The Ransoms Demand
Text: Mark 10:35-45
Proposition: The two purposes of Christ in coming to earth were to accomplish through serving the things that God desired of man and to give His life as a ransom for many.
Introduction: Jesus is leading the disciples towards Jerusalem, they have left the Jordan River and are soon to approach Jericho. It was somewhere in between these two points that these next events take place. Remember that Jesus had just taught about how hard it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God and how Peter had said that they had left all to follow Jesus. Do you remember what Jesus replied? Jesus told them that this would not go unnoticed by the Father and that what they had given up they would receive 100 times as much in this life with persecutions and in the future, eternal life. Then He told them for the third time about what would happen when they reached Jerusalem, He described in detail the future events of arrest, torture, death and resurrection. These details seemed to be interpreted by them in a spiritual sense rather than literal for all they can think about is the coming kingdom, thus we have this strange passage that we are about to consider. As we read Mark10:35-45 watch to see the contrasts in the purposes of man verses the purposes of Jesus.
I. The Purposes of Man Are For Control and Destination. Perhaps you find the words of verse 35 as awkward and offensive as I do. The idea of James and John coming before Jesus and saying to Him, “We want You to do for us whatever we ask.” is brassy to the point of arrogance. We know that these two were called the ‘Sons of Thunder’, that they came from a somewhat wealthy family, that they had explosive personalities and that they had a mother behind them who really controlled the show. Just have a look at that parallel account in Matthew 20:20 and you gain an insight into her influence. It’s astounding to think that they were attempting to control Jesus, in essence to control God, in order to gain personally. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen a sheep dog at work, they are masters at control. I once was visiting a farmer who had 200 sheep out in a field and he invited me to come and see what his dogs could do. With a soft whistle he sent them out, one went right in front of the sheep and stopped just short of spooking them and then laid down. The other circled around behind and put up a real fuss barking at the whole herd. As the herd began to move away from the barking dog, the first dog that had been laying down got up, and with his head hanging down just a bit he began to walk toward us. To my amazement the entire herd of sheep just followed his lead and went right into the next holding pen. James and John wanted control, but they were like two barking dogs that would scatter the sheep. Control can be a good thing when it is kept in balance with truth and purpose, however control for James and John was all about destination. The destination was that they would sit in positions of supreme authority when Jesus came into His glory, when He came into possession of His kingdom. I think we are all destination driven to some degree, it might be the destination of having three kids, a car and a house. It might be a destination of status or achievement. Sometimes a thirst for destination draws all kinds of desire in us to control things or people so that the destination affirms our worth, or so that others will see us as having arrived. This occurs on a personal scale and on a national and even global scale as the effects of a sin nature have greater and greater influence. Satan is governed by these same factors of control and destination, the issue of lies and the means of destruction are all about control in order to achieve his final destination of being seen and worshipped in the place of God. So we know that control and destination can become toxic and yet at the same time there is a healthy role for them to play. How did Jesus respond to these requests from James and John?
II. The Purpose of Jesus Is To Serve and Secure for the Glory of the Father. Consider the response of Jesus:
1. You don’t know what you ask. – To sit next to the risen Christ in heaven, to be without sin, to know immortality, to have a clear and undistracted zeal for the will of the Father… these were beyond their ability to anticipate. What responsibility awaits us in heaven, what would the responsibility be of those next to Jesus? They couldn’t have known what they were asking for since what they imagined was earthly.
2. Can you drink the cup or endure the baptism that I will? Both terms refer to the same thing, the active and passive obedience of Jesus to the Father which resulted in intense suffering. We now know that James was put to death by Herod from Acts 12:2 and we know that John experienced the prison of Patmos, they did indeed suffer as Christ predicted.
3. The position to be on His left or right hand was not up to Jesus to bestow, it was the Father’s choice and it had been prepared beforehand for them. The Father had already determined how the administration of heaven will occur from eternity past and even who it was that would be assigned it. Jesus would not disrupt that. So Jesus responds first to the future tense things to correct James and John and then hearing the rest of the disciples indignation He takes them all aside and confronts the thinking of control and destination. That is how the world operates, He tells them, the ruler controls those underneath him, “Yet it shall not be so among you…”.
Let’s look at verse 45 as Jesus tells us what His purpose is.It’s easy to see that He refers to two things:
1. The Son of Man came to serve… Let’s first ask ourselves how we have seen this so far in the life of Jesus. Certainly He served the Father, moving in absolute obedience to His will. He also served people, He served them food, He served them as a physician, He served them as a mortician, He served them as one who would wash their feet and He served them as a Prophet and a Priest and even a King. What is there about serving that Jesus saw as being so essential for Himself and for all His disciples? Is it the humility in serving, is it the place to show love, does it call for great trust? All this is true, but serving is the opposite of control, it resists the sin nature pull to be first. To serve others will hold things together when control will cause things to scatter. To serve calls forth an obedience to a will much, much greater than mine. To serve as believers in Christ reveals to the world that God is and that God has a great love for all people. To serve glorifies God.
2. The Son of Man came to give His life a ransom for many… You are familiar with the term ransom, it implies several things. The amount of the ransom must equal the price demanded and the ransom must be delivered to the right place and at the right time for it to be effective. The ransom achieves its target by freeing the person held captive. The perfect, sinless life of Jesus, fully man and fully God, was the amount required. The ransom was not paid to Satan, it was paid to the Father. His love is matched by perfect justice. He is not an unjust judge but one Who perfectly addresses evil and sin. It has a price and Jesus was the One, the only One, who could pay it. In sovereign timing the ransom was delivered and the cross of Christ was that place and time. The captives are you and I, captive to the sin nature that has been part of us since conception. Because of this nature we sin, because of sin we disobey the will of God. Because of our sin Jesus became our ransom. The ransom of Jesus for us is meant to counter the drive for destination.
When we grasp the truth of the ransom of Jesus for us the previous destinations of personal power and vain glory are countered. Instead of destination Jesus invites us to the road, or path or way. It’s an ‘as you go make disciples’ approach. Its focus is more on the process of serving rather than the destination of personal importance. The ransom of Jesus secures us, in freeing us from the captivity of sin and death we have been secured by Christ to God the Father. We have been secured, our great destination has been taken care of and we are freed now to serve, that He would be glorified. Perhaps the twist in this image of Jesus being our ransom is that the ransom Himself has a demand upon those He sets free.The Ransoms Demand is that we are not to be consumed with issues of control, the ransoms demand is that let go the destination of first place and become servants of all. The ransoms demand is that we would pursue greatness by standards that will be in direct contradiction to the world. It is a greatness that faintly resembles the way that even the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and give His life a ransom for many. There are many around you, how will you serve them, how will you give your life for them?