hard and tough disciplines. Remember that anything of virtue comes with effort. It calls for willingness to die to the self and a willingness to pay the cost. To act on them is necessary, even if we don’t have the natural inclination.       

Mark 10:32-34 – Great resoluteness

In these verses, we come to the third time that he Lord talked about the divine drama of His suffering and death. The first is found in Mark 8:31 and the second 9:31. Notice on all three occasions, the Lord also talked about the certainty of His resurrection. The drama of the passion of Christ is not complete without His resurrection.

So we read in verses 32-34 that “They were on the road going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking on ahead of them; and they were amazed, and those who followed were fearful. And again He took the twelve aside and began to tell them what was going to happen to Him, saying, “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered to the chief priests and the scribes; and they will condemn Him to death and will hand Him over to the Gentiles. They will mock Him and spit on Him, and scourge Him and kill Him, and three days later He will rise again.”

On this third occasion, Mark tells us that Jesus and His disciples were now on the road heading for Jerusalem and winding down to this historic event. He was walking ahead of the pack. We are told particularly that it was a very tense moment. Here we find Jesus walking alone, ahead, calm and composed, resolute and determined. He was followed by the disciples who were amazed and some-what bewildered. Then there was the crowd that followed. They were said to be fearful and afraid.

Why were the disciples amazed and the crowd afraid? Undoubtedly it was the attitude and the manner Jesus approached the upcoming event. Luke in His gospel said that the Lord “set His face like a flint” toward Jerusalem. There was a sense of all impending doom, a foreboding of a sinister crisis. So there was great tension in the air.

Taking the 12 disciples aside, Jesus told them explicitly and with increasing details how he would suffer and die but also would rise again. He knew He would be delivered into the hands of the chief priests and the scribes who would eventually hand Him to the Gentiles. He told them also that the enemies would mock, spit and scourge and finally kill Him.  And it was Luke who revealed that Jesus knew all these from the Scriptures. So we find the Lord saying in Luke 18:31, “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and all things which are written through the prophets about the Son of Man will be accomplished.”  It shows us that the Lord was well aware of the prediction made about Him in both the prophetical and poetical books, such as Isaiah 53 and Psalm 22.

Our Lord faced His final hour with resoluteness and determination. Haven’t we wondered how could one, who is fully apprised of the magnitude of His impending suffering yet faced it so gallantly? What was the secret to His composure and great resoluteness? It must surely be His love for the Father and His commitment to fulfill the will of the One who had sent Him. He left us an example to follow - to love the Father and be committed to fulfill His will, easy or tough!  

Mark 10:28-31 – Investing in the Kingdom

When the disciples heard Jesus, they were captivated by what He said about stripping oneself of excessive concern in wealth and riches. Each of them must have felt that they had truly left everything behind to follow Jesus. And to be sure they all did. So confidently, Peter exclaimed to the Lord, “Behold, we have left everything and followed You.” We can sense a tinge of pride in what he said. Verses 29-31 show the response of the Lord to Peter’s exclamation, “Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or farms, for My sake and for the gospel’s sake, but that he will receive a hundred times as much now in the present age, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and farms, along with persecutions; and in the age to come, eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”

At first glance over these verses, we may get the impression that we must give away everything in order to follow Jesus. Man had interpreted it that way. So down through the history of the Christian faith, many well-meaning believers were seen to have taken vows of poverty to be in line with these instructions. At least this was what they thought so. But were they doing what the Lord had said? The answer is no. Many who were the first to give up everything to follow Him turned out to be last. In many cases, not a single bit of spirituality was found in them. The key, therefore, is this: Jesus was not talking about external things. He was referring to one’s mindset and attitude toward possession. Every serious believer must come to his possession with the mindset that whatever things God has given me are not to be hoarded. They must be invested and used to expand the work of Him who had given me. We are not owners, we are stewards of the possessions entrusted to us. Eventually we will have to give an account of our responsibility. With this attitude, we won’t be upset when what we have are taken from us and given to another. For to begin with, they were not ours.

Furthermore, when we have this attitude, we will discover that we can never out-do God. He will multiply whatever we have invested in for Him, more than a hundred-fold. We open your homes for the advancement of God’s cause, we will soon find a hundred doors to homes and more being opened up to us. We will find that we have more friendships and relationships as close as with brothers and sisters, mothers, fathers, and children. We find we have more opening up to us, more than we can ever conceive. But of course alongside all these would come the trials as well.  But they are there only to develop us and prepare us for the ultimate life in eternity.

We must live for the Lord with this kind of mentality. Hold the things of this world with a gentle grasp. Be ready to let go if need be. Know that God had granted us everything not for self-aggrandizement but to advance His purpose.  Bear in mind that we will be called to account for all that we are holding in trust for Him. For in that day, many whom we consider had not given up much could be those who will be richly rewarded. And the reverse could also be true. Many who seemingly had sacrificed much and whom many thought would be first may end up in the last chair. For Christ’s sake, adopt a right view of life and possession!