...all in for Christ...

Dear friends, I am returning today to Mark’s Gospel for my reflections. I focused on the theme of HOPE for 25 days, and feel it is time to move on from a focus on HOPE. I pray that these reflecting were helpful to you. Today, then, I am resuming our ongoing consideration of Mark’s Gospel, picking up where we left off in Mark 10.

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“32 They were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them; they were amazed, and those who followed were afraid. He took the twelve aside again and began to tell them what was to happen to him, 33 saying, “Look, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death; then they will hand him over to the gentiles; 34 they will mock him and spit upon him and flog him and kill him, and after three days he will rise again.”

35 James 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.” 36 And he said to them, “What is it you want me to do for you?” 37 And they said to him, “Appoint us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.” 38 But 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?” 39 They 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, 40 but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to appoint, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.”

41 When the ten heard this, they began to be angry with James and John. 42 So 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. 43 But it is not so among you; instead, whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, 44 and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. 45 For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many”

Mark 10:32-45.

Here Jesus’ describes again His messianic journey to Jerusalem. But James and John turn Jesus’ remarks into a march to glory – a glory in which they will sit on either side of Him when He reigns as king. They have clearly heard all of Jesus’ language about suffering, death and rising again simply as a set of pictures, perhaps meaning ‘It’s going to be tough, but we’re going to come out on top.’ But the cross is not, for Jesus or for Mark, a difficult episode to be endured on the way to a happy ending. It is precisely God’s way of standing worldly power and authority on its head. When, at the end of this passage (v.45), Jesus quotes the servant song (“…to give his life as a ransom for many” Revelation 5:9-10…Isaiah 53:10…), He is making the point that the kingdom of God turns the world’s ideas of power and glory upside down and inside out. Jesus is saying that the cross isn’t just about God forgiving our sins because of Jesus’ death (though of course this is central to it).

The cross is also God’s way of putting the world, and ourselves, back on the right path again, by challenging and subverting all the human systems which claim to put the world on the right path, while in fact only succeeding in bringing a different set of humans out on top.

Jesus’ final words are so important for us all: “Whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, 44 and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. 45 For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many” (vs.43-45). Clearly Jesus wants us all to understand that the Christian life is completely about service, service to the Lord and to others. Such a way of living is to be a total, all-in, way of living for Christ and for others. We are to give our entire life to Jesus Christ!

So I hope today you will be inspired to turn to the Lord and ask Him for His grace to help you live the remaining years of your life — all-in.

Lord, I turn to You with a desire to live all-in for you. I want to be used by You to serve You and to serve others You bring into my life. Let me hear Your voice each day so that I may live the remaining days and hours of my life for You. In Your glorious Name I pray, Jesus Christ, the Lord, Amen.

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me a sinner.

From the Bible:

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” John 3:16.

“I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship” Romans 12:1.

“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” Romans 6:23.

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” 1 John 1:9.

“Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver” 2 Corinthians 9:7.