15 December 2019

I have come to give my life as a ransom

Mark 10:45

“Everything is topsy-turvy in the kingdom of God.”  Almost everything Jesus teaches is the opposite of what most people believe.

Jesus is one way of many to get to heaven, people say.  No, he’s the only way.

Only the really bad people will be in hell.  No, only bad people get to heaven.

Ah, look at the baby Jesus; such a wonderful message of peace.  Jesus says, “I have not come to bring peace but a sword”.

Focussing on financial security is really wise.  Jesus says, “You fool”.

Over the next six weeks or so we are going to look at some of the outrageous things Jesus says.

You see, there’s really no one like Jesus.  No one even comes close to Jesus.

Not only did he do things that no one else can do, but he made claims about himself, about God, about his kingdom, so outrageous that no one else in history has ever even come close to trying to claim themselves.

To say the things Jesus said would just be ludicrous, but Jesus does.

He’s not just meek and mild, little child.  He’s someone who demands attention.  And we hope that as we give our attention to him, we will also be more attracted to him and our affections be more for him.

In our passage this morning, Jesus says two things that are out-of-this-world.

The first concerns how the kingdom of God works and the second concerns the work of Jesus.

The world says, greatness is measured by how many servants you have.

Jesus says, “No.  True greatness is measured by how much a of a servant you are.”

It’s the opposite of what you would expect.  Greatness in God’s kingdom is not achieved by being good or popular or important or successful, but by being low and humble.

It’s the opposite of what the disciples expected.  They were pretty pally with Jesus, they’d followed him and left behind so much, they’d been with him and had seen what he’d done.  They’d been sent by him to proclaim the kingdom of heaven, and given authority to heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons.  Surely they’ve built up some cred with Jesus by now.

Jesus says and has been saying, “No, that’s not the way.  The kingdom of God doesn’t run on the same rules and laws that this world does.”

Jesus has already made that point several times and just when we thought the disciples couldn’t get any thicker and self-absorbed they do.

They’re just like you and me really.  They don’t realise that the kingdom of God is topsy-turvy (or really this world is topsy-turvy).  They don’t realise that the rules which govern this world, about greatness and bigness and smallness, don’t cut it in the God’s kingdom.

For the third time Jesus foretells his death, saying, in v33, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles. ³⁴ And they will mock him and spit on him, and flog him and kill him.  And after three days he will rise.”

You would think the response of the disciples would be to fall on their faces in the dirt and whatever they managed to grasp out of all of this would crush them and produce in them adoration and expectation.

However, the very reverse is the case.

Without even blinking an eye James and John, the sons of Zebedee, two of Jesus’ closer disciples, start talking about who might get the top place in heaven.

You can imagine them saying:

Hey bro, we’ve been pretty close to Jesus now for a while.  We’ve done some amazing things in his name.  I reckon we deserve to get the top spots in Jesus’ kingdom.

Yeah I reckon too, those other guys don’t do anything, we’re the real friends of Jesus.  How ‘bout you ask Jesus if we can sit either side of him.

That’s sounds like a great idea, but it’d probably be better if you asked him I think.

Ahh, yeah but you have a better way of words.  It’ll sound better if you ask him.

Well, I’ve actually got a bit of a headache today.  Can you ask him?

Nah, come on, don’t be a wuss, you ask him.

No, you ask him. No, you ask. No, you ask.

And what we find out from Matthew’s gospel is that their mother then gets involved.

Hey boys, quit the arguing.  What are you fighting about?

James and John look at each other and immediately get this brilliant idea.

Hey Mum, you know how you love us and you know how you’re like a lot of other parents in today’s culture who want their kids to get ahead and not miss out on anything and give them whatever they want and teach them that life’s all about them and model to them how to whinge ‘what about me?’

Yes dears.

Do you think you could ask Jesus this question for us?

Certainly dears whatever you want.

Now I’m reading between the lines there a little bit but they ask Jesus v35, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” ³⁶ And he said to them, “What do you want me to do for you?” ³⁷ And they said to him, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.”

That really is a bold and arrogant question to ask.  Here’s Jesus on the way to Jerusalem, the centre and heart of the opposition, about to be killed, and all they’re interested in is themselves.  They don’t care about Jesus or his situation or what he’s about to go through.  They’re too concerned about what they’ll get.

Further to that, but less importantly, they’re trying to sneak-in in front of their mates, the other disciples.  They’re trying to get one up on them.

“We’d like to have the best seats in the house.  We’re trying to get ahead of the game here with some seats.”

