Latest / Reformed Thinking / Who Is Truly Great? Jesus Redefines Glory and Power (Mark 10:32–52)

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Who Is Truly Great? Jesus Redefines Glory and Power (Mark 10:32–52) · Reformed Thinking

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Imagine the chief executive officer of your company just
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gathers the entire staff for this massive emergency meeting.
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OK, He stands at the front of the room, looks everyone right
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in the eye, and announces that the firm is facing a hostile
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takeover. Oh wow.
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Right. And not only that, but he
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reveals he is going to be personally indicted, ruined and
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sent to federal prisons so that the rest of the employees can
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keep their pensions. That is heavy.
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It is. The room just falls dead silent,
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and then the Vice President of sales raises his hand and asks
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you. So does this mean I get the
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corner office? Oh.
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My goodness, that's terrible. I know, but that level of sheer,
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baffling selfishness is precisely what we see in the
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Gospel of Mark. Welcome to reform thinking.
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Glad to be here for this one. Yeah, we are jumping right into
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a brand new deep dive today, examining A staggering piece of
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scholarly work by John K Goodrich is titled Rule of the
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Congregation and Mark 10.3252 Glory and Greatness in
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Eschatological Israel. Which is quite a mouthful, but
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the content is incredible. It really is.
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We are looking at a moment where Jesus is predicting his own
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brutal, agonizing death and his closest followers, the.
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Guys who have been with him through everything, yeah.
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They respond by arguing about who gets the best Thrones in
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heaven. For years I read that text and
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assumed it was just, you know, spontaneous human pride.
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Just guys being arrogant. Right.
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Just a momentary lapse in judgement.
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But this research shows their ambition was heavily calculated.
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It was driven by the intense religious expectations of their
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day. Yeah, we are basically looking
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at a collision between two totally incompatible visions of
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reality. On one side you have these man
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made merit based religious systems and these systems always
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without fail result in a hierarchy of human glory.
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You. Go.
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They have to, right? Precisely, they categorize
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people based on what they bring to the table, their pedigree,
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their knowledge, their, their physical capabilities even.
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But on the other side, we have Christ's grace based Kingdom,
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which operates on an entirely different economy.
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In his Kingdom, the king does not demand a pristine religious
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resume. Rather he lays down his life for
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his people. And this distinction is really
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the bedrock of Reformed theology.
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Absolutely, because we hold to the Westminster Confession.
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Yes, meaning we believe humans bring nothing to their own
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salvation except the sin that makes it necessary.
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That's such a good way to put it.
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But the religious culture surrounding the disciples in the
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1st century was built on the precise opposite premise.
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It was all about what you could earn.
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Yeah, to understand why James and John make such an audacious
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request for the chief seats, we really have to analyze the
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theological air they were breathing.
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Right, but before we analyze their specific request, we have
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to establish the architectural layout of Mark's Gospel.
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Because context dictates meaning.
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It does always. The events we are analyzing
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happen in what scholars call the middle block of Mark that spans
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from chapter 8, verse 22 all the way through the end of chapter
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10. And that's a very specific
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period. Yet this entire section tracks
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Christ's time on the road toward Jerusalem.
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He is on the move from Caesarea Philippi up in the north,
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heading South toward Judea, offering instruction on the way
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of discipleship. And the literary structure here
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is incredibly deliberate. It really is.
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Mark bookends this entire travel narrative with two specific
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healings of blind men. Right, which is not a
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coincidence. Definitely not.
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He starts in chapter 8 with a man at Bethsaida, and that
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healing is gradual. Jesus spits on the man's eyes,
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lays hands on him, and the man says he sees people but they
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look like trees walking around. He's not seeing clearly yet.
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Right. Jesus has to touch him a second
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time to fully restore his sight. Then, at the very end of chapter
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10, the block closes with the healing of Bartimaeus, which is
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immediate and very public. Throwing off the cloak and
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everything, yeah. It seems obvious that the
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physical blindness of these men is meant to highlight the
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worsening spiritual blindness of the disciples.
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Oh, absolutely. The structure operates as this
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theological mirror. Explain.
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That a bit more. Well, inside those two bookends
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of physical healing, Mark constructs 3 distinct narrative
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cycles, and in each of these three cycles, the precise same
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sequence occurs. First, Jesus plainly predicts
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his passion. He spells it out.
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He states unequivocally that he will suffer, be rejected by the
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elders and chief priests, be killed and rise again after
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three days. No parables, just straight back.
