Monday, July 7, 2025

The Mercy of the Kingdom


This morning, we come to a transitional story in the Gospel of Mark. Over the past several weeks, we’ve established the morality of the kingdom, as Jesus has used children, false teachers, and the wealthy to teach us kingdom priorities. Remember, in verse 15, he told his disciples, “Whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” Then, in verse 23, he said, “How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” In those two statements, we could make the mistake of thinking that Jesus prefers certain social groups over others. Children are loved by God and the wealthy are hated by virtue of their position. But, Jesus is not saying that children are inherently innocent or holy. Nor is he saying that the wealthy are reprobate. Rather, he is using children and the rich as analogies. You cannot buy your way into the kingdom of God. You cannot earn enough credit, build up enough merit, or store up enough treasure to deserve it. You could say, as the rich young man did, that you have obeyed all the commandments from your youth, but your heart will betray you. If you are to enter the kingdom of God, it will be on the basis of your need, not your worthiness. The kingdom of God is for the poor in spirit, the meek, and the brokenhearted. It is for those who, like a little baby, can do nothing to earn their way.

This has been the repeated teaching of Jesus from the beginning of this Gospel, and now we see a real-life example of that in the story we have before us. So, let’s read Mark 10:46-52. From this text, see two points: A Broken Sinner and a Benevolent Savior.

First, from verses 46-48, see a Broken Sinner. Jesus is nearing Jerusalem, as we are told, in verse 46, that he has passed through Jericho, which was about 15 miles away. Before he enters Jerusalem and the story shifts to his sacrificial death and resurrection, there is one last miracle that Mark wants us to know about. As he leaves Jericho, a blind man cries out to him, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” Mark gives us three details about this man that are important, as he serves as the perfect example of a person who will enter the kingdom of God. First, Mark tells us his name: Bartimaeus. It’s interesting that Mark goes further to tell us that he is the son of Timaeus, because the name Bartimaeus means literally, “Son of Timaeus.” Certainly, Mark wants his Greek-speaking audience to understand this for a good reason. The most important thing about this man is that he is the son of Timaeus – he is the child to a father. Remember, Jesus has repeatedly said that, if anyone would come to him, they must come as a child, and now, here is Bartimaeus – Son of Timaeus – coming to Jesus.

Second, we learn that he is blind. We have studied other healings of the blind by Jesus, and all of these have a prophetic and spiritual significance. Prophetically, it was the great hope of Israel that the Messiah would come, and a sure sign of his coming is that the blind would see. Isaiah 35:5-6 promises, “Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped.” After John the Baptist was imprisoned by Herod Antipas, he began to doubt his calling and the ministry of Jesus. So, he sent his disciples to ask Jesus to confirm it. In Luke 7:22, Jesus tells them, “Go tell John what you have seen, that the blind receive their sight.” Blindness is also symbolic of our spiritual condition. We are all blind to the things of God because of our enslavement to sin and Satan. 2 Cor. 4:4 says, “The god of this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers.” Bartimaeus is a prime candidate for the kingdom, because like a child, he is all need. He cannot see. He cannot even find Jesus.

Finally, we learn that Bartimaeus is a beggar. The Greek word is ptochos, which means, “deeply impoverished.” He is the opposite of the rich young ruler in our last story. Bartimaeus has nothing to bring to the Lord. He cannot offer a tithe or a sacrifice. He cannot pay Jesus back for his healing. But, this is precisely the type of person Jesus came to bless. As Matthew 5:3 says, “blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

Bartimaeus is all need, and all he knows to do is cry out a confession – “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” Oh, what a simple yet beautiful statement of faith. Before the crowds would cry out “Hosanna to the Son of David”, before Thomas would profess, “My Lord and my God”, a blind beggar would cry with all his desperate might, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” Here is all that we bring to Jesus. We bring a confession of who he is. He is the Son of David, the Messiah, the king of kings. As Romans 10:9-10 says, “If you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you shall be saved.” In this simple phrase, “Son of David”, this beggar proclaimed Jesus to be the Lord of heaven and earth. Like Bartimaeus, we also bring a confession of who we are. We are broken sinners who can do nothing to save ourselves. Bartimaeus cried out, “Have mercy on me!” The word mercy here means, “to show compassion or pity, or undeserved kindness.” Bartimaeus could do nothing about his poverty or blindness, but he knew Jesus could, and he knew that he would be gracious. This is what we should bring to Jesus, too.

Bartimaeus is all need, but Jesus is a merciful savior. That leads me to my second point: the Benevolent Savior, from verses 49-52. Even through the rebuke of others in the crowd, Bartimaeus continued to cry out, “Have mercy on me.” And, finally, Jesus stopped. In this interaction, see three truths about God’s mercy. First, God’s mercy is engaging. Verse 49 says that Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.” The word “call” means to “cry out”. In the same way that Bartimaeus called out to Jesus, Jesus called out to him. Recognize in this, that, as John 6:44 says, “No one can come to Jesus unless the father draws him.” Bartimaeus could not see Jesus, and even though he desired to be saved, to be healed, he could not see the way. Jesus had to call him, to draw him, for him to be made whole. In the same way, it is God who must engage the sinner, through his Word and Spirit, that he might be called to salvation.

Second, God’s mercy is embracing. In verse 51, Jesus asks, “What do you want me to do for you?” This question echoes his response to James and John when they came to him to ask that he make them first and second in the kingdom. But, unlike James and John, Bartimaeus comes with needy faith and no expectations, and Jesus gladly embraces him. So, with that invitation, Bartimaeus asks, “let me recover my sight.”

Then, we see that God’s mercy is enabling. In verse 52, Jesus tells him, “Go your way, your faith has made you well.” And, Bartimaeus is immediately healed. Jesus enabled this healing of Bartimaeus for one reason. It was nothing that Bartimaeus owned or could do. It was simply on the basis of his faith that he was made well. He received the mercy of God through faith. Anyone who would enter the kingdom of God must do so in this same way.

Friend, the kingdom of God is open to anyone who would come in need. You could be the richest man in the world, but if you recognize that your soul is bankrupt, then you are ready to enter the kingdom of God. You could be the worst vagabond of society, but if you plead to Christ for mercy, you are ready to receive the kingdom. Won’t you acknowledge your need and fall upon the mercy of Christ today?

Authority in the Kingdom


This morning, we come to the final part of this section of the Gospel of Mark in which Jesus has been laying out the morality of the kingdom. Today, we end where we began, with this upside-down principle of the kingdom: the first will be last, and the last will be first. Let’s begin by reading Mark 10:32-45. From this text, see two points: the Selfish Request and Servant Authority.

