Mark 9:30–50 — Embracing Humility

This sermon is from Mark chapter 9, verses 30 through 50, and is entitled "Embracing Humility."

Mark 9:30–50

It was delivered to Ecclesia churches on Sunday, October 12, 2025.

The direction of Jesus' ministry has now changed, and we're going to see some clear indications

of this in the first few verses.

So let's go ahead and read these first few verses together.

This is verses 30 through 32.

They went on from there and passed through Galilee, and he did not want anyone to know,

for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, "The Son of Man is going to be delivered

into the hands of men, and they will kill him; and when he is killed, after three days,

he will rise."

But they did not understand the saying, and were afraid to ask him.

So up until this point, the area where Jesus has spent the most time doing ministry is

the region of Galilee.

This is where we find Capernaum and the house, probably Peter's house, that has become his

kind of home away from home, which is where they're headed to next.

But unlike the previous time, it says Jesus passed through Galilee and actively didn't

want people to know that he was doing so.

It's kind of like when you travel to a city for work where you have family and you don't

let them know you were there until you get back home.

It's nothing personal.

You just don't have time to stop and see everyone.

And we know Jesus now has his sights set on going to Jerusalem.

And while he will take some time getting there, he's in the second stage of his mission.

His teaching has also begun to change as he now speaks more plainly with his disciples

about the suffering and the sacrifice that are an important part of his mission.

Mark actually clarifies that this is one reason Jesus doesn't want to attract a crowd as he

travels through Galilee.

He is teaching his disciples about his death, and that isn't something that he can teach

publicly at this point.

But the disciples don't understand.

And if you remember after Peter got called Satan for opposing Jesus a few verses back,

they aren't willing to ask him about it.

So Jesus is trying to help his disciples understand that the road ahead not only involves suffering,

but requires a heart of humility to endure it.

People who think too highly of themselves struggle the most when they have to stoop

blow to serve. And it's going to take a servant's heart to follow Jesus where he is leading.

Jesus has given them a picture of what his mission involves, and it always includes these three things,

suffering, death, and resurrection. And not only will Jesus endure suffering and death

leading to the resurrection, he will willingly walk toward them with a humility that is hard to

understand but cannot be ignored. If we want to follow Jesus, who is the greatest example

of a humble servant that we will ever see, we must be willing to abandon things like

our own glory, our ego, and our selfishness. Following Jesus requires us to do this willingly

and even joyfully, and we are formed into the image of our humble Savior who showed us his glory

through humility. So let's keep reading as Jesus goes into Capernaum and starts to deal with his

disciples' hunger for glory but lack of humility. This is verse 33 through 37. "And they came to

took a pernum, and when he was in the house, he asked them, "What were you discussing

on the way?"

But they kept silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the

greatest.

And he sat down and called the twelve, and he said to them, "If anyone would be first,

he must be last of all and servant of all."

And he took a child and put him in the midst of them, and taking him in his arms he said

to them, "Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives

me receives not me but him who sent me."

So on the way back to Capernaum, this is a familiar city where they will stay at a familiar

house, probably Peter's house, which is Jesus' kind of home away from home.

The disciples have an argument among themselves about of all things who among them is the

greatest.

And this is a silly argument because they walk behind the greatest man who has ever walked

the face of the earth, whose glory is beyond compare, who is God in the flesh, and yet

the disciples are fixated not on the glory of Jesus, but on their own glory.

Jesus knows what they are discussing.

He knows what's in their heart.

And so this question he asks is actually similar

to the man from the last passage.

He asks, "What were you discussing?"

And it's an opportunity for the disciples

to bring this discussion,

this shortcoming on their part to Jesus.

But they remain silent.

Isn't it interesting that even when we are ignorant

of our own wrong thinking,

there is still a small part of us

that knows we're wrong.

Scripture calls this the law written on our hearts.

It is evident here that the disciples at some level knew

that there was something wrong with their pursuit

of their own glory and wanting to know who was the greatest.

And it says, when he asked them this question,

they kept silent.

The last time we saw this response to Jesus' question,

It wasn't the disciples, it was the Pharisees.

In chapter three, if you think back to the man

with the withered hand being healed,

they responded by keeping silent.

The disciples are in pursuit of their own glory

and they are hard-hearted about being corrected

in this area.

So Jesus responds to them, much like a parent really,

telling a kid in trouble, "Hey, go sit down at the table

"and I'll be in to have a conversation in a moment."