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Exactly. Then second, the disciples
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completely fail to grasp the meeting.
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They react with fear or denial or blatant ambition.
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Like they're not even listening to the killed.
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Part Right and 3rd Jesus responds to their failure by
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issuing A renewed call regarding the cost of following him.
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He corrects their misunderstanding.
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OK, so walk us through those 3 cycles.
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Sure. So in chapter 8, after the first
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prediction, Peter actually takes Jesus aside and rebukes him.
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Which is insane. I know.
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Prompting Jesus to say get behind me, Satan.
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Ouch. Yeah.
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Then in Chapter 9, after the second prediction, Jesus catches
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the disciples arguing on the road about which of them is the
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greatest. While he's talking about dying.
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I mean, the disconnect is wild. And by the time we reach chapter
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10, which is the climax of this third cycle, Jesus provides the
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most explicit detail yet, right? He tells them that he will be
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handed over to the Gentiles, mocked, spit upon, and flogged.
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And the immediate response from James and John is to ask for a
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promotion. It goes right back to that CEO
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analogy. You're going to prison.
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Great. Can I have your office?
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That's. Precisely what they're doing.
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It's like the disciples are basically tone deaf to the
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concept of a suffering Messiah. They are, they hear, going to
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Jerusalem, and their minds immediately jump to military
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conquest and political Thrones. They're anticipating A
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conquering king who will overthrow Roman occupation.
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Right, the typical messianic expectation of the day.
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But goes beyond just wanting to beat the Romans, right?
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Their obsession with rank, seating arrangements and who
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gets to be the greatest reveals a highly structured view of the
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end times. Oh, it was extremely structured.
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This didn't come out of nowhere. The blueprint for this kind of
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religious ladder climbing was quite literally written down in
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the desert decades earlier. Yeah, this is where the
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historical context is so vital. Right.
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Goodrich's research points us to the Dead Sea Scrolls,
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specifically to the writings of the Essenes at Qumran, and this
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shows us the exact blueprint of human merit that dominated the
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religious thinking of that era. The Qumran community provides
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the perfect historical control group for understanding 1st
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century Jewish expectations. Because they were so strict.
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Yeah, they were this isolated sect living in the desert near
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the Dead Sea, intensely focused on purity and preparation for
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the end time. Very intense group of guys.
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Extremely and among the scrolls discovered in Cave 4, dating
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back to before 75 BC, is a document known as the Rule of
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the Congregation. Or the messianic rule, right?
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Right catalogued as one QSA, it is a short text consisting of
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just two columns and 52 lines of Hebrew.
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So not very long at all. No, it was actually physically
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attached to a much larger document called the Rule of the
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Community. But this text is a literal,
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functional blueprint for the congregation of Israel in the
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end of days. It dictates how God's people are
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supposed to organize themselves when the Messiah arrives.
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And it's not a grace based organization.
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Not at all. Their vision of the Kingdom was
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hyper stratified, based entirely on age, physical ability, and
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religious competency. I am looking at the translation
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of 1 QSA here and the age brackets are incredibly rigid.
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Walk us through them. Well, from youth boys are
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instructed in a specific community text called the Book
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of Hagu. They learn the statutes of the
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covenant. So they start them young.
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Very young, and then when a young man reaches 20, he hits
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his first major milestone. OK, what happens at 20?
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He is considered an adult who knows good from evil.
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He is permitted to marry and he registers as a citizen with his
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tribal clan. But he doesn't have much
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authority yet, does he? No.
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He is still at the bottom of the ladder regarding community
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influence, but five years later, at 25, he is allowed to enter
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the community militia and he performs menial labor for the
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congregation. Got to pay his dues.
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Exactly. But the real shift happens at
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age 30, according to The Scroll. When a man turns 30, he is
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finally permitted to draw near to decide legal cases and
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judgements. He gets actual authority, right?
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You can take a firm stand among the heads of the thousands of
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Israel. He becomes eligible to be a
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ruler of hundreds, 50s or 10s. You can act as a judge and a
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military officer. That is a very structured ladder
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to climb. It is.
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But hold on. If we are looking at this
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objectively, isn't it good to strive for maturity?
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Sure. I mean, the New Testament
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frequently tells believers to grow up in their faith to move
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from milk to solid food. We have qualifications for
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elders in the Pastoral epistles that require maturity and proven
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character. That's true.
