Mark 10

1. Background

Since chapter 8, Jesus has been speaking directly with his disciples about his need to suffer and die to complete His mission.   The disciples are struggling to understand this.  They continue jockeying for position but Jesus keeps speaking of sacrifice and suffering.  They have no categories for a king who dies rather than delivers them from the oppression of Rome.  What purpose then does his suffering mean?  In Chapter 10 Jesus turns his direction to Jerusalem for the final time.

2. What can we observe about God?

God doesn’t want us to live for what is permissible, but live for what He intends.

In an attempt to subvert Jesus and trap politically, the Pharisees pose a question about marriage and what the Law commands regarding divorce.  Mark gives us a detail about Jesus being on the coasts of Judea on the farther side of the Jordan which would be Perea.   Perea is where Herod Antipas had John the Baptist beheaded over his adulterous marriage to Herodias.  Perhaps the Pharisees are working this angle to bring the political powers down on Him.  Either way, we know it will eventually the working of politics is the means that puts Jesus on a Roman cross.

The question at hand is what specifically does the law say about divorce to which the Pharisees point out Moses gave a commandment that a bill of divorcement should be written out against her:

Deuteronomy 24:1

1 When a man hath taken a wife, and married her, and it come to pass that she find no favour in his eyes, because he hath found some uncleanness in her: then let him write her a bill of divorcement, and give it in her hand, and send her out of his house.

Jesus responds to say this was a mere concession because of the sinfulness of man, but God’s intention for marriage is not so:

⁵ And Jesus answered and said unto them, For the hardness of your heart he wrote you this precept. ⁶ But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female. ⁷ For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife; ⁸ And they twain shall be one flesh: so then they are no more twain, but one flesh. ⁹ What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.

God made male and female, thus marriage is not the unity of the superiors and the lesser, but two equally made creatures leaving their parents to become one in flesh.  One in flesh insomuch the lines that may distinguish individuals are now obscured in the oneness of their unity.  Such is the intention of God for holy marriage.

What Moses’ concession deals with is the inevitability of sin, broken relationships, and divorce.  Of sin, in that men will not love their wives, but lord over them in what became a male-dominated society where the women would suffer without any real protection in a civil dispute.  The concession at least provides some protection to the woman in avoiding hasty divorcement and allows the woman to remarry having possessed a bill of divorcement from her former husband. 

So what the Pharisees use for an occasion to justify divorce is really God providing some protections for women who would otherwise be left defenseless.  The statute, therefore, does not reveal God’s intent for marriage.  He isn’t commanding divorce, the intention is for marriage to work properly.  Just as there are instructions for how to crash land a plane, one doesn’t say the intention of a place is to crash but to fly.

In the context of discipleship in Mark, following Jesus means to be inclined to God’s intent rather than looking for what is permissible.   If our attitude is to compromise with God to find something that satisfies our independent thought rather than submit to His perfect will, then we are not disciples at all.  As the next segment will show, discipleship in Mark is distinguished by our childlike helplessness, humility before Him, and surrender to His will.

The Heavenly Father wants to be your Father.

What happens next is a realistic scene that Jesus used as an opportunity to teach more about the Kingdom of God.  As Jesus is traveling towards Jerusalem, parents who know of Him bring their children that He might lay hands on them and bless them.  The disciples, once again showing their attitudes of entitlement, rebuke the parents for doing so, but this displeases Jesus greatly. “Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God”, v14.

Contrast the children with the rich young ruler in the next scene who appears to lack nothing but yet lacks everything.  Children in the kingdom lack everything and readily admit it before God.  Because of their faith, they lack nothing in God’s provision to them.  But the rich young ruler has everything in his life in order.  His wealth validates his independence and is happy to stand on his own.  But when Jesus offers Himself in place of His wealth, he walks away sad, unwilling to become dependent and lose his wealth. “And he was sad at that saying, and went away grieved: for he had great possession”, v22.  The deceitfulness of riches is that it causes men to become self-reliant rather than to become helpless before God. “Children (He called his disciples ‘children’), how hard is it for them that trust in riches to enter into the kingdom of God!” It is our helpless before Him that fosters saving faith, trusting in Him rather than riches.

There is something in children that characterize the kingdom of God.  Mainly their helplessness and their need for care.  It does not bother a child to admit he or she needs the love and care of their parents, and therefore at the hands of loving parents, they receive all they need.  This reveals as much about God as it does to the citizens of heaven.  God’s people will have no hesitation to admit their need for God.  And God will conquer sin and the grave to care for them.  It pleases God to be our Father and for His children to admit their need of Him to which He lavishly bestows.

Still, the object lesson here is to be like Jesus rather than being the children.  The disciples are too proud to waste time with children and so they show their ignorance of the heart of God and the kingdom.  If they are going to be the leaders of the church they must learn the greatest in heaven is the servant of the least of these.  The most insignificant members of society are who Jesus came to serve and serve He did. “And he took them up in his arms, put his hands upon them, and blessed them”, v16.

