Dwell in the Word Mark 9:30-37

Dwell on these questions as we look at Mark 9:30-37:

1. How does the first part of this passage, where Jesus foretells his death and resurrection, serve as a backdrop for the disciples' argument about who is the greatest? How does their misunderstanding of Jesus' mission and glory contribute to this debate?

2. What is the significance of Jesus' statement, "If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and a servant of all"? How does this principle challenge the disciples' pursuit of earthly glory and authority? How does Jesus exemplify this servant-heartedness throughout his ministry?

3. In what ways does Jesus use the example of receiving a child to illustrate the concept of servanthood and humility? How does this connect with the larger message of Jesus serving humanity through his life, death, and resurrection? How can believers today apply this principle of humble service in their own lives?

Transcript:

As we arrive in this passage today, I think it is important that we understand that the first part, which seems to be detached, is what informs the second part. There's a reason these two stories are by each other. Jesus is once again foretelling his death and his resurrection. In fact, He says in verse 31, The Son of man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him. And when he was killed, after three days, he will rise. Now, to you and I, that is very clear, very cut and dry here. We understand what this means. But the disciples, again, who are often out in left field here in the Gospel of Mark, they don't understand again. We need to sympathize with them a little bit. We understand what Jesus is saying and really, truly grasp it because we're on this side of the resurrection. For them, they could not fathom that this man who believed, or who they believed, was the Messiah was going to be killed. How can that happen to the Messiah? What does it mean to rise again? What does any of this even really mean?

As we look at this, we see this story, and it's followed by this one about being about who is the greatest. Jesus is asking them about their little traveling conversation. Jesus knows what they were discussing, but he wants them to tell him, obviously. Well, they had argued about who was the greatest. Now, is this something that they really should be talking about? And how does it matter? What difference does it make? We know in some other passages that they're wanting to know who's going to sit at the right-hand of Jesus when he comes into his kingdom, when he takes over, when this Messiah conquers and gets the Romans out of there, they want to know who's going to be seated in his right-hand. This is what they're looking for. They're looking for earthly glory. Again, this helps us to understand the previous part of this passage. They're looking for earthly glory. They're looking for who is the greatest. They're not going to understand a Messiah who suffers and dies and rise again. They're not going to get that because this, well, this, you can see here my finger, this, what we're reading right here, is what they were expecting.

This is what they were wanting. They were wanting earthly glory. But Jesus lets them know here what he is truly all about. If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and a servant of all. And so what more can we possibly understand to be servanthood than the death and resurrection of Jesus for his people? He came to serve us in his life, death and resurrection. And now he is still serving us in his ascension because He's our mediator at the Father's right-hand. Jesus is saying here, Look, if anyone wants to be elevated, if anyone wants to be first, you need to live for someone else. You need to be sacrificial. You need to be a servant of others. To illustrate this, he takes the children or takes a child, and he holds them in his arm. He says, Look, if you receive someone who's lesser, if you receive someone who maybe has a lower status in society, then you're understanding what I'm about and who I am. Because when it all comes down, when we think about who we are, we have rejected God. We have turned away from Him. We do not deserve to be elevated.

We need to understand that we need to be last, that we can't save ourselves. We can't be glorified on our own. And so, when we put that aside, we make ourselves last and we serve others, and we understand that Jesus served us. He comes to us, and He receives us. And when we do that, we understand that God, the Father, also has received us because Jesus has given it all. He has served for us. And so, through Jesus, we are elevated. And so, what do we do in response to that? We go out and we continue to serve. We continue to be the servants of all that we might also be bringing people in and sharing this message with them, this message of the servant, the greatest servant ever who died for us and rose again for us that we might be saved. May we continually serve others, not because we think it'll somehow earn us points with God, but may we serve others because we have been first served by God. We understand that when we humble ourselves, we are doing what Jesus did because he humbled himself greater than anyone ever would by taking on human flesh and dying for us.

May that be the message today that causes us to live in servanthood for our neighbor.