Dear Family at Christ Community,

       As has been the pattern in Mark’s Gospel, Jesus’s humble proclamation of His passion is immediately followed by the arrogant blathering of His disciples. Mark 10:32-34 gives us the most detailed declaration of Christ’s pending crucifixion; Mark 10:35-40 gives us the most foolish words uttered by the disciples so far. In Mark 10:41-45, Jesus offers the clearest description of the upside-down nature of the Kingdom of God: greatness comes from humble service, not self-serving power. As David E. Garland observes in Mark: The NIV Application Commentary this way of life is for both Jesus and all who follow Him:

Suffering distinguishes (Jesus’s) role as Messiah and ours as disciples. To know and understand Jesus, therefore, requires us to accept his destiny as a Messiah who dies for others and accept that same destiny for ourselves. All followers must share his self-giving love and service and his fate of suffering before they can share his glory (see Rom. 8:17). The images of baptism and cup (in Mark 10:38-40) recall baptism and the Lord’s Supper. All disciples who accept baptism and drink Jesus’ cup also pledge themselves to live and die by the pattern of the cross.

       As Jesus’s example shows and as we’ve experienced, seeking to humbly serve and love others all too often results in our own suffering. This doesn’t exactly encourage us to continue in humble service when the will to power seems so attractive in all that it seems to offer. However, because of Jesus’s death and resurrection, we’ve been filled with the greatest gift and power available in all of Creation and history: ETERNAL LIFE! This grants meaning to our suffering from our humble service. This proves more effective and powerful than anything that we could gain in our own strength.

       Please come this Sunday prepared to eat the bread given for the forgiveness of your sins and drink of the cup of the New Covenant instead of the cup of God’s wrath. Trust in and depend on the nourishment given from the Lord’s Table in the power of the Holy Spirit to follow Jesus’s example of humble service for God’s glory, our joy, and the life of the world!

In Christ,
Cameron