Date: October 17, 2021

Bible Text: Psalm 91:1-13, Mark 10:32-45 |

Even as Jesus leads the disciples to Jerusalem and tells them he is going to suffer and die but be raised again, James and John come asking for places of honor in his kingdom. They, like Peter before them, seem to have missed the point of some of the details of Jesus' teaching. Are we doing any better, or are we also missing something in our discipleship?

 

Note from the Preacher

Here's the quote from Debit Thomas on her blog, "Journey with Jesus":

What James and John fail to understand is that service in the kingdom of God is not a second-class means to a first-class end.  Service is the end.  Service is abundance.  Service is power.  Service is glory.  “Whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first must be slave of all.”  The only path to success in Jesus’s kingdom economy is through the surrendering of our most cherished forms of entitlement.  By all means aspire to glory!  But recognize that glory by Jesus’s definition is not an accretion of privilege.  It’s not upward mobility.  It’s not permission to guard, hoard, and multiply your own.  Glory in God’s kingdom is an exercise in subtraction.  It’s a movement downwards.  It’s the generous and perpetual expending of one’s self in love.

 

If you would like to read the full post from Debie Thomas, here's the link:

https://www.journeywithjesus.net/essays/1978-what-glory-looks-like

Topics: ,