First, from verses 32-40, see the Selfish Request. For the third time, Jesus prophesies his coming death at the hands of the Jewish leaders and Roman authorities. This third prediction is more detailed than the others. It warns that he will be tried by both the Jews and Gentiles. It also details some of his suffering, from the mockery to his beatings. Yet, even with all of this detail, the disciples still don’t get it. As with every other prediction Jesus has made of his death, the disciples go on as if nothing will happen. So, after this prophecy, we read that James and John approach Jesus to ask a favor. Matthew’s account of this comes in chapter 20, which is two chapters after Jesus told his disciples, “When two or more are gathered in my name, whatever you ask will be granted to you.” So, now these two come to Jesus and say, “we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” No doubt, they took Jesus very literally in his promise. And, interestingly enough, Jesus, in a strange, ironic twist, grants it. So, what did they want? They ask Jesus to let them sit on his right and left hand when he comes into his kingdom. In ancient kingdoms, the right and left hand of the king were positions of authority and honor. The person who sat on the right was the ruler with the most authority in the kingdom, besides the king himself. And, the one on the left, would be third in command. James and John are not simply asking to be rewarded for their loyalty to Jesus. They are asking for the top positions of government in the Messianic Kingdom that Jesus has promised.

As I mentioned earlier, Jesus, in a bit of irony, does not rebuke them for their request or outright tell them no. Instead, he answers them with a challenge: “Are you able to drink the cup that I drink or be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?” To this, the brothers answer without hesitation: “we are able.” Their answer is, no doubt, naïve. For one, they are likely thinking that by cup and baptism, Jesus means a cup of blessing and the baptism they already practice. After all, in Jewish tradition, a cup of wine was often seen as a blessing, and baptism was a symbol of purification. Why would they not be willing to take that cup and baptism, then? But, what Jesus means is something very different. There is another cup found in the OT that symbolizes the wrath of God. Psalm 75:8 says, “For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup with foaming wine, well mixed, and he pours out from it, and all the wicked of the earth shall drain it down to the dregs.” This cup of wrath is pictured many times as the full measure of God’s wrath visited upon a people. It is something that cannot be partially consumed, it must be drained. The OT also pictures God’s wrath as a baptism or being engulfed. Jonah 2:3 says, “For you cast me into the deep… all your waves and your billows passed over me.” In Jonah’s case, God’s wrath literally swallowed him up.

It is this kind of cup and baptism that Jesus must face – the cup and the flood of God’s wrath. In this and later statements, Jesus teaches us about what exactly he does for us on the cross. There are two ways that Jesus saves us through is death on the cross. One, which we will talk about later, is called expiation, and it is the one that we like. Expiation is the idea that, in his sacrifice, Jesus removed or covered our sin. This is typically the way we talk about salvation. But, there is another aspect of Jesus’s sacrifice, and it is called “propitiation.” Propitiation is the work of satisfying the wrath of God. This is a less popular way of talking about salvation because we don’t like to think that God is angry with us. In fact, many modern preachers will try to say that God does not get angry, or that wrath is not an essential part of God’s nature. They would argue that any time we read of God’s wrath, it is really just humans trying to understand God, not really a reflection of who God is. Yet, the Bible clearly teaches that God hates sin and is wrathful towards it. Deut. 4:24 says, “The Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.” Nahum 1:2-3 says, “The Lord is a jealous and avenging God… and will by no means clear the guilty.” This is important to understand because our problem of sin goes far deeper than just a legal offense. It is not that we have broken some arbitrary rule that God established, but we have acted against the character of God and offended his very being. Think of it this way. Murder is a law that is on the books at every level of our government. When a murder is committed, we call that a criminal offense. The police gather evidence. The prosecutors bring charges. The judge adjudicates. The jury brings a verdict. And, law enforcement exacts the punishment. All of that happens without any personal offense to the police, the prosecutors, the judge, or the jury. But, there is one party involved during that process that has been grievously, personally offended – the victim’s family. They followed the process through, advocated for justice, and waited for the verdict. And yet, even with life in prison, they don’t feel that justice has been done, why? Because the offense is not a legal matter to them, it is an offense against their very nature. The same is true of our sin against God. And so, if we are going to be saved, it is not enough to wipe away the legal offense. God’s wrath must be satisfied. This is what Christ has done for us on the cross. So, Heb. 2:17 says of Jesus, “Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.”

Jesus’s response to James and John is ironic, because he tells them, “You will drink of my cup and be baptized with my baptism.” Here, Jesus not only prophesies of his own death, but of the persecution of James and John. These two brothers are bookends of the Apostolic age. James was the first of the apostles to be martyred. In Acts 12 we read of a great persecution that broke out against the church, and James was beheaded as part of that. John, on the other hand, was the last of the apostles to die. He died of natural causes, but his life was full of persecution. Tradition has it that he was sentenced to death by boiling tar, but he was not burned by it. So, the Romans ordered him exiled to the Isle of Patmos, where he wrote the book of Revelation.

This brings me to my second point: Servant Authority. In verse 41 we read that the other disciples hear of this request and become indignant. From a worldly viewpoint, we can understand this. Why would James and John be first and second in the kingdom? Why not Peter, Judas, or Phillip? To address all of this, Jesus has a “come to Jesus” meeting with all of them. They all have a faulty view of leadership and authority, and Jesus sets out to correct this with a contrast and a paradox. First, in verse 42, Jesus contrasts the leadership of the Gentile rulers with that of the kingdom. He says, “Don’t be like the rulers of the Gentiles.” There are two reasons that the Gentile rulers stand as a contrast to godly leadership. For one, Jesus says that they “lord over them.” This means that they subjugate their citizens and use their power to control them. In other words, they rule by brute force. Also, they “exercise authority over them.” This is the idea of absolute, unquestionable authority. There is no reasonableness or compassion, just pure, authoritarian rule. In verse 43, Jesus says, “It shall not be so among you.” This type of rule is not Christian rule. This is not the way God’s people are to exercise authority.

Rather, Jesus repeats the famous paradox he established back in chapter 9: “Whoever would be great among you must be your servant and whoever would be first must be a slave to all.” This paradox contrasts two extremes. Whoever would be a high ranking official in the kingdom of God must be a “diakonos” (deacon/servant). In Roman culture, deacons were the lowest of servants: those who waited on tables or ran errands. So, to hold a high position, you must be willing to serve in the lowliest of ways. Then, to be first (to be at the right and left of the Messiah), you must be a slave (doulos) to all. A doulos was nothing more than his master’s property. So, if you would rule in the kingdom of God, you must place your needs below everyone else’s.

This paradox is not an arbitrary command. It is not something Jesus set up just to see how desperately we would scramble for his approval. No, this is the reality of authority in the kingdom, because this is the way of Jesus. In verse 45, he says, “For even the son of man came not to serve but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Jesus did not come to gain the palace in Jerusalem. He did not come to be adored by the religious elite. He did not come to be served by the subjugated masses. Jesus came to serve his people by dying on the cross. And, in this we find the second way that Jesus saves us, through expiation. Jesus says that he came to “give his life as a ransom for many.” The word ransom there is the idea of purchasing the freedom of a slave. Oh, what great ironic beauty there is in this! The Son of God, the Lord of heaven, the one who sits at the right hand of God the Father, became a slave so that he might purchase our freedom. And, now that we are free, he calls us to do the same – to take on the role of a servant so that others might be free.