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So where is the line between healthy discipleship and
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Qumran's toxic meritocracy? Why is this specific age bracket
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system so antithetical to the Gospel?
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That is a great question. The difference lies in the
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mechanism of justification and standing before God.
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OK, break that down. Well, the Pastoral Epistles
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require character for leadership, right?
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Right. But they never suggest that your
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position in the church earns you a higher degree of salvation or
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a closer proximity to God's grace.
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I see at Qumran your rank was your righteousness.
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The document explicitly states that assignments were given
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according to a man's understanding, the perfection of
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his way, and his physical ability.
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The perfection of his way. Yeah, they weighed your piety
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and your knowledge, and that determined your eschatological
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worth. So it's like, think of it like a
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modern credit score system. OK, I like that.
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In a credit system, every financial mistake Dings your
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score and every timely payment raises it right.
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If your score is high enough, you qualify for the best
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mortgage rates. If it drops, you were denied.
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That is a spot on analogy. The Quman community basically
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treated the coming Kingdom of God like a cosmic mortgage
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application. Wow.
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If you studied the book of Hagu perfectly, if you performed your
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militia duties, Florida State, your spiritual credit score went
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up. Earning you a prime seed at the
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Messiah's table. Precisely.
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That credit score analogy perfectly illustrates the
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mechanics of works righteousness.
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It does. And if you build a system based
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entirely on earning your keep, you inevitably have to deal with
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the people who default. Because not everyone is going to
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have a perfect score. Right.
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A system of pure merit naturally creates a system of brutal
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exclusion. You cannot have an elite inner
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circle of high achievers without shutting the door on the people
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who fail to measure up. And Qumran was very clear about
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shutting that door. The exclusion criteria laid out
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in the Rule of the Congregation are just devastating.
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Let's hear them. The text states that anyone
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crippled in the legs or hands, anyone lame, blind, deaf or dumb
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is strictly forbidden from participating in the main
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meetings of the congregation. They are completely barred from
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the council of the community, yes.
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If someone with these physical ailments has something to say,
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they cannot speak for themselves.
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They have to participate through intermediaries.
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Because the logic was that bodily perfection was tied to
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spiritual purity. Which is such a cruel way to
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view suffering. It really is.
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If your physical body was broken, your spiritual credit
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score was permanently bankrupt, you were kept on the outside.
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You literally couldn't get in the room.
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And the severity of that exclusion is highlighted during
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the protocol for the eschatological banquet.
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The great feast of the Council. Right.
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This was not just a community dinner, it was the anticipated
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victory meal at the end of the age, and the seating chart was a
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strict theological hierarchy. They mapped the whole thing out.
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Oh yeah, the scroll dictates precisely who enters the dining
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area and in what order. So who goes first?
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The priest enters first, acting as the head of all the
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Congregation of Israel. He is followed by his
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subordinate priests. OK, all the religious guys.
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Then, after the religious elite are seated, the Messiah of
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Israel, Israel is allowed to enter.
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Wait after. Yes.
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Finally, the remaining laity enter.
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The phrase repeated throughout the text is that they sit and
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partake of the meal, each according to His glory.
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So your glory was your rank. It was your proven religious
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worth. When the bread and the new wine
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are blessed, the priest reaches out his hand first.
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What? Only after the priest takes his
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portion does the Messiah stretch out his hands to the bread.
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Wait, hold on. If the priest takes the bread
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first, they aren't just predicting the arrival of the
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Messiah, they are structurally subordinating him to their own
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bureaucracy. You caught that.
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They have built a religion where they literally outrank God's
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chosen deliverer. That is the ironic priesthood
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preserving its own administrative control, yes.
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They are writing a script for the end of the world where they
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cast themselves in the starring roles, sitting at the very top
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of the pyramid. It's astounding, isn't?
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It that exposes the absolute arrogance of human merit.
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I mean, it is a system built by the healthy and the elite,
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designed to protect the healthy and the elite while keeping the
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broken completely out of sight. It perfectly illustrates the
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theology of human achievement in the ancient Jewish mind,
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specifically among these rigid sects, the coming Kingdom was
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entirely about securing high social rank.
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Status was everything. Right.
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The priests at Qumran believed their spiritual authority
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superseded the royal authority of the Davidic Messiah.
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And if we carry that backdrop into Mark 10, the behavior of
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the disciples becomes entirely legible.
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OK, let's look at Mark 10 again. Jesus has just told them he is
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going to be mocked, spat on, flogged and killed.
