Asking
Read Mark 10:32-52.
We often make up our mind very quickly about how we feel toward someone. As the saying goes, "You only get one chance to make a first impression." So when we meet someone, we might be impressed or repulsed, encouraged or discouraged, attracted or indifferent—but we make those decisions rather quickly. Only as we spend time with someone do we get to know them better and make a firmer decision about who they are and what they are about.
It's often that "what they're about" that really cements our impressions. The disciples and a group of other followers have been with Jesus for some time now at this point in the Gospel of Mark, enough time that they should have a firm sense of what he is about and who he is. And yet, as they head up to Jerusalem for this final time, there are some who are "astonished" and others who are "afraid." (The NIV makes an editorial decision here that is not in the Greek text; there is no distinction between "disciples" and "followers" in the original text, just a mixture of two different feelings.) You might follow someone who astonishes you, but would you follow someone who scares you? Into a place where you know his life has been threatened (and yours might be as well)? And yet they do.
Even for those who are "astonished" (and how does that demonstrate itself, anyway?), there has to be a sense of foreboding. Jesus keeps predicting his death (this passage presents the third time in a short part of Mark in which he has done so), and while they probably had trouble believing that it would really come true, he's talking about it enough that some take it seriously.
Or at least two do. James and John, brothers, close friends to Jesus, come to him when no one else is around and ask for the positions of honor in his kingdom. In their minds, if there is a threat against Jesus, this must be the time when he is finally going to take over the city and the nation. If his opponents come at him, James and John can't imagine Jesus not fighting back. And when Jesus fights back, they assume he will win, conquer and rule. Is it fear or astonishment that drives them to ask what they ask? "Give us positions of power." And because they don't know what they are asking, Jesus uses the moment to teach them all about true power, which comes from being a servant to all.
This encounter, though, ought to challenge us in the way we ask for things from Jesus. Think about your prayers today. What was it you asked of Jesus? And did those requests come from a position of fear or astonishment? Do we ask because we're in line with what Jesus is really doing or with what we think he ought to be doing?
As a final note: Jesus heals Bartimaeus on his way through Jericho. It's the last healing that takes pace before the final week in Jerusalem. The ministry is over. It's time to demonstrate the power of redemptive love and to give all who follow a picture of what the kingdom is really about.
We often make up our mind very quickly about how we feel toward someone. As the saying goes, "You only get one chance to make a first impression." So when we meet someone, we might be impressed or repulsed, encouraged or discouraged, attracted or indifferent—but we make those decisions rather quickly. Only as we spend time with someone do we get to know them better and make a firmer decision about who they are and what they are about.
It's often that "what they're about" that really cements our impressions. The disciples and a group of other followers have been with Jesus for some time now at this point in the Gospel of Mark, enough time that they should have a firm sense of what he is about and who he is. And yet, as they head up to Jerusalem for this final time, there are some who are "astonished" and others who are "afraid." (The NIV makes an editorial decision here that is not in the Greek text; there is no distinction between "disciples" and "followers" in the original text, just a mixture of two different feelings.) You might follow someone who astonishes you, but would you follow someone who scares you? Into a place where you know his life has been threatened (and yours might be as well)? And yet they do.
Even for those who are "astonished" (and how does that demonstrate itself, anyway?), there has to be a sense of foreboding. Jesus keeps predicting his death (this passage presents the third time in a short part of Mark in which he has done so), and while they probably had trouble believing that it would really come true, he's talking about it enough that some take it seriously.
Or at least two do. James and John, brothers, close friends to Jesus, come to him when no one else is around and ask for the positions of honor in his kingdom. In their minds, if there is a threat against Jesus, this must be the time when he is finally going to take over the city and the nation. If his opponents come at him, James and John can't imagine Jesus not fighting back. And when Jesus fights back, they assume he will win, conquer and rule. Is it fear or astonishment that drives them to ask what they ask? "Give us positions of power." And because they don't know what they are asking, Jesus uses the moment to teach them all about true power, which comes from being a servant to all.
This encounter, though, ought to challenge us in the way we ask for things from Jesus. Think about your prayers today. What was it you asked of Jesus? And did those requests come from a position of fear or astonishment? Do we ask because we're in line with what Jesus is really doing or with what we think he ought to be doing?
As a final note: Jesus heals Bartimaeus on his way through Jericho. It's the last healing that takes pace before the final week in Jerusalem. The ministry is over. It's time to demonstrate the power of redemptive love and to give all who follow a picture of what the kingdom is really about.
So very true!
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