Brothers and sisters, this paradox of the kingdom is beautiful and good because Jesus calls us to his way. Jesus has all authority because he made himself nothing. If we are to rule in his kingdom, we must do the same. This is why, in Ephesians 5:21, Paul says, “Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.” And then, Paul goes through all of the power dynamics of this world to explain how Christians should serve in each case. Husbands should love their wives as Christ loved the church. Wives should honor their husbands as the church honors Christ. Children should obey their parents as though they are obeying the Lord, and parents should lovingly instruct their children in the Lord. Slaves should obey their masters as though they are working for Christ, and masters should treat their slaves as though they will give account to God. Certainly, in each of those cases, there is a position of authority and one of subjection, but in every case, both the ruler and the subject are called to serve the other. This is the way we are called to live as believers in this world. So may we go and serve that we might rule well in God’s kingdom.

Sunday, June 22, 2025

Possessions in the Kingdom


This morning, we come to the end of this section of Mark in which Jesus has been teaching on the morality of the kingdom. We come to an important teaching of Christ on the cost of discipleship, and this teaching raises some important questions. In the kingdom of God, what is to be the relationship between the wealthy and the poor? Is it wrong to even have wealth in the kingdom? Is there hope of salvation for those with great possessions? To answer those questions, lets read Mark 10:17-31. From this passage, see two points: Inheritance of the Kingdom, and the Impossible Salvation.

First, from verses 17-22, see the Inheritance of the Kingdom. Jesus continues on his final journey to Jerusalem, and as he goes, he is approached by a man who shows him great respect. He kneels in front of him and addresses him as “Good Teacher”. He has an important question: “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” It’s interesting that this man asks this question for two reasons. For one, we know that he is wealthy, and in Jesus’s day (as in ours, with the influence of the Health and Wealth heresy today), there was the assumption that wealth was gained through the blessing of God. If you inherited a fortune or invented an important product, or landed a great catch, you were considered blessed for that. So, this question would likely have been surprising to the others in the crowd, because, they would assume, if anyone would inherit eternal life, it would be this man. We also know that this man, according to his own assessment, is righteous. Jesus, in effect, asks him if he has obeyed all the commandments, and the man answers, “Yes, from my youth.” He seems confident that he is righteous according to the law. And yet, here he is, asking what he must do to be saved. Maybe he’d been present at Jesus’s sermon on the mount, when Jesus announced: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Perhaps he’d noticed Jesus’s love for the infirmed, the poor, and the oppressed and put two-and-two together. If this Jesus is the Messiah, then it is obvious that he has come to bless those who are the outcasts of society. So, he wondered, what about me?

Yet, even though he has this question, he seems to doubt himself very little. He does not seem to believe that he has ever sinned. However, there are some hints in what Jesus says that reveal his barrier to the kingdom. First, when Jesus states the commandments, there are a couple of interesting nuances. For one, Jesus states what is known as the “Second Table” of the law – those commandments that deal with our relationships with other humans. He did not ask him, “Have you faithfully worshipped God and kept the Sabbath?” He asked, “How have you treated other people?” I think Jesus asks this to key in on this young man’s sin.

There is another nuance in Jesus’s list of commandments. There is one commandment that isn’t in the Ten Commandments. We know, “Honor your father and mother, do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness”, but where is he getting “do not defraud.” Some commentators suggest that fraud is covetousness in action. In other words, when you defraud someone, you are coveting what they have and taking action to take it. But, that’s just stealing, not covetousness. So, why does Jesus throw this law in with the others? There are a couple of reasons. First, fraud is particularly a temptation for the rich. The OT law repeatedly condemns defrauding the poor. Prov. 22:22 says, “Do not rob the poor, because he is poor.”  Exodus 22:25 forbids charging interest on loans to the poor (the opposite of the practice we have today). Deut. 24:14-15 forbids holding pay to hourly workers – you are to pay him before the sun goes down.

I also think Jesus includes this command because it was the specific sin of this man. This is why, when the man says that he has obeyed the law from his youth, Jesus answers: “Then sell all you have and give it to the poor and come follow me.” This verse has led to no lack of confusion. Some have read this as a condemnation of all wealth. They would argue that Christianity is in effect a communist religion that requires everyone to have equal wealth, and, that if anyone is wealthy, they have obviously gained it through greed and fraud. Others read it to say that every Christian should make himself poor. In order to follow Christ, one must give up worldly possessions of any kind and be totally dependent on God’s provision and the benevolence of the church. But, I don’t think Jesus means this as a general statement about discipleship or salvation, at all. I think this statement is a rifle shot at the heart of this rich young man. Understand, the Bible never condemns wealth or money. Sure, it does say that “the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil”, but it does not say “money is the root.” Additionally, having wealth is not in and of itself evil, but what we do with it can be. James 5:1-5 condemns the wealthy who use it for luxury and self-indulgence. But, Gal. 2:10 and 1 Tim. 6:17-19 direct the wealthy to be generous and use their wealth for the kingdom. There are two moral questions regarding wealth and the kingdom. 1) How do you gain your wealth? If you earn your wealth through fair and honorable work or inherit wealth because of the same, there is no guilt in that. However, if you gained your wealth by schemes that charge exorbitant fees and interest to the poor, or you monopolize and scam, then you have sinned. 2) What do you do with your wealth? If you give liberally to benefit those outside of your family, if you are faithful to tithe and support missions, to help the poor and defend the oppressed, then there is no guilt. But, if you hoard your money for yourself and your family, clinching your fist around it lest anyone should take it, then you are in sin.

Here is this man’s problem. I think Jesus places these demands on him because he, like Zaccheus, has gained his wealth by defrauding the poor and has withheld his abundance from those who could be helped by it. So, it says, in verse 22, that he was “disheartened by the saying and went away sorrowful.” The cost of discipleship was too great for him. This does raise an important point for all of us, whether rich or poor. Jesus may not demand the same thing of you. You may not have any wealth to give away. But he does demand that you give your all to follow him. Whatever it is that you hold on to – your free time, your vacations, your retirement, your pleasure – that is the thing he calls you to give up. There should be nothing in your life that, if called to, you could not give up for the sake of following Christ.

That leads to my second point: The Impossible Salvation, from verses 23-31. After this man leaves dejected, Jesus turns to his disciples and wonders, “How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” His disciples are bothered by this, and then Jesus says something even more bothersome: “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom.” This was just too much. The disciples are overwhelmed by this statement, so they ask, “Who can be saved?!” Remember, they believed that the wealthy were so because of the blessing of God. So, if those who are blessed will not be saved, how can anyone be saved. To that question, Jesus makes this beautiful statement, which we find throughout Scripture: “With man it is impossible, but with God, all things are possible.”  In Genesis 18, when Sarah laughed at God’s promise that she, in her postmenopausal barrenness, would conceive and have a son, God asked, “Why does she laugh? Is anything impossible for God?” In Jeremiah 32, God promises that he will restore Israel, and he says, “behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh. Is anything too hard for me?” In Luke 1:37, when Mary asks how she could conceive when she is a virgin, Gabriel responds, “Nothing will be impossible with God.” It is true that wealth and possessions can cause a man or woman to be so proud, so self-reliant, that they have no room for faith in God’s provision. It is true that a love of money and a heart of greed can enslave the rich. But, nothing is impossible with God. God can change the heart. God can humble the proud. God can bring the man with everything to despair over his loneliness. We see it in the Gospels. Zaccheus was a rich tax collector who came near to Christ, was saved, and became a generous believer. We see it also in the early church. Lydia was a wealthy businesswoman living in Phillippi who opened her home to the church Paul and Silas planted. Nothing is impossible with God because God is the source of our salvation. No one can be saved unless God changes their hearts. No one can come to repentance unless God grants it.

