Usually, the Bible lessons are taken from the lesson plan (lectionary) used by Lutheran churches. But occasionally, I diverge from the plan. At present, we're involved in a special Lenten emphasis, 40-Days to Servanthood. So, the texts during this forty-day period prior to Easter relate to that emphasis. I nonetheless hope that not just those from our congregation, but also others will find these notes helpful.
This Week's Lesson: Mark 10:35-45
35James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came forward to him and said to him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” 36And he said to them, “What is it you want me to do for you?” 37And they said to him, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.” 38But Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?” 39They replied, “We are able.” Then Jesus said to them, “The cup that I drink you will drink; and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized; 40but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.”
41When the ten heard this, they began to be angry with James and John. 42So Jesus called them and said to them, “You know that among the Gentiles those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. 43But it is not so among you; but whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, 44and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. 45For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.”
General Comments:
(1) As we've said repeatedly here, context helps one understand content in interpreting Scripture.
Just before the incident recounted here, Jesus predicts His own death and crucifixion. It's the third time that He's done so in Mark's Gospel and one would expect that the disciples would begin to "get it." But it turns out that the disciples are just as human and "thick" as I am, though.
Coming on the heels of Jesus' encounter with the rich young man, whose dependence on wealth causes Jesus to tell him to sell everything he owns, give the proceeds to the poor, and to follow Jesus, Jesus' prediction strongly signals that His kingdom is different from the world's SOP (standard operating procedure). Power and wealth aren't to be seen or wielded in the same way in His kingdom as they are in the world.
But, still believing that Jesus was planning on being an earthly king who would throw the Romans out of power and set up His own kingdom, James and John come to Jesus with a request that reflects very earthbound thinking.
The disciples find it hard to see what Jesus is about or to follow Him with abandon.
Not so the man who enters the main stage of Mark's Gospel after our lesson, providing us with more context. A blind man named Bartimaeus (the name means son of Timaeus, making the NRSV's appositional "son of Timaeus" sort of silly), insistently begs Jesus for healing. When he finally gains an audience with Jesus, Bartimaeus places his request before the Lord again. In a sentence that begins with Mark's favorite word, we're told, "Immediately he regained his sight and followed him [Jesus] on the way." (Mark 10:52) The former blind man sees what Jesus is about and follows Him with apparent abandon.
(2) Our lesson finds Jesus on the brink of Palm Sunday, when He would be given a raucous welcome into the city of Jerusalem. The reason for the welcome, of course, was the widely-held assumption that Jesus would set up a kingdom that would throw off the oppression of the Romans and their local Vichy-style co-conspirators. The expectations of many who welcomed Jesus with cries of, "Hosanna!...Hosanna in the highest heaven!" were like those of James and John in our text. (Mark 11:1-11) Within a week of Palm Sunday, Jesus would be killed and on the following Sunday, the first Easter, rise from the dead.
(3) At play in our text is a clash of ideas about God's identity and about how God uses power.
To James and John, the exercise of power is expressed in two Greek words Jesus uses dismissively in our text: katakyrieuo (overlord or even lord against) and katexousiazo (use authority over or against). These reflect conventional notions of power. Under this scheme, power or authority is something that one exercises over or against others in a domineering way.
As Lutheran commentator Brian Stoffregen writes:
It is not necessarily bad to be in a position of power and authority. Jesus certainly had that...there is a difference between having power and overpowering others.One who has power can act collaboratively with others. Those who lord it over others make others subordinate to themselves. This isn't Jesus' way.
As commentator William Loader notes, "Mark is not presenting Jesus as wanting subservience. In fact he says so directly: 'The Son of Man did not come to be served.'...Being a servant and a slave is not about subservience to Jesus, but about joining him...Jesus' comments in 10:43-44, which almost mirror those in 9:35, declare that this is about what it means to be a person, what it means to be great. We have to add: in the eyes of Jesus and in the eyes of God..."
In other words, true greatness in God's kingdom is measured by the willingness to serve.
[Later this week, I hope to present verse-by-verse comments on the lesson.]
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