Sent to Serve (Why Did Jesus Come?)

Their all-too-quick answer (Mark 14:39) makes plain that James and John did not understand. Jesus reveals that they are indeed ordained for a similar destiny (v. 34). James would be the first of the apostles to be martyred (Acts 12:1-2). John would experience, alone, the great persecution of Domitian and be exiled to Patmos (Rev 1). But to choose who sits on His right or left is a decision reserved for His Father. And it is not the kind of question those who will sit in those chairs would ask!

Sadly, James and John fail to see that the pathway to glory is always the pathway of suffering. Before the crown there is a cup of suffering. Before the blessings that flow there is a baptism that overwhelms and drowns.

Mark 10:41-44

The ten are angry at the two because of their request and probably because they had not thought of it first (cf. 9:33-34 and their lust for position as well). Jesus steps in again and uses the occasion for His most powerful lesson on being a servant, on being great in God’s kingdom. It is a hard lesson to learn. It just doesn’t seem to make sense. By earthly standards self-promotion is right. By heavenly standards it could not be more wrong!

The lost world is driven by selfish ambition and a lust for raw power and position. They “dominate” and “exercise power over” them. In the world, the more important you are, the more are the people who serve you. Jesus232 says, “But it must not be so among you” (v. 43). In His world the more important you are, the more people you serve. Jesus opposes the mind-set of the world and so must we (Rom 12:2).

You want to be great, do something great for God? You want to please and honor the Lord Jesus with your life? Then become a diakonos (servant; v. 43), a doulos (slave) of all (v. 44). Become a table waiter, a household servant. Become a slave. Such a person will have the mind of Christ, esteeming others better than himself, not giving attention to their own interests, but to those of others (Phil 2:3-5).

Jesus reverses all ideas of greatness, turning the world’s philosophy on its head. So, who will we say “yes” to? It will be a battle. To many it will not make sense. Be a servant? Why?

Mark 10:45

Jesus has told us He will die in Jerusalem. Now He tells us why. Jesus makes a promise no other religious leader in the world has made or could make. He came to serve you and me not just as our example but as our ransom!

William Lane said, “The reversal of all human ideas of greatness and rank was achieved when Jesus came, not to be served, but to serve” (Mark, 383). John Piper says, “Mark 10:45 is what turns Christianity into gospel” (“The Son of Man”).

Before we unwrap this extraordinary verse, we need to make a couple of important theological observations. There is no thought in the Bible that the ransom was paid to Satan. At the cross Satan received only one thing: his defeat and ruin. Also, the price Christ paid was not taken from Him. He freely and, as Hebrews 12:2 says, joyfully gave it. He was the great giver and not the pitiful victim. John 10:18 says it perfectly, “No one takes [My life] from Me, but I lay it down on My own. I have the right to lay it down, and I have the right to take it up again. I have received this command from My Father.”

“For even” emphasizes the remarkable humility and service of One who should by all rights be honored and served. The “Son of Man” title (Dan 7:13) is wed to “ransom for many” language (Isa 53:12), which radically233 redefines who and what Messiah would be. He is a suffering Messiah, a servant Messiah. The man for all men, the Man from heaven, the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve.

This is what Christmas is all about! It’s about the Son of God, who existed eternally with the Father as “the radiance of God’s glory and the exact expression of His nature,” taking on human nature (Heb 1:3). It’s about the birth of a man by a virgin conceived miraculously (not sexually) by the Holy Spirit so that He is the Son of God in an utterly unique way (Luke 1:35). It’s about the coming of a man named Jesus in whom “all the fullness of deity was pleased to dwell” (Col 2:9). It’s about the coming of the “fullness of time” (Gal 4:4) that had been prophesied by the prophets of old that

That’s what Christmas is about! If He serves, we must serve! If He gives, we must give! If He stoops down, we must stoop down! C. J. Mahaney says, “Ultimately our Christian service exists only to draw attention to this source—to our crucified and risen Lord who gave Himself as the ransom for us all” (Humility, 48).

In verse 45, we see the term “come.” Tim Keller rightly says this “is a strong giveaway that he existed before he was born” (King’s Cross, 140).

He came to “give His life”—no one takes it. Jesus did not have to die despite God’s love. He died because of God’s love. The cross is the selfsubstitution of God for sinful humanity.

He came to “give His life [as] a ransom.” This is what theologians often call “the wonderful exchange.” “Ransom” means to deliver by purchase. It means a payment, usually of money, required to release someone from punishment or slavery. We needed a ransom because we had all gladly and willingly sold ourselves into the bondage of slavery to sin. When He purchased us, our slave masters—sin, death, hell, and Satan—had to set us free! First Peter 1:18-21 says,

234For you know that you were redeemed from your empty way of life inherited from the fathers, not with perishable things like silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without defect or blemish. He was chosen before the foundation of the world but was revealed at the end of the times for you who through Him are believers in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.

Here ransom speaks of Jesus’ substitutionary atonement: His sacrificial death on the cross purchased the release from bondage of those sinners who would believe in Him. Again the ransom was not directed to the Devil but the Father. Righteousness demanded it. Love provided it. We were then adopted into a new family. “When the time came to completion, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons” (Gal 4:4-5). We had run away like fools and sold ourselves to Satan and slavery. Jesus sees our pitiful and hopeless situation, pays the ransom, redeems us out of slavery, and brings us into the Father’s house!

Guilty, vile, and helpless we,

Spotless Lamb of God was He!

Full atonement! Can it be?

Hallelujah, what a Savior! (Bliss, “Hallelujah,” 1875)

The greatest and best person who ever lived and walked on this earth was a humble servant. He got down low so that He might lift others up. He, as Philippians 2:3 says, “consider[ed] others as more important than [Himself],” all the way to the death of the cross. And now He calls us, those who follow Him, to do the same.

Francis Schaeffer understood what our Savior calls us to do, and he also understood the challenge that confronts us.

Christ taught his disciples that they were not to be called “Rabbi” or “Master” (Mt. 23:8, 10) and that the greatest among them would be the servant of all (Mk. 10:44). Doesn’t each of us tend to reverse this, following our natural inclinations as fallen men while ignoring the Word of God? Don’t we like the foremost place? ... Seeking the highest place is in direct contradiction to the teaching of the Lord.... If we are going to do the Lord’s work in the Lord’s way, we must take Jesus’ teaching seriously: He does not want us to press on to the greatest place unless he himself makes it impossible to do otherwise.... If we have the world’s mentality of wanting the foremost place, we are not qualified for Christian leadership. This mentality can lift us into ecclesiastical leadership or fit us for being a big name among men, but it unfits us for real spiritual leadership. To the extent that we235 want power we are in the flesh, and the Holy Spirit has no part in us. (Schaeffer, No Little People, 67-68)

Sent to lead? Perhaps. Sent to serve? No doubt.