Friend, if you would follow Christ, it means giving up that which you are holding on to. It means turning from your sin, whether it be greed or lust or gossip, and turning to Christ in faith.

Brothers and sisters, we are called to hold our wealth with a loose hand. I’ve been to many places in this world and seen poverty like you could not imagine. Most of us in the US are blessed with wealth the rest of the world cannot comprehend. This wealth comes with responsibility. We are called, first, to be responsible with how we gain our wealth. We should not gain it through fraud – whether it be defrauding the government by lying about our taxes or our income status or defrauding others with products and services that do not meet a real need. We should not gain it by scheming, whether it be in gambling, fleecing others with oppressive interest, or a pyramid scheme. We should gain our wealth by doing good work in a fair and ethical way. One of my favorite stories about Martin Luther is when he was asked by a shoemaker how he might glorify God. Martin Luther responded, “Make a good shoe and sell it for a fair price.” I have tried to live by that as a business owner, and whatever our work, I think it is solid advice.

We are also called to be generous with our wealth. We should give to meet the needs of the church and our brothers and sisters in Christ. I have tried to live in this way. I have never given away money with the intention of serving the Lord that I have missed or needed back later. God will be faithful to meet our needs as we are faithful to give, so may we trust him with everything and give generously.

Monday, June 16, 2025

Children in the Kingdom


This morning, we continue in a section of Mark in which Jesus lays out the morality of the kingdom. We have seen the priorities of the kingdom – to be first you must be last. We’ve seen the citizens of the kingdom. Those who are dedicated to Christ are citizens, while those who are deceptive or disobedient are rejected. Then, last week, we saw the authentic meaning of marriage in the kingdom. Marriage is a picture of God’s covenant with his people and Christ’s love for his church. This morning, we move on to the kingdom’s view of children, and by extension, all who are lowly. To see that, let’s read Mark 10:13-16 together. From this text, see two points: The Blessing of Children and Believing like a Child.

First, from verses 13 and 14, see the blessing of children. Mark tells us that, at some point in Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem, the crowds began to bring him their children. The intention is obvious and reasonable: they want a holy man to bless their children. Some of this may have been superstition – if Jesus touched their children, they would be rich and famous someday. But, certainly, it was also motivated by faith that Jesus could and would bless their lives. The disciples, however, were having none of it, so we are told, “the disciples rebuked them.” The Greek word used for “rebuke” there is the same word used to speak of Jesus rebuking demons and the storm. It is intended to be corrective and communicate disapproval. So, they might have said to the parents, “How dare you bring these rug-rats to Jesus and interrupt his important ministry. Can’t you at least clean them up a bit before getting them near the master? Can’t you keep those hooligans quiet – the master is teaching!” As I explained a few weeks ago, this attitude towards children was typical of that day. The Jews saw children as incomplete humans who needed to be sternly disciplined so they would not humiliate their parents as adults. We could also understand it because of the importance of Jesus’s ministry. Even at a basic level, to the disciples, Jesus’s ministry was more important than ministering to little snot-nosed kids. He regularly exorcized demons, brought sight to the blind, and raised the dead. Why waste time playing with children? Beyond that, Jesus is the Messiah. He is not just any king. He is the king of kings. And, he is on his way to Jerusalem to, in their minds, take the throne of David, bring the various Jewish factions into line, and drive away the Romans. Why would he stop to pray over children who wouldn’t even remember this day?

Jesus, however, did not take kindly to their efforts. In verse 14 it says that he was “indignant” at what he saw of them. This word means that Jesus was moved with anger towards his disciples. There are three reasons for Jesus’ indignation. First, Jesus is angry because his disciples fail to recognize the blessing that children are in God’s kingdom. The Bible is shot through with the idea that children are a blessing from God and evidence of his favor. In fact, in the OT, children are the measure of whether God is blessing you or not. Genesis 1:28 says of the first man and woman, “God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it.” This is the first command ever given in the Bible, and it is a command of blessing – a command to have babies. This command is preceded by God’s blessing, meaning that God, as the author of life, enables humans to be fruitful and multiply. We see this in the blessing of Abraham in Genesis 12. Abraham was old and his wife was barren, and God promises a blessing. That blessing is always understood (and later literally realized) to be an abundance of descendants. Conversely, the inability to conceive was seen as a curse. Sarah, Rachel, and Hannah all viewed their barrenness as a curse, and God ultimately blessed all of them so that they could be fruitful. As the Psalmist says in Psalm 127:3-5, “Children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one’s youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them!” Recognize that the Bible has no concern for family planning or population control. Children are not a burden in Scripture. Not once does it ever say that about any child – not even Ishmael or Esau. Children are a blessing, and our church and our culture should see them as such. It does not matter the circumstances in which they were conceived or the home that they were born into – children are a blessing from God.

Children are also viewed as the greatest, most important vocation for a father and mother. Deut. 6:7 charges parents, “You shall teach [the commandments] diligently to your children and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.”  Prov. 22:6 says, “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.” Besides the relationship between husband and wife, the relationship of parent to child is the most important earthly relationship we have.

Jesus is also indignant because the disciples continued to be dull about the kingdom of God. Just a few verses back, in chapter 9, verse 37, Jesus had already used the example of a child to set the priorities of the kingdom. He told his disciples there, “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me.” He’d also told them, in verse 42, “whoever causes one of these little ones to sin, it would be better for him to have a millstone tied around his neck and thrown into the sea.” Now, here they are, angrily driving children away from Jesus. Throughout the NT we find this consistent measure of whether someone is living for Christ. One sure way to judge that is by how you treat the lowly. How do you treat children? Are they a burden? Do they get in the way of your life-goals? Do they hinder your pursuit of pleasure and wealth and career? What about us as a church? Do we think it is better to segregate kids out of the sanctuary so the adults can listen to the sermon in peace? Do we fuss over the cost of children’s ministry and VBS? Do we complain about the dings and scratches left by rambunctious kids? Jesus warns us in his rebuke of his disciples – the kingdom of God is for such as these.

