Mark 10: The Sacrifical King

This sermon was first preached at Twnholm Sept 14th 2008.
audio available here

W E Henley had had a hard life. When he was only 19 his father died with massive debts, leaving, as the eldest of 6 children trying to help his mother make ends meet.
But he himself was not strong: he had suffered from t.b. aged 12, and had lost a leg as a result.
Though not physically strong he was tough. RL Stevenson had modelled the one-legged pirate Long John Silver on Henley’s unstoppable character.
Nowhere did Henley encapsulate this spirit of determination so eloquently as in his poem, Invictus, “Invincible”, written 6 years after his father’s death in 1875.
He wrote,
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate;
I am the captain of my soul.
We might consider these brave words from the pen of a man lying in a hospital bed.
And they certainly proved a source of inspiration to him. A little before writing the poem Henry had been told that his only chance of survival was amputation of the other leg.
Soon afterwards he was discharged, and lived on for another 30 years.
In many ways Henley encapsulates the dogged determination that so many Brits have been taught to aspire to.
His legacy was seen during the Blitz, where despite extraordinary hardship and loss, the people of London gritted their teeth and battled on.
Popular British culture continues to echo similar sentiments.
Perhaps less eloquently than Henley and Kipling but no less forcefully,
In 1997 Chumbawamba sang
I get knocked down
But I get up again
You're never going to keep me down.
Though such words all have an impressive bravery and determination do they prove a viable philosophy of life: I am the master of my fate. Trusting yourself when all men doubt you. I get knocked down, but I get up again?
A rugged determination that will help to to get back on your feet and rise to the top?
Is this the quality that separates the leaders from the followers; the shepherds from the sheep?
Well, though such a self-dependent form of leadership might be inspirational to many, Jesus presents a radically different model in Chapter 10 of Mark’s gospel.
Christlike leadership is not self-satisfied (1-12)
1(A) And he left there and went(B) to the region of Judea and beyond the Jordan, and crowds gathered to him again. And again, as was his custom, he taught them.
2And Pharisees came up and in order(C) to test him asked,(D) "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?" 3He answered them, "What did Moses command you?" 4They said,(E) "Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of divorce and to send her away." 5And Jesus said to them, "Because of your(F) hardness of heart he wrote you this commandment. 6But(G) from the beginning of creation, 'God made them(H) male and female.' 7(I) 'Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife,[a] 8and(J) the two shall become one flesh.' So they are no longer two but one flesh. 9(K) What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate."
10And in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter. 11And he said to them, (L) "Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her, 12and(M) if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery."
- There can be an approach to Jesus that is actually very self-satisfied. We come to him, assuming we are fine, and if there are any problems, they must be with Jesus not us.
- We can even think that we are doing this as religious people who believe the bible. We find in the bible everything we want to find, and we dismiss as a wrong interpretation anything that might be uncomfortable to us.
This was the approach of the religious leaders who were coming to speak to Jesus. They were pretty sure they had everything right; but they didn’t like Jesus and wanted to catch him out.
It was a well chosen question, because there were two answers that Jesus might have said and either one of them would get him in trouble.
- You may remember that John the Baptist had made an enemy of Herod because of what he said about Herod marrying his brother’s divorced wife.
- John the Baptist had eventually died for standing up against Herod’s actions.
- Well, if they can get Jesus on record to say that that divorce and subsequent remarriage was illegal, then maybe Herod would do away with Jesus too; but if he wouldn’t say that, then he would have lost face with the crowd that thought John the Baptist was in the right.
But for Jesus, losing face is not the point at all. He only cares about what is right, not what is convenient. And he reveals the Pharisees own self-satified approach to the law that they claimed to love so much.
“What did Moses command you.” Was a key question – for the debate on the legality of divorce usually turned on the interpretation of Deuteronomy 24:1 – the verse the Pharisees allude to.
“When a man takes a wife and marries her, if then she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her, and(A) he writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house”
The debate would centre around what counted as “some indecency”-could that be anything that the husband didn’t like, or was it only in the case of adultery?
Pharisees, functioning as divorce lawyers would argue about whether a particular divorce was permissible under the law.
But Deuteronomy wasn’t the only book that Moses wrote. He also wrote Genesis; and in the very first 2 chapters of that firs book of the bible we see God’s intention for marriage –and it was not that it would end in divorce.
5-7
5And Jesus said to them, "Because of your(F) hardness of heart he wrote you this commandment. 6But(G) from the beginning of creation, 'God made them(H) male and female.' 7(I) 'Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife,[a] 8and(J) the two shall become one flesh.' So they are no longer two but one flesh. 9(K) What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate."
That which God promised for every marriage “the two shall become one flesh” has become a present reality in every marriage, “they are no longer two but one”. And why did he do this – well, he made them male and female as his image bearers. The character of God himself is to be displayed in marriage.
Is God looking for reasons that would permit him to break faith? No! He is faithful and committed to his people.
Divorce is therefore a terrible reality. It tells lies about God, and therefore is one of the most painful things that anyone can go through in their lives, and we should have great compassion on anyone who has felt that pain.
John Piper said in a sermon on this passage, ““For many of you who have walked through divorce, the very word brings up a huge sorrow, loss, tragedy, disappointment, anger, regret, guilt . Few things are more painful than divorce. It cuts to the depth of personhood like no other relational gash.
It is more emotionally heart-wrenching than the death of a spouse. Death is usually clean pain and divorce is usually dirty pain. In other words the enormous loss of a spouse in death is compounded in divorce by the ugliness of sin and the moral outrage and the sense of being wronged.”
SO why did God allow it?
Because of the hardness of our hearts… not because he wants to make lives easy for the hard of heart, but because he wants to expose the hardness of our hearts towards him.
Divorce was permitted that there would be a picture in Israel of the devastation of covenant unfaithfulness-a picture that would be picked up by the prophets of the way in which we God’s people had been unfaithful to him, and therefore he divorced them.
And yet, the extraordinary thing about this picture is that the God, who has every right to divorce his wayward wife Israel – is the one who instigates and pays for reconciliation with her. The book of Hosea beautifully illustrates this incredible love. Hosea’s wife had not only become and adulterer, but a prostitute.
Hosea 3:
1And the LORD said to me,(A) "Go again, love a woman who is loved by another man and is an adulteress, even as the LORD loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods ..." 2So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and a(B) homer and a lethech[a] of barley. 3And I said to her, "You must(C) dwell as mine for many days. You shall not play the whore, or belong to another man; so will I also be to you." 4For the children of Israel(D) shall dwell many days(E) without king or prince,(F) without sacrifice or(G) pillar, without(H) ephod or(I) household gods. 5Afterward(J) the children of Israel shall return and(K) seek the LORD their God, and(L) David their king,(M) and they shall come in fear to the LORD and to his goodness in the(N) latter days.
My brothers and sisters; we do not have time to outline a full biblical picture of divorce and remarriage. Please do come and talk to me or one of the other elders if you have questions.
But we do have a need both to care for those who have gone through the pain of divorce, and to support marriages so that it will not happen. We need to hold one another accountable.
Don’t be too proud to get help in your marriages. If you have troubles, talk and pray with other godly couples.

