'Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, “Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all.”' Mark 9:35
‘He humbled himself becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross’. That was Jesus of course.
The gift of salvation exists because Jesus humbled himself to the point of death - even death on a cross.
I’ve been listening to ‘The rest is history podcast’ recently - which I can highly recommend if you’re into history.
Listening to one of the episodes on crucifixion - not the crucifixion, but the form of execution called ‘crucifixion’ - it struck me how crucifixion was a type of execution which exceeded any other type in this respect: the degree of humiliation that is offered.
The lifting up; the public display; the nakedness; the different ways the executioner could contort the body to maximise the shame; the birds - the work birds did on the victims; the ways the executioners could prolong the agonies and make the spectacle even more demeaning.
And it struck me, that’s what Jesus humbled himself to. He said to his enemies at the moment of his capture, ‘do you think that I could not call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels?’ He could have done that. But he chose to humble himself to death or us.
We live in a world that does not think like Jesus. We live in an ugly self-assertive, proud and boastful world.
There’s the sphere of marriage, for example, where spouses competewith each other to assert their individual rights.
One says, ‘I want this’ and the other says, ‘I want that’ and there’s war between them with neither willing to humble themselves.
Both assert their rights. But neither would think to behave like Jesus and try to outdo the other; bringing their desires into subservience for the sake of their spouse.
There’s the sphere of children with parents, where from the youngest ages children assert their rights, resist instruction, and bring the house into turmoil but have not learnt to be humble and obey their parents.
There’s the sphere of work where the business mindset is all about getting the upper hand and never to show care or concern for a competitor because that will result in losing the edge.
There’s the sphere of politics where people divide down party lines but don’t know what it means to love their enemies.
Or the sphere of social media where the minority assert their voice with brash confidence, and where selective posting is used to cover up the truth about how average our lives really are.
Of course there are exceptions to all these observations. But it is not surprising that in the World, we observe little humility.
The beast in Revelation which stands for the philosophies of this world is a proud and shameless creature, with a mouth given it to utter proudwords.
And the prostitute that is seen riding the beast - that represents the cultures, economies and governments of the world - is depicted as a brazen woman badged with the phrase, ‘Babylon the great. The mother of prostitutes and of the abominations of the earth’.
So, it is not surprising that the world is characterised, not by humility but by pride and self-assertion.
God’s people are not to follow in the footsteps for the world, but in the footsteps of Jesus.
Peter says, ‘“God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble”. Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand’.
Paul says, ‘Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves’.
And James says, ‘My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen slow to speak and slow to become angry…Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent, and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you’. So, this is how we are to be.
And the commission we have been given is to reach a lost and very proud World with Jesus.
How will it be done? In the footsteps of Jesus - with humility; with self-abasement; with sacrifice; with servant like submission.
Turn with me to Mark 9, verses 33-50 and let’s sit at the feet of Jesus - who just came down from the mountain where God told us that he is his son, and that we must listen to him!
I think Jesus has 5 lessons for us on humility in this closing passage of Mark 9 that are crucial for us - for us; for the kingdom; and for the lost.
Lesson 1 - verses 33-35. As the disciples and Jesus had been heading south, back to the northern shores of the lake, Jesus had observed that they had been arguing with each other. And so, now that they are at rest in the house (of Peter probably), Jesus wanted to know what they had been arguing about.
Verse 34 says ‘they kept quiet because…they had argued about who(amongst them - Luke supplies that detail) was the greatest’.
Jesus’ question had disarmed them - caught them in their pride. And it leads Jesus to teach them a lesson. He says, ‘Anyone who wants to be first must be very last and servant of all’.
It strikes me as being very radical statement - not just last but verylast; not just servant but servant of all.
‘First’ in Jesus’ thinking is a very different category to what ‘first’ in this world looks like. ‘First’ in this world means all the power, all the glory, all the fame, all the wealth, all the prestige, all the friends.