The third reason for Jesus’ indignation leads me to my second point: Believing like a Child. In verse 15, Jesus uses children as an analogy for saving faith. He says, “You will not enter the kingdom of God unless you receive it like a child.” There is a good deal of debate and much misunderstanding about what exactly Jesus means here. What is it about a child that he is extolling here? Is it their innocence, their trustfulness, their dependence? Remember, the Bible does not have the romantic view of children that we do. It does not view them as innocent (Psalm 51 says that we are conceived in sin). I also don’t think that Jesus has in mind a “child-like faith.” Remember, it is not children who are coming to Jesus of their own volition. Parents are bringing them. Besides that, these are very likely toddlers and infants, as we read in verse 16 that Jesus took them in his arms. No, I think the point of analogy is in a child’s vulnerability and helplessness. A child has nothing to offer – no talent, no money, no knowledge or wisdom. A child is all burden, all need. In this way, a child is the exact opposite of the man we will see next week: the rich young ruler. He had all the riches of the world, and yet he could not earn heaven. A child, on the other hand, has nothing to bring. He simply receives the blessing of Jesus. So, if you would enter the kingdom, you must come as a child. As the hymn, “Rock of Ages, Cleft for Me”, says, “Nothing in my hands I bring, simply to thy cross I cling.”

So, friend, if you would enter the kingdom of God, you must come with nothing and believe in God for everything. The promise of the Gospel is that, if you will come with your need, Jesus will give you abundant, everlasting life.

Brothers and sisters, may we have the same values as Christ – loving the lowly and despised, receiving those who have nothing to bring but burden. This is the way of the kingdom.

Monday, June 9, 2025

Marriage in the Kingdom


This morning, we continue in a section of the Gospel of Mark dealing with the morality of the kingdom. We come to the question of relationships in the kingdom, or, if you want to think of it more broadly, how the kingdom views commitment and covenant. We understand this by looking at the most important commitment outside of our faith in Christ, and that is the covenant of marriage. To see that, let’s read Mark 10:1-12. From this text, see the Accommodation of the Law, the Authentic Meaning of Marriage, and the Adultery of Divorce.

First, from verses 1-5, see the Accommodation of the Law. Mark tells us that Jesus begins his final journey to Jerusalem. As he is traveling, he takes every opportunity to teach, and the Pharisees take every opportunity to challenge him. On one occasion, they decide to challenge him with a roiling theological and political controversy of the day by asking him, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” This is intended to be a trap, and it is controversial for two reasons. First, there is the issue of Herod Antipas and his affair with his brother’s wife, Herodias. While Antipas had legally annulled his brother’s marriage, there was great debate over whether it was legitimate. So, if Jesus answers this question, it puts him in political peril. He could end up like John the Baptist: beheaded at the request of Herodias. It is also controversial because of the hot debate among Jewish scholars over the interpretation of one verse in the book of Deuteronomy. So, when Jesus asks them, “What did Moses command you”, they answer with a paraphrase of Deut. 24:1, “Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of divorce.” But, the issue isn’t as simple as that. Deut. 24:1 actually says, “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, [he may write a certificate of divorce.]” The hot debate stirred around the phrase “some indecency in her.” In Jesus’s day, two schools had developed around how to interpret this phrase. The school of Hillel took a liberal view of the statement. They taught that an indecency could be anything. They gave examples – she burns a meal, speaks too loudly, or the man even finds another woman more attractive. The other view was known as the school of Shammai, and it took a more conservative approach. They understood “indecency” to mean adultery. So, a man could only obtain this certificate of divorce if he could show some serious sexual immorality on the part of his wife.

Jesus immediately rejects their answer on two grounds. First, in verse 5, he says “Moses gave you this law because of your hardness of heart.” This brings up an important side note about how we should understand much of the OT law. After the declaration of the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20, much of the OT law is what we might call case law. It was given to address specific cases and to govern the nation of Israel. In other words, much of the OT Law, and particularly Deut. 24:1, were not given to reveal the heart of God but to restrain the heart of men. God knew that men were sinful and unable to obey the moral law he established in the Ten Commandments. So, he gave laws to restrict the bounds of their sinfulness. For example, there are many laws in the OT about slavery, but all of them are intended to restrict its practice, not broaden it. The same is true of this law on divorce. Jesus says that God established this law through Moses because he knew the wicked hearts of men could not meet the righteous design of marriage.

The second ground for Jesus’s stance leads me to my second point: the authentic meaning of marriage. It’s interesting that Jesus corrects Moses with Moses. When he asked, “What did Moses say”, he had a different statement in mind than the Pharisees did. They went immediately to case law, but Jesus went to the original design of marriage by quoting Genesis 1 and 2. In verse 6, he quotes Genesis 1:27,  “So God created man in his image, in the image of God he created them, male and female he created them.” Recognize that man does not bear the image of God alone, and neither does woman. God created humanity in his image, and we bear that image together, as man and woman. We are made for each other. Men are not made to be rugged individuals who live off the land with their dogs. Women are not made to be independent, self-reliant queens who don’t need a man. Without woman, man is a brute. Without man, woman is a rudderless ship.

He also quotes Genesis 2:24, where, after the creation of woman, God establishes the covenant of marriage by declaring, “A man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” Recognize in this statement that the marriage relationship is the most basic and important relationship on earth. Your relationship to your parents is not as important as your relationship to your spouse. Your relationship with your children is not even as important as your relationship to your spouse. There is no other relationship we have of which the Bible speaks so highly. When we marry, the Bible says that we become one flesh. Our decisions are no longer our own, but we decide based on the good of another. Our money is no longer our own, but we work for the good of another. Our desires are no longer our own, but we yearn for the good of another. And even our bodies are no longer our own, but (as Paul says in 1 Cor 7), we belong to another.

Jesus ends his argument for marriage with a famous statement, in verse 9: “What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.” In answer to the question of the legality of divorce, here is Jesus’s answer: divorce is not a part of God’s good creation nor his intention for humanity. Marriage is a mystical covenant between two people who are made in the image of God that takes priority over every other earthly relationship. Because it was established by God and not by man, it cannot be broken by man. A judge cannot decree, “Your marriage is dissolved.” Now, certainly, they do that, all the time. But God doesn’t care what they say. The bond of marriage goes far deeper than that piece of paper that a judge signs, and it is not so easily broken. You might obtain a quick, easy, no-fault divorce, split everything 50/50, and work out the perfect “co-parenting” arrangement, but to God, none of that matters because he created that bond to start with, and he’s the one who gets to say when it is over.

There is another element to the fact that together, man and woman bear the image of God. In the OT, God frequently refers to his covenant with Israel as a marriage. The whole book of Hosea is a living allegory of this, as God directs Hosea to go marry a prostitute to show what Israel has done with their relationship to the Lord. In Eph. 5:22-32, Paul uses marriage as an analogy for the relationship between Christ and the church. Wives are to honor their husbands like the church honors Christ, and husbands are to love their wives as Christ loves the church. He ends, in verse 31 by quoting this same verse from Genesis 2, “A man shall leave his family and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” Then, he goes on to say, “This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.” So, divorce is not just counter to God’s good design for marriage, but it is also a distortion of God’s covenant with his people. Israel, like a prostitute, was repeatedly unfaithful to the God who delivered them and gave them a promised land. While the Lord chastised them, he never broke his covenant. And Christ is faithful to us, even when we are faithless. Marriage is a picture of that, and when a marriage is broken, it mars the image of God.

