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HOUSMAIL HM059 20
July 2000 CORONATION DAY
IN “PARADISE” (Mark 10:35-45) When
Jesus spoke of the Kingdom of God, there can be no doubt at all that He was
referring to the establishment of the Kingdom described by the Old Testament
prophets. This is to happen when Jesus returns from Heaven, raises the dead,
judges the world, and grants immortality to the righteous. However,
we should not fail to notice that essential as it is to BELIEVE the Good News
about this future Kingdom, the message of Jesus is FAR MORE concerned with
the calling and training of a PEOPLE who will be ready to inherit and inhabit
the Kingdom, when it is established! Thus,
it soon becomes obvious that on a number of occasions Jesus spoke of an
altogether different aspect of the Kingdom, in which we shall miss His
meaning completely, if we try to relate His words only to the future. Mark
10:35-45 is one of those occasions. It
appears that there was a certain amount of tension between the apostles,
arising from jealousy over who was to get the "top jobs" in the
Kingdom! These
"political ambitions" led to a premature attempt by James and John
to steal a march on the "competition” and secure the two most important
positions for themselves. Matthew tells us that they even enlisted their
mother to help them! Mark tells us that when the other ten heard about this
attempt to forestall their own identical "political ambitions",
they were indignant. Luke tells us that the ensuing argument about who was to
be regarded as the greatest, was still going on at the Last Supper! (Those of us who have spent time with those near the top of
the "corporate ladder" in "big business", or dealing
firsthand with politicians, know what was going on! Come to think of it, if
our eyes are open, we see exactly the same thing happening in a lot of
CHURCHES today! Don't we?) John's
version of it leaves out the details of the dispute but tells us that Jesus
reinforced His lesson about "spiritual leadership" by laying aside
his own "authority", in order to take upon Himself the role of a
slave and wash the disciple's feet. There will be no dictators, or despots,
or autocrats, in the Kingdom of God. Only those who know the true meaning of
humble service are qualified to exercise leadership there. "The Son of Man came not to be served, but
to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” In any
case, James and John had got it all WRONG when they asked for those two
places in "glory"! There
can be no doubt THEY were referring to their own mistaken and carnal
perception of the "glory" of the future earthly Kingdom. But
there should be even less doubt that the answer from Jesus points us, NOT to
the future, but to the CRUCIFIXION! "Are you able to drink the cup that I
drink?" WHAT
CUP? For the answer to that, refer to Psalm 116:13, Mark 14:36. "Are you able to be baptised with the
baptism with which I am baptised?" WHAT
BAPTISM? For the answer to that, refer to Luke 12:50. WHAT
GLORY? There can be little doubt that the cross was
what Jesus had in mind when He prayed that prayer of surrender to His Father,
to receive the glory which had been the plan of God for Him since "before the
world was made". John 17:5 HOW
DID JESUS BECOME THE "GREATEST" AMONGST US? HOW DID JESUS BECOME
"FIRST OF ALL" AMONGST US? HOW WAS JESUS "GLORIFIED"? The
answer is that Jesus became all of that by going to the cross to "drink
the cup of salvation"; and by undergoing a "baptism" of
suffering and death and burial and resurrection, for our redemption. Romans 6:3-4 When
James and John spoke of "Glory", THEY were looking for pomp and ceremony,
and power to lord it over others. They sought only the fulfillment of CARNAL
ambition. But
when Jesus replied, He turned the discussion to the "here and now"
of THE CROSS. He meant the events of that rapidly approaching day in
Jerusalem, when although they certainly would not understand what they did,
the representatives of ROME would publicly declare HIM to be King of the
Jews! Think
about it! Matthew tells us that: 1.
They clothed Him in a
robe of scarlet. (The colour of the robes of kings) 2.
They placed a sceptre
in His hands. (The sign of the authority of kings) 3.
They crowned Him.
(With thorns) 4.
They knelt before Him
and said, "Hail King of the Jews". (At a Roman coronation they
said, "Hail Caesar"! And at coronations in England, they say
"Long live the king"..... But in His case, it meant certain death!) 5.
And then they NAILED
Him to His "throne" ..... Who then were the two who shared in that day of
"glory", by sitting at the right and left hand of Jesus? Who
else could it be, but those two thieves for whom their places had been
reserved long ago, when Isaiah wrote - "They made his grave with the wicked and
with a rich man in his death." Isaiah 53:9 If
we will receive it, there is a deeply spiritual sense in which the events at
Golgotha were the FIRST DAY of PARADISE! In the same deeply spiritual sense,
for Jesus, it was the beginning of His Kingdom, which established for all
time, His right to rule. James
and John didn't understand, until after His resurrection, what Jesus was
trying to tell them. May it not be so with us. May we all be quicker to set
aside all carnal lust for power and prestige. May we instead learn the
lessons of the true humility and service that Mark has preserved for us, to
help us prepare for our inheritance in the future kingdom! And
may we reaffirm those lessons with LOVE and GRATITUDE, when in our own
"here and now", we humble ourselves to bow OUR knee to Jesus and
confess that He is OUR LORD, to the glory of God the Father. Philippians 2:10-11 Allon |