THIRD QUARTER 2024
SABBATH SCHOOL INSIGHT #8
AUGUST 24, 2024
"TEACHING DISCIPLES: PART II."

 

“ ‘For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many’ ” (Mark 10:45).

In each of the seven stories in this week’s lesson, Jesus reveals the principles of His kingdom in contrast to the misapprehending disciples and the skeptical Pharisees.

Let’s look at each story with this in view.

1. When questioned about the lawfulness of divorce, Jesus responded, “Because of the hardness of your heart [Moses] wrote you this precept” (vs. 5). 

As it was then, so it is now. Divorce is rampant in the church as well as the world. Rather than condoning divorce, Jesus said it was permitted in the law of Moses because of the hardness of people’s hearts. He affirmed that marriage between male and female was God’s plan from the beginning of the creation, the blending of two lives into one by God himself. He raised the standard of marriage and identified adultery as sin. 

2) The disciples had the misconception that Jesus would not wish to be bothered by such insignificant ones as children and acted on that by trying to hinder the mothers and children from coming to Jesus. In what must have been a surprising revelation to the disciples, Jesus explained that “whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it” (Mark 10:15).

3) Next comes the rich young ruler with an impressive CV, a law abiding Jew highly regarded by all. But Jesus revealed that law keeping runs much deeper than checking boxes on a list. He went straight to the heart and put His finger on that which the young ruler was holding back. Sorrowfully, the young man turned away. 

4) The disciples must have been watching this in amazement, as Jesus sought to bring home the lesson to his disciples. He said, “How hard it is for those who trust in riches to enter the kingdom of God” (vs. 24), concluding that “many who are first will be last, and the last first” (Mark 10:31).

5) It was too much. The disciples could hardly grasp what they were hearing. As they headed towards Jerusalem they expressed amazement and fear. Jesus plainly told them, “We are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes;  they will condemn Him to death and deliver Him to the Gentiles and they will mock Him, and scourge Him, and spit on Him, and kill Him. And the third day he will rise again” (Mark 10:33, 34).

6) As if they hadn’t heard anything that Jesus had just said, James and John clung to the notion that Christ had come to reign in an earthly kingdom and requested that they be placed in positions of preeminence in His kingdom. When Jesus challenged them, “You do not know what you ask,” they insisted that they did. “We are able,” they said, to follow Jesus and drink the cup that He would drink and be baptized with the same baptism. 

The remaining disciples were indignant at the request of the two brothers. Strife for supremacy is the root of much dissension in the world today, and it originated with Lucifer in heaven. 

In stark contrast to the self-serving motives of the disciples, Jesus laid out the principles of His kingdom: “The great among you shall be your servant,” “Whoever desires to be first shall be a slave of all,” and “Even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many” (Mark 10:43-45).

7) In this last scenario, instead of the disciples keeping children away from Jesus, the crowds were urging a man of humble rank, the blind beggar Bartimaeus, to be quiet. Undissuaded, Bartimaeus cried out all the louder. He was blind and he knew it. He took no thought for the crowd but made his way to Jesus. Jesus asked, “What do you want me to do for you?” 

Maybe it was obvious, but Jesus gave Bartimaeus the opportunity to express the faith that was in his heart. That was enough. “Go your way,” Jesus said. “Your faith has made you well.”

What lessons can we learn from these stories?

One of the themes of the 1888 message is that “it is easy to be saved and hard to be lost . . . when one has heard and believes the good news of the gospel.”

If that is the case, why did someone like the rich young ruler not surrender to Jesus right on the spot? Why didn’t he forsake all and follow Him? Yes, the gospel is good news to those who believe, but it is also a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. 

Our natural condition is deplorable. “For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit lewdness, and evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile a man” (Mark 7:21-23).

We cannot change our hearts any more than a leopard can change its spots. How is it then, with hearts like that, that we can find it easy to be saved? 

First, the good news must be heard and seen in order to be understood. Once understood, the love of Christ will compel us, “because we judge thus; that if One died for all, then all died; and He died for all, that those who Iive should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again” (2 Corinthians 5:14).

But in between hearing the gospel and being compelled by love to live for Christ is a critical battle which must be won or all will be lost.

“The warfare against self is the greatest battle that was ever fought. The yielding of self, surrendering all to the will of God, requires a struggle; but the soul must submit to God before it can be renewed in holiness”—Ellen White, Homeward Bound, p. 84.

Make no mistake, this battle is not easy, and at each rung of advancement on the Christian ladder of faith arise new battles with self arise. “Submit yourselves, therefore, to God” James 4:7.

Many, like the rich young ruler, turn away sorrowful, hoping for an easier path. The crucifixion of self is not pleasant. No one can read the story of Jesus’s struggle in the wilderness of temptation or in agony in the garden of Gethsemane and say it was easy. Jesus pled with the Father to take the cup from Him, but He prayed, “nevertheless, not My will, but yours be done” (Luke 22:42, NKJV).

What motivated Jesus to crucify the desires of the flesh each day of His earthly life and at last surrender His life on the cross? 

Paul tells us it was for the joy set before Him (Hebrews 12:2) — not a mansion in the sky, not relief from interminable suffering. We were the joy. Jesus loved us more than He did His own life. He gave Himself for us.

And it wasn’t Jesus alone who surrendered. The Father also struggled before agreeing to give up Jesus as an offering for a sinful, unthankful race.

“Said the angel, ‘Think ye that the Father yielded up His dearly beloved Son without a struggle? No, no. It was even a struggle with the God of heaven, whether to let guilty man perish, or to give His beloved Son to die for him’ ”—Ellen White, Early Writings, p. 151.

The battle with self is not easy, but there is One who has trod the path before us. And before Him, there was One who dwells in light unapproachable who willingly gave all Heaven in the one gift of His precious Son.

This is the story that will move hearts, that will motivate us in the battle with self, and will reward us with rest, an easy yoke, and a shared burden. The path that once seemed so hard will be made light by the companionship of angels. 

As we follow in the path set before us, we will willingly submit our marriages to His safe-keeping; we will bring the children to Jesus; we will see in the blind and needy around us a representation of our own spiritual condition and a continued need for the Divine remedies for our healing; we will part with whatever is dearest to us, be it riches or fortune or fame; we will seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and follow Him wherever He leads.

The world is awaiting not just a message of Christ our Righteousness delivered in words. It needs to see lives transformed by this message pulsating in the hearts of believers. 

Someday, the world will be lightened with the glory of Him who came not to “be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many” through a people in whom He abides.

 

~ Patti Guthrie