The greatest of God’s glory is His servant’s heart.

The next four segments, (v28-31; 32-34; 35-45; 46-52) all take rolls to teach a single theme of servanthood and true discipleship.

Those in service to Jesus may walk away from a fair amount of earthly possessions, but there is reward in this life and the next.

²⁹ And Jesus answered and said, Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, and the gospel’s, ³⁰ But he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life.

Discipleship and following Christ is distinguished by service and cost and there is no better position than the servant who characterizes those attributes. At the cost of one’s own freedom to make choices that satisfy one’s own cravings, the disciple elects Christ and His will to take first place in his or her decision making.  As a servant, the disciple invests their time into the needs of others and laboring to bring them to the knowledge of Christ.  There is also cost in following Jesus in a world that hates Him.  In the eyes of the world, one truly becomes last.  But in God’s eyes, the last is the greatest and is rewarded accordingly. “But many that are first shall be last; and the last first”, v31.

The disciples are struggling to understand this.  They are only able to size up God’s kingdom by the world’s standards.  James and John audaciously ask to be 2nd and 3rd in Christ’s kingdom.  “Grant unto us that we may sit, one on thy right hand, and the other on thy left hand”, v37.  They are quick to ask for prominence but slow to consider the cost.  It’s all they’ve ever known.  Kings are majestic and lord their authority over others and accept their service.  “Ye know that they which are accounted to rule over the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and their great ones exercise authority upon them”, v42.

The disciples must be transformed by Jesus’ life in order to understand the difference and have it become part of their soul. But so shall it not be among you: but whosoever of you will be great among you, shall be your minister: And whosoever of you will be the chiefest, shall be servant of all”, v43-45.

The last segment in the passage gives us another live summary of everything we’ve seen and what discipleship should be like.  Blind Bartimaeus is desperate and helpless begging.  But when he hears of Jesus he cries out to Him. “Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me”, v47.  The crowd attempts to silence him forbidding his way to Jesus.  Of course, he has no way to Jesus if Jesus Himself doesn’t come to him.  But He does, and Bartimaeus receives his sight and follows Jesus on up to Jerusalem.

Such a man has nothing to avail himself to Jesus—nothing to offer Jesus for services rendered to restore his sight.  All he can offer is helplessness and need.  But such is the heart of God to serve even the least of these.  The blind man’s sight is restored and now he uses his newfound life to follow Jesus in the way to the cross.  There is no more fitting picture of faith and discipleship than this.

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

Jesus didn’t live by what is permissible, rather he fulfilled God’s intention to save us on the cross.

Jesus fulfilled God’s perfect will when He went to the cross for our sin. While others are blessed for their obedience, He is the only person in human history to be cursed for His obedience to the Father.  He took on the curse for our sakes, according to God’s plan.

Philippians 2:8

⁸ And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

Seeking out God’s intention for our lives is the hallmark of discipleship with Christ.  As we seek to follow Christ, we will be fulfilling God’s intended will for our lives.  Living this life stands in contrast to comprised lukewarm Christian living that seeks to live near the edge of what’s permissible.  But to even approach God with un-surrendered life is the same as trying to gain access to God on one’s own terms.  Belief unto salvation isn’t a belief that we have the authority to defne.  As Jesus said the rich young ruler who attempted to reach God on his own merits, “there is none good but one, that is, God.”  If we truly believed in the goodness of God, then the only appropriate response is the complete surrender of our will to Jesus Christ.

Jesus already is the Son, but He became helpless like a child that we might become sons.

Jesus was never in a place of helplessness as God’s Son.  But His submission to the Father was His willing gift, costly and precious. It cost Him His life and the rights to defend His life.  He became helpless on the cross so those who are helpless in their sin might have their ransom paid on their behalf.  Paying the ransom for sin, all who believe in the Son of God are made sons and daughters of God, being purchased away from slavery to sin.

Jesus saved us, not to give us a chance to be self-reliant without the weight of sin no longer on our showers, but to follow Christ in His willful submission to God, both costly and precious gift in the Father’s eyes. “For such is the kingdom of God”.

The greatest show of God’s heart is on the cross when He died to serve us.

It is said that the value of a gift is not in the amount of the gift, but the cost to the giver.  So what should be said of God’s gift of His own Son?  Does not such a precious gift convey the heart of God?  In the gift of His Son to stand over against our sin, we see Jesus’ service to “the least of these”.  Service is the action of love towards another and in Jesus’ service to us, He conveyed the measure of God’s heart for us.  “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son.”

4.  Application

I think in grateful response to my Lord and Savior, I will consider the sum of my life and where I am now to see if there is anything not aligned with the intended purpose of God for my marriage, ministry, family, etc. The act of surrender and repentance is a daily renewed process we live in worship to God who loved us and gave Himself for us.