It’s important to know who someone is. We’ve just come off of Christmas which is our culture’s favorite holiday. It’s supposed to be about Jesus. Of course, parts of our culture really likes it because it’s an opportunity for them to sell stuff. That’s why they like to find replacements for Jesus — like Santa Claus — or, if they do have to talk about Jesus, just talk about the baby Jesus, who is “little,” with His “sweet head” and “no crying He makes.” No one trembles at the word of a sweet baby who doesn’t cry.
Now, some Christians response to that is to go back to church tradition and recover the “liturgical calendar,” that is the church year, beginning with Advent, the first Sunday of December, focusing on the birth of Jesus, then from Christmas to epiphany are the “twelve days of Christmas,” and finally epiphany, which happens to be tomorrow. So about 6 weeks of the liturgical calendar are focused on the birth of Jesus — on baby Jesus. From Advent to Christmas to Epiphany is about the same amount of time as the liturgical calendar gives to Lent and what they call “holy week” (or “passion week”), Good Friday, and the resurrection, which is a lot more than the New Testament does. Mark, for example, has nothing on the birth of Jesus, starting its history with His ministry, while, everything from Mark 10:32 to the end (about a third of the book), is about the cross and resurrection. All that over-emphasis of the tradition (and the culture) on the birth and the baby leads to the impression, like “Away in a Manger,” that Jesus is a baby, come to be sweet and to sweeten everything with His sweetness. But, who is He, really?
For the full exposition of Mark 10:32-52, click on the YouTube link below.
Mark 10:32-52 shows us that Jesus is, first, the sacrifice, second, the Servant, and, finally, the Son of David.
The Sacrifice
Jesus is marching to Jerusalem when He predicts exactly what will happen there. He says, ‘I will be delivered over . . .’ Delivered by who? It’s a passive sentence which means that the subject — the One doing the delivering is not named. It’s assumed. It’s not Judas. Sure, Judas betrayed Jesus but Judas only did what he was chosen to do, what came naturally to him. It’s a “divine passive,” a reference to God which leaves God unnamed, assumed as the One doing the action. So, God will deliver over “the Son of Man,” Me, “to the chief priests and the scribes.” God is handing over Jesus to them so that they do to Him what God wants — in Isaiah 53, “it was the will of the Lord to crush Him — and what they want. In Acts 4:28, the Apostles prayed that God’s “hand and plan had predestined” what took place to Jesus when He was arrested, beaten, humiliated, and killed. That doesn’t mean that those who did it, like the chief priests and scribes, were overcome by God and were forced to do what they didn’t really want to do, like a puppet is overcome by the puppet master. Notice here, God hands Jesus over to them so that they will do what comes naturally to them. Sure, God’s hand and plan had predestined what took place but He didn’t have to force them to do what they didn’t want to do. He could just give them Jesus and let them do what they wanted.
For the full exposition of Mark 10:32-52, click on the YouTube link below.
Jesus doesn’t just have a vague feeling that things might get unpleasant in Jerusalem. He specifically foretells what is going to happen: “they” — the chief priests and scribes — “will condemn Him to death.” Then, they will “deliver” — same word as the divine passive earlier — Jesus over “to the Gentiles,” meaning the Romans. And everyone knows how the Romans deal with condemned rebels. They will mock Him, like by putting a purple robe on Him while punching Him; like by putting a crown of thorns pressed down on His scalp while slapping Him with fake salutes (10:34). They will “spit on Him.” Degrading Him. They will flog Him, as they do in preparation for the crucifixion, which is here assumed. They will “kill Him.” How can the Son of Man come for this? “And after three days He will rise.” Rise? Now, finally, He’s the active one, the one doing the action. He’s beaten and killed, by others, but then He will raise Himself from the dead. He’s the one acting, rising. Who is He?
The Servant
When James and John ask to have to be Jesus’ right-hand and left-hand men when (they think) He sets up His Kingdom in Jerusalem, Jesus asks them, “Are you able to drink the cup that I drink?” (10:38). The reference to “the cup” should be a clue of what Jesus said about what He is going to Jerusalem to do. In the Old Testament the cup of the Lord holds judgment. Psalm 75:8 says, “For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup with foaming wine, well mixed, and He pours out from it, and all the wicked of the earth shall drain it down to the dregs.” (The dregs are dead yeast cells, grape seeds and skins and other solids that settle to the bottom of a cup of unfiltered wine.)