But in Jesus’ thinking it means the opposite. It means to be selfless, humble, outward looking, a blessing, supportive to others.
That’s the measure for a great person according to Jesus. And he could say that because he is first! Ascended to the right hand of God - he is the most selfless, the humblest, the most outward looking, the greatest blessing, the most supportive person the world has ever known. And he is all those things by becoming obedient to death.
Greatness is how much we look like Jesus - how much of his humility we display in our own lives. The disciples were judging by mere human standards, but God wants us to judge by Jesus’ standard.
‘Last of all’ and ‘servant of all’ is the first lesson we learn from Jesus on humility. Can you be last in your marriage, last in your job, last in your political disagreement, last in your rights?
Can you give up personal ambition? Can you relinquish control? Can you put others ahead of yourself? If you follow Jesus’ example you can,because the power of his Spirit at work in you.
Lesson number 2 - verses 36-37. It’s so intriguing how Jesus operates isn’t it? Notice he takes the child and puts it amongst the disciples. Next, he takes it up in his arms. And then he delivers his lesson.
That’s all designed to show the disciples something about association - about being identified with.
Children are exalted in our society, but they weren’t in Jesus’ day. Children were the lowest of all in the society of his day.
So, when he takes the child in his arms, he’s showing what he’s about to say to the disciples. Namely, that ‘when you welcome even the mostinsignificant in my name, you welcome me’. And in actual fact, ‘because I and the Father are one, you welcome the Father also’.
Jesus identifies the God of Israel - whom the disciples revere with holy awe - with the lowest of society.
And the implication is: that if God does that, then you must do it also. If God almighty is pleased to be associated with a little child that can’t even feed itself, or change itself, or be alone for five seconds without its mamma, then you can certainly go low.
Jesus placed the child amongst them to show them that they must be willing to associate with everyone for the sake of kingdom of God.
But take another look at the passage: notice that the connecting tissue between Almighty God and his association with the lowest of society is one thing - did you see it? Jesus’ name!
So valuable is Jesus’ name that it makes the welcoming of a helpless child, the welcoming of God Almighty! This is so crucial.
If you welcome a little child in the name of ForgetMeNot or Save the Children or UNICEF or whatever, you welcome - but in that case, you don’t welcome God. That connection doesn’t exist in those names. But if you welcome them in the name of Jesus, then you welcome God!
Do not get confused with charitable humility here. What Jesus has in mind is the kingdom of God; the salvation of sinners - not first and foremost the alleviation of poverty. That is important for sure, but it is secondary to this.
What good is it if you welcome a child and it gains a world of safety and security, but it forfeits its soul? Care deeply about both, not just he physical.
So, the second lesson is identification with sinners of every kind (rich and poor) for the sake of the gospel.
Practically it means something like this: what I’m doing right now is asimportant as what Dan and Rowena will do this afternoon in front of a handful of 4–10-year-olds.
When they welcome those little ones this afternoon in the name of Jesus, God is welcomed. And we’ve got to be on fire, praying for the effectiveness of that absolutely essential ministry.
YPs or Sunday Club, are a high calling according to these verses and none of us should be tempted to think otherwise. I know we’ve got to do the trustee stuff, and that’s important, but it should be streamlined as much as possible to make room for youth ministry and Christianity Explored and marriage support and hospitality and whatever else we can think of, no matter how small it looks in earthly terms. And I’m gratefulit is streamlined here at Riverside. I think we do that well.
Lesson number 3 - Verses 39-41. John confesses to Jesus that they told someone driving out demons in Jesus’ name to stop because he wasn’t a disciple.
And Jesus says, ‘don’t do that’. The reason he said that was because: it wasn’t about them, it was about him!
The authority for driving out demons wasn’t invested in the disciples because of who they were. It was invested in them because of the name in which they did it - Jesus’ name.