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Immediately James and John approach him and say, Teacher,
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we want you to do for us whatever we ask.
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Which is such an arrogant way to start a sentence.
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It is, and their specific request is Let one of us sit at
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your right and the other at your left, in your glory.
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They are operating on the Qumran frequency, yes.
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They are trying to lock down the highest possible eschatological
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Thrones. They are looking for the seats
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of maximum authority right next to the monarch.
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Because they are anticipating the fulfillment of Old Testament
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prophecies. Like Daniel 7.
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Exactly where the sovereignty and greatness of all the
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kingdoms under Heaven are handed over to the holy people of the
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Most High. So James and John believe this
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geopolitical Kingdom is imminent.
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They assume that when Jesus arrives in Jerusalem, he is
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going to overthrow the Romans, establish his throne and start
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handing out positions. Rulers of thousands, Rulers of
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hundreds, right? They want to ensure that when
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the seating chart is finalized, they are placed at the absolute
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top, each according to His glory.
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They want to outrank Peter, Andrew and the rest of the 12.
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It's a blatant power grab. Well, authority grab.
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And Jesus responds to this raw political ambition by pointing
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them to the absolute sovereignty of the Father.
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What does he say to them? He tells them to sit at my right
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or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for
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whom they have been prepared. Prepared.
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Yeah, the Greek word used for prepared indicates a completed
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action in the past with ongoing results.
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Oh, that's fascinating. Jesus is telling James and John
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that the Kingdom of heaven does not operate like a worldly Royal
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Court where you can secure a prime position by lobbying the
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king for a favor. You can you just schmooze your
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way to the top. No, the seating chart of the
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Kingdom was ordained from before the foundation of the world by
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the Father's eternal decree. Someone holding to the
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Westminster Confession. That statement from Jesus is a
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massive theological anchor. It really grounds the whole
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system of belief. It does.
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The Confession teaches that God from all eternity did by the
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most wise and holy counsel of His own will, freely and
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unchangeably ordained whatsoever comes to pass.
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Beautifully stated. Meaning human maneuvering cannot
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force God's hand right? You cannot network your way into
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the Kingdom of heaven. No you cannot.
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And since the seats are already prepared by the Father, Jesus
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shifts the focus away from their obsession with future glory and
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redirects their attention to what they will actually
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experience on earth. Which is going to be very
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different from what they expect, yeah.
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He asks them a question that strikes right at the heart of
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their ambition. He says can you drink the cup I
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drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?
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And we know from the Old Testament prophets like Isaiah
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and Jeremiah that the cup is consistently used as a symbol of
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God's wrath. It is the cup of judgement.
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Yes, yeah, Similarly, the baptism Jesus references being
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overwhelmed by floodwaters is a metaphor for immense life
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threatening suffering. So he's not talking about water
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baptism here. No, the Knowledge reader
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understands Jesus is referring to the cross.
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He is asking them if they are ready to endure the crushing
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weight of divine wrath and catastrophic suffering.
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And their response is we can. So quick, just we.
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Can Why are they so quick to agree to that?
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If we assume James and John have a basic understanding of Hebrew
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scriptures, they know the cup in the floodwaters imply severe
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trial, right? Do they view this suffering as
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just another merit badge? Are they thinking of this cup as
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a military trial, a rite of passage they need to endure to
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finalize their Qumran style resume and officially outrank
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Peter? That is highly likely.
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They view the suffering Jesus mentions not as an atoning
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sacrifice, but as a final, grueling test of loyalty before
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the crowns are handed out. Like boot camp?
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Yeah, they're willing to endure our temporary military struggle
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if it guarantees them eternal political dominance.
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They say we can because they are supremely confident in their own
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merit. Which is just so arrogant.
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But notice Jesus does not condemn their desire to be near
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him in the Kingdom. He doesn't.
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No, he does not scold them for wanting the seats.
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Instead, he exposes their total ignorance regarding the nature
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of the kingdom's economy. He tells them you will drink the
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cup I drink and be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with.
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Basically saying you will suffer but not the way you think.
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Right, and history verifies this.
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James was the first apostle, martyred, executed by the sword
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of Herod Agrippa and John endured decades of persecution
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and exile on Patmos. They were predestined to undergo
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this suffering, but their. Motivation in that moment.
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Entirely competitive, they are volunteering for hardship solely
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to secure a higher rank than their peers.
