Ransom for Many

Today's scripture reading is from the Gospel of Mark, chapter 10, verses 35 through 45.

Mark 10:35–45

And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came up to him and said to him, Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.

And he said to them, What do you want me to do for you?

And they said to him, Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.

Jesus said to them, You do not know what you are asking.

Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?

And they said to him, We are able.

And Jesus said to them, The cup that I drink, you will drink, and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized.

But to sit at my right hand, or at my left, is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.

And when the ten heard it, they began to be be indignant at James and John.

And Jesus called to them, called them to him, and said to them, You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them, but it shall not be so among you.

But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you, you must be slave of all.

For even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.

This is the word of the Lord.

Please be seated.

Good morning.

Thanks for joining us this morning.

My name is James Rathman.

I'm the pastor here at Redemption.

Uh even on snowy mornings like this.

Um look forward to gathering together and worshiping together, especially when we get to approach texts like this one.

This is um uh probably the central text of Mark's gospel.

Uh so that's why uh we called in the snow to weed it down to make sure that's, you know.

Oh.

You know when when jokes pass through your mind and then you decide not to say them because you're preaching?

Let's pray.

Quick.

Holy Father, we thank you for your loving kindness towards us.

We thank you that the snow is a reminder as it as it covers all things and it waters everywhere where it touches, that's just like your word, which uh always accomplishes exactly what you send it out to do.

Lord, we thank you that one of the things that you've sent your word out to do is to cover our transgressions so that they would be white as snow.

Lord, we thank you that you have made the world and that you cover it with reminders of your loving-kindness, of the atonement that you've made for us, of the sacrifice that you've made for us and your son.

Lord, I pray that we would see that more completely and that we would understand it more deeply, how we can participate in truths like those who will be first would be last of all and servant of all, and how we see you, the true King of all things, come down to the lowest point that such as us might be made pure in your sight and brought before you in holiness and righteousness that you freely give to us.

We praise you for that, Lord, and ask that you would settle that truth in our hearts this morning.

Lift this up in Jesus' name.

Amen.

This is the uh often considered uh the central uh turning point of Mark's Gospel.

And it has a verse which is perhaps the most famous verse in Mark's gospel, which is Mark 10, 45, which we'll be looking at this morning, which says, uh, for even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.

What we've seen so far in Mark's Gospel is a demonstration of Christ as King.

In all different aspects, we've seen Jesus' authority demonstrated.

He speaks with authority when he announces himself at his first sermon in the temple.

He casts out demons by authority, and people are in wonder at the authority that he demonstrates.

He calms the sea by his authority.

He casts out uh sickness and brings healing by his authority.

He's able to provide food and multiply loaves and fishes by his authority.

Christ has shown himself to be an authoritative king, the one who is truly over all things.

And that has been the pattern of what's been shown throughout all of Mark's gospel so far.

Whenever a Pharisee or a Sadducee comes up and uh seeks to challenge him or debate with him, he uh demonstrates his authority by scripture and uh by the power of his word.

But here, at this turning point, we see that this one who has shown himself to be absolutely the king and absolutely authoritative is the same person who has come to die.

That the king over all things, the promised Messiah, the one who will restore the kingdom of God and put all things in its right place, is the same person as the suffering servant who is promised in Scripture.

That mysterious character promised throughout the great prophets, Isaiah and Jeremiah, is the king who has come to suffer and die.

That's what Jesus shows here.

And for the rest of Mark's gospel, after this turning point is a march to the cross.

And more and more we will see his suffering expand.

And we will see that this great king shows the height of his glory by going to death for his people.

You know the story.

That's why we're gathered here today, because we've been taken by it.

Because we've seen that the one who is our king is the one who went to the cross to die, that our sins might be atoned for.

It's the most transformational story in the history of the world.

It has changed more lives and brought uh more redemption over the course of human history than any other story.

Nothing comes even remotely close to it.

And here we see that turning point most clearly expressed.

It is the heart of Mark's gospel.

So I look forward to going and exploring this with you this morning.

Let's go ahead and get into our text because the the thing that I want us to see is that this consistent refrain of Jesus' teaching, that those who would be first must be last of all and servant of all, this inversion that Jesus is constantly teaching, and that especially over these past several weeks, we've seen him teaching in all kinds of ways as he brings children to himself in front of the disciples, and he says, if you would enter the kingdom, you must be like one of these children.

And as we see him receiving the least of these.

And then we see him engaging with the rich young ruler who, by all accounts, has uh high authority and even uh righteousness, a sort of outward righteousness before the Lord, he is the one who walks away sad.

We see this inversion constantly taking place in Christ's ministry.

