Use Your Powers for Good
Mark 10:35-45
Quick note: I’m a few days late this week because I’ve been really sick. I am on the mend, and next week’s newsletter will be back on Monday.
Mark 10:35-45
Power is a major point of discussion between Jesus and the disciples. In this week’s passage, Jesus upends what his disciples believe about power, and he tries to explain to them how power works in the kingdom of God. I say “tries” because it does not appear that the disciples are picking up what Jesus is putting down. You may remember that a few weeks ago we discussed another passage that had a very similar flow. In that passage, from the previous chapter in Mark, two disciples argue about who is the best, and Jesus corrects them by telling them, “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.”
‘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. But it is not so among you; but whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all.
In this passage we see a similar scene. Two disciples ask Jesus to give them the best seats in the house in heaven, implicitly implying that they were way cooler than the other ten disciples. This obviously angers the other disciples, and Jesus lets them know that they don’t even know what they are asking for. He concludes by restating his point from before, “whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all.”
Mark is the shortest gospel, and it uses some pretty economic storytelling, with most of Mark's versions of stories being shorter and less detailed than their retellings in other gospels. Why then would the gospel writer include two passages that essentially say the same thing? It’s because this part is REALLY important. I believe that this is the main idea of Mark’s gospel. The disciples think they know what power is. To them it looks like worldly power, which we see as they try to curry favor with Jesus as one would in the court of some king. They want to be close to Jesus, and they want what they originally ask for, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” They want the power of Jesus to be something they can influence and control.
Jesus goes on to explain to them that if they plan on following Jesus, they are not going to find that type of power. If they are to be baptized as Jesus is then they have to follow him as a servant, not as a ruler like any they would imagine. Jesus tells them that the people they see as having power “lord it over them.” They have power over others, and others serve them.
For Jesus, his power is in his ability to serve and sacrifice, and if you wish to join him, you must serve and sacrifice as well. This is the heart of Jesus’s teaching, and where I get the term “Radical Servanthood” that you see in this web page’s URL from. This is not being a servant to the powerful, as so many were at the time and so many more are today. It is having the power to serve as a revolutionary act to bring about the kingdom of God.
This passage essentially asks the question, “What should I do to follow Jesus?” Jesus affirms three things. You can drink the cup he drinks, you can be baptized in the way he is baptized, and you can serve the way he serves. If you are reading this, you probably were baptized at some point, and you probably end up at the communion table from time to time. Now it is time to hit that third one. You have the immense power to serve others. You are called by God to use it. Use your powers for good.
If you think this is something that people need to hear, than please take a second to share it. It helps me a lot, and it might just help them too.
Also, let me know what you think! Do you think this passage is really just about substitutionary attonement, and has nothing to do with things we should actually, you know, do? Let me know with a comment.