Finally, consider the third point: the adultery of divorce. As in our day, divorce was easy and prevalent, especially among the Jews. Because of the Hillel school, many men dismissed their wives over small things. And, worse yet, the man was never at fault. In fact, the law given in Deut. 24:1 was intended to restrict men from arbitrarily abandoning their wives by requiring them to go before an elder and receive a certificate of divorce that he could then give to the woman. The hope was that this would at least cause the man to think through his reasons and maybe even change his mind. It also gave the woman a legal document that showed that she was eligible to marry again. But even after all of that, the man still had no guilt in going on to marry again. Even with the certificate, the woman was ostracized. So, when he is with his disciples, Jesus gets down to brass tacks. In verse 11, he establishes his own law for divorce – if a man divorces his wife and remarries, he is committing adultery against his wife, and the same is true for the woman. Recognize that this is revolutionary because it puts guilt on both the man and woman equally. If a man gets tired of his wife because she can’t cook and goes to the elder for a certificate of divorce, then turns around and marries another woman, he is guilty of adultery, just as much as if the woman had committed adultery.

These statements raise some important questions that I want to address in closing. First, are there ever biblical grounds for divorce? There are two biblical reasons for divorce. In Matthew’s version of this same teaching, from Matthew 19:9, Jesus adds an exception for sexual immorality. The Greek word he uses there is porneia (from which we get the root for our word, “pornography”). Porneia covers a wide range of misbehaviors. It basically covers any type of sexual behavior outside of marriage – from pornography to going to an erotic club to adultery. Sexual immorality is a biblical ground for divorce because it breaks the covenant. The marriage covenant is a “one flesh” union in which man and woman commit their bodies and minds exclusively to each other. This one-flesh union is broken when you bring other flesh into it. In this case, because the covenant has been broken, then the victim of that sin is free to remarry.

Second, 1 Cor. 7:13-15 give us another ground for divorce. There, Paul says that a believing wife should stay with her unbelieving husband as long as he is willing, in hopes that she might lead him to Christ and to keep the children in church. But, he says in verse 15, “If the unbelieving partner separates, let it be so. In such cases the brother or sister is not enslaved.” Here, Paul means that if a wife or husband has an unbelieving spouse who rejects them because they are a Christian, then they are free to remarry. The cause of the divorce, in this case, is essentially persecution – the unbelieving husband hates Christ, and as a result, hates his wife.

There are many other reasons that people divorce, some understandable, some not. Many will raise an objection, asking, “But what about an abusive spouse?” In that case, I would say a few things. 1) Shame on the church for not standing up for the abused and disciplining the abuser. I think there would be far fewer deadbeats and abusers if the church would deal with it as they are called. 2) As in the case of self-defense, a woman (or man) who is being abused has a first responsibility to protect her own life and physical health. If that means separating and even running to get away from abuse, then that is the right thing to do. 3) Most abusers will always be abusive, even though they apologize repeatedly. If that is the case, then it is understandable to pursue divorce. I will say, though, that the person who does this should remain single. I think this because it is not a biblical justification, even though it is understandable.

Finally, what if I’m in a loveless marriage? Understand that there is a difference between affection and love, and there is a difference between emotional attraction and commitment. Affection will come and go. Emotions wax and wane. Love is an action. Love is something you choose. You choose to be with the person you married. You choose to seek his or her good. You choose to support them for better or worse, richer and poorer, sickness and health. You choose these things because you are committed, not firstly to them, but to Christ. Because you love Christ, you love them. Because you are committed to Christ, you are committed to your marriage. And, you will find, that as you serve your spouse and love them in this way, the affections will grow. There will be days when you can tolerate each other, days when you make memories, days when you are excited to see them. There will also be days when you can’t be in the same room, but you stay committed because you love Christ, and through Christ, you love them.

In closing, I want to tell you the story of my two sets of grandparents – Jackie and Lavaughn Skipper, and Reenee and Ben Kilpatrick. Jackie’s parents didn’t like Lavaughn much, so while her parents chaperoned Jackie’s Junior Prom, the two snuck out the back of the school, got in a car, drove to Mississippi and eloped. They had my dad a year later. My Papa drove a log truck, then a long-haul truck for Poole truck line. He was a small engine mechanic and bounced from job to job until he finally started his own construction business when my dad was 15. They never had much until then. In that time, they had four kids. Life went up and down, but they were married for close around 70 years when my Papa passed away.

Ben and Reenee were also 17 when they married. They eloped in Excel, AL after a few months of courtship, and my Granddaddy dropped out of high school and lied about his age so he could enlist to fight in WWII. He was not there for the birth of his first son, Mike, and when he got back some two years later, he went to work running a chain gang for the DOT. He studied at night and got his GED, then taught himself surveying and passed the state surveying exam. They had three children, and they paid for all three to go to college. Ben and Reenee were married for about 70 years as well, when Grandmamma succumbed to Alzheimer’s.

These two couples were very different in their personalities, careers, and interests, and yet the one unblemished truth that they passed on to me is this – Marriage is not a feeling, it is a beautiful commitment that echoes for generations. If I could convince you of anything besides your need for Jesus it would be this: don’t live for yourself, it will only wreck you. Live for others. If you have the opportunity to marry a good Christian that you find endearing, do it. It doesn’t matter your age, your education, your financial standing, marriage is always good if it is under the Lordship of Christ. This world needs more marriages, not less. It needs more children, not fewer. It needs more solid, Christ-loving husbands and wives who are committed to the Lord and to each other. 

Monday, June 2, 2025

Citizenship in the Kingdom


We come again to a set of teachings from Jesus which answer questions about the morality of the kingdom. We saw last week that Jesus does not have the same priorities and preferences as we do. The kingdom of God is a place where, if one would be first, he must be the last of all and the servant of all. Today, we see what true kingdom citizenship looks like. Who are those that are getting into the kingdom, and who will be punished by the kingdom? Let’s read Mark 9:38-50 together. From this text, see three points: the Dedicated, the Deceptive, and the Disobedient.

First, from verses 38-41, see the dedicated. While this passage combines various statements of Jesus that may seem to be disconnected, I think they all deal with an essential question: who is accepted and who is excluded from the kingdom? Jesus gives us three types of people in these verses. The first type of person is one who is accepted by God – the one who is dedicated to the name of Jesus. Mark records, in verse 38, that John comes to Jesus and complains that there is someone casting out demons in his name. He tells Jesus that the disciples did their best to stop him because he was not a part of their group. Unexpectedly, though, Jesus rebukes him and directs his disciples not to stop anyone who is doing such work. To explain his reason, Jesus gives two contrasts and an example. First, he says, “no one can do a mighty work in my name and then turn around and speak evil of me.” This highlights the strong relationship between faith and works. As James says in chapter 2 of his book, “You show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.” It is not that works create faith or earn faith or merit salvation but works prove that faith exists. As Martin Luther said, “We are saved by faith alone, but we are not saved by faith that is alone.”  This also highlights the importance of fruitful faith. The New Testament repeatedly warns us to watch out for false teachers who say the right things, but who do not bear the fruit of righteousness. As Jesus warned in Matt. 12:33, “you will know a tree by its fruit.”  It is easy enough to talk a good game about the Gospel. You can talk about the good Lord, invoke the name of Jesus, and speak well of the church, but if your actions do not align with what you say, then you do not have true faith. So, in this contrast, Jesus shows that, when a person’s works testify to his faith in Jesus, we should be willing to welcome and support him, even if he is not part of our fellowship. This highlights the importance of a willingness to work with other believers, even when they are not of our denomination. While we might have disagreements with Presbyterians and Methodists and even Catholics, we can still find common ground in the name of Jesus and do work together that benefits the kingdom of God.