But uh when we're reading it and when we hear things like that, I think many of us might consider look, I'm not trying to be first.

I'm trying to make it through the day and get my kids to sleep in time to maybe introduce myself to my wife.

You know, we have we have things like that that I think that's the place that many of us live.

And so when we hear things like this, like many who are trying, many who are first will be last, I think a lot of times we think, well, this isn't this isn't really concerning me.

I'm not first and I'm not last.

And so why is this teaching so central to Jesus' message?

Is he just saying something like, uh, uh you shouldn't be, you know, trying too hard to seek your own glory.

And you're thinking, like, I don't think I'm doing that.

I don't think I'm trying so hard to seek my own glory.

Or is he saying to others of you, you may be thinking, oh, you know, I'm kind of crushing it right now.

Like I'm I'm on a real, I'm on a real heater.

Um as Jack Donegie would say, I'm Reaganing lemon.

And the the you may you may is Jesus saying something to you like, uh you should be trying less hard.

And all of these accomplishments that that you seem to be racking up, that that's just that's just dangerous, and you need to stay away from that.

Is is what Jesus is saying, like you just need to find this sort of middle space?

I think that's often the way that we interpret this passage because we don't understand how it is that Jesus is really reframing the whole order of the world when he says that many who are first will be last, many who are last will be first.

He is showing us the principles of the way that the kingdom of God really operates.

And then when we get that, we'll see this is not something that only concerns me when I'm seeking the heights of glory or when I have fallen to the most absolute depths, but this is a disposition that Christ is calling me towards, which reframes the way I engage with every aspect of my life.

The way that I engage with my friendships, with my work, with my children and my spouse, my hopes and my fears are all reframed by this central teaching of this inversion that Christ brings us to.

We see it demonstrated here in the story of James and John seeking to uh do a little backdoor politicking with Jesus in order to ensure a position of glory.

Here's where it begins.

In Mark 10, 34, 35 to 36.

Excuse me, Mark 10, verses 35 to 36.

Mark 10:35–36

It says, And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came up to him and said to him, Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.

And he said to them, What do you want me to do for you?

James and John are two of Jesus' closest disciples.

The inner circle of Christ's disciples is Peter, James, and John.

And James and John are brothers.

They are the sons of Zebedee.

And Jesus has a nickname for James and John.

Do you know what it is?

Sons of Thunder, yeah, because they're also luchidors.

And the uh uh when as these uh the sons of thunder, why would Jesus call them something like that?

It's likely just because of their great intensity.

And they are some of the most intense of Jesus' disciples.

At one occasion, Jesus uh was seeking to enter a town in Samaria, and the town rejected him and said that they were not welcome there.

His disciples were not welcome to stay there.

And James and John come to Jesus, and here's their idea.

Would you like us to call down fire from heaven so that this town is destroyed?

That was their gut reaction to the rejection.

To which Jesus says, No.

Uh, likewise, uh earlier we saw a man casting out demons in Jesus' name, but he wasn't a part of the 12 or the 70 that had followed Jesus.

He was more outside of their ring.

And it's John who steps forward and says, You need to stop doing stuff in Jesus' name.

That's our thing.

Uh, you're doing our thing.

And uh it we see their sort of intensity.

Another reason, perhaps, that they're called Sons of Thunder, is when this very story is told in Matthew, uh, it is James and John's mother who comes to Jesus and says that uh uh they should uh be seated at the right hand and left hand of Jesus when he comes into his glory, to which James and John are standing like this as their as their mother asks.

So my theory, which I've read in no commentaries, is that Sons of Thunder refers to their mother.

I don't know why nobody has written that.

Um but now that will be a thing that our church thinks.

So they come to Jesus and we we see their intensity expressed in the the way that they shape their question.

They say, Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.

That's starting, they are always closing.

You know, that that's uh the what an opener.

We want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.

And they think like if Jesus says okay to that, then we we should be set.

And we see there's sort of like uh leap first, ask questions later, disposition, the intensity that's just kind of characterized by James and John in this question, but it's really it's all it's it should be, it might have felt um like courageous and forthright when James and John were brainstorming this idea together, but when you read it, of course, it comes off childish.

Like it sounds like the way uh like a six-year-old uh asks you for things, or like my three-year-old daughter, who is just this unbelievable, she's an unbelievable negotiator, asks for, asks for things.

Uh, and it begins with, hey, give me whatever I want.

Jesus, of course, doesn't take the bait that way.

He's not here to take an oath when he doesn't understand what the oath entails.

But we see that the way that Jesus responds to them is from this disposition of a servant.

He said to them, What do you want me to do for you?

