Monday after Quinquagesima Sunday
Posted on February 28, 2022 by under
Scripture: St. Mark 10:35-45 (NKJV)
10:35 Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to Him, saying, “Teacher, we want You to do for us whatever we ask.”
36 And He said to them, “What do you want Me to do for you?”
37 They said to Him, “Grant us that we may sit, one on Your right hand and the other on Your left, in Your glory.”
38 But Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you ask. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?”
39 They said to Him, “We are able.”
So Jesus said to them, “You will indeed drink the cup that I drink, and with the baptism I am baptized with you will be baptized; 40 but to sit on My right hand and on My left is not Mine to give, but it is for those for whom it is prepared.”
41 And when the ten heard it, they began to be greatly displeased with James and John. 42 But Jesus called them to Himself and said to them, “You know that those who are considered rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. 43 Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant. 44 And whoever of you desires to be first shall be slave of all. 45 For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”
Devotion
“Teacher, we want You to do for us whatever we ask.” And so it is even today with many preachers. They do not think of God as Savior, but more as a personal butler. For them God exists to give you whatever you ask for, so long as you know how to do the asking. This false teaching is known as “name it and claim it.”
But when it comes to the truth of God’s Word, there is a sense in which “name it and claim it” holds true. The Ten Commandments clearly tell us what God expects of people. “Name” any commandment and people can only truly “claim” they have failed to keep it, and miserably so. Although the disciples had been with Jesus for several years, James and John still didn’t understand why Jesus came. He came to die. The “cup” Jesus would endure would be the cup of God’s wrath. He would die so that we may live. In Holy Baptism your sins were washed away. But where did they go? They went away from you and onto Christ, who bore them on the cross. There, on the cross, He dies the death we rightly deserve.
This is how Christ came “to serve.” He came “to give His life a ransom for many,” which far exceeds the service of a mere butler who simply serves to fulfill earthly desires. Instead, Jesus gives to us that which we truly need for eternal life, forgiveness of sins.
Prayer: O Lord, we beseech Thee mercifully hear our prayers, and, having set us free from the bonds of sin, defend us from all evil; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with the Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
