Something cut to my heart the other day, this simple phrase: “Let humility be your greatest friend and pride your greatest enemy.”
Pride. Arrogance. I can smell it immediately in others, in a room when I enter it, a theological book, any conversation: the pride and arrogance of a smug, “I am different than all of you, I am better in my thinking, my ways, my actions.” I smell it and sense it and can identify it because… I know it so well. It resides in me. The pride of life. That which originally caused Adam and Eve to fall. The pride that is at the core of sin. It’s displacing God and inserting yourself. It’s thinking less of God and more of yourself.
This week’s passage addresses pride and sets us straight on the path of humble discipleship. In Mark 10:35-45 we get a front row seat to how highly James and John think of themselves. They lack self-awareness, they lack Jesus-awareness and they shoot their mouths off in a shocking way. “Out of the heart the mouth speaks,” and their hearts couldn’t be further from reality! First, there is the arrogance of verse 35: “do for us what we want, Jesus.” Now personally, I would like to smack them down, give a big eye roll, but I know this resides in me as well. Does it in you? “Jesus, I love you and desire to follow you… but do this for me. Do whatever I ask of you. My will be done?”
What John and James want, however, is beyond preposterous! They want “glory,” to be recognized. Honored. Seated by His “left and right side in glory.” How ridiculous! Yet, if I take a good look at my heart, I see this pride rearing its head, subtly, daily. Have you ever thought in the following ways; “When is it my turn to be recognized? Why am I never thanked for what I do? If only people would listen to me, if they would only listen to me! Give me the honor and respect I deserve” and so on. Verse 39 really gets to the heart of their pride (and mine): when asked “Are you able to do what I ask of you? Drink this cup and basically, die for me?” They respond with such foolish assurance, “We are able!” Good grief. Pride infiltrates and penetrates all of us deeply! We have such blind spots.
Jesus defines TRUE greatness this week—and it is not what we think. If we are honest, we think we deserve more. We think we should be “seen, heard and loved” more than we are. The cultural pendulum has swung strongly toward the self being affirmed, validated, honored, respected, heard, acknowledged. The self reigns…and no one should challenge it. But Mark records Jesus’s teaching on how our true self will find itself and thrive in servanthood. Christ’s very identity and purpose: the One who came as the servant of all. The Humble One who came not to be served, but to serve and give his life as a ransom for many (verse 45). This is the upside-down nature of following Christ Jesus! Humility really is one of the key marks of the Christian. Come, and grow with me…and continue to die so that you may really live!
In preparation for worship this week, read Mark 10:35-45.
- What would have prompted James and John to request such a thing from Jesus—“do whatever we want?” Why would they have thought Jesus would have been ok with this request?
- What does “sitting at the right/left hand” imply? Why was this such a strong, big request? How might a similar request sound today?
- Why does Jesus refer to His pending suffering as “drinking a cup” or “baptism?” What might that imply for us as well?
- Why would the other disciples be “indignant” at the request of James and John? What would have upset them?
- How does Jesus’ “servant-mentality” address the original request of James and John?
by Henry Knapp