Mark 9

1. What is the background?

By the end of chapter 8, we’ve stepped off the diving board into the deep end where the announcement of who Jesus is is made clear.  Now, elements of the story will move quickly as Jesus begins to directly tell the disciples of His crucifixion and resurrection. As a consequence of this direct revelation, the implications of discipleship also become more clear.  Full abandonment of the world and allegiance to Christ is appropriate. Tribulation, suffering, and fiery trials is what the disciples can expect, although they are still far from understanding the kind of Kingdom Christ is bringing with Him.  Their misunderstandings and struggles to identify will continue all the way to the cross and beyond.

2. What can we Observe about God?

God’s heart is the heart of a servant, giving and serving the least of us.

The bickering among the disciples gave Jesus an opportunity to teach them more about the kingdom and ultimately God’s heart.  “What was it that yet disputed among yourselves by the way?”, v33. They “held their peace”, v34, because of their shame not being hid from Jesus, they had argued about who will be greater.  This argument is on the heals of Jesus explaining to them yet again that He must suffer, be put to death, and rise again from the dead, v31.  Jesus is coming to give His life for a ransom, but yet the disciples are biting and clawing each other over who will have the bigger blessing. The stark contrast between Jesus’ motivation to give Himself away and the self-centered aspirations of the disciples show us just how far the disciples are missing the mark and their lack of understanding of who God is.

In God’s economy, greatest is measured by giving, not lording position over another. So Jesus tells them, “If any man desire to be first, the same shall be least of all, and servant of all.”  And there is no one who gives more than a servant.  And who do the great ones in heaven serve?  Jesus took a child, which were people of little significance in their day, sat him on his lap and said, “Whosoever shall receive one of such children in my name, receiveth me.”  The message is clear, such service to the least valued of our society is whom the great ones destined for heaven serve, and their service is tethered to the top tiers of heaven for such things done to them are done as if were to Christ Himself.

Jesus’ heart has been to serve and finally be put to death in that service because His death would be necessary to ransom souls out of hell.  His heart is so because God’s heart is so. And so if the disciple is not greater than His Master, should it not be so with our heart?  But behold how we bite and claw one another for recognition and the honor that comes from men.  Should we not esteem the honor of God more highly?

It seems the lesson isn’t taking hold very quickly.  For the very next scene, John is forbidding one to perform miracles in Jesus’ name.  Though this person was not named with the disciples, should the power to perform a miracle suggest God is with that man?  But rather, the disciples forbad him because he was not of their group.  Such is the thinking of those who think themselves privileged and superior.  Jesus patiently deals with the matter, “Forbid him not.”  Such a man has a reward in heaven for ought he has done for Christ.

If our position in Christ is “servant”, then what privilege do we have to forbid another to serve in Christ’s name?  Does one servant have the rights to constrain another servant?  We would do well to recognize the relative substance we have to offer the world comes from Christ and not a position we are able to occupy.  “Salt” is what Jesus calls for, v50– the savor of Christ who came to serve.  “Have salt in yourselves, and peace one with another.”

God desires our heart to be like His–humble and generous.

These contrasts done to show the divide between Master and disciple is all working to show the change that must be done in a disciples life.   While the disciples argue and dispute over position and blessings, Jesus is preparing Himself for the sacrificial altar.  Jesus is generous, the disciples are ambitious.  As Jesus prepares Himself for the cross H e will prepare His disciples for Kingdom work, and so they must have His heart of humility and generosity.  What will be necessary then to finish the task?

The power of God to change them will be given wherever faith is present.  As the father with the demon-possessed boy rightly said, “I believe, help thou my unbelief”.  The father of the boy put his home in his fledgling faith and it moved God’s hand.  There can be nothing comfortable about this father’s experience raising such a boy whom he loved, but had to watch him with great anxiety, unable to live any sort of life of his own for the boy needed constant supervision.  The desperation is evident as he begs Jesus for help, revealing the pain of such an experience.  But such pain is an element of this mains newly established faith. The results of such a faith is heart transforming.

Jesus said at the end of his monologue, v49, “For everyone shall be salted with fire, and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt.”   In the context of following Jesus, fire and salt is applied to disciple to prepare him or her for sacrificial use.  In essence, Christians are living sacrifices prepare for use by difficulties (fire), and discipline (salt) the is the savor of Christ. All of this is because God desires us to shed the fleshly lusts of our former life to take on Christ’s nature, humility and service.  It is a sweet-smelling savor in God’s nostrils most pleasing to His senses.

Is this not a common theme all throughout God’s word?

Micah 6:8

⁸  He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good;

And what doth the Lord require of thee,

But to do justly, and to love mercy,

And to walk humbly with thy God?

James 4:6

⁶ But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.

The grace God gives is set aside for the humble, and so fire and salt is necessary to be added to our faith to produce the humility God desires.

3. How does the passage point to Jesus and the Gospel?

God’s servant heart is what drives Jesus to the cross, His ultimate act of service.

What the world needs is not simply that everyone needs to act like a servant, though if everyone tried their best at being servant-like, it would not be enough to remove the sin from men’s souls.  It would not be enough to simply gouge out one’s eyes if sin was committed with the eyes, or with the hands, with the feet–though the radical temperament to even sever a body part for the sake of saving one’s soul would be reflect the right level of gravity given to the matter.  But in the end, merely cutting off the members that sin will not cure sin.  We need Jesus’ service.  We need His atoning death and his transforming risen life in our souls and in our bodies.

While we bicker in the street of who will be greatest, Jesus, the great one humbly gives His all to those who do not give any benefit to Himself.  He serve the “least of these” when He died for me.  He is rewarded with my weak faith and still He continues serving through the Holy Spirit planted within me to bring about the disciples tried by fire and salted with salt.  May He receive the harvest He has invested in me, and may I please Him with my gratitude for His loving service on the cross.

4. Application

I will wake up tomorrow morning and look for opportunities to serve “the least of these” as if it were service my Lord and Savior Himself.  I will seek to deliver souls from Satan through “prayer and fasting” as much as it focuses my faith onto God and His Savior.  I will offer to God my fledging faith and repeat the words, “help thou my unbelief”, because I believe you are the Christ, the one that should come into the world.