Jesus illustrates it to the disciples by taking the most basic of all needs - a cup of water. He says that anybody who supplies them with a cup of water - because these disciples are so ordinary that they can’t live without a cup of water - if anyone supplies them with a cup of water in his name, they will certainly not lose their reward.
This is about significance and worth. The disciples associated their significance with their position located in the twelve. But that’s not what made them significant or worth anything. In that case they could have looked within themselves for the merit that got them their status. That’s how the world works. It’s not how the gospel works!
The gospel teaches that our worth and significance is made whole in Jesus. You can’t look within yourself and find ultimate meaning. Your ultimate meaning can only be found in Jesus.
So, Jesus undermines the disciple’s confidence in themselves - in earthly status. And he throws the doors open to anyone and everyone to do achievements in the name of Jesus and receive a righteous reward.
That’s really humbling for the disciples. And it is for us too. It levels: background, education, opportunity, IQ; and it centres on the real and powerful presence of the Holy Spirit working in the life of a believer and enabling them to do amazing things in the name of Jesus with effectiveness.
It doesn’t mean that everyone is equally suited to every role or every task. But it does mean that the works we do in the name of Jesus, are equally received by God.
This is why rewards in heaven shouldn’t be a problem for us. What Jesus chooses to reward in heaven will not be based on the university we went to or didn’t go to. It will be based on faith in the name of Jesus.
There will be people in heaven who went to university whose reward will be small in comparison with some who have no education but were powerful in prayer and deed by faith in the name of Jesus.
So, the lesson Jesus teaches us is, stop trusting in your education, or position, or status, and start trusting in Jesus. And he will establishyour deeds done in his name. And he will cause your righteous reward to shine like the sun.
So, we’ve seen that the disciples must humble themselves by taking the lowest position and becoming a servant of all. And that they must be willing to identify with the lowest so that they might even be humiliatedto be associated with them. And that their worth and status is not found in themselves but in Jesus.
The next lesson is in verses 42-49. And it’s all about taking seriously the responsibility that comes with being a Christian.
This is humbling - in the way that the example of the Israelites of old is humbling. The Israelites are, according to the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 10 an example for us to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did.
‘The people sat down, he says, to eat and drink and rose up to play(that’s interesting given our society’s passion for play)…and twenty-three thousand of them died in a single day. We should not test Christ…And do not grumble as some of them did and were killed by the destroying angel’.
And the lesson is, ‘if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!’
It takes a humble attitude about the deceiving effects of sin to continue to stand in your faith. If you treat sin lightly - as though you have licked and sit down and make peace with it, you will fall according to 1 Corinthians 10.
So, Jesus here starts in verse 42 by saying that if you behave sinfully in front of little ones - he means those with immature faith; new baby believers - that has the power to stumble them.
You can either build them up in their faith, or if you are careless and have a lax attitude to sin, you can cause their faith to crumble.
And his warning of the consequences of that are more terrifying than those we just heard that the Israelites experienced in the wilderness.
‘It would be better’, Jesus says, ‘if a large mill stone were hung around their necks and they were flung into the sea’.
So, Jesus is being deadly serious here.
It will not do to lead the Lord’s little ones into sinning against him in unbelief. That’s what the Israelites did, and they paid dearly for it. We will pay also if we are not humble enough to take sin seriously and be careful never to lead others into joining us in our recklessness.
But it’s not just about others, it’s about ourselves too. Stumbling always refers to unbelief. And here Jesus talks about hands that stumble, feetthat stumble and eyes that stumble.
That’s our hands, our feet, our eyes that stumble us. And he says if they do that, cut them off.
What is he saying? Well, he’s not saying that Christians should be good at self-mutilation. We’re Christian, we don’t go in for self-harm. The body is a temple of the Holy Spirit and we’re meant to look after it - not abuse it.
No, Jesus wants us to think in terms of precious things - things like eyes and feet and hands. They’re all precious. And we have many things that are precious to us.
But nothing should be so precious that it cannot be mortified. If there is anything in life that you cannot conceive could be mortified, then you do not love Jesus enough.