We must be aware of the kind of approach to God’s law that the Pharisees have. The approach that asks “what is permissible” rather than “what is best”.
And we must be very careful not to begin with what I want.
The number of times I have had conversations about really difficult pastoral issues, and people have said to me, “well I want to do this, and the bible doesn’t seem to have any specific command against it”, we just have to say,
“OK, what is God’s design for you life. It isn’t to ask, can I get away with this, but is this going to encourage me to please my Lord, and best display His incredible grace to the world?”
If the starting point is OUR desires, then we are unlikely to approach God’s word with open ears and ask what his desires are.
“We’ve got to want to …!!!” No we don’t!!!
Let’s not just ask the question,”is this permissible?” but ask also, “Is this beneficial”?
Where would we be if Jesus himself had stood on his rights? Was it permissible for him not to go to the cross? He had a right not to go – he didn’t deserve it –but he did that which would most honour his father, and the only thing that could save us. He sought his adulterous bride, the church, by laying down his life for her.
Christlike leadership is not self-satisfied with our own convenient answers, but will be satisfied with doing that which will bring most glory to Jesus and bring most good to those we lead, whatever the cost to ourselves.
Christlike leadership is not self-important (13-16)
13(N) And they were bringing children to him that he might touch them, and the disciples(O) rebuked them. 14But when Jesus saw it, he was indignant and said to them, (P) "Let the children come to me;(Q) do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. 15(R) Truly, I say to you, whoever does not(S) receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it." 16And(T) he took them in his arms and blessed them,(U) laying his hands on them.