All of my kids know what this conversation is going to look like.

Jesus does this by sitting down and inviting the disciples to join him.

So this is like a textual key in that culture that Jesus is taking the formal stance of

a rabbi or a teacher.

He's sitting down and he's inviting his disciples.

And his disciples know from the posture of Jesus that he is now speaking to them formally

as their teacher.

they are about to be instructed whether they like it or not.

So Jesus begins to teach them that their understanding of greatness is actually wrong.

It has been formed by the kingdom of this world where everyone is responsible for making much

of themselves.

Success looks like, "How high on the corporate ladder can I get?

How much honor can I achieve for myself?

How many people can I get to recognize me?"

In Greek culture, happiness was determined, for the most part, by how high you could climb

on this ladder of social recognition.

Even really well-known philosophers like Plato was quoted as saying, "Can anyone be happy

if he is a servant to someone?"

So it's a world in which my glory is my primary responsibility.

And the number of people I can look down on determines my happiness.

That was the Greek world and had become really the longing of the Jews as well.

Think about after being under foot of an empire for hundreds of years, their view of success

was Israel on top again, crushing the enemy under their feet.

And it really doesn't sound so different from us, does it?

Not so different from the capitalistic American dream.

And I say that with caution, because by the way, I have no issue with capitalism as an

economic system in the kingdoms of men. Encouraging businesses to reinvest their profits in their

business is generally a system in which everyone ends up profiting in the long run. But plain

and simple, economics in the kingdom of God are different from the kingdoms of men, because

the currency isn't money, it's grace and mercy. The glory isn't found in making much

of ourselves, but in serving the lowest in the kingdom of men.

This kingdom of God is, in many ways, foreign to us, upside down to us, but in reality,

it is we who are upside down, pursuing our own glory instead of the glory of God.

Jesus shows them the order of the kingdom of God through their own broken lens, saying

If you want to be first, you must be last.

And he uses this child as a visual example of them,

of how to treat the lowest people on the social ladder.

So it is helpful for us to understand

that Jewish and Greek culture was really very utilitarian,

which means they valued the most,

the people who were the most useful.

And the thing about small children

is they can't do much for themselves

and they can do even less for you.

They can't grow food, they can only eat it.

They can't make much money,

but they cost much money to raise.

And when they're very small,

they can't even really express love back to you

as you feed them and change them and hold them.

So in the kingdom of men, a child is really a liability.

It's something that will cost you much.

But after putting the child in the midst of them,

Jesus pulls the child in close to himself,

and he says, "When you receive someone like this,

"you receive me, and when you receive me,

"you receive God himself."

In the kingdom of God, children are a treasure

because they're made in the image of God.

That's where their value comes from.

In the kingdom of God, having the humility

to receive others who are undeserving by society standards,

allows us to receive the greatest treasure of all

because in practice, we are receiving Christ Jesus himself.

The Greek word for servant literally means

one who waits tables.

So it is the table waiter.

And we wanna be a people as the church

who are identified by our humility,

who delight in welcoming people to the table of Jesus

as we have been welcomed.

Because followers of Jesus no longer exist

for our own glory.

We don't exist for our own status, for our own fame.

We exist for the glory of God

that is displayed most clearly in the person of Jesus.

This humble servant who went to the cross for us.

So I would encourage you to think

about who you might serve through your invitation.

For those of you who might still be in school,

open up your eyes to see the smallest, strangest,

least popular kid you can find.

Learn their name, make a point to say hello,

invite them to sit with you.

It will cost you nothing more than a few awkward looks

from kids who really don't know any better,

but it could mean the world to that person.

Who are the coworkers, the fellow parents, the neighbors,

the people who you have nothing to gain from,

but are an opportunity to practice a posture of humility

and learning to love well.

This is how we love like Jesus,

because it is how he loved us.

You would hope the disciples would have received

this message loud and clear, but they don't,

or they haven't yet.

Instead, they pivot from being concerned

about how the outside world views them

to how people within their community view them.

So let's read the next few verses

and we'll get a look at the ego

or the pride of the disciples

and probably a little bit of our own in the process.

This is verse 38 through 42.

And John said to him, "Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name and we tried

to stop him because he was not following us.

But Jesus said, "Do not stop him, for no one who does a mighty work in my name will

be able soon afterward to speak evil of me.

For the one who is not against us is for us.

For truly, I say to you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you belong

to Christ will by no means lose his reward.

Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for

him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea.

Jesus has just tried to impress upon his followers that the world doesn't revolve around them

and they shouldn't waste time trying to make it.

And John, who we don't actually hear much from in Mark,

is worried because there's a guy

casting out demons successfully in the name of Jesus,

but it's not one of the 12.

More important to John is the fact

that this guy is not following us.

The disciples are upset

because they still don't understand their status

as servants. Instead, they have become prideful thinking of themselves as having high rank

and position in this coming kingdom of the Messiah. It turns out they actually will have

high positions, but only because they figure out how to have humility like Jesus, and most of them

will submit even to death because of it. So we could go on a lot of bunny trails here, I feel like,

but let's focus on two things that Jesus tries to correct his disciples on in this section. First,

Jesus is ultimately the only entrance to the kingdom. So ultimately, we want people to follow

Jesus, not us. Second, we want to live by setting an example that other people can follow

straight to Jesus.

One thing that a friend of mine said to me one time when I was really struggling

with my life and with my faith was he looked at me and he said, "Hey, when it's hard,

follow me as I follow Jesus." And I still remember that to this day, that he wasn't

inviting me just to follow him. He was inviting me to follow him in every way that he was following

Jesus.

And so, let's talk about leading people to Jesus.

The disciples seemed to have a fair bit of ego going on here.

They were pridefully thinking that they were in some way in charge.

If you've ever worked in retail, you've probably worked with managers who seem to think that

they're the ones really in charge.

They think that because their shirt says "manager," they have some sort of authority to treat

people however they wish, customers and employees alike.

But in my experience anyway, the best managers know that they're only representatives.

And in some cases, the chief representative for the company that they work for, they serve

customers and employees alike, leading from the bottom, serving the people in front of

and below them.

And they are what we would call servant leaders.

And it's always been my experience that these type of leaders are the very best to work

for and work with.

We also need to identify, though, that this is kind of unique time in history here that

we're looking at with Jesus and the disciples, because Jesus had not yet died and risen and

left his disciples to leave or to lead the church after he ascended.

So ultimately, this man who's casting out demons would have come under the leadership

of the disciples, but only after the disciples had truly submitted to the Lordship of the

risen Jesus.

And in that case, it really was the Lordship of Jesus that these other people were submitting

to.

The position of a disciple of Jesus, or specifically the authority of someone like a pastor, is

an authority that only comes from humble submission to Jesus and His word.

And the truth about the disciples at this point at least is that they aren't submitted

yet, which is why Jesus goes on to warn them about causing people who are trying to follow

Him to stumble, or in other words, leave their faith in Jesus.

So in this part of the passage, Jesus isn't referring to children specifically here.

He's talking about people with a young faith in Jesus.

He's warning them not to discourage them, but instead welcome them in the same way Jesus

would.

And the seriousness of this cannot be understated.

Jesus says it would be better that you drown in the sea than to be the cause of someone

stumbling or struggling in their faith.

Now let's clarify just a little bit here.

or Jesus moves on to address our own tendency to stumble.

This does not mean that we do not boldly proclaim

the truth of God's word to those that are lost

and think themselves found.

I'm specifically thinking here of cults

like the Jehovah's Witnesses, the Seventh Day Adventists,

the Mormons, the list could go on.

These are people who are not actually following Jesus

and they need to know it.

But this man in the story today is casting out demons

and he's not only using the name of Jesus,

the demons are actually listening to him

and Jesus clarifies that he is for him.

So later in the book of Acts in chapter 18,

there's a man named Apollos

who is recognized by two disciples, Priscilla and Achilla,

they're Paul's friends and they don't stop him

from preaching, but instead they take him aside

and they begin to instruct him on the pieces

that he was missing.

So, Apollos was missing important pieces like baptism

and the Holy Spirit.

He just didn't know about these things yet.

And so they instruct him and then he goes on equipped

to preach and teach to the church in Corinth.

This also does not mean that we don't boldly address

teachings coming from people who claim to be Christians,

but proclaim things that are opposed to scripture.

Jesus is not advocating here a passive kind of Christianity.

He is warning his disciples to lead

from a place of humble submission

and desire to exalt Christ

and not to be exalted personally.

This isn't about people following you.

It's about people turning to Jesus.

To use the words of my friend again,

follow me as I follow Jesus."

So now we come to the final part of this discourse

in which Jesus gets even more personal.

