Mark 10:32-45
A. INTRODUCTION
Some people are very ambitious. They may start at the bottom, but they’re not there for very long. And as they climb up the ladder of success, they have the attitude of, ‘Woe-betide anyone who gets in my way’. (And I’ve seen many a casualty, where someone had the cheek to compete for the same position, not realising that their competitor was so ruthless.)
But then, some people like to be at the forefront. If there’s an audience and a microphone, then that’s where they like to be. If there’s a dinner or a reception, then it’s at the top table where they like to be sat.
Of course, for all of us, there are times when we like to feel that we are special, that we are important. It’s just that some are better at pushing themselves forward; some like to give their ambition, and their need to feel important, full reign. (However, if your attitude is anything like mine, you’ll just happy to let them go.)
And while you can expect that sort of ambition—and that thirst for honour—in the world generally, it’s not what you might expect in the church. But sadly, just as those attitudes of ambition and seeking places of honour are prevalent in the world, so are they present in the church today.
And in a sense that shouldn’t surprise us. Because, after all, haven’t we just read about the infighting of Jesus’s disciples? And what were they doing? Well the very thing that I’ve just described. They were trying to promote their ambitions, and some were overtly seeking places of honour.
B. AMBITION AND HONOUR
1. Context (32-34)
Now, the story begins from the backdrop of Jesus and the disciples walking on the road to Jerusalem, for what Jesus claimed to be the last time. He had just told them that his destiny lay in that town and, that when they arrived there, he would be handed over to the chief priests and scribes. He would then be condemned to death. After which, he would be handed over to the authorities, who would mock him, spit on him, flog him, and kill him.
Now, I’m not sure which part of what Jesus said that the disciples didn’t understand. But, evidently, they ignored all the finer details of what was going to happen to Jesus, and all they got out of the conversation was that Jesus was going to Jerusalem where he would be glorified.
2. James and John (35-37)
As a consequence, the very next thing that happened, is that two rather ambitious disciples—the brothers James and John—sidled up to Jesus, and asked him to do them a favour.
And, in their request, there is no indication that they had heard the awful things that Jesus said he was about to go through. There’s no sense that they felt sorry for Jesus and wanted to offer him support. No! All they expressed was the desire that when Jesus finally came to glory, that they could have the seats beside him, effectively placing themselves as second and third in ranking order beside him.
Now I’ve seen some very ambitious people in my time—and many people who have been quite callous in their desire to reach the top—but can you think of anyone who had less regard for someone else, and what they were going through, than James and John did at that moment?
Jesus had only just told them about all the awful things that were going to happen to him when he got to the end of the road. But did James and John care? Did they express any words of comfort to Jesus at all? No! They didn’t. All they were concerned about was their own ambitions and their own places in history.
3. The Disciples (41)
Is it any wonder, then, that when the rest of the disciples heard about what James and John had done they were indignant; they were up in arms about the two brothers’ behaviour.
Unfortunately they weren’t indignant for the right reasons. Because they weren’t concerned about how James and John had treated Jesus. Their concern was that the two brothers had tried to secure an advantage over them.
In other words, they were ambitious as well. They too wanted the best places of honour. So much so, that they too had little regard for what Jesus might have been going through. All they were concerned about was the jostling for positions for themselves.
C. HUMILITY AND SERVICE
1. Context (32-34)
Now can you imagine, in those circumstances, a more lonely person than that of Jesus? Having told his disciples what lay ahead of him, the disciples offered no words of sorrow or compassion as they walked towards Jerusalem for the last time. All the disciples could think about was where they stood in the pecking order. The disciples showed no concern for the feelings that Jesus may have been going through as he walked to his death. (Feelings of dread, sickness in the stomach, the temptation to run away, or whatever else he was going through.)
Their insensitivity of the moment, firstly with James and John, and then with all the disciples, is not only something to be seen to be believed, but would have left Jesus as the loneliest man alive, surrounded by so-called ‘friends’ who just didn’t care.
And yet did Jesus fly off the handle? Did he rip into them and call them every name under the sun? No! He didn’t. Instead, he took that selfish ambition and that rivalry that the disciples displayed, and with those people he miraculously fashioned his church.
2. James and John (38-40)
And he did so, firstly, by responding to James and John’s request. Because in their request, James and John had promised to do anything in order to be ranked second and third in the pecking order. However, Jesus told them that they hadn’t understood what they had asked, that they didn’t understand what was involved. And, in any case, the honour of sitting beside him was not his to give away. Yes, at a later date, they might share in his fate. However, not yet, not at this moment of time, because the upcoming overwhelming disaster was for Jesus alone.