Who do we stop coming to Jesus by our own sense of self-importance?
Note Jesus’ indignance at the disciples. “Oh Jesus is far too busy for children… run along now.!”
Who d’you think you are… If Jesus is far too busy for children he is too busy for all of us, for we are no more important than them.
We live in a very strange and hypocritical culture when it comes to children. In one sense our culture is so child-centered: people live their lives around their children; some models of care assume that a child knows what is best for him or her even from infanthood. We go from demand feeding to children having the right to demand whatever they like.
But on the other hand we have a society that is killing its children.
Metaphorically in the kinds of pressures that can be placed on a child to perform in various ways;
Even physically, we are killing children by their hundreds of thousands in the place they should be most sheltered from harm –in the womb.
People have complained this week about the disruption to 85,000 holidays as people face the inconvenience of having to find another way home.
But last year alone in the UK 198,499 innocent human lives of British residents were silently and legally killed in this country; 50,213 in this city.
We have not grasped the truth that underpins Jesus’ teaching both on marriage, and Christ’s love for children. The truth that every human being is made in God’s image.
Dean’s going to help us reflect more deeply on this truth this evening. But when every human being is seen as an immortal soul created by God to give Him glory, our mistreatment and dismissiveness towards them is seen as mistreatment of God himself, whose image they all bear.
This is a world with so much pain...
... we must be compassionate about the pain.
- We should be the ones there comforting the divorcee
- We should be the ones comforting the mother who have a grief she feels she can’t even talk about because she is responsible for the death of her child that the world has told her she had every right to treat as if it were worthless.
- If either of these issues have affected your lives, I hope that you would be able to talk to people in the church and that you would find compassion.
- But we need to be the ones who also hold out a better hope.
- The hope that doesn’t come from self-satisfaction or self-justification, but that comes from knowing that we have rebelled against God, the world is in a mess, but we have a saviour in Jesus Christ.
- We cannot even begin to speak into a world torn apart by divorce or abortion until we admit that we are a guilty world. The pain is a result of the guilt; and we need forgiveness.
- The world so often thinks that we can only offer compassion if we somehow affirm the choices that people have made. Real compassion does not come through encouraging a self-righteousness that says that every sin is excusable. We have a better hope than that. Real compassion comes from facing up to our terrible guilt before God, but seeing that there is one who has born that guilt.
- WE must come to Jesus like little children coming to a loving father, and asking for forgiveness.

We must love children and all other human beings: but we must also be like them, in our dependence upon God for forgiveness.
Our faith is not to have become old and cynical, but young and trusting.
In Britain we pride ourselves with not being gullible, as if gullibility were the worst possible thing. Cynicism is far worse than gullibility. Cyncism about God is the first sin… doubting God’s motives; doubting that he is worth trusting. Cynicism will cut us off from him.
And it is not the product of wisdom, but of blind foolishness that doesn’t see his beautiful and glorious character for what it is. To put our trust in him isn’t a foolish and gullible move; he will not betray our trust; he will not send us away; he will welcome us just as we see him welcoming these children. We will be safe in his arms, and he will bless us, because he will have forgiven us.
Christ-like leadership is not self important.
Christlike leadership is not self-righteous (17-31)
17(V) And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and(W) knelt before him and asked him, "Good Teacher, what must I do to(X) inherit eternal life?" 18And Jesus said to him, "Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. 19You know the commandments:(Y) 'Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.'" 20And he said to him, "Teacher,(Z) all these I have kept from my youth." 21And Jesus,(AA) looking at him,(AB) loved him, and said to him, "You lack one thing: go,(AC) sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have(AD) treasure in heaven; and come, follow me." 22(AE) Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.