It's like I think that's written on the back of people's vests at Walmart.

You know, what do you want me, what do you want me to do for you?

Jesus will ask this very same question in the text that we look at next week when a blind man hears that Jesus is walking by and calls out Jesus' name.

He says, Son of David, have mercy on me, son of David, have mercy on me.

And when Jesus comes to him, he'll say to him, What do you want me to do for you?

This is an ordinary disposition of this great king.

What do you want me to do for you?

And even when approached in this childish way, we see the heart of Christ shines through.

And they said to him in verse 37, Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.

That's their ask.

We know that we're walking towards some form of glory, and you can see there's something like a glimmer of faith in the question.

Because Jesus has taught that they are coming into glory, that there is a kingdom awaiting.

Jesus' ministry has been proclaiming that the kingdom of God is here.

The kingdom of God has arrived.

And they understand that this is real.

There is something, there is a reality to this kingdom that's being entered.

So there is this glimmer of faith in their question.

When you come into your glory, which we know will happen, let us participate in it.

And we want to participate in it at the highest levels.

We want to sit at your right hand and at your left.

We want to be your chief advisors.

We don't want anything to happen in the kingdom that doesn't involve us in some way that we aren't a part of in that inner ring of decision making.

But the context of this question really matters.

Because what we looked at last week is what comes just before this text, which is Christ announces that they are walking towards Jerusalem, and he will be turned over to the chief priests and the elders, and that he will be condemned to death, that he will be beaten and tortured and humiliated, and then he will be killed.

And then three days later he will return from the dead.

Right after Jesus' second, that was Jesus' third announcement of his death to the disciples, and right after Jesus' second announcement of his death to the disciples, the disciples argue amongst one another who is greatest, who is going to be greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

And here, at right after the third announcement of Jesus' death to his disciples, James and John feel this renewed sense of urgency that we need to make sure we establish ourselves as the greatest in the kingdom of God.

That we are positioned in that place.

And so by the context, it's revealed that this question means that they do not understand the shape of the kingdom that they want to participate in.

They're seeking to sort of backroom deal in order to attain this glory while showing this glimmer of faith, it shows that they don't understand what their faith is in.

But their interpretation of it is absolutely upside down.

They sense an urgency.

We've got to get into this position of authority.

And we know we're walking towards Jerusalem, so this needs to happen quickly.

But the position that they're asking for, they don't understand.

Because they haven't understood Jesus' central teaching that those who would be first will be last of all and servants of all.

And so this is where Jesus will take them.

Mark 10, 38, Christ reorients their understanding.

Jesus said to them, You do not know what you are asking.

Are you able to drink the cup that I drink?

Or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?

Jesus is just explicit with them with regards to their ignorance.

You can see there is something like a childlike interaction here.

It's like a parent-child sort of interaction.

Give me whatever I want.

We would like to be king alongside of you.

And Jesus looks at them and he says, You don't understand what you're asking.

I know you think that you want to be king and that you want to reign in glory in just the way that I am going towards, and in the way that you understand the kingdom to be, but you don't understand what you're asking.

Are you able to drink from the cup that I will drink from?

Are you able to be baptized with the baptism with which I will be baptized?

What's Jesus saying there?

What's interesting is that those are our two sacraments that Jesus describes to us.

It is the cup, the Lord's Supper, and it is baptism.

But what Jesus is referring to, and what what these uh what these symbols mean is a full participation in all that Christ will experience.

That's what it means to drink the cup.

To drink the cup, and that's an analogy that's used throughout scripture, and it's used for things that are positive and negative.

My cup overflows.

Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life.

Or they will be made to drink that foaming cup of God's wrath.

It is a way of saying, you will take the full experience that Jesus will take.

And Jesus knows the full experience of what he is walking towards.

He will be drinking of that cup of God's wrath.

And he will experience it completely.

Are they able to do that?

Is that the type of glory that they think they're walking towards?

He will receive a baptism into death.

Are they willing to receive that baptism?

Is that the type of glory that they're asking to participate in?

And Jesus knows it isn't.

You think you're asking to go to the highest heights.

But when you ask me to share in my glory, to sit at my right hand and at my left hand, you are asking to share in my kingdom.

And that means going to the greatest depths.

You don't understand the shape of my kingdom, is what Jesus is showing.

Now, why is it in this moment that James and John would want to seek this glory in this way?

I think it's an ordinary experience that we can actually relate to.

Many of you probably aren't following around someone who you think will be king.

And so you're thinking, like, oh, this is my shot.

This is the shape of the world.

Part of the fall is an inversion of the ordering of the world.