The message is: humbly evaluate yourself. If you find anything that is causing you to stumble into sin and unbelief - it could be football; it could be fiction; it could be friends; it could be film - Jesus says cut it out. Rid your life of it. Sin is too deceitful to play fast and loose with.
It’s not that the thing itself is sinful. Your hand is not sinful, or your eye, or football, or film. But your heart is. And if you can’t handle those good things without sin, then they’ve got to go.
It’s better to enter heaven without football than to be punch drunk on glory and go to hell - Jesus says.
It’s better to enter heaven without fiction than to be lost in the escapism of stories and go to hell.
So, you’ve got to be humble enough to be honest with yourself and ask, ‘is this thing causing me to sin?’ And if it is, to say ‘I love Jesus more than this’. In that case be brutally honest and chop it out of your life. That would be to take sin seriously.
Jesus is graphic with his description of hell, so we are forced to take this seriously. The worm that eats does not die. The fire that burns is not quenched. It’s a description that speaks of both the eternality and the torment of hell - which is real, and is the destiny of those who love to sin. Jesus said, ‘neither do I condemn you, go now and leave your life of sin’.
The salting of verse 49 is there to remind us that we’re all going to be tested. The work of our Christian lives is going to be tested with fire.
‘Salted’ here refers to purifying.
The fire will test the quality of each person’s work and if the work survives the worker will receive reward and if not, they will suffer loss (1 Corinthians 3 says).
So, we are being encouraged not to be haughty proud about where we stand, but to take heed lest we fall. And if we do, then we will stand - but it will be brought about in a posture of humility and not in one of casual arrogance.
The last lesson is verse 50. Here salt stands for cultural distinctiveness in the first half verse 50 and for purifying in the second half of verse 50, so it’s a bit challenging to follow. But I’ll try to explain it.
Salt - cultural distinctiveness - is good. Jesus means that his Christians are not meant to blend with the attitudes, and philosophies, and behaviours of the world around about them. They are meant to be different.
Lois told me that at school on Friday some of the kids said to her that she was so innocent - like a little child - because she didn’t know what the sexual references were that they were all laughing at. But they said, ‘I guess that’s because of your Christianity’.
That’s cultural challenge. It’s distinctively Christian. It’s being known for being a Christian and being recognised as different. That kind of saltiness - Jesus says, ‘it’s good’.
But then he warns that if it loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again?
Salt doesn’t lose it saltiness – it’s very stable.
Salt was used though for all manner of functions in those days. For example, sometimes it was used to keep embers alive during the night, or in fertilisers for growing.
In those sorts of applications, the salt was no longer any use for tasting or flavouring food. And maybe that’s what Jesus means by ‘losing its saltiness’.
Whatever he had in mind, the point is clear: If a Christian becomes less distinctive and more similar to the culture they live in, then they are no use any more to God or to the culture.
God has left his people here to be culture-influencing not influenced by the culture. I think we have to be really humble about how what we read and listen to, and watch is influencing us.
Are we becoming un-salty as we watch, read, browse, listen, and scroll? Take a long hard look.
What would help us to discern? Jesus has an answer. The last half of verse 50: ‘Have salt among yourselves and be at peace with each other’.
We’re back to the purifying effects of salt now. And the focus seems to be on the church. Have purifying salt ‘among yourselves’ - in the church.
This will be a humbling experience. Because if I’m correct in what I’m saying, then Jesus is encouraging us to spot in each other a blandness which signifies a deadly drift into unbelief and a closer alignment with the world.
He’s encouraging us, I think, to love each other enough to address thatin one another so that we might remain salty - so that we remain distinctly Christian.
And knowing what we are like - that we get cranked at each other when people point out something bad in us - he exhorts us to be ‘at peace with each other’. And that will certainly take humility.
Receive the rebuke in humility and it will have the desired effect. Continue to engage with that brother or sister in humility, and it will result in peace.