The man’s question betrays his self-righteousness.
“What must I DO to inherit eternal life?”
Jesus doesn’t immediately answer the question, but points out that only God is good. Do you think that you can DO something to gain eternal life? Well,you can if you are good- truly and always good. But that excludes everyone except God.
The man might be able to kid himself that he has kept external commandments like not murdering or committing adultery. But he has not realized that he has broken the first commandment: have not other gods before me:
Jesus’ question expsoses the young man’s love for his possessions showing that they were his God.
He would not give up even temporary possessions to gain the treasure of eternal life with God. He preferred them to God.
It’s a tragic picture at the end of verse

22(AE) Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.
What is in danger of making your life a misery, because you would choose that gift, and in doing so forfeit the giver?
Why did Jesus ask him a question that would expose something in his heart that would make him so sad?
Because of verse 21.
21And Jesus,(AA) looking at him,(AB) loved him, and said to him,
Jesus exposes false gods in our life not because he hates us. But because he loves us. My friend: recognise the idols in your life. What is it that if Jesus asked you to leave it behind, you’d walk away from him before you walk away from that thing.
Pray that Jesus would open your eyes to see your idols and open your heart to love him more than them. So that you might not walk away from him sad, but leave them behind and run into Jesus’ arms rejoicing.
Jesus comments in 25
25It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter(AM) the kingdom of God." 26And they were exceedingly astonished, and said to him,[c] "Then who can be saved?
We are so used to Jesus words “blessed are the poor” that we may fail to grasp the impact of passages like this. It was obvious to most people that it was the rich who were blessed. God had blessed them by giving them more stuff. And it was often assumed that that blessing was a sign of approval.
Don’t assume that God’s blessing is a sign of God’s approval. As a church we mustn’t assume that. It would be possible to appear to be very successful as a church but to do so in a way that would be met with God’s disapproval.
But the disciples realized that if it was hard for a blessed person, then it is hard for everyone.
Yes, exactly, it is impossible, says Jesus, with man. But possible with God. God can grant us a righteousness that we cannot achieve ourselves. Jesus had asked the question of the man “why do you call me good?” that was a better question for the man to mediate on than his self-righteous claims that He was good enough.
He isn’t good enough. We are not. But Jesus is; he alone is God become man, who has lived a perfect life; he has perfect righteousness; how will God do the impossible of bringing the kingdom of heaven to those who are not righteous? By having someone else live a righteous life on their behalf, and die a sinner’s death on their behalf. That is the only good news we have for a broken and sinful world, but it is enough.
Even then Peter fails to understand: 28Peter began to say to him, "See,(AP) we have left everything and followed you." 29Jesus said, "Truly, I say to you,(AQ) there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and(AR) for the gospel, 30who will not receive a hundredfold(AS) now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands,(AT) with persecutions, and in(AU) the age to come eternal life. 31But(AV) many who are first will be last, and the last first."
Perhaps we can’t earn a way into God’s kingdom, perhaps we can pay him back once we are in…
No! God is no man’s debtor. In fact, even though we were thinking last week about the dangers of an overrealised eschatology –thinking that all the blessings of heaven are available to us here and now; it is possible to have an underrealised eschatology, suggesting that there are no blessings now.
No; there are wonderful blessings now – not least of which is the church. The church, a blessing, you say! Yes – we have a family where we are blessed; not because it is easy, no but because we have the encouragement along the difficult road. Travelling companions encouraging us along.
Chrislike leadership is not self-righteous.
We can’t earn Jesus’ acceptance. We can’t pay Jesus back. He will give us blessing after blessing if only we will trust him. Tough blessings today -immerearble blessings eternally.
Christlike leadership is not self-serving (32-45)
32(AW) And they were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and(AX) Jesus was walking ahead of them. And(AY) they were amazed, and those who followed were afraid. And taking the twelve again, he began to tell them what was to happen to him, 33saying, "See,(AZ) we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will(BA) condemn him to death and(BB) deliver him over to the Gentiles. 34And they will(BC) mock him and(BD) spit on him, and flog him and kill him. And(BE) after three days he will rise."

