Four Lessons From
A Terrible Presumption
Mark 10:35-45
The event that is recorded in Mark
10:35-45 is one of the saddest, most lamentable events recorded upon the pages
of Inspiration involving true believers. James and John were true believers.
They were born of God. They truly loved the Lord Jesus Christ. But they were
terribly ignorant of some very important, basic gospel truths. Their ignorance
on the one hand and their pride on the other made them very ambitious. They
prayed for a position of pre-eminence in the Lord's kingdom! They proudly
presumed that they could both drink the cup of woe and be baptized with the
baptism of sorrow that Christ himself had to be baptized with! And they sought
for themselves a position of superiority over the other apostles!
What a sad picture this is! Two of the
apostles of Christ were seeking great things for themselves. Yet, what we read
in those verses should not astonish us at all. Their pride was only a
reflection of the pride that is in us all. It is the pride of our hearts that
this passage is designed to expose and check. It contains four obvious lessons.
Wise are they who learn them.
1. GENUINE BELIEVERS ARE OFTEN IGNORANT OF
THINGS THAT SEEM TO BE ELEMENTARY TO OTHERS. Though our Lord had plainly
instructed James and John, though they were apostles, though on the mount of
transfiguration they heard Moses and Elijah talking to the Lord about the death
he must accomplish at Jerusalem, they understood neither the fact that he was
about to die and ascend to heaven again, nor the spiritual nature of his
kingdom. It is utter folly for anyone to try to determine what or how much a
person must know before he can be saved. The question is not what but who (John
17:3). "I know whom I have believed!"
2.
GENUINE BELIEVERS ARE ALSO PEOPLE WITH SINFUL NATURES WHO MUST CONSTANTLY GUARD
AGAINST PRIDE AND SELF-ADULATION. These things are deeply rooted in our hearts.
It is not a rare thing for those who have come out of the world, taken up their
cross, forsaken their own righteousness, and truly believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ to be
irritated and annoyed when a brother or sister is promoted and honored above
them. It is both shameful and sinful, but not rare. These things ought not to
be, but they are. Blessed is that man or woman who can rejoice with a sincere
heart when others are exalted, though they are overlooked and passed by (Phil.
3:3-5).
3. THE RULE, THE INSPIRATION, THE PATTERN
FOR ALL TRUE GODLINESS IS THE SUBSTITUTIONARY, SIN-ATONING SACRIFICE OF THE
LORD JESUS CHRIST. Verse 45 not only asserts that Christ's death was a ransom
paid to the offended justice of God for his elect, it also shows us that his
death is the rule of life for his people. In all things, we are to follow his
self-abasing, self-denying, self-sacrificing example (John
4. THERE IS AN AMBITION FOR GREATNESS TO
BE SHUNNED AND AN AMBITION FOR GREATNESS THAT IS TO BE NURTURED AND CULTIVATED
(Compare vv. 35-38 and vv. 43-44). Ambition is not necessarily carnal (II Pet.
1:5-7). We should never be satisfied with mediocrity in anything, especially in
spiritual things (Phil. 3:7-14). It is not wrong for any to desire greatness;
but that which the world applauds and calls "greatness" is not
greatness at all. Greatness is not measured by clothes and grandeur, but by
character and goodness. The world measures greatness by property, possessions,
and power. Fools imagine that fame and fortune equal greatness. "Among the
children of God, he is reckoned the greatest who does
the most to promote the spiritual and temporal happiness of his fellow
creatures. True greatness consists not in receiving, but in giving, - not in
selfish absorption of good things, but in imparting good to others, - not in
being served, but in serving, - not in sitting still and being ministered to,
but in going about and ministering to others" (J. C. Ryle). There is an
infinite mine of profound wisdom in that saying of our Lord's, "It is more
blessed to give than to receive" (Acts
Don Fortner