We've moved from this desire to be considered great

in the world, to this prideful desire

to have our own followers,

and now Jesus really gets to the root of things,

their own prideful, selfish hearts.

Simply put, don't worry about the world,

Don't worry about a following.

Instead, you must be totally surrendered to Jesus

and everything else comes from that.

So let's read this section

and talk about abandoning our selfishness.

This is verses 43 through 50.

And if your hand caused you to sin, cut it off.

It is better for you to enter life crippled

than with two hands to go to hell,

to the unquenchable fire.

And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off.

It is better for you to enter life lame

than with two feet to be thrown into hell.

And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out.

It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God

with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell.

Where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.

For everyone, we'll be salted with fire.

Salt is good, but if the salt has lost its saltiness,

how will you make it salty again?

Have salt in yourselves and be at peace with one another.

So let's address the elephant in the room first here.

Is Jesus telling us to mutilate our bodies?

No, I don't want to see anyone coming to one

our gatherings with an eye patch and crutches and thinking that they've done a

holy thing. Jesus never contradicts Scripture and we know from Deuteronomy

14-1 and 1 Kings 18-28 that harming yourself in any way as a ritual or a

religious act is not something God endorses. God gave you this body and He

would have you use it for his glory. Jesus is getting serious about sin, though, and he's

speaking using something called hyperbole, or exaggerating, to make his point seriously.

He is not calling us here to self-harm. He's calling us to a radical kind of holiness,

in which no change in our lives is too drastic or uncomfortable to pursue Jesus.

So let's get practical for a moment in some of the ways that this might play out.

If you struggle with lust and controlling your eyes, there will be media that you simply cannot

watch. There will be movies and TV shows that everyone insists are great, but you know will

present you with images that will live in your head for long after. And it will be inconvenient,

and you will have to choose to deal with the fear of being left out and not watch them at all.

You might need to have strict rules about where your phone or screens go in the evening. You might

have to ask a friend to be a second set of eyes on your browser history. You might have to do any

number of horribly inconvenient and awkward things, but the result of keeping your eyes fixed on

things that are honoring to Jesus is worth it. Men in particular, from personal experience,

I encourage you, it is worth it. Now you might not need to cut off a leg, but you might have to

severely limit some of the places that you are running to keep up with everyone else.

There will be people with lifestyles that you cannot keep up with while maintaining balance

in your home. There will be financial decisions that you will have to make that sacrifice

things that you want in order to buy back your time and energy for kingdom purposes.

Any of those things that cause you to dethrone Jesus and put something or someone else on the throne

instead, where the world prioritizes selfishness and pleasure and comfort, for those disciples of

Jesus who are set on the kingdom of heaven, there is no discomfort that will stop us as we

dethrone the idols of our sin and enthrone the glory of Jesus.

Jesus uses one more example here and we'll close with it.

He brings up fire and salt.

Now fire, he's used up to this point talking about the fire of hell, a fire of eternal punishment.

But then here in these last two verses, Jesus shifts to talking about fire and salt together.

He says, "Everyone," referring to all believers, "will be salted with fire." Now hold on a second.

I thought fire was what we were trying to avoid.

Well, specifically, fire and salt together were what was necessary for sacrifices to be offered to God at the temple.

The salt stood as a symbol for purity, showing that it was completely set apart for God.

And the fire was something that completely consumed the offering.

And so this is a reference not to the fire of punishment, but to the purification and

holiness of a sacrifice offered to God. Jesus is acknowledging that living a life in which we

radically die to ourselves, putting to death the sins of the flesh, will be completely consuming.

For the Christian there will be no part of our lives that is left untouched by the work of the

Holy Spirit. It requires a radical kind of humility as we continue to humble ourselves

and submit our lives to the work going on in us to make us holy.

Jesus set an example for us in humility. One which the disciples were going to watch play out

over the remaining chapters in Mark. He shows us what it looks like to live life as what Paul calls

a living sacrifice in Romans 12. And as we become more and more consumed with Jesus in our pursuit

of Him, we start to let a lot of other things go. We start to let go of our desire for our own glory

and our own status because we would rather serve like our Master. We start to let go of our desire

to be followed because we would rather invite people to follow Jesus.

We start to intentionally let go of the temporary pleasures of sin and hold on to the eternal

joy of Jesus because the greatest joy that we can possess is that of a humble servant

who is welcomed in for eternity by the gracious Savior who loved and served us first.