The humble king
If you could ask God for one thing, and know that He would give it, what would your request be? Assuming you couldn’t ask for more wishes, what would you say? I believe our answer to that question reveals a lot about our own drives and desires in life. Maybe you would ask that God bring back a loved one who has passed away. Perhaps you would ask for better health or a more stable bank account. Maybe you would request the salvation of a wayward child.
Or, perhaps, you would ask for fame. Fortune. Authority. And glory. That’s what James and John desire in Mark 10:37. After Jesus has just predicted His sacrificial suffering and death, they go to Him and say, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.” It’s an example of completely missing the point of who Jesus is; and it’s an example of the pride and selfishness in all our hearts.
Jesus’ response indicated that this kind of self-serving desire for glory is antithetical to following Him. Why? Verse 45 tells us. “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.”
If anyone had a right to be served, it was Jesus. He is the exalted Son of Man! Yet even He came to serve. And because of the example of His humility, and the achievement of His death, we are called to follow in His footsteps. We are called to serve others, even at great cost to ourselves. We aren’t permitted to think we’re “above” certain things.
No, like Christ, we are called to lay down our lives for the good of others. For even the Son of Man came to serve.
Yet how specifically did He serve us? We see it at the end of verse 45. He “gave his life as a ransom for many.” Jesus did not serve merely by becoming a human. He did not serve merely by living as a simple carpenter. No, He served by giving up His very own life!
“…because of the example of His humility, and the achievement of His death, we are called to follow in His footsteps. We are called to serve others, even at great cost to ourselves. We aren’t permitted to think we’re “above” certain things.”
This sentence is so crucial because it explains exactly why Jesus came to die. Why did He say in Mark 8:31 that “it is necessary” for the Son of Man to suffer? Because His life would be the ransom for His people. The word “ransom” literally refers to the price one would pay to buy back a slave or a captive. It is the price required to liberate and free someone from bondage.
So, if you are a Christian, it took the death of the Lord Jesus Christ to liberate you from your sin, from the tyranny of the devil, from the wrath of God and from the fear of judgment. This was the ransom, the price required, for your freedom.
And Jesus gave His life “instead of” or “for” others. The Greek particle (anti) is emphatic here. Jesus died instead of all those who would trust in Him. That is, Jesus bore in Himself the death and judgment that we deserved. He died in our place, as our substitute.
Because the debt of sin has been incurred, the question is simple: will Christ pay your debt? Either He will pay the price for your sins or you will. Because of our sins, we all owe a debt to God that good works or church attendance could never repay. But Jesus humbly served by going to the cross, as the innocent lamb of God, to bear the wrath of God in the place of all those who would trust in Him. In this we see our humble, saving King.
Scott Cope is a church planting resident at Hope Fellowship Church in Cambridge, MA, and Beacon Community Church in Belmont, MA.