35(BF) And James and John,(BG) the sons of Zebedee, came up to him and said to him, "Teacher, we want you to do for us(BH) whatever we ask of you." 36And he said to them, (BI) "What do you want me to do for you?" 37And they said to him, "Grant us(BJ) to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left,(BK) in your glory." 38Jesus said to them, (BL) "You do not know what you are asking. Are you able(BM) to drink the cup that I drink, or(BN) to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?" 39And they said to him, "We are able." And Jesus said to them, (BO) "The cup that I drink(BP) you will drink, and with the baptism with which I am baptized,(BQ) you will be baptized, 40but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant,(BR) but it is for those for whom it has been(BS) prepared." 41And when the ten heard it, they began to be indignant at James and John. 42(BT) And Jesus called them to him and said to them, "You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles(BU) lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. 43But(BV) it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant,[d] 44and whoever would be first among you must be(BW) slave[e] of all. 45For even the Son of Man came not to be served but(BX) to serve, and(BY) to give his life as a ransom for(BZ) many."

What a contrast between the desires of James and John and the direction of Jesus.
The road to Jerusalem accompanying the Messiah was surely full of expectation. Surely David’s son would be crowned king once he arrived in Jerusalem. And then, what would become of his disciples? Who would get to be prime minister? Who would get to be chancellor of the exchequer?
James and john thought that a little campaigning with the future leader behind closed doors would stand them in good stead – surely there was no harm in asking. Was there? We should be careful what we ask for.
Jesus would go to Jerusalem. And he would be crowned king of the Jews. But he would be crowned with thorns, and dressed in a purple robe in mocery; all people, Jews and gentiles would bow down to him- but will(BC) mocking him and(BD) spitting on him, and flogging him and killing him.BE

There were indeed two who were seated on mocking thrones on his right and his left – but they were robbers, sentenced to die with him.
Is that the glory that you want, James and John? Asked Jesus. You will share in that kind of glory if you follow me; like me
And they did. James was the first of the apostles to be executed. John faced exile.
This is the leadership of Christ. The leadership that knows his fate that awaits him in Jerusalem and sets his face towards it.
45
He did so in order to save, rescue those he led.
Gospel
Loving leadership not serving himself, but those he would save:
Thou who art God beyond all praising
All for love’s sake becamest man
Stooping so low but But sinners raising
upwards by thine eternal plan
Christlike leadership is not self-dependent (46-52)
46(CA) And they came to Jericho. And(CB) as he was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a great crowd, Bartimaeus,(CC) a blind beggar, the son of Timaeus, was sitting by the roadside. 47And when he heard that it was(CD) Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" 48And many(CE) rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he cried out all the more, "Son of David, have mercy on me!" 49And Jesus stopped and said, "Call him." And they called the blind man, saying to him,(CF) "Take heart. Get up; he is calling you." 50And throwing off his(CG) cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus. 51And Jesus said to him, (CH) "What do you want me to do for you?" And the blind man said to him,(CI) "Rabbi, let me recover my sight." 52And Jesus said to him, "Go your way;(CJ) your faith has(CK) made you well." And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him on the way.
We had begun with Henley’s poem. It matters not how strait the gate, how charged with punishments the scroll. I am the captain of my fate; I am the master of my soul.
We like Bartimeaus are not the captains of our fate, though we may attempt to be the masters of our soul. We are blind beggars unable to find our way to God; we are sat helpless by the side of the road; but there is great news. Jesus has come.

Our only hope is to cry out “Son of David have mercy on me.”

And if we do, we can be sure that he will not pass us by; for faith in him will save us.

Then we would be delighted to leave behind anything that the Lord would call us to-Bartimaeus leaves behind even his cloak!”

My friends, the scroll is indeed charged with punishments precisely because we have been the captain of our own souls. And yet if we have taken Christ as our captain we
Let us conclude:
If you would aspire to be a leader (and all of us are to be leaders if we follow Jesus. To follow Jesus is to take on the mantel of leading others to Jesus.) But a leader must be first of all a follower.
We are not to be self-satified, for we will find satisfaction only in following Jesus.
We are not to be self-important, for we have come to recognise that he alone is of ultimate importance, and we are to approach him like little children.
We are not to be self-righteous, for we will realise that God alone is righteous, and that it is impossible for us to be righteous in God’s sight. But in Jesus living a righteous life in our place God has done the impossible.
We are not to be self-serving – Christ has ultimately served us in ransoming our lives from slavery to sin, and the penalty of hell, so that we are freed to serve others.
We are not to be self-dependent, for without him we are blind beggars. And with him, we may follow him first to the cross, and then to glory.
We are to be restored in the image of God, once again to lead not for ourselves, but for his glory alone, for we long to see that day when we will enjoy his glory forever.