Where we see that the world was made with God as the highest good, who had all authority, and we were made in submission to God, and then we were given dominion over all the creatures.

But the way that that narrative is inverted at the fall is remember, a talking serpent comes into the garden, and that serpent is Satan, and Satan deceives the woman, the man joins in that sin.

And then they all abandon God together.

And so humanity made ourselves obedient to Satan.

And when we made ourselves obedient to Satan, that means that Satan has become Lord of the world.

He has, we have joined him in his kingdom.

We have joined under the kingdom of Satan.

That's why part of our rescue needs to be the destruction of this cruel authority that we live under, an authority which calls us to deny God and to serve Satan instead.

Now, we see, many of you are thinking, like, it doesn't feel like I'm serving Satan, but we experience this pattern in all kinds of ways.

You experience this in all of the bad authority that you have been under.

We see this in cruel rulers in the world.

We see this in mindless bureaucracies, which you find unable to navigate because you are completely unseen by them, and you mean nothing to them, but you find yourself a victim of them and having to participate with them in some way.

You experience this in untrustworthy bosses who you receive one thing from and then you hear someone else receive something else from, and now you are unable to orient yourself in this organization.

You experience this in harsh or perhaps disinterested fathers, so that you were not able to find a sense of home under this most intimate authority.

You experience this in devouring mothers, who you, in every decision that you're making, you're processing in terms of what they may be thinking about it and how this will be interpreted by them.

And you realize that you are under this sort of cruelty of these bad rulers all over in your life.

And the reason that you are experiencing that is because that is the shape of the world under Satan.

Authority itself has been corrupted.

And the fundamental authority of the world outside of Christ is the domain of darkness, the dominion of Satan, the prince of the power of the air.

And so, why is it that James and John, when they see this opportunity to gain this authority, move with such urgency towards it?

It's because they understand this thing that we all fundamentally get, which is that if you are at the bottom of the hierarchy, you will be a victim of this cruel authority.

So, what is going to the top of the hierarchy?

Going to the top is, of course, gaining authority and gaining glory and gaining power.

But what is the means of that?

It is also the same thing as freedom.

It's the same thing of being out from under the oppressive constraints of the dominion of darkness.

So the only way that we understand towards safety as a people is to get myself in the position of power.

Then I at least won't be under these other cruel leaders, these other cruel authorities that I would find myself under.

And James and John seek to do that.

They might have, you know, you could imagine them processing before they finally go to Jesus.

They're like, okay, we're going to Jerusalem.

We're gonna have to get these things, these loose ends tied up pretty quick, because me and you, and we're brothers, sons of thunder, and they do their handshake.

And then it and or Peter.

And Peter, you know, he like great guy, uh, excellent fisherman, can tie a net, but he's pretty fickle, and he's pretty rash.

Are we us, the sons of thunder, really going to be under his authority?

Can you imagine sustaining that for any amount of time?

And so what they're what they're doing is they're positioning themselves where we see the danger of this other authority that may be coming.

We've got to free ourselves from that.

And the way that we free ourselves from that, there's one way.

You've you've got to get the power yourself.

You have to be the one who is in control and in charge.

That's the same thing as freedom.

It's the same thing.

Now, that is the structure of the world.

It is the ordinary structure of the world.

And we think like that all the time.

We think like that in our relationships constantly.

And so when Jesus is saying those who would be first will be last, and those who would be last would be first, he's not just talking, he's not just saying, like, uh, you know, uh, you shouldn't try to be the richest man in the world.

That's uh, and you're like, well, I'm not.

So I'm probably fine.

No, you're participating in that pattern constantly.

And Jesus knows that because you're stuck in it.

Because our world is under the dominion of Satan.

That's the shape of it.

But there's another kingdom coming.

So Jesus asks them, so okay, let me let me close this loop.

They are saying, get us to the position of highest authority, because that is the place we can be where we at least can ensure our own safety, and we know that we will be able to avoid the suffering that we would experience otherwise if we were under someone else's authority.

We'll at least be in a position where there won't be other people who are telling us, you serve like this, you serve like that, and we'll have to suffer and bear that sort of thing.

Instead, we will be the ones who will be served.

And so when they come and they seek this glory, they are saying, we would like to be positioned in such a way where we would avoid this undue service and we would avoid suffering because we will be the ones who are in authority.

We will be the ones who have the power.

And Jesus, of course, to that says, you don't understand what you're asking.

Because my authority will be shown in going down into death and service for all kinds of people who are bad leaders, the type of people you would not want to be in service to.

And when you find yourself in service to them, it will require death.

And that will be the place of my glory.

That is the very place where my kingdom is established.