Second, Jesus says, “if he is not against us, he is for us.” At face value, this seems like a really low standard. So, all I have to do is just not say anything bad about Jesus?  Of course, what Jesus means here is a question of allegiance. Are you for Jesus, or are you for the enemy? Is your life ordered in a way that seeks the glory of God, or are you pursuing your own glory and serving the will of Satan. If you deny yourself and the ways of this world, then you are for Christ.

Lastly, he gives an example: “Whoever gives you a cup of water because you belong to Christ will not lose his reward.” There are several things that need to be said about this example. First, this statement is often used as a justification for unrestricted welfare. People will argue, “the church is called to give a cup of cold water, so why don’t we have a food pantry and a homeless shelter?” Of course, if you feel called to care for the poor and needy, then do as you are called, but don’t use this passage as your justification. And, besides that, the church should feel no guilt in being judicious in how we give out funds or implement ministries. Notice, this passage does not say, “give a cup of cold water to anyone who asks.” It says, “whoever gives a cup of cold water to you because you belong to Christ.” This type of giving is what I would call “confessional giving”. Jesus is speaking of Christians who help other Christians because they are part of the body of Christ. The overwhelming direction of the NT is that Christians should be diligent to care for other believers. This is the reason that the office of deacon was established in the first place – to care for Christian widows. Paul would say, in Gal. 6:10, “Do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.”

This example also gives us a practical way that our actions serve as a testimony of our faith.  If we provide for the needs of other believers because they are part of the body of Christ, that act of love testifies to the work of the Spirit in our lives. Why else would we care for people we would otherwise not know? It is not natural to care for others, outside of our family and close friends. And yet, Christians do it all the time. Why? We do it because the love of Jesus motivates us.

Now to my second point: the deceptive. We’ve seen the kind of people who are citizens of the kingdom, so now we turn to two types of people who are rejected by the kingdom. First, in verse 42, we have those who are deceptive. Jesus warns that there will be those who are not for him, who speak evil of him, and who do not give a cup of cold water to believers but instead deceive and persecute them. There are those who especially look for the weak and vulnerable believers, the poor and doubtful, and they manipulate and deceive them to pull them away into sin and unbelief. For these false teachers, Jesus says that it would be better to have a millstone tied around your neck and be thrown into the sea. The millstone Jesus refers to here was a giant round stone used to grind wheat into flour. It would have weighed hundreds of pounds and was turned by a donkey. Jesus despises deception and heresy with a violent rage, but so often, we toy with it. There are many so-called prophets in the world – on TBN and Christian radio – that we tolerate. Maybe we even leave them own in the background while we get ready for church. Even worse, there are local charlatans we know who teach a false Gospel, and yet we invite them to speak at our clubs or pray at our sporting events, we befriend them and even recommend them. Understand, the judgment waiting for these liars is worse than being brutally drowned in the sea.

Finally consider the last type of person who is not accepted in the kingdom: the disobedient. In verses 43-48, Jesus uses harsh language to warn against having a careless attitude towards sin. To get what he means, we need to understand an important literary device: the hyperbole. Hyperbole is an exaggerated statement that is intended to drive home the severity of a subject or the stark contrast between two sides of an issue. For example, this past week we’ve had our fair share of rain. At several points, I’ve looked out the window and said, “It’s a monsoon out there.” Did we ever have a monsoon? Well, no. But, saying that communicated the severity of the rain. No one I said that to ran to find shelter from an impending flood. They knew exactly what I meant.

So, when Jesus says that it is better to cut off your hand or foot or pluck out your eye than to risk judgment in hell, he is not saying that we should literally do that. Rather, he is giving us a hyperbole to show how serious sin is. The older I get, the more I understand why he was so extreme. Just the other night, I told someone that the older I get, the more disgusting sin gets to me. I don’t mean that just in my own life. I mean that, as a pastor, I see so many lives that are destroyed by sin. I see so many people who are so self-absorbed that they will walk straight through the gates of hell without ever looking up. I see so many marriages that are destroyed, so many children that are harmed, so many communities that are corrupted because men and women do not realize how terrible sin is. So, understand what Jesus means. Sin is not a toy to be played with. It is not an entertainment to pursue. It is not a high to ride. Sin is a one-way ticket to Hell. It is so serious, that it would be better to physically maim yourself than to risk the consequences of sin.

It is that serious because of where sin leads. Sin leads to eternal judgment. Now, you might think that Hell isn’t all that serious. You might have even been deceived by some Instagram scholar into believing that the Bible doesn’t really teach in an eternal fiery torment in Hell. So, let me set the record straight. Three times, Jesus uses the Greek word, “Gehenna” (which we translate as “hell”) to describe a place of punishment for sin. Gehenna is both a real place and an analogy of what the eternal judgment will be. Gehenna was a deep ravine just outside the city of Jerusalem. In ancient Israel, it was a place devoted to child sacrifices to Moloch. The pagan priests built a giant statue of an alligator with its mouth open. At the bottom of the statue, they would light a fire, and the fire would roar up through the body and throat of that idol. The priest would take a child up the cliff to the mouth of this statue and throw him into the fire alive to feed Moloch. Thankfully, in the days of Josiah, this site was destroyed and defiled by turning it into the sewage deposit for Jerusalem. In Jesus’s day, Gehena was a massive heap of composting waste that smoked and flamed all the time.

But, that is not all that Gehenna was. The Jews of Jesus’s day saw it as an analogy for what the eternal judgment of the wicked must look like. So, 1 Enoch 103:8 says, “Woe to you, you sinners, when you die in your sin… into darkness and chains and a burning flame.”  It was widely accepted among the Jews that there would be a final judgment, after which the righteous would go to an eternal reward and the wicked to eternal punishment. Jesus confirms this belief throughout his ministry. He taught more about Hell than he did about Heaven, and he often connected it with fire and destruction. In Matt. 10:28, he says “fear the one who can destroy both body and soul in hell.” In Matt. 25:46, he says, “[the wicked] will go away into eternal punishment.” The early church fathers also believed that Hell was a place of eternal punishment for the wicked. The second century church father, Tertullian, said, “The guilty will be raised for the purpose of being punished; and such punishment will be without end, because the guilt will be without end.”