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That competitive drive immediately infects the rest of
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the group. Of course it does.
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The text says that when the 10 heard about it, they became
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indignant with James and John. They were so mad.
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And they were not angry because their theological sensibilities
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were offended by the sons of Zebedee.
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No. No, they were furious because
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James and John tried to bypass them in the hierarchy.
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They wanted those prime seats for themselves.
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Exactly. The entire Apostolic band is
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operating on a merit based, status seeking mindset.
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Jesus has to gather all 12 of them together to completely
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overhaul their definition of greatness.
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He really has to tear down their whole framework.
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He does. He contrasts 2 entirely distinct
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models of leadership. He points to the secular
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geopolitical reality they live under every day.
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He says you know that those who are regarded as rulers of the
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Gentiles lorded over them and their high officials exercise
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authority over them. Because the model of the Gentile
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rulers was built entirely on domination and extraction.
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Right, the Romans. The Roman Empire operated on a
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strict hierarchy where those at the top extracted wealth, labor
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and compliance from those beneath them.
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They just took whatever they wanted, yeah.
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The high officials acted tyrannically.
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The worldly definition of greatness was measured by how
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many people you could force to minister to your needs.
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It was all about how many attendance you had.
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Precisely. But Jesus shatters that
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paradigm. He looks at his disciples and
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says, not so with you. Not so with you.
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He issues a command that reverses everything they have
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learned from their culture. He states whoever wants to
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become great among you must be your attendant and whoever wants
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to be first must be Slayer of all.
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That word, using the concept of a bondsman or a slave in that
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culture, was incredibly disruptive.
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It was. Shocking.
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The bondsman had no rights, no glory, no rank.
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They existed entirely to lay down their lives for the benefit
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of others, right? Jesus takes the absolute bottom
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rung of the societal ladder and makes it the pinnacle of his
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Kingdom. It's the great reversal.
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And he doesn't offer this as abstract moral advice.
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He points to himself as the ultimate proof of concept.
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He says in market and 10.45 For even the Son of Man did not come
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to be waited upon, but to lay down his life as a ransom for
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many. And that single verse, I mean,
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it contains the mechanics of substitutionary atonement.
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Let's break that down because that is huge.
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It is the concept of the ransom highlights 2 specific reform
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doctrines. Christ's act of obedience, in
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particular redemption. A ransom is a literal price paid
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to release captives. He did not come to provide a
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moral example. Right.
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It wasn't just to show us how to be nice, no.
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He came to execute a transaction.
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He paid the price with his own life.
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We mentioned earlier that the 30 year old Qumran member was
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trying to fulfill the law perfectly to earn his seat.
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Working on that spiritual credit score.
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Exactly. But the doctrine of active
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obedience teaches that Christ actually did fulfill the law
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perfectly on behalf of his people.
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He is the one who secured the perfect credit score, yes.
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And he imputes that righteousness to us.
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That is incredible. And then the Doctor of
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Particular Redemption means he laid down his life to secure the
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release of a specific people, the many he references.
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The ones the father prepared the seeds for.
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Yes. When you understand the
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mechanics of that ransom, it completely dismantles the Qumran
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mindset. There's nothing left of it.
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You cannot bring your own merit to a king who had to bleed to
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buy you back. It makes no sense.
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If you could earn your seat through your own physical
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perfection and theological knowledge, the ransom would be
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entirely unnecessary. Christ would have died for
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nothing, right? Jesus is teaching his disciples
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that true Kingdom greatness is found in recognizing your own
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absolute spiritual bankruptcy, relying entirely on His ransom,
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and then reflecting that sacrificial love by acting as an
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intended to your brothers and sisters.
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Beautifully said, and Mark is such a brilliant narrator
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because he does not leave this massive theological overhaul as
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an abstract lecture on the road. No, he grounds it immediately.
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He grounds it in a historical event that serves as a living
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demonstration of everything Jesus just taught.
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This brings us to the final scene of the middle block of the
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Gospel. Which is just so perfectly
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placed. Jesus and his disciples are
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walking the road toward Jerusalem, and they pass through
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Jericho. OK.
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And sitting by the roadside is a blind beggar named Bartimaeus.
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OK, stop right there. Think back to the Dead Sea
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Scrolls and the rule of the congregation that we talked
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about. The exclusion list.
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Yes, we read the exclusion list. The blind, the crippled, the
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broken were specifically and explicitly banned from the inner
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circle of the eschatological community.