So, what you're asking me for is the opposite of what you're asking me for.

You're wanting to sit at my right hand to share in the glory that I'm going to experience.

But what you're really asking is to avoid it.

You're asking to not participate in the glory that I am going to experience.

And so he asks them, Are you able?

Are you able to drink the cup?

Are you able to be baptized like I'll be baptized?

And they say, in verse 39, they said to him, We are able.

We are able.

And Jesus said to them, The cup that I drink, you will drink.

And with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized.

But to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant.

But it is for those for whom it has been prepared.

They demonstrate this sort of foolish confidence.

Yeah, we're able.

We can we can do it.

Is that the test?

You know, like, are you sure you can?

Yeah, we can.

Alright, guys, thanks for coming to me.

I was hoping you'd show some initiative in this thing.

You just beat out Peter.

I saw him practicing his speech.

Jesus, look at look at the character of Jesus already.

He look, all of the disciples will abandon Jesus soon.

They will all turn their back on him and they will be in that number.

But Jesus, even here, does not treat them according to the sin that he knows that they will commit.

He treats them according to what he knows he will accomplish in their hearts.

This is the heart of Jesus towards his disciples.

He treats them according to what he knows he will accomplish in their hearts.

And so he says, You will drink the cup, you will share in the baptism.

James will be the first of the apostles to be martyred.

There will be one son of thunder left.

And that son will be the last of the apostles to be martyred.

And he will be martyred as an exile on the island of Patmos.

And they excuse me, it's the gospel, you know.

And they will consider that their glory.

And so Jesus talks to them, knowing what the gospel will accomplish in their lives as he looks forward to that.

But he explains though the structure of authority to them, the true structure of authority, and he says, But to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.

In Matthew, he says that that is his father's to give.

That belongs to the father to give.

Where does true authority come from?

If you think of the authority of Satan, there's this strange dynamic in scripture where the authority that Satan has, in a sense, comes from us.

We are the ones who were given dominion over the world.

And so by deception, he comes and he enslaves us to him by our sin, which we participate, we participate in the enslavement.

But the authority that he gets over the world, it really comes from us.

This is not an authority that came from God.

But true authority, the kingdom of God, that is given by the Father.

Real authority is given by the Father.

To us, it might look upside down.

Like you wonder how we would draw the org chart of the world.

And then we would sit down next to God, and it's like, I think we've got it mapped out of how things are really structured here and how how nations and the world and how even towns hold together.

And these people, you know, you can see they're at the tops here, and they hold all these things together.

They're the pillars of the earth, you know.

If they fall apart, it it all it all falls apart.

And then God would show us his org chart, and he'd be like, you know, the one who is actually uh holding this community together is uh this lady right here who wakes up and prays each day for her grandchildren.

And if you see that there's that, there's actually this way that it's held up together here, we would say, Wait, I didn't understand at all how the world was held together.

I I had completely missed it.

Because we aren't able to think in the the true kingdom terms of an authority which is real because it is given by the Father.

When we think in those terms, it's like the scales of the deception of the world fall off our eyes, and we're able to see things such as they are.

And Jesus is saying, see the world such as it is.

I am showing you the real authority, the way it was intended to be, the authority that comes from the Father.

It's his to give.

It's his authority to give.

We hate all authority.

And we showed our hatred over God's authority in the garden.

Because the promise, which actually enslaved us to Satan's authority, was that we would be like God.

And what is the safety of being like God?

I will not have to serve.

I will be the one who is served.

I will not have to endure the suffering of being under some other limiting authority.

I won't have to be told who I am or what I am.

I will get to make myself.

I will be God.

And we hate our, we we we it is sort of built into humanity because of the fall, our fall into sin, to hate all authority.

And so, how how can things possibly be structured when everybody must participate in an authority and yet we all hate our authority?

How does the world hold together?

Well, it could only be held together by power, by tyranny from the top down.

So that becomes the experience of authority in the world.

We think God is not to be trusted.

And so we overthrow the father.

But think of this just like a like a normal kingdom.

What happens when the children of the king look up and they say, you know, the only thing in the way of us being king is the old man.

Let's kill him.

If we kill him, or we'll make it, you know, if I kill him, I'll be king.

All right, so that's what happened.

So now what is the structure of that kingdom?

What is the greatest threat now to you as king?

It's your children.

Because what's the precedent?

The way to become king is you kill your father.

So what does the kingdom become?

It becomes a one-generational fickle tyranny.

And this is the way we act.

We live in a world under Satan's rule of fickle devouring single generation dynasties.

That is the devouring structure of the world.

Because if you kill the father, the precedent is your children are the threat.

And so kingdoms rise and they fall.