Sin should be despised because Hell is terrible. It will be a pain like an unquenchable fire. It will be a terrible darkness and void. And that punishment will be never-ending. This place is reserved for those who are willfully and continually disobedient to God. It is reserved for those who are unrepentant and faithless and fruitless and deceptive. So, friend, repent! Turn from your sin. Wake up from your self-absorbed blindness. Turn to Christ in repentance and faith and find salvation in him.

Tuesday, May 27, 2025

Greatness in the Kingdom


This morning we come to a section of the Gospel of Mark in which Jesus will lay out various teachings on Kingdom morality. If the kingdom of God is coming into the world through the Messiah, Jesus, what sort of kingdom is it? What are its priorities and its laws? Who are its rulers? Who does it preference and who does it reject? Jesus begins to answer all of those questions with our passage from Mark 9:30-37. From this passage, see two points: Kingdom Priority, and Kingdom Preference.

First, from verses 30-35, see the kingdom priority. For the third time, Jesus reminds his disciples of the plan of God – that he must face the cross and on the third day, rise again. And, for the third time, the disciples just don’t get it. Mark notes, in verse 32, that they are even afraid to ask him what he means. Honestly, I think they should be afraid. After all, this is something he continues to remind them of, and they just aren’t picking it up. As a teacher, I’d start to get irritated, too! But, they cannot hide their dullness. Mark goes on, in verse 33, to tell us of a conversation they had on the way to Capernaum. I can imagine Jesus leading the way down the path to Capernaum, and his disciples linger behind, thinking they are just out of earshot, so that they might bicker over who Jesus likes the most. Whether Jesus could actually hear them or divinely knew of their conversation, I can’t say. But, at some point, he takes a break from the journey for a teaching moment. He sits them down and begins to teach, saying, “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and a servant of all.” This statement is obviously aimed at their argument. Mark tells us that they were ashamed to answer him when he asked what they’d been arguing about because they had been fighting over who was the greatest. Now, Jesus goes directly at that issue by giving them the priority of the kingdom. To understand the teaching, we need to get a grasp on what is meant by “greatest” and “first.” These terms aren’t measures of quantity or position, as in the one who is the most powerful or the largest or the first in line. Rather, both words suggest the priority of authority. The disciples are debating who will be the first ruler or the greatest ruler in the Messiah’s kingdom. I’m sure they had their guesses as to who it would be. Perhaps it would be Judas. After all, he was trusted with the money. Maybe it will be Peter. Jesus certainly praised him for his confession. Could it be John? You could always find John close to Jesus’s side. These would not be unreasonable assumptions, at least by worldly standards. We measure greatness and priority based on these very things. We admire the shrewd businessman, the entrepreneur, the outspoken politician who is quick to offer his opinion, and the sympathetic leader. We give men and women authority based on these measures.

But, Jesus turns all of that on its head by saying, “if you would be first, you must be the last and a servant.” There are three aspects of this statement that we should not miss. First, the statement implies a willful decision on the part of the one who would be first in the kingdom. Jesus does not say (at least in this teaching) that the last are inherently first or that servants are rulers in the kingdom. He says, “IF anyone would be first…” In other words, if you want to be first in the kingdom, the way to that end is through lowly servanthood. The service God requires is a choice, not a circumstance. Certainly, there have been many who were born servants or slaves, but even they are not automatically the first in the kingdom because of it. You may be the despised child in the family, and because of that, you might think, “well, at least I will be the first in heaven because of it.” This is not what Jesus means. Rather, we are to choose service out of love for our brothers and sisters in Christ, and out of a desire to honor God. As Rom. 12:10-11 says, “Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor… serve the Lord.” 

Second, being “last” and a “servant” are not positions but attitudes of the heart that are reflected in our actions. An employee can be a domineering, narcissistic ruler to his co-workers. He can despise his employer while still being obedient. On the other hand, a millionaire business owner can be a humble man or woman who cares for his employees and customers in a way that serves their best interests.

Third, we should take on this attitude, because this was the attitude of Christ. It is striking (and probably a great deal of a disappointment to Jesus), that the disciples were arguing about who would be the first in the kingdom immediately after he told them for a third time that he would go to the cross. He’d already told them that, if they were to follow him, they should take up their cross and deny themselves. Yet, here they are, looking for greatness. Jesus is not calling them to something he would not do himself. As he would tell them, after washing their feet in John 13, “I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you.” Paul would also give the example of Christ for us to follow in our service to others. In Phil. 2:5 he says, “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not consider equality with God a thing to hold on to, but made himself nothing, taking on the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of man, he became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” Even in his glorified state at the right hand of God, he is still known by his role as our servant. Rev. 2:8 says that he is “the first and the last, who died and came to life.” I’ve always read that statement to point to his eternal nature, but the Greek words for “first” and “last” there are the same words used in Mark 9. And, the statement connects “first” and “last” to his death and life. In other words, in Heaven, Jesus is first because he was last. He is the firstborn of all creation because he endured the cross and despised its shame.

Now, consider my second point: Kingdom preference. After making this striking statement, Jesus decides to give an object lesson by taking one of the children in their group and sitting him in his lap. Jesus cradles the child, and then he says, “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me.” Now, we tend to read our modern view of children into this. Americans have been heavily influenced by the Romantic movement, which idealized childhood. According to the 19th century Romantics, children are innocent and treasured. This was not so in first century Israel. To the Jews, children were neither innocent nor valuable. The Jewish philosopher, Philo, described children as irrational and incomplete. Rabbis taught that children were only useful insofar as they could be trained for adulthood. A 2nd century BC rabbinical writing known as the Ben Sira describes a parent’s responsibility over his children in this way, “Do not laugh with him, lest you have sorrow with him, and in the end you will gnash your teeth. Give him no authority in his youth, and do not ignore his errors. Bow down his neck in his youth, and beat his sides while he is young, lest he become stubborn and disobey you, and you have sorrow of soul from him. Discipline your son and take pains with him, that you may not be offended by his shamelessness.” Now, certainly, I believe in disciplining children, but not for the reasons the Ben Sira gives. Not once does it say that you should discipline a child for his good, or so that he might learn to trust the Lord. Every reason given is so that the parents might be benefited by it. Parents were not to show affection or friendship, only discipline and expectation.

This is why what Jesus did would have been a shock or scandal to his disciples. In the midst of this discussion over greatness – a very serious subject – Jesus draws in a little child and sits him in his lap. This child is a stand-in for anyone who is lowly and despised, for the oppressed and outcast. He does this to answer the question, “How exactly do I live as one who is last and a servant?” Here is how: you receive the one society despises. You serve little children cookies at VBS with a heart that seeks their good. You help build a ramp for a neighbor. You prepare a dish for a friend who has lost a loved one. You listen to an employee’s family struggles and pray with him. You treat every man, not based on his skin color, and not even based on the content of his character, but based on the fact that he are made in the image of God. When you do so, Jesus says that you are not only receiving that person, but you are also receiving him. And, if you receive him, then you also receive the Father.