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In Christ, Mark
In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy
word.
When the ten heard about
this, they were indignant with the two brothers.
Jesus called them
together and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them,
and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you.
Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and
whoever wants to be first must be your slave—just as the Son of Man did not
come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.”
Matthew 20:24-28
When the ten heard about this, they became
indignant with James and John.
Jesus called them together and said, “You
know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them,
and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you.
Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and
whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not
come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.”
Mark 10:41-45
This ends
today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
Think about it.
Jesus was the Son of God, right? No one had,
has, or will ever have the lineage, prowess, and power that He did. No one.
He was the Messiah, the One the prophets had
predicted would come and deliver Israel.
He was the Lamb of God, the Savior who had
been sent by God to take away the sins of the world.
After He was resurrected, He ascended to a
place of authority no one else has ever been given, a place at the right hand
of the Lord God Almighty, His Father and ours. There, God placed Him in
authority over everything in heaven and on earth, the King of all kings and
Lord of all lords.
Indeed, Jesus, knowing His destiny from
cradle to grave to life everlasting in power with His Father forever, could
have lorded over mankind during His life. He knew He was far superior to
everyone.
But He didn’t behave that way, did He?
Rather than elevate Himself above mankind, He became a man in every way and
lived at the same level as the people He came to rescue and save. He didn’t assert
Himself as an authoritarian or dictator. Rather, He humbled Himself into a
place of servitude. It was what defined who He was.
And as we see in today’s devotion, it’s the
kind of people He wanted His disciples to be (and that includes us). Look again
at these verses from the 20th chapter of Matthew:
When the ten heard about this, they were indignant with the two
brothers.
Jesus called them together and said, “You know that the rulers of the
Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over
them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be
your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave—just as the Son
of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a
ransom for many.” Matthew 20:24-28
Ten of the twelve disciples were upset and
angry. What about the other two? Well, they were the ones who had raised their
brother’s ire.
You may remember that in the prior verses,
the mother of James and John, two of the first disciples called by Jesus, had
asked Jesus a favor, petitioning that her sons be given a place of prominence
with Him in heaven. The proposal was that one would sit on Jesus’ right and the
other on His left.
It was a request that suggested that
somehow James and John deserved to be honored more than any of their other ten
peers, a request seething in arrogance that did not sit well with them.
And so Jesus, sensing the growing tension,
does a little conflict resolution as well as teach His followers an important
lesson about how He expected them to live with one another and others.
“You
know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high
officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants
to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first
must be your slave—just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to
serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.”
The disciples were living in a time when
the Romans were in authority within their land. They answered to Caesar and
this was something that didn’t set well with the Israelite faithful. This is
why they were praying for the Messiah to come because they believed He would
deliver them from the hands of their oppressors.
Indeed, the disciples were well aware that
they had been lorded over by Gentiles, code in Old and New Testament times for
someone who was a non-Jew. Jesus used this real life example and experience to
let His followers understand how they were to live and used His own way of
living as the counter example.
James and John had desired a position of
authority with Jesus where they would be able to rule over their contemporaries
as well as all mankind. Jesus told them and the other ten that any level of
greatness one might be fortunate to achieve would only come by first being a
servant, living beyond oneself for the cause of others.
It was a call to servitude by the One who
was the Perfect Servant.
Note the level of servitude that was
expected by Jesus. One wasn’t just to give a little up for someone else.
Rather, they were to become a slave to others if they ever would expect to be
first.
Let that sink in a minute.
A slave is a person who has essentially
lost any personal freedom. They are at the mercy of their Master and expected
to serve them in any way told.
Jesus was just that for all mankind, slaved
to teach and heal and save by God, His Master and Father, all the way to the
cross where He was to hang and die while laying His life down willingly so others
would be able to live. He had not come to earth to be served hand and foot by
people, as if He were the ultimate King who reigned over mankind and expected
them to bow down and do anything He asked. Rather, He, the Son of God and Son
of man, came to serve and not be served.
And He expects His disciples (as well as
us) to follow His lead.
Friends, if we truly want to call ourselves
Christians, then we must live as Jesus did. We must see ourselves placed within
the confines of creation by our Creator in order to serve and not be served. We
must see our highest responsibility as living in such humility that we would
allow ourselves to assume the role of a slave in order to properly serve one
another, a slave who has given up their freedom to do what they want to do in exchange
by surrendering fully to the will of their heavenly Master and Maker.
In the end translation, we weren’t created
to lord over one another but rather to serve.
We were called to servitude and we need to
do just that.
For if it was a good enough life for Jesus
to live, then it had better be a life good enough for us as we work our way day
by day to the point of salvation where we will be relieved from our servant
duties and live in glory with our Savior and God forever.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com
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