Isaiah 51:17 says, “Wake yourself, wake yourself, stand up, O Jerusalem, you who have drunk from the hand of the Lord the cup of His wrath.” Jeremiah 25:15 says, “Thus the Lord, the God of Israel, said to me, “Take from My hand this cup of the wine of wrath, and make all the nations to whom I send you drink it.” So, the cup represents the wrath of God for sin. This is explains what the mocking, the flogging, the killing means. It means He’s drinking the cup. He drinking the wrath of God for the wicked, for us. The cup refers to God’s punishment of sins which He will bear in place of the guilty. Who is He? The cup tells us. He’s the sacrifice.
In the end, everyone either remembers the cup Jesus drank from for us or they have to drink from it themselves, and drink it to its dregs.
Jesus’ reference to the “cup” should be a clue that it’s not all glory, promotion, power, and perks like you asked for. It’s the cup of the wrath of God to be drunk down to its dregs, until there is no more wrath left. It’s to be the propitiatory sacrifice, the sacrifice that appeases God’s anger at sin so that He no longer holds our sin against us. First, only Jesus can really do that because He has no sin of His own to have to pay for. So, no, James and John, you cannot drink that cup. But in a secondary sense Jesus does share tastes of that cup with His people, so we know what He tasted and so we get to know Him. As Paul said in Philippians 3:10, when we share in His sufferings, we become like Him. So, if you’re going to follow a crucified king, don’t be surprised when He shares some crucifixion which you; when He gives you a taste of His cup.
In the Lord’s Supper, we take up a cup and we remember what Jesus tasted for us. In the end, everyone either remembers the cup Jesus drank from for us or they have to drink from it themselves, and drink it to its dregs.
The Son of David (10:46-52)
He’s the Son of David. As they’re leaving Jericho, on their long march to Jerusalem, with a huge crowd all around, a blind beggar, probably just plopped down by the high way, sitting in the dirt, with a cloth laid out before him where people could drop their coins for him, pathetic, desperate, hears that Jesus is going by. He’s Bartimaeus. As Jesus and His crew were passing by, “he began to cry out,” like he started and kept at it relentlessly. “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” Notice what He calls Jesus.
For the full exposition of Mark 10:32-52, click on the YouTube link below.
Who is Jesus? Bartimaeus says He’s “the Son of David,” the one who fulfills the promise to David. God had made a covenant with David that one of his sons would always rule. But a king from David hadn’t ruled since 586 BC. Who was going to fulfill God’s promise to David? Who is God’s king? Bartimaeus, blind, sees that He’s the “son of David.” That’s who He is. And Bartimaeus announces it over and over, shouting, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” People around him, shushed him, rebuked him, told him to be quiet. But he kept at it, announcing loudly who He is: “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”
Bartimaeus asks, “Rabbi,” master, teacher, a term of respect. That’s who Jesus is. What’s he want from Him? In Greek, it’s just two words, “That” and “I may receive sight.” ‘I have to receive it. I’m active but my ability to do so depends on You, master, Son of David.’ It’s a perfect picture of salvation, receiving spiritual sight. You cry out for mercy. That’s all you can do. But make sure you know who you are calling out to. Make sure you know who He is. Then you receive. Yes, we are active. We receive. But we can only receive if the Son of David makes us able to.
Jesus simply says, “Go. Your faith has healed you.” It’s his faith that made him see, even when he was blind, that Jesus was the “Son of David,” the Messiah, the king who brings the Kingdom of God on earth. His faith caused him to believe that Jesus could make him able to receive his sight. He has to receive. Sure. But first Jesus has to enable to receive. “Immediately,” as soon as Jesus had said the words, “He received his sight.” He actively did what Jesus gave Him to do. He received his sight because He saw who Jesus was. Do you?
Who is Jesus? That is the most important question in your life. More important than how you can get more money or more of whatever you want. Who is this Man, calling Himself “the Son of Man,” determined to go to Jerusalem even though He knows that He will be tortured and killed there and who says He will raise Himself from the dead?
For the full exposition of Mark 10:32-52, click on
Covenant Reformed Baptist Church is Danville’s/Caswell County’s Reformed Church.