They’re not interested in their friends.  They’re not interested in Jesus – only what they can get out of Jesus and it just shows how much they still don’t get it. 

Stott: “the most selfish prayer ever prayed.”

So Jesus answered v38,“You do not know what you are asking.  Are you able to drink the cup that I drink?”

The cup was a symbol of God’s wrath.  A cup full of God’s wrath.

“or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?”

The word “baptise” simply means overwhelm, so why on earth it’s not translated as such, I don’t know.  Anyway, it’s going to be over-whelming.  Which ironically is an under-statement.

“Are you up to that?”  Jesus asks them.  “Are you up to drinking the wrath of God?  Before glory comes suffering, in God’s kingdom, before crowns comes crosses.  Do you really think that you’re going to be able to go through what I’m about to go through?”

They said to him, v39, “We are able.”

There hasn’t been a vainer, more ignorant answer to any question that’s ever been asked in the history of mankind than that.  They’ve got no idea.  They’ve got no idea about the pain and suffering and isolation that Jesus is focussing on right now and in their folly “oh, we can do that” they claim.

That was said by two guys who didn’t even have the guts to come and ask Jesus, they had to get their mum to do it.  Their selfish, self-centredness has blinded them from Jesus and reality.

Well, at least Jesus has got ten other good guys who are separate from these two guys who have been causing all the trouble.

While this is going on the other ten get whiff of it and say, “hang on, what’s all this talk about positions in heaven?  We want to be in on too.  What are you doing talking about it without us?”  And Mark tells us that v41,when the ten heard it, they began to be indignant at James and John.

They didn’t like the fact that James and John had been talking about such matters, behind their back as it were, and they got miffed about it.

So here’s Jesus with his face towards Jerusalem and his pending death, and his disciples, who are meant to be his best friends, all they can think about is what they’re going to get out of it, what they can get out of it.

Like every good narrative, as readers we find ourselves asking “who are we to relate to in this story?”  Well it’s certainly not Jesus; he does what no one else can do, what we could never have done.

We do fit in very well with the disciples.  It’s almost as though we are the disciples because we spend our lives saying to Jesus (or to whoever will listen) “what’s in it for me?  What about me?”

Calvin: “a bright mirror of human vanity.”

We might not be like James and John – they were quite in your face.  But I reckon if there were people like that we’d want to say “hang on.  What about us?  What about me?  I don’t want to miss out or get left behind or be forgotten.”

We may not initiate the conversation but we’re certainly interested in it and we want to be a part of it.

If you’re like that, and I know I’m like that, then you’re really just a child of our culture.  What matters most in our world today is me ... my goals, my desires, my happiness, my self-esteem, my reputation, my progress, my kids’ self-esteem, happiness, possessions.

Our world today objects to self-sacrifice, self-denial, self-giving, humble servanthood.

Three objections to humility and servanthood in an article read:

1. Humility makes you dismal and downcast
2. Humility makes you fearful and timid
3. Humility makes you passive and ineffective

Our culture says it’s all about me.  What about my share?  What about my kids’ share?

That’s what the world out there is saying and valuing and pursuing.  Friends, we’ve got to work hard to see to it that it’s not like that for us.

Jesus knows that it’s like that out there.  V42,You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them.  That’s what they do and you’re being just like them.

That’s what they do, but for you it’s got to be different.

V43,  But it shall not be so among you.  Not so among you.  But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, ⁴⁴ and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all.

The kingdom of God doesn’t work like this world, it’s topsy-turvy.  Being great isn’t about getting to the top, it’s about being last.  Greatness isn’t measured by how many people are under you who will act at your command, it’s about how many people you’re a servant to.  Being great isn’t about having the ability, whether it’s though money or power, to be able to do whatever you want whenever you want.  Greatness isn’t found in physical ability, good looks, popularity, quick wits, or being able to make the best apple pie.

That’s not how the kingdom of God works, But whoever would be great among you must be your servant.

It’s not that being a servant leads to greatness, as though I can just start down here as a servant and then once I’ve done my time I can start working my way up.  No, serving is the greatness.  If you want to be great, if you want to do things that make a difference, that matter, that last, that are significant, that are pleasing in God’s eyes then have a servant-heart.

Are you a servant?  Do you have a servant-heart?

Now many of you here do, and it’s been a wonderful gift from God to this church, that so many not just serve but serve with gladness.

What can you do this week to be less focussed on being served (or not being served like you think you should be), and more focussed on what’s fitting for the kingdom of Jesus?

How?

The first thing to do is read v45.

The second outrageous thing Jesus says:

V45, For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.

Pattern

In one sense Jesus is setting an example for his disciples and for us; there’s no question there.