And we take a posture where we need to get to the top quickly to impose our will down, that way our safety might be ensured.

The myth of our culture is that hierarchy itself is the problem.

This is the great myth of the West, that hierarchy is the problem.

And you can understand why people would arrive at that conclusion.

Because look at the tyranny of terrible hierarchies and look at the worlds that they create of devouring one another underneath them just to try and climb to the top of the hierarchy so that you might arrive at some position of safety.

So if hierarchy itself is the problem, then the solution is something like egalitarianism, which is that all are equal.

Everything is equal.

We need to get rid of hierarchy completely.

This was in many ways the project of the 20th century, was to seek a way to eliminate all hierarchy.

But what happened?

I don't know if you guys remember, I was only there for like the last 10 years of the 20th century.

Things seemed to be actually be pretty worked out by then.

There was a uh, it was just a span of tyrannies.

And that's a pattern that scripture shows us.

The elimination of hierarchy means that the world devolves.

This is the it's the pattern from the very beginning.

This is the pattern of the flood and of Babel.

And I want you to see these things as perfect opposites of one another.

Like opposites of one another.

What is the flood?

What was going on in the world where God says, all right, that's it.

Flood.

What was everybody doing?

Do you remember?

Sin?

Yes.

All the intentions of every man's thoughts were only evil continually.

Another pattern of the flood we see at the end of the book of Judges.

Everyone did what was right in his own eyes, because there's no king.

The pattern of the flood is the perfect egalitarian pattern.

There is no authority over any of us.

That is the project of modernism, which creates the gulags.

The project of modernism is to say there is no authority over any of us.

Why?

Because the world is only made up of the things that you can see.

And there is no transcendent good, there is no transcendent God, there is nothing above all of us.

And because there is nothing above all of us, what is good is up to you.

You make what is good.

That is to each individual to decide.

And so that becomes the flood.

Why?

Because we devour one another and we completely fall apart.

There is no integration of a community possible when there is no highest good that we are able to appeal to that is outside of ourselves.

So what happens after a flood?

We say, okay, well, when we all did our own thing and we all sought to live in our own ways, and we were all just thinking as individuals out here seeking our own good, the world devolved into this terrible chaos, which is what the flood is.

So how do we respond to that?

How do we fix this as a society?

We all think and speak in exactly the same way, and we seek a highest good that we have all determined to agree on ourselves, which ignores God and it allows us as humanity to get to the top of the hierarchy.

That's what the project of Babel is.

But what is that?

It's an absolute tyranny.

The only way to safety becomes this participation in an absolute tyranny.

And that that's it, are you stunned by the Bible opening with these two stories?

Because that is the pattern of the world.

The pattern of the world is between absolute chaos with no unity of people at all, and then a terrible tyranny in response, which leads to devolving because they devour each other.

We devour one another in a world of tyrannies.

That is the history of the 20th century, but it's the history of the world.

And do you not see in our culture today these short-lived single-generation dynasties that are devouring one another?

Is this not the pattern of our world right now?

Well, do you see how the Bible describes this?

And how you are, in a sense, forced to participate in this world?

How complete it is?

What is your answer?

Well, if you if you If you feel like you're in a tyranny, then it's dissolution of the world.

And if you feel like the world is dissolved, then it's then it's enacting some sort of tyranny.

And that's why they always walk hand in hand.

That's why the ones who were meant to set us free from the aristocratic hierarchies of the world shortly thereafter become the greatest tyrants.

You know, this is the French Revolution, where liberty, I don't speak French.

Liberty, equality, fraternity, sorority.

They these values, do you hear what's in those values?

Freedom, equality, brotherhood.

They overthrow the king.

What do they get?

A reign of terror.

That's what they call it.

That's not what you call something you like.

This is the pattern of the world.

This is what it means to be in a world under the dominion of Satan.

So when Jesus is saying, many who are first will be last, many who are last will be first, he's reframing all of existence.

Look at how this happens just among the 12.

In Mark 10, 41, and when the ten heard it, they began to be indignant at James and John.

All it took for the 12 to disintegrate and become a people who were unite, go from a people who were united in Christ to now a group of people who are devouring one another to try and get to the top of the hierarchy, is two of them had to say, we want to be in charge.

And they understand what the threat of that is.

So now the disciples themselves fall apart.

The unity that would have been possible among the disciples is gone.

That is the ordinary structure of the world under the domain of Satan.

I used to be so interested in what caused communities and families and organizations to fall apart.

In fact, we still study, we study this like crazy in our culture.

And we become obsessed with with like taxonomies of the way that organizations or churches fall apart.

