Today after our year long journey through the Gospel according to Mark we come to the end of Jesus’ teaching and healing ministry. Today’s lesson comes right after Jesus speaks about his death for a third time, saying “listen, we are going up to Jerusalem where the son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and hand him over to the gentiles, who will make fun of him, spit on him, whip him and kill him, but three days later he will rise to life.” 10:33-34

It’s really odd that after saying that awful thing to his disciples that James and John would go privately to Jesus and ask for the positions as his chief ministers, saying: “when you sit on your throne in your kingdom, we want you to let us sit with you one at your right and one at your left” 10:37. Jesus tells them they don’t know what they are asking for.

Here at the end of Jesus’ ministry is a good place to stop and look at where we have been with our Lord in his journey. It all began at the Jordan River with Jesus’ baptism. Today it ends with another reference to baptism in Jesus’ answer to James and John. The disciples here, right before Jesus entry into Jerusalem, still misunderstand his nature as the one who came “not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.” 10:45. Jesus baptism at the Jordan and this reference to baptism serve as book ends for the first part of the gospel. The major theme being following the way of the servant and the transformation one must be make in themselves in order to undertake such a following.

After the baptism story with John the Baptist at the Jordan Mark introduces the theme of Jesus going through an Exodus like journey through the wilderness. That is why Jesus is in the wilderness for 40 days as Israel was for 40 years. Today’s lesson concludes this wandering servant theme and prepares the way for the dramatic revelation that will finally occur on the cross. We are told explicitly that the disciples do not know what they are asking for when they ask to be seated on the right and left hand of Jesus in his Kingdom. They misunderstand Jesus’ nature and person. They misunderstood his power: The power to serve and to give his life. Here Jesus tries to teach them something that they could not yet understand. That he had to give himself over to the sin of people who acted just as the disciples were acting. Like people who were concerned about power and status and wealth.

Jesus death on the cross would destroy the foundation of the human culture founded by Cain after he killed his brother. The culture based on power, status, wealth, rivalry and violence. Jesus death on the cross will reveal these as purely human constructs. Jesus died for us, he handed himself over to sinful people to be the victim of our violent rivalry in order to expose human ways as false and the way of the servant as God’s will.

All through our journey in Mark, Jesus has revealed this to us. He is the ransom given by God to the sinful human system so that the captivity of the people of God can come to an end. The first thing that Jesus did after calling the four fisherman was to set the man free from captivity to the demonic powers. Then he freed a man from captivity to leprosy. Then from captivity to sin and paralysis when he told the paralytic to “get up, pick up your mat and walk.” Then he freed the woman with the hemorrhage from 12 years of captivity to her bleeding. We enslave ourselves to conflict and rivalry. We enslave ourselves to our bad habits, to our sin. We fail to follow when we try to out maneuver each other for the best places at the table. We love to manipulate and control and to think that our personal influence counts for something.

We have already made mention here this morning about baptism, but in this lesson is also an important reference to a cup that the disciples must drink from. It is the cup of servanthood. The Lord’s Supper frees us from being rivals of each other and makes it possible to serve all instead of ourselves. Here Jesus is clearly making reference to both sacraments. He holds both sacraments out to us to serve as antidotes to our rivalry and to unite us under the banner of cross and servanthood.

Jesus suffered death on the cross at the hands of the world’s highest culture Roman and Jewish justice. He died for us by the hand of sinful people in order to show us that our way of organizing God’s creation had to go. Jesus set us free from the captivity of our human sin. He ransomed us from human sin by unveiling the mechanism of our bad way of relating to each other. By dying totally blameless he makes it possible to turn from the sinful kingdom of people and toward the new life in the kingdom of his Father. Jesus refused to use "good" violence to drive out the bad, or to protect himself.

Truly Christ has come to set us free today from whatever binds us to our sinful past. He comes to make us new men and women. Saying: “I am the Son of Man who has come to serve you. I have come to give my life as a ransom to your sinful ways. I have come to redeem you from all your captivities. I have come to ransom your life from sin. I have come to ransom your life from the powers of evil. I have come to set you free from the false gods you have made and to show you my Father. I have come to ransom your life from death. I have come to suffer and die that you might live in with and under my cross.”

1. Why do you think James and John were confused?

2. What was Jesus handed over to?

3. What does Jesus death on the cross continue to show us about ourselves?