3. The Disciples (42-43a)
And, secondly, when Jesus had gathered the disciples together and the resentment between the disciples was at its peak, he questioned their behaviour. And he reminded them that the ambition they sought, ironically, was the very thing that they detested in those who ruled over them.
Yes, they might have ambitions—they may have all want to be king pin—but wasn’t that exactly what they hated about their gentile rulers?
Instead, Jesus stated that the way of a true disciple was not about ambition or places of honour, or lording it over others. Discipleship was about something else altogether.
4. Jesus’ Humility and Service (43b-45)
And having wiped away all their false ideals of grandeur, and all their ideals of ambition and seeking places of honour, Jesus, thirdly, provided the radical Christian alternative.
Jesus pointed to the fact that he, himself, had given up everything—his position and his place of honour. He’d given up his place in heaven, beside the right side of God, to come to earth, to be a servant. And his job was to do, not what he desired, but the things that God the Father desired of him. And if his life was to be an example of the need not for honour but for service, then it was rather as servants that the disciples needed to focus their lives.
Being like household servants and slaves is the image that Jesus projected for the disciples, not people who were directed by their own wants and desires. They were to be motivated on doing solely what was directed by the master of the house. They were to be servants of God, and servants of all.
D. IMPLICATIONS
Now this, of course, is a quite different view of life to what we see practiced in the world, to what the disciples were seeking, and even to what some Christians want to practice today. Indeed the exact opposite of the human ideas of greatness and rank.
The concepts of humility and service, then, is one of the basic, but radical, teachings of the Christian faith. And because of that, it had great implications for how we are to live our lives.
1. Ambition
Because in a world where ambition seems to drive many people, it is clear that ambition—where we are seeking to put ourselves forward—should not be part of a Christian’s life at all. Of course, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t wish for things for the benefit of another or for the benefit of the church or community. However, we shouldn’t wish for things where the goal is the promotion of ourselves, and where the goal is to reach the top at any cost.
The disciples’ example illustrates well the problems that ambition often promotes. People become so focused on their own ambitions, that they cease to be sensitive to the needs of others around them. They hurt others on their way, sometimes deliberately but other times quite inadvertently.
So if the focus is the promotion of one’s self, then the behaviour of the disciples quite clearly demonstrates that it has no place in the Christian faith.
2. Places of Honour
Furthermore, Jesus also taught that seeking places of honour is not part of the Christian way either.
Of course, that doesn’t mean that there is anything wrong with having honour thrust upon you. However if the goal is to obtain power, or to big-note oneself, then that is not the Christian way either.
The disciples—all twelve of them—fought over the issue of such positions. They all wanted the important seats beside the glorified Jesus. And they did so, despite knowing from personal experience what people in positions of authority do, particularly those who had sought honour for their own gain.
And, as a consequence, Jesus taught that those who sought such power were not suitable for the positions in God’s kingdom. That such behaviour has no place in the Christian faith.
3. Humility
Instead of seeking ambition or honour, Jesus said, we need to be humble. The Christian is not to thrust him or herself forward, but rather take on a more background and more caring role. The Christian faith is not about seeking authority, or wanting to exert one’s authority, but it is about being obedient, and being obedient to the wishes of God.
4. Service
As a consequence, a Christian’s life is to be motivated by living a life of service, where helping others, and caring for others, is of primary concern. And that includes putting ourselves out—going that extra mile; the need to drop things at the most inconvenient of times; and thinking of others first, before ourselves.
These are the kind of things that a life of service brings. And if that had actually been the kind of life that the disciples were living, can you imagine what difference it would have made as Jesus walked that lonely road to Jerusalem that one last time?
E. CONCLUSION
The story of the disciples on the road to Jerusalem is a story full of tragedy. Because the disciples were so concerned about their own places in history, with their ambitions and their seeking of places of honour, that they failed to hear Jesus properly about what was about to happen. As a consequence, they failed to see what a difficult journey that Jesus had to undertake, and they provided no comfort for him whatsoever, despite being all around him.
However, amazingly, even in those last weeks of life, Jesus didn’t complain for himself. He didn’t complain about the callous nature of their ambitions. Rather, he took their personal ambitions, and their desires for places of honour, and he moulded those disciples into what was to become the nucleus of his church.
And he did so, in part, by teaching them that ambition and seeking places of honour was not the Christian way. Rather it was about a life dedicated to humility and service.
And that is something that we need to remember at all times. Particularly from the backdrop of living in a world where ambition and seeking places of honour are prized so highly. And where even in the church those attitudes are evident today.
Posted: 10th November 2023
© 2023, Brian A Curtis
www.brianacurtis.com.au