We make podcasts about them with catchy intro music.

I am so uninterested.

I'm so uninterested in the next breaking bad.

You know, because of course, of course, the things we make fall apart.

Do you understand the structure of what the world is like?

I'm not interested in stories of how things fall apart anymore.

The question is, how could anything hold together?

How could any group of people be united in something for any amount of time?

How could there ever be something like a community that you could participate in?

What's that, what's the opening line of that book that I haven't read, but we kind of hear the opening line of all great, uh all good families uh are good in the same way, but all bad families are bad in their own unique sort of way?

Do you know what I'm talking about?

It's actually a book I'm working on.

There's no, it's like I think that's the way like war and peace opens or some some like something like that.

Like a like a book.

I'm very well read and cultured.

The uh, which is why I'm bringing this up.

The the I I hear an opening line like that, like, you know, bad families are the interesting ones that you need to tell stories about.

All good families are the same in in the same sort of way.

How do you know?

Where have you gone to see these good families?

You know what I mean?

What it's like to how does anything hold together?

Jesus sees the disciples falling apart in the ordinary structures of the world, and he says this, and Jesus called them to him.

How could anything hold together?

Well, there's a good first step.

Jesus sees them falling apart and he calls them to himself.

And he said to them, You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them.

Jesus calls the disintegrating disciples to himself.

Just so this is settled in your mind right now, I'm gonna go long today.

So just to have that settled, I'm looking at the clock, I'm going long.

Now we're in it.

Well, I don't like it any more than you.

Jesus calls the disintegrating twelve to himself.

And he says, You know how the world is structured, don't you?

Those who are considered rulers over the Gentiles, they lord it over them.

And their great ones exercise authority over them.

You can hear the irony in the way that Jesus teaches this.

He says to them, You know those who are considered rulers among you.

Well, what does Jesus think of them as?

But those who are considered rulers among you, how do they exercise authority?

They lord it over them.

You know, the the Romans would refer would refer to themselves in positions of authority as benefactors.

And Matthew actually references that.

Jesus actually references that as the story is recorded in Matthew, where he says, Those who call themselves benefactors.

They're like those who say, We're the ones here to help you.

You know they're not.

And then Simon the zealot starts singing Richmond, north of Richmond.

There's he's like, Yeah, they we we know they're not for us.

And then what Jesus is saying, you're acting just like them.

You are all embodying the dominion of Satan, and you're saying you're doing it so that you can gain glory in my kingdom.

You don't understand the kingdom.

Because you can only think in a world that dissolves or is held together by tyrannical power.

Those are the only concepts you have of the world.

And you see the ones who have authority over you.

And Jesus says, But it shall not be so among you.

But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all.

Do you understand how dangerous of a call that is?

When you understand the way the world is structured.

He is saying to you, go make yourself servant of all, last of all, slave of all.

Where in a world when you are under authority, it is always fundamentally dangerous.

Jesus is saying, go to that most dangerous place.

That's where I'm going.

That's the way that my kingdom is structured.

It will look like going down to you.

Because you don't understand the way that the world is meant to be structured.

You don't understand the way that this kingdom is meant to operate.

You can only think in terms of power.

When you are a fundamentally self-created person with nothing above you that says what is good.

And the only way you can get people to participate with you as you have made yourself to be is power and tyranny over them, then when you are asked to go down to the position, identify with the position of the powerless, you are being invited into annihilation.

This is the danger of what Christ is calling the disciples into.

But if there is no tyranny at the top, what is it that could possibly hold a people together?

If there is no enforcement of power from the top, what is it that could make a community a community?

What could bind such a world?

Mark 10, 45, central verse.

For even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.

What is it that actually holds communities together?

What is it that could actually bind the world together that isn't just tyrannical power?

This I this may sound just naive or Pollyanish, but I hope we've done enough work so far this morning where you can see that it is actually absolutely fundamental to say that the only alternative to the tyranny of the kingdoms of the world is a kingdom that is fundamentally held together by love.

You are either thinking in terms of power, or you are thinking in terms of love.

Jesus describes himself in this as the Son of Man.

What is that?

He says that a lot.

The prophecy of the Son of Man in Daniel 7.

One like a son of man appeared to Daniel in a vision, and he's presented before the ancient of days, which is God.

So the Son of Man, well, one like a son of man is like you, you know, a person is presented before God.

What happens when the son of man is presented before God?

It says, and to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him.

His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away.

An everlasting dominion that's so different from these devouring single-generation dynasties, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.

How could a kingdom like that exist in a world like ours?

Well, what does the Son of Man do?