For even the Son of Man (the king of this kingdom, the ruler, the one with power and authority and position), even he came not to be served (although that would have been entirely appropriate and fitting and within his rights to demand it) but to serve.

So Jesus is giving an example, quite a grand example, showing the pattern, of what it’s to be like in his kingdom.  Which in itself is astounding.

Can you think of anything Jesus asks his followers to do that he himself hasn’t done?  I can’t (except repent of course because Jesus will never need to do that).

Jesus is not like other leaders, the rulers of the Gentiles, who say “do this, do that” while they sit back and keep their hands clean.

Jesus doesn’t say, “do this, do that”.  He says, “Come after me.  I’ve been there, I’ve done it, I know what it’s like.  Follow me.”

Jesus will never expect us to do anything that he himself wasn’t willing to do. 

Can you think of any other leader who has ever been like that?

There have been some great leaders in the past who might have done it a bit but not like this.  No one comes within cooee to Jesus.

The apostle John says much later…

You look at the disciples at this point and you think, “What a bunch of no hopers.  Is there any hope for them at all?”

Of course the answer is “no”, apart from the grace of Jesus – which I take it is precisely the point.

By God’s grace and his Spirit, they do get it.  So, much later, John says, Jesus laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for each other (1 John 3:16).

If this is what Jesus was like, where do I get off complaining that I haven’t been served like I deserved. So there’s a pattern.

Power

If all you see in Jesus’ statement is an example then you miss out, I believe, on so much.

Jesus is not just showing us a pattern on how to serve but he’s telling us about the power by which we can serve.

V45, For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve.  How?  In what way?  By giving his life as a ransom for many.

A “ransom” is the payment price to release someone from a bad situation – from a mortgage, to jail, to slavery.

There’s a story of a fellow who had a bit of a prang in his car, he accidentally side-swiped a van and dinged it.  After they pulled over, the driver of the van got out, looked at his vehicle, looked at the other driver and the very first thing that came out of his mouth was, “Somebody has to pay for this!”

When it comes to us and Jesus, we haven’t fallen on our faces in adoration and expectation.

We have preferred honour for ourselves and Jesus can serve me thank you very much, rather than serving Jesus and honouring him as he deserves.

We haven’t lived as we should.  Somebody has to pay.

Outrageously, Jesus says, “I have come to give my life as that ransom.  The price has been paid by me.”

The only one in the whole universe who actually is deserving of all honour and praise and glory, the very one who has been wronged and who should demand payment to him, has said, “I’ve paid it, for all my children, by giving up my life as a ransom for many.”

“I’ve drunk the cup to the very dregs.”

Can you think of anyone, anywhere, at any time who has ever said anything like that?  There’s no one like Jesus.

Jesus has ransomed us.  By giving up his life for us he’s paid the price that our sins deserved, he’s satisfied God’s wrath, and he’s bought us for himself.

As a consequence we’re free; free from the guilt of our sins, free to serve.  This was Luther’s big telling point.

It’s not about my good works; it’s about Jesus’ good work.  By his life-giving ransom we’ve been made right with God and so we’re free to love others and put ourselves out and be bold and take risks for others.

It is because I’ve been ransomed, redeemed I don’t need to worry about what other people might think or say, I don’t need to worry about the fact that the world says humble service is only for the weak; I belong to Jesus, the King of kings, and he cares for me and loves me and keeps me secure and gives me strength – I think I’ll prefer to listen to what he says.

On the cricket last night, the commentators got talking about who’s had grandstands named after them?  (A sign of greatness).  If Jesus has ransomed you, who cares?

See, if he’s given up his life for me then I can trust that he’ll give me whatever else I need and is for my good.

We don’t need to be gathering up stuff for ourselves, we don’t need to be preoccupied with whether we’re going to miss out ... because we already have everything.  If you belong to Christ you have everything.  You’ve been adopted into God’s family, you share in an eternal inheritance, you have every spiritual blessing, and it cannot be ruined.

So therefore you’re free to give up your time, your energy, your money, your opportunities for others, because in the end there’s absolutely nothing we have of eternal significance that can be lost.

As we look forward to a number of good things coming up and to the year ahead, let’s humble ourselves before God knowing that He is good and has given us far more abundantly than all we could ask or think, and so be free to serve with joy.

Heavenly Father, we thank you that Jesus made himself nothing, took the form of a servant, was born in the likeness of men and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross, to ransom every one of his people.  Through the power of the cross please create in us humble servant hearts that might be for the benefit of Christ’s church and for his glory.  Amen.