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They couldn't even get close. They were forbidden from drawing
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near to the Council. Bartimaeus is the exact
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demographic that the religious elite of Qumran permanently
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disqualified. He is the definition of an
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outcast to them. In a merit based system,
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Bartimaeus is a complete castaway.
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His physical blindness was viewed as a mark of spiritual
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deficiency. A zero credit score.
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Exactly. If he had approached the
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meetings of the congregation, he would have been banished.
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But the contrast here is so vivid, the Qumran priests would
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have told Bartimaeus to use an intermediary and stay far away
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from the holy feast. Don't ruin our purity.
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Right. But Jesus, the true son of
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David, hears this blind beggar crying out for mercy and.
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What does he do? Jesus does not ignore him.
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He stops on the road. The King of the Universe halts
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his March toward the cross to minister to a blind beggar
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sitting in the dirt. I love that Jesus calls for him
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and Bartimaeus throws off his cloak, jumps up and comes to
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him. And Jesus asks Bartimaeus the
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the exact same question he asked James and John just a few verses
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earlier. What do you want me to do for
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you? Oh, that's such a great
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parallel. Right.
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James and John asked for Thrones.
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They asked for glory and political dominion.
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Because they thought they earned it.
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But Bartimaeus asked for mercy, he says.
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Rabbi, I want to see. He knows he has nothing to
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offer. And Jesus restores his sight.
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But the crucial detail is what happens next.
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The text says that immediately he received his sight and
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followed Jesus along the road. He becomes a disciple right then
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and there. He becomes a devoted follower,
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walking the path to Jerusalem. Bartimaeus is the living picture
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of true grace wrought discipleship.
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He brings absolutely zero merit to the table.
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None. He has no rank, no status, no
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Book of Hagu to recite. No impressive resume.
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He only has a desperate need for mercy, and the king meets him
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with abundant grace. That healing of Bartimaeus just
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entirely contradicts the merit based hierarchy of Qumran.
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It shatters it. We have examined a massive gulf
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today between 2:00 distinct visions of reality.
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On one side, the rule of the congregation demands purity,
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isolate status, and offers exclusive glory only to those
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who can earn it through human capability.
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Leaving everyone else in the dirt.
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It leaves the broken sitting outside the gates.
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But on the other side, the Gospel of Mark reveals A Messiah
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who achieves greatness by giving his life as a ransom.
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He descends into suffering to pull the outcasts into the fold.
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He becomes the lowest of bondsman so that the spiritually
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bankrupt can be adopted into the family.
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So if you are listening to this, evaluate your own standing
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before God today. That's the real question.
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Are you subconsciously building a Qumran style hierarchy in your
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mind? Oh, it's so easy to do.
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It is. Are you treating your
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sanctification like a spiritual credit score, hoping that your
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church attendance, your theological knowledge, or your
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moral performance will somehow earn you a better seat at the
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table? Are you rely on the perfection
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of your own way? Right.
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Or are you resting entirely with empty hands on the finished work
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of the king who paid the ransom to buy you back?
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That's the difference between life and death.
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If we rely on our own merit, we will find ourselves excluded.
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If we rely on his ransom, we find grace.
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The human heart naturally gravitates toward earning its
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keep. We want to be the ones in
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control. We want to be James and John,
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securing our glory and comparing our resumes to those around us.
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Look at my stats. Exactly.
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But Christ calls us to recognize that we are Bartimaeus, sitting
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on the side of the road with nothing to offer, in desperate
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need of a Savior who stops for us.
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I want to leave you with one final striking thought to Mull
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over our source material notes that James and John asked to be
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placed on Jesus's right and left when he came into his glory.
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They wanted those specific. Seats.
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They wanted the Thrones beside the King in his moment of
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triumph. But think about how Mark
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structures the rest of the story.
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Just a few chapters later, Jesus arise in Jerusalem.
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He is mocked, he is beaten and he is lifted up on a wooden
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cross. The baptism he talked about.
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Yes, that cross was his true moment of Kingdom victory.
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It was a precise moment. The ransom was paid and when he
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was lifted up in his glory, who was placed on his right and his
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left? Oh wow.
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It wasn't James and John. No, it was.
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It was 2 condemned criminals bleeding out beside him.
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It is the ultimate subversion of human ambition and the absolute
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perfect display of God's staggering grace.
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Thank you for walking through this text with us today.
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We'll see you next time.