For even the Son of Man came not to be served, the one who all authority in heaven and on earth belongs to, the one who is the top of every imaginable hierarchy, who will be over all people and all nations, the son of man who is given this authority from God, how will he build his kingdom?

Even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.

He's saying, You think you're going up, but in this world, the way that it's actually bound is in love, which moves down.

Why?

Because he's coming.

Do you see that when he comes to make himself a servant, he's making himself a servant of the worst types of people to be served, even sinners who would reject him to the point of death on a cross.

But what is what happens there is in his love, he substitutes himself for them.

So that he gives himself as a payment, a ransom, so that the people whom he came to save will be saved and will be rescued by him in his love, laying himself down.

And so that establishes this whole new kingdom and this whole new mode of being for these types of people who see that the top of the true hierarchy, the one who holds all authority in heaven and on earth, he demonstrates his glory in substituting himself for us, taking on the punishment that we deserve.

He is the king who did not race to the top so that he might be secure.

He is the king that went to the bottom that the rest of us might be saved.

So, what is it that binds us as a people now?

It is love for him.

And that love for him becomes a love for one another, so that our lives have this disposition of self-sacrificial service to one another, which is then counted as to him.

And that kingdom, unlike these self-devouring kingdoms, becomes an eternal kingdom which lasts.

And it looks like the weakest people.

It looks like ones who would be the most easily taken advantage of.

But they're actually the strongest.

I'll end with this silly analogy.

I I've been going back and forth on whether to say this, but it's been nagging me all weekend, so I'm just gonna go with it and we'll see, because it uh it might just be sticky.

I I grew up outside of Orlando, metropolitan Orlando, and there was a um uh uh of there's a lot of like attractions there.

And a friend of mine who actually lives out here now, his dad owned one of the attractions on iDrive.

And uh they're all these funky buildings that are meant to like capture your attention on your way to Disney World or your way from Disney World, and think, yeah, I'll take another little hit of entertainment on my way out.

This one was called Wonderworks, and Wonderworks was a children's museum for, not of.

And the children's museum was upside it it the the way that the building looked on the outside was upside down.

So that when you walked in, it it was really cool.

It was really cool looking.

Like it looked like the building had just been picked up and this giant mansion was flipped upside down, and so you would walk in and you would walk into the attic, and then you would go up to the basement.

Okay, you get the picture.

We have all grown up, we've all been accustomed to living in wonderworks our whole life.

And Jesus walks in and he says, uh, hey, I notice you've been, you know, you think you're in the penthouse here, but come with me to the basement.

The basement is the top.

And we look at him and we're like, that's insane.

If I lose, first of all, if we if I lose this penthouse, or if I leave here, I won't have the great rent control pricing that I had when I first moved in.

And there's a uh, and if I go and live in the basement, who wants this basement apartment?

This is a terrible place to be.

And then Jesus says, Trust me, it looks like you're going down.

You're actually going up because there is a real kingdom, a one in which there is a real up and down.

I can't show it to you now because you're in this building.

But if you would follow me, then you'll come out, and the basement has this beautiful rooftop deck that you'll be able to see if you just come with me.

And so you he calls the disciples, seek my glory, come up with me.

And it feels like you're going down, but then there's this great surprise at the end, which is this resurrection.

That is the shape of the world.

So you participate with that.

You participate with that in all of the areas where that require sacrificial love, in the raising of your children, in the being there for your friends, in the offending one another and then reconciling with one another, in all of the places where you seek not to devour, but you seek to serve, where you're not so afraid of each other anymore.

But you're able to move in in love because the one who is at the height of the kingdom gave his life for you.

Don't you see that this central inversion of the gospel is you participate with it everywhere.

Even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, to give his life as a ransom for many.

Not all, many.

Succome to him, but not few, many.

Succome to him.

I should skip questions.

Today, Carlos.

Paul writes, For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, This is my body which is for you.

Do this in remembrance of me.

In the same way also he took the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood.

Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.

For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.

When we proclaim our Lord's death, we proclaim his glory, and we proclaim a kingdom which is held together by sacrificial love.

It is the antithesis of the kingdoms of the world, but it is here to be participated in now.

Look to your king in the way that he shows his glory.

Come, partake of the cup, drink freely, knowing that it was his death which leads to our life.

Holy Father, we praise you that you did not consider, Lord Jesus, that you did not consider equality with the Father a thing to be jealously held, but you became incarnate in the form of a man, laying yourself down even to the point of death, that we might be ransomed by your perfect atoning sacrifice, that you substituted yourself in our place, and that we might come freely to participate in your kingdom.

Lord, I pray that we would learn how to embody it together.

We lift this up in Jesus' name.

Amen.